Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata is No.14 in C-sharp minor and is one of his most famous Piano Sonatas, particularly the first movement which we present here. This movement is sometimes labelled "Quasi una fantasia" (like a Fantasy) though it doesn't suggest moonlight in any way. Rather it is quite a dark quiet movement with an insistent triplet rhythm, and the challenge for the pianist is to keep this even with just the right nuances of crescendo and rubato in appropriate places. We have included some suggested pedalling suitable for a modern piano, though the aim is to achieve a smooth sustained legato without muddying the harmonies. Download the sheet musc, midi and mp3 files using the links in the left-hand menu. The video below illustrates the music using a piano roll animation, while below that you can play the mp3 file and see the sheet music prior to downloading.
From Sheet Music Plus you can get the complete Piano Sonatas by Beethoven in 2 volumes as follows: Volume 1 and Volume 2. On mfiles we have arrangements of the Moonlight Sonata for guitar by Tárrega and for clarinet and piano by Jim Paterson.
Here is a video of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (1st movement) for piano:
The audio controls below allow you to play the mp3 version of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (1st movement) for piano or you can download the MP3 file. You can also download the midi version of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (1st movement) for piano.
The image below is the first page of the sheet music, and here you can download the full sheet music for Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (1st movement) for piano in PDF format.
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