Piano Sonata No. 8 (Beethoven)

Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, op. 13 was titled "Pathétique" by the publisher. His justification was that nothing so powerful and so full of tragic passion had hitherto been dreamt of in pianoforte music, and Beethoven did not object. It was published in 1799,

The "Pathétique" in popular culture

As the sonata is one of the more famous of Beethoven's works, it has not surprisingly been incorporated from time to time into works of popular culture.

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• It appears in the movie ', in a scene in which the computer starts playing it but Picard rejects it in favor of a mambo.
• The second movement was used as the theme music for the Coen Brothers' film noir The Man Who Wasn't There.
• The second movement also appears in a Peanuts television special, played by the character Schroeder.
• Billy Joel used the main theme of the second movement as the chorus of his song This Night which appears on his An Innocent Man album.
• KISS employed that same theme in the chorus of their song "Great Expectations" from the Destroyer album.
• Banya has a cover of the song called "Beethoven Virus" featured in the panel-based dance game Pump it Up.