The consecration of the house

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Ludwig van Beethoven's music to accompany The Consecration of the House is an adaptation of his earlier work The Ruins of Athens , op.113.

On the occasion of the reopening of the Josefstädter Theater in Vienna on October 3, 1822, Naval War Commissioner Carl Meisl adapted the festival The ruins of Athens by August von Kotzebue . There was Consecration of the House . Meisl changed the text so that Beethoven's previous music did not completely match the text, and added the text Wo die Pulse , for which Beethoven developed a new composition (WoO 98). Beethoven made little changes to the other accompanying music, but added a final chorus with violin solo and ballet, reworked a march (op.114) and wrote the new overture (op.124), since the original overture was not appropriate as a follow-up.

It was Beethoven's first work after completing his studies with J. S. Bach and George Frideric Handel , and is therefore heavily influenced by them. Beethoven dedicated the overture to Prince Nikolaus von Galitzin .

Premiere

Beethoven directed the first performance on October 3, 1822, the name day of Emperor Franz , in the Josefstadt theater in Vienna and sat at the piano. The theater's 400 available seats were sold out weeks in advance. Anton Schindler played the first violin, Franz glasses was the conductor, and Michael Greiner sang the tenor . Although Beethoven could still hear a little at the time, Anton Schindler found that Beethoven could no longer lead larger orchestras and that the quality of the performance had suffered as a result. Nevertheless, the audience was enthusiastic and the performance was repeated over the following three days.

Structure of the overture

Max Unger states in the foreword to the German edition of the study score: “Before writing the overture, he (Beethoven) told his young confidante Anton Schindler that he had thought of two motifs, one in free style and one in strict Handel style; as a great admirer of this master, he decided on the second, which of course includes the theme of the great free fugue, and gave the overture the spirit and form of the ancients. "

By the spirit and form of the ancients, he obviously means the French baroque overture with its slow first part, characterized by double-dotted, tight rhythms, which is based on a hymn-like, thoroughly solemn theme in the present overture. (Incidentally, contrary to Unger's assumption that Beethoven only decided on one theme - this theme could be meant by the theme “in free style”.)

The overture - in radiant C major - begins with five introductory short cadenced chord strokes throughout the orchestra. Then the theme is first played softly (pp) by the woodwinds, while the strings mostly dab pizzicato chords on the light beats and brass and timpani provide the almost continuous dotted rhythm. The antecedent ends after 8 bars in a conspicuous deviation to E minor, only to continue immediately afterwards in C major. The climax of the melodic line - the high C in bar 18 - is reinforced in its effect by the somewhat surprising double dominant harmony (D7). This is followed by the repetition of the 16-bar theme, but now in f in the woodwinds, horns and the clearly audible strings.

This first very hymnic part is now followed a little more lively (poco piu vivace) by a fanfare-like insertion in the trumpets, supported by a few chord strokes of the orchestra on the tonic and dominant and, after four bars, additionally by a kind of bassoon garland (more or less ascending and descending scales ) is primed in sixteenths. The following Meno mosso part initially introduces a new motif in the manner of a fugue, which, however, serves more as a motif for the following upswing and the transition to the main part (the fugue from bar 88). This free fugue, which is repeatedly interrupted by homophonic passages with symphonic motifs, appears in many parts quite solemn and at the same time sparkling with life, despite the omission of the trumpets.

sentences

The overture described above, Beethoven's op. 124, is the first piece in the list below. As mentioned above, the other numbers were largely adapted from the music for the "Ruins of Athens" and provided with new text.

Music for Carl Meisl's casual festival, Hess 118 [51.19]

(Times after an exposure, for orientation about the relative length of the sections)

  • Consecration of the House, Overture, op.124 (10.52)
  • No. 1 Invisible Choir. Follow the mighty call of honor! (4.05)
  • No. 2 duet. To tolerate bondage through no fault of your own (3.58)
  • No. 3 choir of dervishes (2.37)
  • No. 4 Marcia alla turca (1.39)
  • [No. 5] Choir with soprano solo, WoO 98: Where the pulses chase one another. Let's dance (6.03)
  • No. 6 March with Choir, op. 114. Decorate the altars! (6.39)
  • No. 7 Music behind the scene [melodrama]. The people are already walking in celebratory clothing (recitation) (1.45)
  • No. 8 recitative, choir, aria with choir:
    • Recitative: With great joy that never grows cold (1.59)
    • Choir: We carry receptive hearts in our bosom (2.54)
    • Aria with chorus: Does our genius want one more wish (5.42)
  • No. 9 Chorus: Hail our Emperor! (3.57)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Elliot Forbes (Ed.): Thayer's Life of Beethoven . Volume II. Princeton University Press, 1967, ISBN 978-0-691-02718-0 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  2. ↑ a b Accompanying music on Beethoven-Haus-Bonn.de
  3. ↑ Gerald Abraham: The Age of Beethoven, 1790-1830. Oxford University Press, 1982, ISBN 978-0-19-316308-9 , p. 152 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  4. ↑ Max Unger: Foreword to the study score in Edition Eulenburg . Ed .: Max Unger. Edition Eulenburg, Zurich 1933.