STORIES OF MUSIC

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 36, 12 February 1938, Page 20

STORIES OF MUSIC

(Written for Older Boys ai

Hullo Boys and Girls! Fariel says'l may tell you something each week about music. Do you think you will like that? You may find what I tell you rather difficult to follow. If you do write and tell Fairiel and I will try to make it easier for you to understand. I think most of you will have heard of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" (some of you older ones may have played it), so, today, I am going to tell you the rather sad story behind this., very great piece of music.

Ludwig Beethoven was born in Bonn in Germany on December 16, 1770. His people were Belgians, his grandfather coming to Bonn in 1732 to take up the position of Court musician. Beethoven was very fond of his grandfather and though he died when the boy was only

>V<=>M<=>Qt<Z><)i

KKZXW-

four years old, Beethoven remembered him all his life. His father was a drunkard, who wasted all their money on drink. He was rather cruel to young Ludwig, and thinking him an infant prodigy kept him severely at his music, especially the violin, which he played when he was only, five years old.

When Beethoven was quite a young man he became totally deaf and it is all the more. marvellous that he could compose such music when he could

md Girls by "Luciewne.")

not hear it. A rather tragic story is told of Beethoven, when he was conducting one of his great symphonies one day in Vienna. At the conclusion of the symphony he forgot for a moment that he could not hear and thought, with his back to the audience, which was perfectly silent, that his composition was a failure until he turned round to make his bow and saw a shouting, stamping, clapping crowd cheering him and expressing their feelings with the complete abandonment that they felt—and Beethoven could not hear a thing!

At the time of composing the "Moonlight Sonata" Beethoven had fallen very deeply in love with a very beautiful girl who was far above his social standing, and Beethoven, who was vjry poor, felt, his position acutely. In the year 1802, on a very lovely night in July, he felt very oppressed, so, to soothe his nerves, he went for a. solitary ramble into the country and listened, to the soft sounds of the night.

He was passing a house when he heard the faint but unmistakable sounds of someone playing one of his own compositions, so he stopped and listened and, as he stood under the trees, someone came out of the house and recognised him. When the guests heard that Beethoven was outside, they all rushed out, begging him to come in and play to them. One of them was the girl he loved so much. Consenting to do so, he asked the girl what he should play and she, looking out of the window where the moon and stars were reflected on the river, asked him to improvise on the night he had just left.

Can you picture the young Beethoven, poor, proud, and vejry sad, sitting at the instrument from which he could obtain such heavenly harmony, the happiness of being near the" woman he loved shadowed by the thought that she would never be his. And as he sits there the music inspired by his conflicting emotions and the glorious night forms into a melody.

The first movement of the Sonata expresses his sadness, but in the next movement it is evident that he tried to shake off his sorrow, as we can tell by the dainty, fairy-like. air of this portion, but again in the next movement his oppression returns and all the helplessness and bitterness in his heart are expressed in the last movement.

When he had finished playing to his spellbound audience, he left abruptly before anyone could stop him and vanished into the night, A little ■ while later the sonata appeared in his collection dedicated to the girl he loved and the people who had been present that evening gave it the name of the "Moonlight Sonata."

Many of you will have only heard the first and best-known movement of this great sonata, but if you ever have the opportunity of hearing the complete work, take it, for the sonata is not complete without its three movements. Watch the radio programmes. You will see how much more interesting music can be when you know the story that lies behind it. v