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It is commonly said in music spheres that Beethoven did not give the Sonata the title of Moonlight. That leads me to wonder what is the source of the unofficial name then if not from the composer?

Neil Meyer
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  • So a music critic the answer does not say which one. It does not really answer my question. I would like to know what person coined the phrase. I don't really care why it was called what it is, I want to know who called it by that name. – Neil Meyer Nov 15 '21 at 10:32
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    The answer might not say which one, but the highest-rated comment to the question does. – Richard Nov 15 '21 at 11:35
  • The other question is vaguely related, but the answer to *this* one is only contained in a comment therein. How would searching for the other reveal the answer? It really concerns the *3rd* movement, which is most un-moonlight-like!? While only the 1st movement is moonlight-ish. – Tim Nov 15 '21 at 12:45
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    I've voted to reopen. The other question does not relate to this one, and it's not a reasonable expectation that someone searching for this answer would read the comments — especially since there's no clear relationship between the questions. – Aaron Nov 15 '21 at 15:06
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    @Aaron I disagree; all the necessary history is right there in a comment, and although the earlier question mentions a particular movement, it is the first hit when I search "moonlight sonata." I made an edit just now to its accepted answer to bring some of the data from the comment into an answer, but it's not expecting too much of people not only to search but to read the whole page (especially when the accepted answer mentions the comment, which was itself a comment because it simply pointed to Wikipedia). – Andy Bonner Nov 15 '21 at 15:11
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    @AndyBonner - with Aaron on this one. A little technical, but fair nevertheless. And your edit happened *after*, not *before* the event. – Tim Nov 15 '21 at 17:51
  • (I guess the meta-question is, if there's a case where the question is distinct from an earlier one, but their answers are (essentially) the same, should they be handled separately?) At any rate, if we do re-open, let's give this one an answer that we'll be able to reference for any future "Why come the [X] Sonata is called [X]?" question. – Andy Bonner Nov 15 '21 at 18:22
  • @AndyBonner As a community, we tend to treat questions as duplicates, but not answers. Personally, I tend to agree with you that if the answers are duplicates, then the questions should be treated that way as well. However, in the case of this specific question, I think it's one that deserves its own dedicated post. – Aaron Nov 15 '21 at 19:11
  • @AndyBonner - there are many occasions when the answer to different questions is the same, for all sorts of reasons. Simple example - the answer's 2, what's the question(s)? – Tim Nov 16 '21 at 13:40
  • @Tim “How many roads must a man walk down?” – Andy Bonner Nov 16 '21 at 15:16
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    @AndyBonner - sorry, that one doesn't fit the remit of this site..! Is the answer 'till he's found his satnav?' – Tim Nov 16 '21 at 15:49
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    The way duplicates work here is that they now both point to the same place, so any new person searching for **either** set of words will get to the right place. – Doktor Mayhem Nov 16 '21 at 18:42
  • @DoktorMayhem - I don't see how asking the one question will come up with the answer to a different question, helping anyone. Why would someone trying to find out the name of someone type in '3rd movement, Moonlight'? And till now, the real answer was in a comment (till mine!). – Tim Nov 17 '21 at 08:39
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    It was in a comment under the duplicate question, yes (thankfully now edited into the top answer), but it was definitely visible there as soon as you went to that question. – Doktor Mayhem Nov 17 '21 at 09:39
  • Well done with enough editing the quoted question was made a dupe. Nothing like some after-the-fact editing to make a moderator choice correct. – Neil Meyer Nov 17 '21 at 20:10

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It was another Ludwig. This one was called Rellstab. Five years after Beethoven had died,(1832) he was the critic who named the 'Moonlight.

Doktor Mayhem
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Tim
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  • @Doktor Mayhem - that was in there to show what little effort was made by OP. I thought we preferred that questions showed at least some effort by OP. – Tim Nov 17 '21 at 14:35
  • Hi @Tim - yeah, we do, but it got flagged by a couple of folks as rude so thought I'd remove. It doesn't take away from your post. – Doktor Mayhem Nov 17 '21 at 15:30
  • @DoktorMayhem - can't believe how sensitive some folks are... Must keep up the stocks of cotton wool ! A spade's a spade where I come from, but we're all different - it seems. – Tim Nov 17 '21 at 15:33