LDV78.9

23 MICHEL DALBERTO But don’t you think that this notion of phrasing does arise with the ‘Moonlight’ Sonata, one of his few works that starts with a sustained, continuous melodic line? That’s the perfect counterexample of what Beethovenian style is! Beethoven is a composer not of melodies, but of themes. The first musical idea of the ‘Moonlight’ Sonata – let’s not forget that the title is apocryphal – is just a simple lied. The themes used by Beethoven are based on materials that are often insignificant, composed of fragments of phrases and rhythmic patterns. He was a composer who possessed a genius for development; hence the importance of variation in his works, especially in the ‘Funeral March’ Sonata op.26. It was Chopin’s favourite piece: he played it himself, and it certainly inspired him to write his own Marche funèbre Sonata, no.2 op.35. And yet Chopin didn’t take much interest in the music of Beethoven and Schubert when he was in Vienna.