Noctave
The piece
The "Moonlight" nickname is not Beethoven's: it goes back to the critic Ludwig Rellstab, who likened the first movement to moonlight on Lake Lucerne. Published in 1802 alongside a sister sonata under the same Op. 27, the work is subtitled quasi una fantasia and dedicated to Countess Giulietta Guicciardi. This easy version, written for Noctave from the opening of that movement, transposes it from C-sharp minor to A minor.
The eighth-note triplets, which the original gives to the right hand, move here to the left: E–A–C, four times a bar, in 12/8. They should flow without accents, like a steady backdrop. Alone at the start, the left hand sets the tempo and the chord changes, with a B-flat and then a G-sharp to watch for. When the right hand comes in, it repeats an E in a long-short rhythm: place the short note exactly with the last triplet of the beat, without rushing it. Practising the left hand alone first, on a loop, makes the triplets automatic before you add the melody.