Piano Sonata no. 14 in C-sharp minor 'Moonlight Sonata', Op. 27 no. 2
The Moonlight Sonata no. 14, Op. 27, no. 2, was completed in 1801 and dedicated to 17-year-old Countess Guicciardi, with whom Beethoven was, or had been in love. The nickname Moonlight derives from an 1832 description of the first movement by poet Ludwig Rellstab, who compared it to moonlight shining upon Lake Lucerne. Beethoven included the phrase Quasi una fantasia in the title (as well as in the other sonata of Op. 27) partly because the work does not follow the traditional sonata pattern where the first movement is in regular sonata form, and where the three or four movements are arranged in a fast-slow-[fast]-fast sequence.
