Well known for its opening stillness, Beethoven's Moonlight Piano Sonata was written in 1801. The 14th of his 32 sonatas for solo piano, this piece has three movements with a total length of about 15 minutes.

The sonata got its name when poet Ludwig Rellstab described the music as being “like moonlight shining on a lake” in 1832. Yet it is unlikely that Beethoven would accept that. When he wrote Moonlight Sonata he was deeply in love with the 17-year-old Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, and dedicated the piece to her.

But if you just listened to that rippling opening movement, you would have to admit, Rellstab had a point. The title “moonlight” stuck ever since — even though to Berlioz it sounded more like sunlight!

If the first movement were to be considered like moonlight on a lake, the finale would be more like waves being whipped up on frenzied waters. Beethoven is in a stormy mood here, probably due to the onset of deafness.
The following year, Beethoven wrote the despairing Heilingstadt Testament.

While Beethoven follows tradition with the three-movement structure of the sonata, the piece is different in the sense that it starts with the slow movement.

Although audiences were initially disturbed by the power of this work, Beethoven was soon complaining about its popularity: “Surely I’ve written better things,” he once wrote.

This piece remains a crowd-puller in concert halls all over the world, and has been used in many other places, such as the movies Misery and Crimson Tide; Cindy and Saffron’s Past Present and Future; and, supposedly, backwards in the Beatles’ “Because”!