Beethoven’s famous Moonlight Sonata (op. 27 no. 2), all 3 movements, but transformed into the jazz standard Fly Me to the Moon (by Bart Howard)! Arranged for piano 4-hands by Scott Meek, performed live by The Meeks Duo (Scott Meek and Clare Yuan) for the Emerging Alumni Artist concert series at University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, October 2023.

I. 0:00
II. 2:20
III. 2:55

Score available for sale at: [ Ссылка ]
Synthesia video: [ Ссылка ]

Check out our blog posts for more details on the arrangement!
Read more about the arrangement process: [ Ссылка ]

And check out our companion-piece A Cruel Angel’s Thesis Meets a Pathetic Beethoven’s Sonata, since both use Beethoven as a basis and both were used as opening and ending credit songs in the classic anime Neon Genesis Evangelion! [ Ссылка ]

Some notes on the arrangement:
A while ago, we got a request from one of our supporters, Paul Birch, to arrange Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata for piano 4 hands, but I couldn’t figure how to make it work. I had always wanted to arrange Fly Me to the Moon, but was held back by my lack of confidence in the jazz language. One day, these two ideas clicked together, and thus was born this arrangement! A jazz song melded into the Classical language!

I have been using this technique of combining and transforming various works for several years now, inspired by an assignment from Professor Emil Naoumoff at Indiana University, in Baroque seminar class, in which students had to transform the Bach Prelude in C from the Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1 into any other piece of their choice.

The 1st movement begins identically to Beethoven’s original, but when the melody enters at 0:25, it suddenly modulates to F minor, since Fly Me to the Moon begins on the 3rd scale degree (Beethoven’s G-sharp melody becomes A-flat). I took various patterns from Beethoven, such as the recurring triplets in the middle voice, dotted rhythm melody, the exchange of treble and tenor melodies (m. 28-31 in Beethoven, 1:22), and the rising broken chords (m. 32-35, 1:37).

The 2nd movement (2:20) retains Beethoven’s articulation and rhythm, but all the harmonies and melodies are transformed. (Trio section at 2:37)

The 3rd movement (2:55) keeps Beethoven’s original rising broken chord pattern (with new harmonies) in the secondo part while the Fly Me to the Moon melody is in the primo. Here are some key moments and the corresponding parts from Beethoven:
(3:11) m. 9-14 G-sharp pedal point followed by fermata
(3:29) m. 19-32 second theme group with rapid alberti bass pattern in the middle and syncopated octaves in the treble
(3:47) m. 33 big chords followed by running passages (listen for Fly Me to the Moon, but at a speed four times faster than before!)
(4:00) m. 43-56 staccato chord section
(4:24) m. 177 falling and rising arpeggios
(4:36) m. 159-166 “recap” and climax
(4:57) m. 191-end coda, but now in E major

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