Harmony explained: Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata Opus 27 No.2 (Movement 1)

[@yanfranca8382]

Moonlight sonata (all moviments) is the masterpiece of music. Ever.

[@LW-zb8bf]

Never seen as good explanation. We need these more!

[@Hellnation13]

thanks for making this video and sharing your knowledge with the rest of us !

[@inga9788]

👍Thank you very, very much. I enjoyed listening. I understand so much more now and it will also help me to memorize the piece better and easier. I learned so much! Thanks again!

[@mauroespindola5101]

It's so much easier to learn and memorize a piece and you understand its harmony and structure!!!n

[@Felven]

super clear and well made explaination. thank you for making these videos free

[@gianglehuong9593]

Thank you. Your video is great and it helped me a lot to understand music theory.

[@profsjp]

Your clear analysis and explanation is a (wonderful) sonata in itself. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@cinaminlee]

Wow. Thank you for this. I've spent my life teaching myself to play this piece and never understood why it had such a hold on me...Looking at the circle of fifths chart and realizing that there is no G# major(Ab) or E# (F) or half the keys you mention (Fx) gives the "fantasia" element more depth! Bravo! I could listen to you explain music for hours. In fact, I think I will. :)

[@PianoLIT]

Thank you so much for the feedback, you just made my day!

[@oigridh9412]

Thank you so much for this wonderfully clear explanation, you have really helped me with my dissertation !

[@sigma8756]

Thank you so much this helped me to conduct GCSE music analysis of the harmony this piece.

[@PianoLIT]

That is so nice to know and congrats on the exam!

[@ocholilink7142]

Wao! Never have I seen a such a clear and distinct explanation! You held me spell bound with your analysis!. I have spent four years trying to learn this piece to no avail. A million thanks. Please, do more videos.

[@varols]

@PianoLIT, at the end of the 11th measure (around the 13:30 minute mark), there's a Gdim7 chord preceding the F#7. It sounds like a nice transitional chord but would love to hear your explanation. Great video!

[@edwinsegers8534]

Thank you very much. So enlightening.

[@gabrielmanin]

Thank you thank you 🙏🏻 It’s really helpful

[@johnbell913]

Great explanation but am entry level learning by ear, I will keep on playing it. Thank you from California.

[@RobertoCosenza]

Great video

[@TheGreatVoltini]

Thank you

[@adamguitar1498]

Overall it was a pretty good analysis. And thank you for calling the one chord and Em chord with a dissonance. Anyone saying it's Cmajor7 is letting their eyes tell their ears what to think. This is a piece of music where traditional analysis still works, but has some faults. Thinking of it from voice leading principles. We want to start and end in C#m. We want to arrive by approaching by 4ths. (Em-Bm-F#m-C#m) What happens in those zones has some flexibility, but everything tends to be smoothly voice led. Biggest thing to figure out is how to get to Em from C#m, and going to the relative major (E) and then shifting directly to Em works so well. Why? Because of voice leading. We become so accustomed to one or two pitches moving at a time. Melody is taking a rest while this happens, and only one pitch moves, G# to natural.

[@johnbell913]

Would C Major be B sharp?

[@JohnfromconcordNC]

John, the C natural key and the B# key are the same physical key on the keyboard. But to maintain the integrity of the various major and minor scales, they have to be distinguished from each other. For instance, the C# major scale has a B# note (as all the notes are sharp in this scale). To play the C# major scale you would start on the black C# piano key (the tonic note). At the end of the scale you would play the white C natural piano key, but this white piano key is considered a B# note. It cannot be considered a “C natural” note because you cannot have two “C” notes in the same scale. Within the 1st movement of Moonlight Sonata there are numerous B# notes that are played as the C natural piano key. I believe they could be considered leading tones, but that is a discussion for another day. Good luck.