Piano Sonata No. 14 in C♯ minor — 1st movement

L. v. BeethovenOp. 27 No. 2 ('Moonlight')

Key

C#m

Time

C|

Tempo

♩=60

AO focus

AO2

Form

Adagio sostenuto — ternary form with a broken-chord triplet accompaniment running throughout. Beethoven's marking 'sempre pp e senza sordini' (always quiet, no dampers) calls for held pedal.

Teaching points

• Pedal: the entire movement is meant to ring with overlapping harmonies — no full pedal change between chord changes; release lightly
• Three-layer texture: dotted melody (top), triplet broken chords (middle), bass octaves (bottom)
• Practical: even triplets in the RH — practise hands-separately first; the LH learns the bass octaves cleanly
• AO2: deceptive simplicity — three voices, slow tempo, but sustained concentration is the real challenge