Piano Sonata No. 14 (Beethoven)

Ludwig van Beethoven's opus 27 no. 2 is the Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor "Quasi una fantasia" (Italian: Like (similar to) a fantasy), popularly known as the Moonlight Sonata.

Beethoven's pedal mark

At the opening of the work, Beethoven included a written direction that the damper pedal should be depressed for the entire duration of the first movement. The Italian reads: "Si deve suonare tutto questo pezzo delicatissimamente e senza sordino" ("The entire piece must be played as delicately as possible and without dampers."). The modern piano has a much longer sustain time than the instruments of Beethoven's day. Therefore, his instruction cannot be followed by pianists playing modern instruments without creating an unpleasantly dissonant sound.

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One option for dealing with this problem is to perform the work on a restored or replicated pianos of the kind Beethoven knew. Exponents of authentic performance using such pianos have found it feasible to perform the work respecting Beethoven's original direction.

Related Topics:
Piano - Authentic performance

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For performance on the modern piano, most performers today try to achieve an effect similar to what Beethoven asked for using pedal changes only where necessary to avoid excessive dissonance. For instance, the Ricordi edition of the score posted at the external link given below does include pedal marks throughout the first movement. These are the work of a 20th century editor, meant to facilitate performance on a modern instrument. "Half pedaling"—a technique involving a partial depression of the damper pedal—is also often used to simulate the shorter sustain of the early nineteenth century pedal. Charles Rosen (reference below) suggests both half-pedaling and changing the pedal a fraction of second late.

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