For Elise

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The beginning of Für Elise in the annotated first edition by Ludwig Nohl, 1867
Recording by a music lover from 2006

For Elise , the piano piece in A minor WoO (work without opus number ) 59 by Ludwig van Beethoven from 1810. The popular title comes from the lost autograph which, according to Ludwig Nohl, was inscribed: “For Elise on April 27th in memory of L. v. Bthvn ". The missing year can be identified using the sketch sheet BH 116 in the Beethoven-Haus .

The short, rondo-like piece is one of Beethoven's most famous works. It has the form A-B-A-C-A .

History of origin

First sketch for the main melody of WoO 59 (Für Elise) , 1808, excerpt from Mus. ms. autograph. Beethoven Landsberg 10
Intertwined sketches for WoO 59, BH 116 (excerpt). Ink: 1810, pencil: 1822
The same excerpt transcribed and thereby disentangled

Three sources have come down to us for the piece, on the basis of which four stages of work can be identified.

  • In 1808 Beethoven drafted the main melody in a sketchbook for the pastoral . The notation can be found on page 149, lines 6 and 7. This page was later removed and is now under the signature Mus. ms. autograph. Beethoven Landsberg 10 in the Berlin State Library . It is a one-part, sixteen- bar melody that differs from later versions, especially in the opening bars of the middle section and the closing turns of bars 7 and 15, as well as the lack of the two-bar organ point on E.
  • In 1810, an extensive draft of the entire piece was created in two working phases, which is now kept in the Beethoven House under the signature BH 116 . The double sheet also contains sketches for Egmont Music Op. 84, which premiered on June 15, 1810, and for March WoO 19, which Beethoven completed on August 3, 1810. The sheet can therefore be dated to spring 1810.
  • This draft was probably the basis for the autograph with the dedication, created on April 27, 1810 and now lost , which was first published by Ludwig Nohl in 1867. To this day, Nohl's publication forms the basis for almost all publications of the piece.
  • BH 116 still contains an adaptation made in 1822. It was evidently made at a time when Beethoven no longer had the autograph, which he had given the recipient of the dedication, and probably had the aim of bringing the piano piece into a version suitable for publication. As № 12, it should form the end of a cycle of trivia . During the revision, Beethoven overwritten the piano piece with molto grazioso . He moved the figures accompanying the A section in his left hand by a sixteenth to the right, relieving the beginning of the bar. In addition, he partially led the accompanying figure into a lower register and thus expanded the sound. In Part B, Beethoven returned to a melodically and rhythmically more complicated version, which was rejected in 1810. He did not leave the presumed overall structure of the piano piece completely untouched and inserted four previously unused bars as a transition to Part B. On the other hand, he crossed out four introductory measures noted in 1822 that go with the A section. In the instruction for the recapitulation of the last recurring part A, he wrote una corda , which can refer to this part itself or only to the newly designed, three-bar, probably chordal , but only notated ending. Beethoven did not produce a complete version as a result of the 1822 arrangement.

The relatively long creation process and its various stages (1808–1810 and 1822) show that Für Elise is not an occasional work, but rather that Beethoven himself saw it as a quite weighty composition.

Musical characteristics

The basic structure of the poco moto (Italian: slightly moved ) piano piece is made up of three periodic parts, which are loosened up and connected to one another with improvisational interludes and result in the rondo-like form A – B – A – C – A.

The A part in A minor, to be played pianissimo , has some peculiarities that raise it beyond a simple periodic. The chromatic prelude with its circling semitone step e '' - dis '' becomes a distinguishing feature of the piece through its playful expansion in the interlude, which also determines the other, differently designed interludes. The entanglement of the main melody with the chordal accompaniment is typical of a genuinely instrumentally invented piano setting in which it is not possible to differentiate reliably between melody and accompaniment. The metric ratios are also unclear at the beginning. The division of the sixteenth notes between the two hands of the player suggests a 6/16 time instead of 3/8 time. The 3-16th prelude formations, which frequently occur compared to the first draft, support the latent hemiolic effect.

Part B is connected with part A motivically by the three upward tones of the second voice and their countermovement in the lower voice. This is followed by a melody modulating from F major to C major and a part with 32nd notes that leads back from C major to the main key of A minor, which is also determined by the upward moving 3-16th motif with countermovement.

Part C has the effect of a coda due to its five-bar organ point, which, however, leads to the A minor of an interlude after a return to the key of the Neapolitan. This interlude in 16th note triplets, held continuously in the pedal, first brings the resolved tonic triad from A minor upwards three times pianissimo and then a chromatic scale downwards, which leads seamlessly into the opening figure of the final A section. Except in this interlude, pedal is only prescribed in main part A. Both also have the volume label pp .

Overall, the compositional handwriting is typical of the “middle Beethoven”, in whom a tendency towards the most varied of repetitive patterns in form and motifs can generally be recognized.

Theories about the recipient of the dedication

Ludwig Nohl , who was living in Munich at the time , discovered the piece in 1865 from the local teacher Barbara ("Babette") Bredl (1792–1880), mother of the pianist and composer Rudolph Schachner (1816–1896), friend of the family and heir to the music by Therese Malfatti . It had obviously got there via Schachner. Nohl made a copy of the autograph, which initially remained with Babette Bredl and soon went missing after Nohl's discovery. The copy contained a kind of power of attorney, which was printed in the first separate publication (1870): “I gave the above piano piece to Prof. Dr. Nohl had the original manuscript copied here from Beethoven's own handwritten manuscript and allowed him to use and publish it in any way. Munich July 14, 1865. Babeth Bredl. ”A short time later, a report about the find appeared in the specialist press.

In the commentary on the first publication from 1867, Nohl wrote that the piano piece was “not written for Therese [Malfatti]”, but that Beethoven's hand wrote: “For Elise on April 27 in memory of L. v. Bthvn ". He could not determine the identity of the dedicatee, which gave rise to research and speculation.

The musicologist Albrecht Riethmüller took the view that the riddle of the piece was not the dedication, but its success. Even with an unequivocal proof of the dedicatee, nothing has been gained for the piece and, above all, for its eminent effect, which is what matters musically and in terms of music history.

Therese Malfatti

Beethoven's spelling of the name “Therese” in his letter to Therese Malfatti from May 1810.

In 1923 the Beethoven researcher Max Unger doubted the title with the dedication, since in his opinion there was no woman named “Elise” in Beethoven's life at the time in question: “Anyone who knows the life of the master a little better, only two Beethoven friends of his first name come up Elise ein: The musical daughter of the Bremen cathedral choirmaster Wilhelm Christian Müller , who has been actively involved in Beethoven's piano works in her home country since 1807, and Elise von der Recke . But neither of them comes into consideration: The friend Tiedges only met the sound poet in Teplitz in 1811 , and Elise Müller's relationship with the sound poet dates from an even later time. ”From this, Unger concluded that Nohl transcribed the name on the autograph incorrectly and the piece was actually dedicated to “For Therese”. Beethoven intended to marry Therese Malfatti in 1810. However, the marriage did not take place. Therese Malfatti actually had the autograph for a long time. Nohl, who discovered the piece, had already expressly stated that it was "not written for Therese".

Elisabeth Röckel

Beethoven's spelling of the name “Elisa” in his letter to Elisa von der Recke of October 11, 1811. The dedication “For Elise” in Beethoven's handwriting could have looked similar.
Main theme with the highlighted name E -li- S - E .
Anna Milder-Hauptmann , letter to "Elise Hummel" geb. Röckel, 1830 (excerpt) - Düsseldorf, Goethe Museum

The musicologist Klaus Martin Kopitz put forward a second thesis on the recipient of the dedication in 2010 and added further aspects to it in 2015. He pointed out that there was definitely a woman named "Elise" in Beethoven's life: the 17-year-old singer Elisabeth Röckel , who came from Neunburg vorm Wald and with whom he was close friends from 1808 to 1814. In 1813 she became the wife of Johann Nepomuk Hummel . Kopitz says:

  • It is unlikely that a proven Beethoven researcher like Nohl inadvertently deciphered a name like “Therese” as “Elise”, especially since he emphasized that the piece was “not written for Therese”. Using samples from Beethoven's handwriting, it can be shown that it is practically impossible to confuse the two names. Jürgen May also made this clear in 2014.
  • Johannes Quack thought he had discovered that Beethoven formed the initial motif from the three tone letters of the name E -LI- S - E , exchanging the S (E ♭ ) enharmonically for D ♯ . This also indicates that the dedication “Für Elise” is correct.
  • Elisabeth Röckel, who was originally baptized “Maria Eva” and later called herself “Elisabeth” after her mother, was obviously also known under the fashion name of the time “Elise”. This is proven by a letter from her friend, the singer Anna Milder-Hauptmann , who was also close friends with Beethoven during the period in question. In the conscription sheet of the Theater an der Wien , where Elisabeth lived in the official apartment of her brother Joseph August Röckel , she was named “Elis. [!] Rökel ”. In 1814, when her son Eduard was baptized, she was registered as "Maria Eva Elise".
  • Several contemporaries state that the composer even wanted to marry the singer, and “that Beethoven found his rejection by Elisabeth Röckel difficult”, as a necrology (1883) says. When she visited him again shortly before his death, however, his secretary Anton Schindler found out from her, “what deep roots her former love for Beeth was. beaten u still live in her. "
  • In April 1810 she decided to take an engagement at the theater in Bamberg , so that the album sheet could actually have been created “as a reminder” for her.
  • Later she may have borrowed the album sheet from Therese Malfatti, which would explain why it ended up in her estate.

In 2011 , the Viennese musicologist Michael Lorenz doubted that Elisabeth Röckel called herself “Elise” and could therefore have been the recipient of the dedication in an essay expanded by a postscript from 2013 in which he examined some Viennese archive sources and found that Elisabeth Röckel was only able to use the Baptism of their first son was called "Elise". In an official copy of the baptismal register, however, it is said to be “Mar. Eva Elisabeth ”. When she married Hummel (1813) she was listed as “Maria Eva”, and she also signed a letter to the Vienna Tonkünstler Society (1837). After the death of her father (1827) she appears in the “Sperr-Relation” of the Viennese magistrate as “Elisabeth bew. Hummel ", after the death of her mother (1840) as" Eva ". She signed a letter as "Betty" (short for "Elisabeth") (1817). As Lorenz also notes, "in the Vienna of Vormärz there was no longer any distinction between the names Elisabeth and Elise, they were interchangeable and virtually identical," but a first name and the acquaintance with Beethoven are not sufficient for identification as Beethoven's Elise ; rather, the identification of the person with their direct connection to the lost autograph stand or fall.

An important objection to the thesis that Elisabeth Röckel was Beethoven's Elise is that Klaus Martin Kopitz cannot conclusively explain how the autograph of Elisabeth Hummel's album sheet is said to have got to Babette Bredl in Munich.

Juliane Katharine Elisabet Barensfeld

The Canadian music researcher Rita Steblin put forward a third thesis in 2012 , according to which the singer Juliane Katharine Elisabet Barensfeld from Regensburg could have been the recipient of the dedication. However, it cannot be proven that she was one of the composer's circle of friends.

Elise Schachner

In 2013 Michael Lorenz presented a fourth thesis, which Jürgen May also considers conceivable. According to this, the later owner Rudolph Schachner could have made the dedication - for his wife Elise (née Wendling) or his daughter, who was also called Elise. However, this is contradicted by the fact that Ludwig Nohl expressly stated that the entire addition, including the dedication on the autograph, came “by Beethoven's hand”.

Expenses (selection)

  • In 1867 Ludwig Nohl published the "very graceful piano piece" for the first time in his book Neue Briefe Beethoven . He stated that he had Beethoven's autograph as a model. Differences to BH 116 are probably due to the missing autograph. This includes, for example, in bar 7, in the right hand, the second note e '; on the other hand, d 'can be found at the parallel passages in bars 21, 44, 58, 88 and 102. That Nohl stayed close to the original can be seen in the scales, the beaming, the accidental setting and the inconsistency of articulation and pedaling, as well as in the Recognize incomplete dynamic names.
  • In 1870, the year of Beethoven's 100th birthday, the piece was published separately for the first time under the title Für Elise by the Leipzig publisher CF Kahnt. The edition contains the reprint of the aforementioned power of attorney from Babette Bredl.
  • In 1888, Nohl's musical text, critically questioned and changed in minor details, was included in the supplementary volume of the Complete Edition of Beethoven's works as a piano piece in A minor .
  • From around 1890 there followed editions by various publishers and editors, most of which were practically oriented. Nohl's musical text or the musical text of the complete edition was prepared with instructions for metronomisation , dynamics , articulation , phrasing , a fingering and an alignment of parallel passages. As a result of these editions, the piano piece became generally known as Für Elise or sometimes album sheet for Elise .
  • In 1976 Otto von Irmer published an Urtext edition in which he was guided by BH 116 and therefore did not use numerous pedal information from earlier editions, for example. In bar 7 and in all bars corresponding to it, he chose the tone d 'for the melody of the right hand from BH 116 instead of the e' in Nohl. Irmer's edition also meets practical requirements through added fingerings
  • In 1991, Barry Cooper also created a version based on BH 116. He used the transition to Part B (Ü1) provided by Beethoven in 1822 and separated Part C into two separate parts by inserting Part A in between and Beethoven's into BH 116 , Page 1, discarded bars used as a further transition (Ü2). Cooper himself referred to the three-part A as ABA and came up with the following form: ABA – Ü1 – C – ABA – D – Ü2 – ABA – E – ABA – final bars.
  • In 2002 Sieghard Brandenburg provided his critical edition with the facsimile of the BH 116 manuscript, a sketch transcription and a commentary. Its shape corresponds to that of Nohl's first edition.

Recordings

Arrangements in pop music

  • Caterina Valente & Silvio Francesco : Red roses will bloom (1959)
  • Shocking Blue , Broken Heart (on the Attila album , 1972)
  • Accept : Metal Heart , Part of Solo (1985)
  • Nas : I Can , rap version (on God's Son album , 2002)
  • Tenacious D : Classico (on the album The Pick of Destiny , 2006). There is an official cartoon-style video clip for this almost one minute long rock piece for vocals and acoustic guitar.
  • Saint Motel : For Elise , (on the album Saintmotelevision , 2016), short quote from the topic head.
  • Cherry Bullet (체리 블렛): Hands Up (무릎 을 탁 치고) , (1st digital single 2020), use of the theme header .
  • 1Satzleiter: Für Elise (on the album Escalation , 2020)

Use as film music

literature

  • Ludwig Nohl: Beethoven's New Letters . Stuttgart 1867, pp. 28–33 (first print, also the only source of the complete version) ( digitized in the Google book search).
  • Gustav Nottebohm : A Bagatelle in A minor . In: ders .: Second Beethoveniana. Postponed essays . Leipzig 1887, p. 526 f. ( Digitized version )
  • Max Unger: Beethoven's piano piece “Für Elise” . In: Die Musik , vol. 15.1 (February 1923), pp. 334–340.
  • Max Unger: Beethoven and Therese Malfatti . In: The Musical quarterly , vol. 11 (1925), pp. 63-72.
  • Alan Tyson : A Reconstruction of the Pastoral Symphony Sketchbook . In: Beethoven Studies , Volume 1, London 1974, pp. 67–96.
  • Barry Cooper: Beethoven's Revisions to 'Für Elise' . In: The Musical Times , Vol. 125 (1984), pp. 561-563.
  • Albrecht Riethmüller : For Elise WoO 59 . In: Albrecht Riethmüller, Carl Dahlhaus , Alexander L. Ringer (Eds.): Beethoven. Interpretations of his works . Volume 2. 2nd edition. Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 1996, pp. 437-440.
  • Michael Lorenz: Baroness Droßdik and the "mixed nightingales" . In: Schubert durch die Brille , vol. 26 (2001), p. 80.
  • Sieghard Brandenburg (Ed.): Ludwig van Beethoven, piano piece in A minor WoO 59 “For Elise”. Critical edition with facsimile of the manuscript BH 116, sketch transcription and commentary. Bonn 2002, ISBN 3-88188-074-7 .
  • Claus Raab : For Elise . In: Heinz von Loesch , Claus Raab (ed.): The Beethoven Lexicon . (= Albrecht Riethmüller (Ed.): Das Beethoven-Handbuch . Volume 6) Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2008, p. 274 f.
  • Peter Wicke : “For Elise” in pop music . In: Heinz von Loesch, Claus Raab (ed.): The Beethoven Lexicon . (= Albrecht Riethmüller (Ed.): Das Beethoven-Handbuch . Volume 6) Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2008, p. 275 f.
  • Luca Chiantore: Beethoven al piano: improvisación, composición e investigación sonora en sus ejercicios técnicos . Nortesur Musikeon, Barcelona 2010, ISBN 978-84-937357-6-0 , pp. 333-360.
  • Klaus Martin Kopitz: Beethoven, Elisabeth Röckel and the album sheet “Für Elise” . Dohr, Cologne 2010, ISBN 978-3-936655-87-2 .
  • Michael Lorenz: The "Unmasked Elise". Elisabeth Röckel's short career as Beethoven's “Elise” . In: Bonner Beethoven Studies , Volume 9 (2011), pp. 169–190 (article online) .
  • René Michaelsen: "The next customer advisor will be available for you in a moment" - The multiple meanings of "For Elise" (WoO 59). In: Hartmut Hein, Wolfram Steinbeck (eds.): Beethoven's piano works. (= Albrecht Riethmüller (Ed.): Das Beethoven-Handbuch. Volume 2) Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2012, pp. 557–559.
  • Michael Lorenz: Maria Eva Hummel. A Postscript . Vienna 2013.
  • Michael Lorenz: A Letter to the Editor of The Musical Times . Vienna, 2014.
  • Rita Steblin: Who was Beethoven's “Elise”? A new solution to the mystery . In: The Musical Times , vol. 155, no. 1927 (summer 2014), pp. 3–39
  • Jürgen May: A bagatelle and other little things. On the transmission of Beethoven's WoO 59 in the context of the Beethoveniana from the possession of Therese von Drosdick . In: Bonner Beethoven Studies , Volume 11 (2014), pp. 141–163
  • Klaus Martin Kopitz: Beethoven's "Elise" Elisabeth Röckel. New aspects of the origin and transmission of the piano piece WoO 59. In: Die Tonkunst , Vol. 9, No. 1 from January 2015, pp. 48–57. Essay online as PDF (543 kB) .
  • Michael Lorenz: Letter to the editor of the magazine Die Tonkunst . Vienna 2016

Web links

Commons : For Elise  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Nohl (1867), p. 28 (footnote)
  2. ↑ Brandenburg (2002), p. 8
  3. ↑ Tyson (1974), p. 95
  4. ↑ a b Brandenburg (2002), p. 12
  5. ↑ Brandenburg (2002), p. 14
  6. ^ Digital archive in the Beethovenhaus Bonn, BH 116. Accessed on November 1, 2009
  7. ↑ Nohl (1867), pp. 28–33
  8. ↑ Brandenburg (2002), pp. 8 and 15
  9. ↑ Brandenburg (2002), p. 9 f. and 15 f., also footnote 15; see also BH 116, page 1, bottom right
  10. ↑ Brandenburg (2002), pp. 10 and 15
  11. ↑ Brandenburg (2002), p. 15 f. and Cooper (1984)
  12. ↑ The whole chapter Musical Marks according to Riethmüller (1996), pp. 437–439.
  13. ↑ On her biography cf. May (2014), pp. 146–149 and Kopitz (2015), pp. 55 f.
  14. ↑ Lorenz, Baronin Droßdik… (2001), p. 80; Testament in transcription by Lorenz, Studies on the Schubert Circle (2001), Appendix
  15. ^ Digitized copy of the impression on the last page of music below
  16. ^ Reviews and communications on theater and music , vol. 11, no. 31 of August 5, 1865, p. 495 ( digitized version ); Reprinted in Kopitz (2010), p. 45
  17. ↑ Riethmüller (1996), p. 440.
  18. ↑ Unger (1923), pp. 334-340, here p. 335
  19. ↑ Unger (1925), p. 70
  20. ↑ Alexander Wheelock Thayer , Ludwig van Beethovens Leben , edited in German by Hermann Deiters, revised by Hugo Riemann , Volume 2. Leipzig 1922, p. 322
  21. ↑ Nohl (1867), p. 45.
  22. ↑ May (2014), p. 142 f.
  23. ↑ In detail, with similar examples, see Kopitz (2010), pp. 50–52.
  24. ↑ Kopitz (2015), p. 52 f.
  25. ↑ Kopitz (2015), p. 52
  26. ↑ Kopitz (2015), pp. 51 and 55
  27. ↑ Kopitz (2015), p. 53
  28. ↑ Kopitz (2015), p. 56
  29. ↑ a b Michael Lorenz: Maria Eva Hummel. A Postscript , Vienna 2013.
  30. ↑ a b Lorenz (2011)
  31. ↑ Photocopy in the online version by Lorenz (2011)
  32. ↑ Photocopy of the signature in the online version by Lorenz (2011)
  33. ↑ Kopitz (2010), p. 35
  34. ↑ Lorenz (2011), p. 177
  35. ↑ Steblin (2014)
  36. ↑ Michael Lorenz : Maria Eva Hummel. A Postscript (Vienna 2013)
  37. ↑ May (2014), p. 160 f.
  38. ↑ See illustration of the beginning of Für Elise with Nohl's note in the head of this article
  39. ↑ Nohl (1867), pp. 28–33
  40. ↑ Publisher's announcement, in: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik , Volume 66, No. 49 of December 2, 1870, p. 216 ( digitized version )
  41. ↑ Digitized version of the first edition (printed music from the Bavarian State Library)
  42. ↑ Ludwig van Beethoven's works , series 25, supplement. Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig 1888
  43. ↑ Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano piece “For Elise”. After the first print and sketches for own writing, ed. Otto von Irmer, G. Henle, Munich 1976
  44. ↑ Ludwig van Beethoven: Three Bagatelles . Novello, London 1991
  45. ^ Brandenburg (2002)