CONFUSION Over Beethoven's MOONLIGHT SONATA

[Felix Joseph Bronstein]

Hi,
This has always bothered me: why do some refer to this Beethoven's Piano Sonata (Moonlight)
as

Piano Sonata in C-Sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2, "Moonlight"

while other call it

Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-Sharp minor, "Moonlight"

So, is it Number 14 or Number 2 ???
Thank you.

[Larry Solomon]

There are various ways to number musical works. Beethoven's "Moonlight"
sonata is Op. 27 no. 2 because there are two sonatas in Opus 27. I
believe that this is Beethoven's numbering.

Number 14 refers to a chronological order of the 32 piano sonatas. I
believe this system was created by music publishers/editors to place all
the piano sonatas (a single genre) in a numerical order. I think the
opus designation is better, because that will not change.
--

Best!

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Larry Solomon
The Center for the Arts http://www.AzStarNet.com/~solo
Tucson, AZ
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[Richard Schultz]

Felix Joseph Bronstein (fj...@columbia.edu) wrote:
: Hi,

Subject: Re: CONFUSION Over Beethoven's MOONLIGHT SONATA
: Piano Sonata in C-Sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2, "Moonlight"

:
: while other call it
:
: Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-Sharp minor, "Moonlight"
:
: So, is it Number 14 or Number 2 ???

Beethoven wrote 32 piano sonatas (not including the "Electoral Sonatas"
he wrote as a teenager, the "sonatinas" of doubtful authenticity, etc.
etc.). If you number them sequentially in order of Opus number, then
the "Moonlight" sonata comes out as number 14. Sometimes, when
two works in the same genre were published simultaneously, they were
treated as a single "Opus" and given a number within that "Opus". Thus,
Beethoven's "Opus 10" consists of three sonatas: "Op. 10, No. 1" in
F major; "Op. 10, No. 2" in D Major; and "Op. 10, No. 3" in C minor. In
the sequential listing, these are Sonatas number 5, 6, and 7. Similarly,
"Opus 27" consists of two sonatas, "Op. 27, No. 1" in E-flat major (or
Sonata number 13 if you number them sequentially) and "Op. 27, No. 2" in
c-sharp minor (number 14 if you number them sequentially). I hope this
makes it clear.

-----
Richard Schultz sch...@ashur.cc.biu.ac.il
Department of Chemistry tel: 972-3-531-8065
Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel fax: 972-3-535-1250
-----
"How many boards would the Mongols hoard if the Mongol hordes got bored?"

[Keith Edgerley]

Felix Joseph Bronstein wrote:
>
> Hi,
> This has always bothered me: why do some refer to this Beethoven's Piano Sonata (Moonlight)
> as
>

> Piano Sonata in C-Sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2, "Moonlight"
>
> while other call it
>
> Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-Sharp minor, "Moonlight"
>
> So, is it Number 14 or Number 2 ???

> Thank you.
The answer is: both
The sonata is the 14th sonata published by Beethoven.

It is also the second in the set of two sonatas published as opus 27 (or
"work 27").

--
Keith Edgerley

[Spock2000]

it is both......
there are 2 sonata's in the Op. 27 set. they are the E-flat sonata and
the C-sharp minor sonata(moonlight). The number 14 is the number starting
with the first sonata Op. 10 no. 1 and rising upward. The other number,
Op. 27 no. 2 just means that the sonata is the second sonata in the set.

i hope that clears things up a bit.