Beethoven- Moonlight Piano Sonata No.14

The Moonlight Sonata is one of my favorite music pieces. It was not called The Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven. He first named it "Quasi una fanatsia", which basically mean almost a fantasy. It has a mystical and emotional feeling. This piece was said to be written for one of Ludwig van Beethoven’s young lovers, but since she was of a higher class they couldn’t have an intimate relationship. So that is why I think it was called almost a fantasy. The piece has three movements, the Adagio Sostenuto, Allegretto and Presto Agitato movements. Adagio Sostenuto is soft and dreamy and it gets mysterious. This might have been his feeling when he first fell in love with the girl. The Allegretto movement is playful, jumpy and happy. The reason for this feeling is because it was played forte. When the Presto Agitato movement starts the tempo increases dramatically. This part it’s both fun but very fast. At the same time it also seems kind of dangerous. It is a very intense part. I personally think this may have been his emotions when he realized he could not be with this girl. Which title do you prefer, Moonlight or Almost a Fantasy? 

Friedrich’s The Monk and the Sea 

This is an amazing and simple painting done by Casper David Friedrich a German, romantic artist. When I thought of the tittle The Monk and the Sea I pictured a man sitting in a bright area that had warm colours like an orange and red sky, brownish yellow sand and a light almost teal sea with a mix of the orange and red. Instead the painting shows a man stand looking into the cold sea on a cloudy day. I think this monk is reflecting on his action and this reflection is shown by him standing looking into the almost black sea. You can see that there is sunlight appearing that might mean various thing depending on what he might have been thinking of. The bright part in the sky is also the focal point in this painting and the gaps in the sky from the focal point lead to the monk. I think many people can relate to thins painting because it can be seen as a solution (the coming sun) to a very thought out question (the sea). 

For Valentine’s Day – Ryuji’s View On Love 

“He wanted to talk about the sea-he might have said something like this: ‘It was the sea that made me begin thinking secretly about my love more than anything else; you know, a love worth dying for, or a love that consumes you. To a man locked in a steal ship all the time the sea is too much like a woman. Things like her, lulls, storms, or her caprice, or the beauty of her breast reflecting the setting sun, are all obvious. More than that, you’re in a ship that mounts the sea and rides her and yet constantly denied her. It’s the old saw about miles and miles of lovely water and you can’t quench your thirst. Nature surrounds a sailor with all the elements so like a woman and yet he is kept as far as a man can be from her warm, living body. That’s where the problem begins, right there-I’m sure of it.’” (41)

This small passage from the novel The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea presents Ryuji’s view on love. This passage is what he was planning on telling Fusako. From this passage, I learned that he likes a woman with strong emotion and yet still has some sort of attractive, sexual appearance just like the sea. At this point in the novel he is starting to fall for Fusako but his ideal woman is still the sea. The reason he might be attracted to the sea is because his mother died when he was young and he was raised by his over working, civil servant father who had to raised both him and his sister. His father and sister die leaving him alone so, “his only memories of life on shore were of poverty and sickness and death, of endless devastation; by becoming a sailor, he had detached himself from the land forever…”(40)  Surprisingly when he meets Fusako he wants to stay on land with her and leaves the sea for her. So hopefully you enjoyed reading my thoughts on Ryuji's view of love. HAPPY VALENTINE's DAY! :)