♫ So, the two Op. 27 sonatas both have the subtitle “Quasi una Fantasia” – it’s easy to lose sight of that, as number 2 is so much more commonly known as the Moonlight – a name Beethoven did NOT bestow upon it. But if the shared subtitle might suggest that the two sonatas have a similar form, or character, that is in fact not the case. Both works are structurally highly unconventional, but that’s where the similarity ends. First of all, while the Moonlight is extremely dark and brooding, the vast majority of op. 27 no. 1 is quite the opposite – it's probably one of the most optimistic pieces Beethoven ever wrote. And they are no more similar in structure: in the case of the Moonlight, the title “quasi una Fantasia” only tells us that this work doesn’t conform to Beethoven’s early period sonata model – its standard sequence of movements, etc. Conversely, Op. 27 no. 1 – the FIRST sonata quasi una fantasia – has a form that is, in a sense, a hybrid of a “normal” sonata and a fantasy. So, isn’t that a contradiction in terms? Isn’t the whole point of a fantasty that, unlike a sonata, it has no set form? Well, sort of. It’s true that fantasies don’t have any sort of predetermined length, number of movements, sequence of events, etc. But the sonata Op. 27 no. 1 bears a close resemblance, in shape, to the greatest fantasy written for the piano in the classical era: Mozart’s Fantasy in c minor, K. 475. (Mozart wrote a number of fantasies for the piano, and for other instruments, but left most of them unfinished. The most famous of these – and the closest to being finished – is the Fantasy in d minor, K.397. But aside from the fact that it is actually complete, the c minor Fantasy is also just a far more radical and startling work.) Anyway, the c minor Fantasy consists of 4 sections – this being a fantasy and not a sonata, it doesn’t seem quite right to call them “movements”. As you would expect from a fantasy, these sections are played without pause. Very roughly speaking, these sections are: slow, fast, slow, fast, and then a reprise of the opening section. (I’m not referring to that reprise as a fifth section, because unlike all the others, it isn’t original – new – material.) Beethoven’s sonata is not identical in construction, but it IS broadly similar. Like the Mozart Fantasy, and very much unlike a “normal” sonata, the whole thing is played without pause. Its sequence of movements – this being a sonata first, a “quasi fantasia” second, “movements” does now seem like the correct term. Its sequence of movements is slow-fast-slow-fast, just like the Mozart. Unlike in the Mozart, there is no final reprise of the opening slow section; however, the SECOND slow section does make a reappearance shortly before the end of the piece. So, there are plenty of formal distinctions to be made between these two works, but I still think there is good reason to believe that the word “fantasia” is not the only thing Beethoven took from Mozart, here. To be very clear: I am talking only about structure. In terms of character, Mozart’s Fantasy and Beethoven’s op. 27 no. 1 could hardly be less alike. If anything, the c minor Fantasy anticipates the character of op. 27 no. 2, the Moonlight – it is among his darkest and most intense works, and from the very first bars, among his most chromatic. ♫ Beethoven’s op. 27 no. 1 is not a piece devoid of intensity – it is Beethoven, after all – but it is a very relaxed piece by his standards. The material, moment by moment, is often surprisingly conventional, and at times, even borderline uninteresting: what elevates the material is the very imaginative and unexpected way in which the movements follow one another – it completely changes our perception of the work’s content. It’s in no way unusual, of course, for structure to be one of the most critical aspects of Beethoven’s music, but in this work, it has an extra layer of significance: the unprecedented lack of separation of the movements means that they interact with one another in a different, deeper way than usual. One last note, before getting into the music itself: in addition to the Mozart Fantasy, there is one other possible inspiration for op. 27 no. 1’s structure, for its sequence of events, and that is the baroque Sonata da Chiesa. This was a form popular with Italian composers such as Corelli, and it reached its apex with Bach’s 3 sonatas for solo violin. These pieces are almost invariably in four movements, and like op. 27 no. 1, the sequence is slow-fast-slow-fast. In the Sonata da Chiesa, the fast second movement is typically a fugue, and the center of the gravity of the work, with the final two movements being lighter; opus 27 no. 1, as we shall see, is not built that way. Still, Beethoven would have been very familiar with these works, Bach’s violin sonatas above all, so it seems plausible, at least, that they were in the back of his mind as he was conceiving of opus 27 no. 1. It’s interesting to note, though possibly coincidental, that the two precursors of this work, titled “Sonata quasi una fantasia”, were the baroque SONATA da Chiesa, and Mozart’s FANTASY in c minor. If nothing else, it’s a demonstration of how this work is a true hybrid.
