The Romantic

The 'Adagio' in Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata has a series of movements that is repeated a number of times. In this series, Beethoven slowly builds up the tempo towards a grand finale, an outburst of climax, as if he is preparing the listener for a long cherished secret. But then the Romantic in him takes over. Just when he is about to reach the climax, Beethoven deliberately strikes a low key, almost in resignation, as if he is groping to return to some unknown point from which he has already gone beyond in one sense, as if he suddenly loses faith in the magnanimity of the listener to fathom his treasured secret. One can almost imagine Beethoven shaking his head in disillusionment! Strange pessimism! Or Romanticism - a belief in the progressive ideal coupled with a nostalgia for a lost origin... Thus spoke Nietzsche of the maestro: "Beethoven is the interlude of a mellow old soul that constantly breaks and an over-young future soul that constantly comes; on his music lies that twilight of eternal losing and eternal extravagant hoping..." In short, Beethoven lacks his present.