Editing Piano Sonata No. 14 (Beethoven) (section)

===I. Adagio sostenuto===
:<score sound="1">
\unfoldRepeats
\new PianoStaff <<
  \new Staff = "right" \with {
    midiInstrument = "acoustic grand"
  } \relative c' { \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo "Adagio sostenuto" 4 = 52
      \key cis \minor
      \time 2/2
      \stemNeutral
    \tuplet 3/2 { gis8^"Si deve suonare tutto questo pezzo delicatissimamente e senza sordino" cis e }
      \override TupletNumber.stencil = ##f
      \repeat unfold 7 { \tuplet 3/2 { gis,8[ cis e] } } |
    \tuplet 3/2 { a,8[( cis e] } \tuplet 3/2 { a, cis e) } \tuplet 3/2 { a,8[( d! fis] } \tuplet 3/2 { a, d fis) } |
    \tuplet 3/2 { gis,([ bis fis'] } \tuplet 3/2 { gis, cis e } \tuplet 3/2 { gis,[ cis dis!] } \tuplet 3/2 { fis, bis dis) } |
  }
  \new Staff = "left" \with {
    midiInstrument = "acoustic grand"
  } {
    \clef bass \relative c' {
      \override TextScript #'whiteout = ##t
      \key cis \minor
      \time 2/2
      <cis,, cis'>1^\markup \italic { sempre \dynamic pp e senza sordino } \noBreak
      <b b'> \noBreak
      <a a'>2 <fis fis'> \noBreak
      <gis gis'> <gis gis'> \noBreak
    }
  }
>>
\midi { }
</score>
The first movement,{{Efn|Note that Beethoven wrote "senza sordino"; see [[#Beethoven's pedal mark]] below.|name=pedal}} in [[C-sharp minor|C{{music|sharp}} minor]] and [[alla breve]], is written in modified [[sonata-allegro form]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Harding |first1=Henry Alfred |title=Analysis of form in Beethoven's sonatas |date=1901 |publisher=Novello |location=Borough Green |pages=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924017163027/page/n63 28]–29|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924017163027}}</ref> Donald Francis Tovey warned players of this movement to avoid "taking [it] on a quaver standard like a slow {{Music|time|12|8}}".<ref name=":1" />

The movement opens with an [[octave]] in the left hand and a [[tuplet|triplet]] figuration in the right. A melody that [[Hector Berlioz]] called a "[[lamentation]]",{{Citation needed|date=January 2019}} mostly by the left hand, is played against an accompanying [[ostinato]] triplet rhythm, simultaneously played by the right hand. 
The movement is played ''[[Dynamics (music)|pianissimo]] (pp)'' or "very quietly", and the loudest it gets is ''piano (p)'' or "quietly".

The ''adagio sostenuto'' tempo has made a powerful impression on many listeners; for instance, Berlioz commented that it "is one of those poems that human language does not know how to qualify".<ref name="Rosen"/> Beethoven's student [[Carl Czerny]] called it "a nocturnal scene, in which a mournful ghostly voice sounds from the distance".<ref name=Jones>Jones, Timothy. [https://books.google.com/books?id=FP8l1Di5F5gC&q=mournful&pg=PA43 ''Beethoven, the Moonlight and other sonatas, op. 27 and op. 31'']. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 19, 43 and back cover.</ref> The movement was very popular in Beethoven's day, to the point of exasperating the composer himself, who remarked to Czerny, "Surely I've written better things".<ref>''Life of Beethoven'', [[Alexander Wheelock Thayer]], ed. Elliot Forbes, Princeton 1967</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Fishko |first=Sara |author-link=Sara Fishko |title=Why do we love the 'Moonlight' Sonata? |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18577817 |access-date=10 May 2011 |website=NPR.org |publisher=NPR}}</ref>

In his book ''Beethoven's pianoforte sonatas'',<ref>{{cite book
| last = Fischer
| first =Edwin
| title =Beethoven's pianoforte sonatas: a guide for students & amateurs 
| publisher =Faber
| year =1959
| page =62
| isbn = }}</ref> 
the renowned pianist [[Edwin Fischer]] suggests that this movement of this sonata is based on Mozart's "''Ah Soccorso! Son Tradito''" of his opera [[Don Giovanni]], which comes just after the Commendatore's murder. He claims to have found, in the archives of the [[Wiener Musikverein]], a sketch in Beethoven's handwriting of a few lines of Mozart's music (which bears the same characteristic triplet figuration) [[Transposition (music)|transposed]] to C{{music|sharp}} minor, the key of the sonata. "In any case, there is no romantic moon-light in this movement: it is rather a solemn [[dirge]]", writes Fischer.