The opening movement of the sonata, wrote a music critic named Rellstab, reminded him of the moonlight on Switzerland's Lake Lucerne.
Though Beethoven called it "Sonata quasi una fantasia, op. 27, no. 2," and had probably never seen the moonlight dancing on Lake Lucerne, Rellstab's romantic image stuck, and it became known as the "Moonlight Sonata."
When he wrote the Moonlight Sonata in 1801, Beethoven was coming to grips with the great personal tragedy that almost destroyed him, his increasing deafness. Soon after he finished the piece, he learned the worst, that he would soon live in total silence.
Shown here is an image of the Moonlight Sonata manuscript in Beethoven's hand. Musically, Beethoven's intention with the piece was to break the tradition of clear divisions between a sonata's movements in order to create an unbroken musical flow. But personally, he poured out his agitated soul in this urgent and emotional creation.
