1 preface

Beethoven (1770- 1827) is a famous German composer and pianist, and he is one of the representatives of Vienna classical music school. He created a lot of works in his life, and piano works are second only to symphonies in his creation. In the field of piano sonatas, Beethoven runs through the principles and ideas similar to symphony creation, and his formal creation is more free and diversified. Piano music is one of his most outstanding achievements. Besides five piano concertos, the most important thing is his 32 piano sonatas. Among these works, "Moonlight Sonata" can be said to be an extremely beautiful and poetic tender work.

2 "Moonlight Sonata" creative background

Moonlight Sonata was written in 180 1, which is close to the maturity of Beethoven's creation. The song didn't have the title "Moonlight" at the beginning, and it was full of various legends, which made people unable to agree. One of the most popular and well-known stories is "Playing for the Blind Girl". One day, when the sun was setting, Beethoven was walking alone in the suburbs of Vienna. He accidentally heard a blind girl playing his music. He was very moved and improvised a piece for her, which was the famous Moonlight Sonata. The above anecdote, which has been circulating all over the world for a long time, is talked about by the world, but it is not true. Even the title of the word "moonlight" was added by others. Beethoven only marked "Fantasia Sonata" when he wrote it. It is generally believed that the word "moonlight" belongs to the German critic and poet Ludwig. The first movement of this song is associated with the water waves of moonlight on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, and it is named after it according to his own imagination. There is another saying about this piece of music: Beethoven wrote this piece of piano music and dedicated it to Juliet, the daughter of the count. Chichadi Young and beautiful aristocratic daughter, learning piano from Beethoven, hit it off with each other. Due to the resolute opposition of the family-oriented earl, this love ended in failure. Beethoven once said in his letter: "There is a very lovely girl beside me. She loves me, and I love her ... Oh, it would be great to live to 1000 years old. " It is said that Beethoven devoted his inner feelings to this passionate piano music after suffering this disastrous failure.

Beethoven labeled it "Fantasia Sonata" and pointed out the freedom and improvisation of this work. Its outstanding performance is that there is no fast-slow-happy chapter layout in general classical sonatas, and its music materials are very freely used, which shows Beethoven's fantasy and exploration of life. The whole song has three movements. In the first movement, Adagio replaced Allegro in sonata form. The second movement is Allegro; The third movement is Allegro Excitement. The speed of the whole song changed from slow to fast, and the mood warmed up step by step.

The first movement is a trilogy, in C minor, in 2/2 beats, adagio. This is a movement full of tenderness, meditation and sadness, which is closely related to the poem Moonlight. Because of this fantastic, mysterious, thoughtful and sad movement, the poet Ludwig. Lyle Stabber is associated with moonlight, which should be a sad song after lovelorn. The subtle emotional changes in songs are through wonderful harmony colors (such as tonal changes-e, e, b, etc. ; Chord change, tone change-the change of light and dark colors formed by the rise and fall of the main chord). The music starts with a weak triplet and slowly plays a broken triplet. Among them, symmetrical movement gives people a continuous sense of flow. This basic rhythm constitutes the background of the whole movement and runs through the whole song.

Then, a song-like theme melody appears on a calm and clear harmony background. It seems to be meditation, and it seems to be mumbling about the sadness hidden in the heart; When repeating, the fluctuation of the author's heartstrings is subtly displayed through the changes of the range, harmony and rhythm. This plain theme, like the breeze Xu Lai, or the moon slowly lifted off. Then, the second theme of alternating B minor and B major with similar atmosphere began to appear in the ingenious part.

When the theme material reappears in the 23rd bar, it enters the middle of the music. At this time, the arpeggio of the triplet climbed zigzag and jumped into the high-pitched area, showing a nervous mood and setting off a slight climax. At bar 42, the music is calm again and enters the third section of music-reproduction. At this time, the second theme became C minor. Starting from bar 60, at the end of the left hand continuous bass, the music is getting weaker and weaker like the sunset, and slowly disappears. The inner sadness that dominates this movement does not exclude the expression of other emotions, such as the fantasy hidden in the inner excitement and sadness. The feelings expressed in this movement are very rich, profound and moving, with inner grief, poetic fantasy in grief and implicit passion.

The second movement is trilogy, in D flat major, 3/4 beat, J board. Between the quiet and sad first movement and the passionate third movement, Beethoven arranged an elegant, lyrical and lovely short song. It is the link and bridge between the first movement and the third movement, and it is the buffer and transition between slowness, meditation and stormy passion. Liszt described this exquisite movement as "a flower blooming between two abyss".

The first part is a one-part musical form, and its two parts are all developed from the same theme and its variations. The middle part is also a musical form, and the theme is mainly in D-flat major. This tonal layout is rare. The right hand is a syncopated rhythm throughout, and the stress it forms alternates with the strong beat stress in the left hand bass area, which highlights the sense of humor of scherzo. Then the music completely reproduced the first part.

Sonata form of the third movement, C sharp minor, 4/ 4 time, Allegro. This action is the climax of the whole song. Beethoven appeared the tone of impulse and struggle, showing the internal conflict of his works, and the opposition and struggle of many distinct musical images were unified in the rapid movement. This exciting finale is still full of beautiful feelings in the burning intense feelings, which reminds people of Beethoven's indomitable will. This movement with amazing musical effect and rich musical content is the most wonderful work of Beethoven's piano music showing expressive force and rising force. This piano sonata in C minor was seldom used until the third movement.

After the second movement, the main theme of the third movement, exciting and inspiring, appeared intermittently. It rose rapidly from the bass region to the treble region with the broken string of 16 note, and the musical thought surged forward like a raging sea wave, which fully demonstrated Beethoven's desire to pursue the true meaning of life and the fearless spirit of fighting against fate. The torrent of feelings has been rushing until the extension sign of bar 14 finally stopped. After the 6-bar connection sentence, a theme in G minor with beautiful melody appears. This is a strong and enthusiastic singing tune, which is in sharp contrast with the theme without melody in the main part, such as rough waves. The theme of this subsection has played a wonderful role in easing this movement. However, the turbulent main part gradually involved the auxiliary part in its torrent, and finally it was swallowed up in the rapid progress. At the end of the presentation part, there is repeated and rapid chord tension, and the intense alternation of strength leads to the tension of the whole presentation part. This tension was not relieved until the end of the presentation with a few sad ending sentences.

After entering the development department, it set off a new climax of drama development. The two themes of the presentation part are unfolded in turn and alternately. The main part is compressed, and the auxiliary part is divided into some separate phrases, which appear alternately in the high and low parts, and the tonality changes, which strengthens the expressive force of the sad tone of the auxiliary part. At the end of the development part, the bass is a continuous dominant sound, and the music gradually calms down and stays on the dominant harmony, which makes people feel a short silence and indicates the arrival of a new climax in the reproduction part. After calming down with a very weak chord at the end of the expansion part, it entered the reproduction part. The theme of the main part is reproduced fiercely, and the six-bar connection sentence is omitted in the reproduction part, followed by the reproduction of the auxiliary part. After the reappearance, there is the ending part, which is relatively large, as if it were the second unfolding part. The drama and intense excitement of the inner struggle reached the climax of the whole song. First, the theme of the main part appears, and then the negative seventh chord arpeggio with four bars intensity. Then there was a melody with a minor theme in the bass voice, followed by dreamy arpeggios and decorative notes, and finally there was an adagio (only two bars) for a while, but it soon returned to the emergency board, and the whole song ended with the strongest performance of the rise of the main chord and the decline of violence.

3 Conclusion

Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata is rich in ideological content, vivid in image, distinctive in personality, bold and innovative in layout and touching in musical effect. It profoundly shows the inner contradiction, pain and struggle, shows strong will and strength, shows Beethoven's unique appeal, and gives people spiritual encouragement and lofty beauty enjoyment.

;