Started by
Azzurro
Member
Member
I read on Wiki: piano sonata no. 18, sometimes called by the title "The Hunt" (a nickname not exactly from the author who only titled the two sonatas op 27 and the sonata op 81a), constitutes the third sonata of Opus 31.
Who called it 'hunt' and why?... but referring also to the op. 27 sonatas, for example the Moonlight, it doesn't seem to me that it is a title given by Beethoven
mmhmm, how are things?
Administrator
Normally, it was the publishers who gave names to the compositions of the greats...
Member
I imagine, so there is some nonsense written on Wiki
Member
No, it's not nonsense, it's just that the composer didn't give it the name.
As for the two Sonatas of Opus 27, Beethoven defined them as: Sonata quasi una Fantasia and that would have been the end of it. However, the romantic title that no. 2 "Moonlight" carries with it was invented by the German poet Ludwig Rellstab, a friend of Beethoven himself, who wrote many texts for Schubert's lieder because it evoked to him "the brightness" of the Moon reflected in Lake Lucerne.
As for Sonata Opus 31 no. 3, its nickname is actually much less used and known compared to the previous one, and few people call it that. It derives from the fact that it contains a theme that recalls the lied Der Wachtelschlag (The Quail's Song) WoO 129
Member
In 99.989% of cases, the first edition (photo) is reliable. Perhaps B. gave only two or three titles in total to his works.
In all other cases, they are apocryphal nineteenth-century additions. This silly title is no exception.
(Even worse "Moonlight" anyway brrr... Rellstab should have stopped at Schubert's Schwanengesang)
