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(c) Ian Hammond 1999
All rights reserved

It would be great if we could accept this account: Unfortunately, Lennon is supposed to have given an almost identical statement in December 1969 as reported by Guiliano, who has a poor reputation for accuracy.

The problem with sources haunts serious study of the Beatles. Even the so-called serious scholar can get it completely wrong: Here's a farcical chain of three quotes: Lennon being quoted by Mellers, being quoted by O'Grady being quoted by MacDonald:

This comedy of errors concludes with Ian MacDonald's naive remarks claiming that Lennon is incapable of knowing what he is doing.

So, lets go to the source. Here's the best quotation available, it comes from Yoko Ono, and it is available on CD where you can verify it by listening to it:

Lennon just says it was "some classical bit", which he later referred as the Moonlight (and once as "Beethoven's Fifth"). Yoko Ono thinks it was the Moonlight. While the arpeggios and general mood of the piece point to the Moonlight, but a doubt remains.

Backwards was a code word Lennon used when saying he had adapted someone else's music (just as he described any assistance on a song as "helping out with the middle eight"). 

George Martin expressed an opinion on the origins of the song probably based on what Lennon told him at the recording session.

The Moonlight Sonata:
Beethoven published his Fantasy Sonata as Opus 27, #2 in 1803, dedicated to his young piano student Countess Giulietta Guicciardi. The sonata was immediately popular (and remained so, at the expense of some of his later sonatas, which Beethoven resented). The title Moonlight Sonata, coined after Beethoven's death, is largely rejected by insiders. Of the sonata's three movements, it is the dreamy-eyed first movement that is famous.

One of the first works to really explore the expressive and technical possibilities of the emerging piano technology, in particular the use of the pedals, the Moonlight Sonata inspired a whole generation of piano composer-players (the 19th century equivalent of the singer-songwriter) who lived off the romantic and sentimental potential of the idiom. In other words: the Moonlight spawned fifty years of virtuoso schmaltz. 

If Beethoven's piece depends on the sonic color (klangfarbe) of the piano, Lennon's depends equally on his instrument: the Beatles. While I do not subscribe the view that individual Beatles did not produce music of value after 1969, they clearly, lacking the Beatle instrument, could no longer produce Beatle music (before the mid 90's). When Lennon recorded Love in 1970 and Oh My Love in 1971 he needed a non-Beatle arrangement (despite the involvement of Starr on the former and Harrison on the latter piece).

Beethoven and Lennon were close to thirty when composing their respective pieces. While both works total between 60 and 70 bars, Lennon's work is a miniature, built from one 10-bar and one 4-bar chord sequence: now, the interesting thing about a watch is not how big it is, but how intricate it is. We should not expect the description of a watch to be small just because the watch itself is.

Before comparing the works, it is prudent to repeat the obvious: namely, that neither piece needs comparison. Both are better listened to than talked about. More than anything else, Lennon's piece captures the effortless nobility and the same stoic elegance of the studied understatement that pervades Beethoven's movement. Because needs no Why.


Because
Words and music are attributed to Lennon. McCartney hypothesized that Ono may have had something to do with the lyric, but neither Lennon nor Ono say that. Lennon usually, if belatedly, eagerly gave credit to Ono for her contributions.

The song was recorded on August 1 and 4, 1969: it was Lennon's last contribution to the band and the last time all four Beatles went into the studio to record a new song.

Lennon plays a well rehearsed electric guitar part, doubled by George Martin on a Baldwin spinet electric harpsichord (which McCartney later acquired from EMI). Harrison plays the bridge brass and closing solo on his brand new Moog synthesizer. McCartney plays a very restrained bass. Starr supplied a guide click track, which was discarded. Lennon, McCartney and Harrison sing, with Lennon nominally singing lead.

George Martin recorded this song twice more. Once with the Bee Gees for the ill-fated Sgt. Pepper film. It was Maurice Gibb who recalled that he could not believe that John, Paul and George were not brothers: how else could they sing so well together. The second occasion was on George Martin's swan song album, In My Life, where he creates a mini violin concerto for the young cross-over pop/classical violinist Vanessa Mae, combining Lennon, Bach, Beethoven and Brahms.


The Title
Still a favorite at (some) weddings, Lennon almost certainly knew the 1902 song Because, written by Guy d'Hardecourt (Helen Rhodes' nom de plume). A snippet: "Because, God made thee mine, I'll cherish thee, through light and darkness…"

Like d'Hardecourt's song, each verse begins with a simple upbeat on word because. No other meaningful similarity exists, except that Because would also make good music for (some) weddings.

The Three Tenors sing this song quite ferociously at the start of each World Cup taking  great delight in a serial murder of the diction of the English language.


The Lyric
Each verse presents an elegant pun: A round earth turns him on, a high wind blows his mind, a blue sky makes him cry.

Lennon uses a simple formula for the verse lyric:

All he needs to find for each verse is five words.

Reminding us of the marriage incantation ("something old, something new…"), the bridge tells us that love is (something) old, new, all and you. Earth, wind, sky and love are the subjects of a spotless lyric that does nothing more than adorn the music, with the Moon being conspicuous only by its absence.

Pastoral in theme (nature and love make him happy), the lyric tells us this is another of Lennon's hymns (like Nowhere Man or Grow Old With Me). He is preaching, but very softly.

Because is the only word of more than one syllable in the song. The bridge has no word longer than four characters. Love was likewise an exercise in minimalism.

Love from, Lennon's first solo album, another exercise in minimalism, has a similar lyric to the bridge ("love is you") and may have been written at the same time (some evidence is present in the guitar demo of Love). However, where Love has real passion, Because remains a perfect, but distant egg.


The Key
Lennon's song is in C# minor, the key of the Moonlight Sonata. While Lennon had a permanent dwelling in this key in 1963/64, he had rarely used it since that time. A demo version has him playing the guitar part in C minor.


The Arpeggios
The Moonlight Sonata inspires the arpeggios of Because which Lennon recasts into rock with his division into 3+3+2 quarter-notes. This is one of those original Lennon ideasthat remind us that he was never a blind imitator but transmuted everything into his rock idiom. 

Lennon's arpeggios are more reminiscent of the Baroque era, in particular to a well-known Bach prelude in C minor which has been transcribed for guitar which may have provided a possible model for the inner bass line of the guitar part.

The guitar part must be played with faultless ease. Lennon plays electric guitar, possibly to avoid fret noise and to simplify the some of the long left-hand finger stretches. Like the guitar parts for Norwegian Wood, Dear Prudence and Julia, this part would have provided a real challenge. Like Julia, he held on to the piece until the end of the sessions, perhaps so that he could get more rehearsal time.


The Melody
Lennon's melody is unsyncopated throughout. This is so unusual that we must imagine that it is deliberate (Goodnight is another). The melody is chordal, a Beethoven characteristic. Lennon has the same tendency, but nowhere else to the degree in this tune (Tomorrow Never Knows comes close).

The melody probably came well after the chord pattern had been established. Like some of Lennon's earliest pieces, the long notes of the melody seem designed for choral treatment.

The melody is dominated by three harmonized suspensions (c#-b#, g-f#, f#-e#), the first two of which are preceded by chordal figures.

The first chordal figure outlines the notes g#, c# and e, the notes of Beethoven's distinctive accompaniment.

Although his tune has many dotted up-beats ,Lennon does not attempt to mimic Beethoven's famous single note dum da dum. The bridge comes a little closer with "love is old, love is new...", which could be easily set to Beethoven's one note figure.

The Vocal Harmony
The lyric is sung in three-part harmony throughout, overdubbed twice, giving the illusion of a nine voice choir. Despite their peerless talent for harmony, they rarely showcased it with a complete song (This Boy and Yes It Is are the other usual suspects).

Harrison and McCartney both marked Because as a favorite because of the vocal parts. Lennon was less kind, saying it was a "terrible arrangement", but he may have had problems remembering the song at the time, after all, he did mix up the Moonlight and "Beethoven's Fifth" in the same quotation.

The unaccompanied version of Because is a real highlight of Anthology 3. It reveals each Beatles in fine vocal form (no straining and no colds). Intonation and synchronization seem spotless: they breath as one. Their joint control of the attack and release of each individual note is just one of those minor miracles we take for granted (along with the mix). At least Harrison has the grace to admit that this arrangement actually needed some rehearsing.