Moonlight Sonata piano notes: the first-movement melody with letters

Moonlight Sonata: questions people ask

What are the letter notes of Moonlight Sonata?

The first notes, with their octave numbers, are G♯4 G♯4 G♯4 G♯4 G♯4 G♯4 A4 G♯4 F♯4 B4 E4 G4. Every note of the first-movement melody is in the table above, one bar per row (middle C is C4, the C nearest the middle of the keyboard; the next C up is C5).

What key and time signature is Moonlight Sonata in?

On this page it is in C♯ minor (four sharps), in 2/2: two beats to the bar, each a half note (alla breve). The key signature has four sharps (F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯); the first movement is marked alla breve, two half-note beats to the bar.

Why are there sharps, flats or naturals that are not in the key signature?

The key signature of C♯ minor gives four sharps. In this tune the note is written with an accidental sign (G♮): bar 5: G♮4; bar 6: G♮4; bar 7: G♮4; bar 8: G♮4. A sharp, flat or natural sign before a note applies to that note for the rest of the bar.

Which hand plays what, and how high and low does it go?

The range is E4 to B4, 7 semitones. The whole tune stays inside 5 letter names, E4 to B4, which is what one hand covers in a five-finger position (five neighbouring white keys), so the hand does not have to move.

Is this the whole of Moonlight Sonata?

No. It is bars 5 to 14 of the first movement, which is about 69 bars long in the edition used, and the sonata has two more movements. The page is a simplified melody for reading letter names, not a playable version of the movement.

Is Moonlight Sonata free to print and share?

Beethoven completed the sonata in 1801 and dedicated it in 1802, so the music is free to use. The edition used here is the Mutopia Project typesetting of a 1908 edition (Berners, edited by A. Winterberger) by Stewart Holmes, licensed CC BY-SA 2.5: the sheets on this page are shared under the same licence, so you can print and share them if you keep the credit line. Other editions and recordings have their own rights.

How do I know the notes are right?

The melody is read by a program from Mutopia Project, "Sonata No. 14 “Moonlight” (1st Movement: Adagio sostenuto)", upper melody line (Stewart Holmes), never typed in. A second program then compares it, note by note and in order, with 2 other sources: MIDI file “Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata 1st Movement” (100% of its notes); MIDI file “Moonlight Sonata” (91% of its notes). 1 of the 2 agree with this page on every pitch. Where they differ, the page lists every note and bar, so you can see the difference.

What notes does the Moonlight Sonata melody start with?

The melody enters on the last beat of bar 5 of the movement. Its first twelve notes are G♯4 G♯4 G♯4 G♯4 G♯4 G♯4 A4 G♯4 F♯4 B4 E4 G4: a repeated note in a dotted rhythm, a step up to A4 and back to G♯4, then F♯4, a leap up to B4 and a drop to E4. The first four bars of the movement have no melody, only the accompaniment.

Who called it the Moonlight Sonata?

Not Beethoven. The first edition is headed “Sonata quasi una fantasia”. Wikipedia says the title “Moonlight Sonata” was proposed in 1832, after the composer’s death, by the poet Ludwig Rellstab, and that many sources trace it to Rellstab comparing the first movement to moonlight on Lake Lucerne.