‘Sonata quasi una fantasia’ or 'Wake up little Susie'

Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized 17 December 1770 in Bonn – 26 March 1827 in Vienna; pronounced LUD-vig vahn BAY-TOH-ven) was a German composer. He wrote classical music for the piano, orchestras and different groups of instruments. His best-known works are his third (Eroica), fifth, sixth (Pastorale) and ninth (Choral) symphonies, the eighth (Pathetique) and fourteenth (Moonlight) piano sonatas, two of his later piano concertos, his opera Fidelio, and also the piano piece Für Elise. Beethoven lived when the piano was still a new instrument, and when he was a young man, he was a talented pianist. Beethoven was popular with the rich and important people in Vienna, Austria, where he lived.

However, in 1801, he began to lose his hearing. His deafness became worse. By 1817, he was completely deaf. Although he could no longer play in concerts, he continued to compose. During this time, he composed some of his greatest works. He is said to be one of the greatest classical composers who has ever lived. When Beethoven died, he was surrounded by friends on his death bed. His funeral was held at the Church of the Holy Trinity. Between 10,000 and 30,000 people are estimated to have attended. Franz Schubert was a pall bearer at his funeral, even though the two were never close.

The first movement of Beethoven’s Opus 27 No. 2 C# minor sonata was very popular in Beethoven’s day, to the point of exasperating the composer himself, who remarked to Czerny, ‘They are always talking about the C# minor Sonata surely I’ve written better things.’ Nearly two hundred years later, it still remains the most popular and downloaded piece of ‘classical’ music.

The title Moonlight Sonata actually didn’t come about until several years after Beethoven’s death. In 1836, German music critic, Ludwig Rellstab wrote that the sonata reminded him of the reflected moonlight off Lake Lucerne. Since then, Moonlight Sonata has remained the “official” unofficial title of the sonata.

‘Sonata quasi una fantasia’ is the title Beethoven gave his fourteenth sonata. Unlike the formal Sonata form of the classical period, Fantasia commonly describes a free-form classical musical piece. Marking the beginning of Beethoven’s second stylistic period, Opus 27 No. 2 does not follow the traditional sonata form. Beethoven additionally uses traditional musical mourning devices called Trauermusik, in a very untraditional way. Trauermusik consists of Lament Bass, repetitive accompaniment figures, and chant. Other famous examples of chant are Mozart’s Masonic Funeral Music and the Requium. Dotted monotone anacrusis permeate the first movement reminiscent of the tolling of funeral bells, recall the previous piano sonata Opus 26, Marcia sulla morte de’un eroe, which anticipates Chopin’s opus 35 Bb sonata’s famous ‘Marche Funebre’ and later the main theme of Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony’s ‘Marcia Funebre’.

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