DAILY DOSE of BEETHOVEN (November 13, 2020)
Beethoven has three main teachers. In previous posts, we talked about his relationship with Haydn (October 21, 22, 23, 2020) and Albrechtsberger (October 26, 2020). Beethoven’s third main teacher is Antonio Salieri. Beethoven asked for and presented to Salieri many vocal compositions, a great many of them Italian songs. On these pieces, Salieri showed Beethoven how to handle the verbal accents, expressions and rhythm. These lessons were valuable for Beethoven’s later works.
Ferdinand Ries (1784-1838), a German composer and friend to Beethoven, said the following about Beethoven’s relationship to his teachers:
“I knew them all well; all three valued Beethoven highly, but were also of one mind touching his habits of study. All of them said Beethoven was so headstrong and self-sufficient (selbstwollend) that he had to learn much through harsh experience which he had refused to accept when it was presented to him as a subject of study.”
While that might be true, Beethoven, who is always cost-conscience, thought enough of these three masters to pay for lessons with them.
Many of these early Italian studies are destroyed. But the later works survived. For example, Beethoven’s “24 Polyphonic Italian Songs”, WoO 99, are gorgeous. Here’s one of them “Fran Tuttle Le Pene”:
Some of the songs, such as his “La Partenza” (WoO 124), composed in 1795, could almost be by Mozart:
Others, such as his “In questa tomba oscura”, WoO 133, published in 1808, is more complex and better known. This particular song is the result of a musical challenge issued in 1807-1808, inviting composers to set music to a poem by Giuseppe Carpani (1752-1825), an Italian poet resident in Vienna.
In questa tomba oscura
Lasciami riposar;
Quando vivevo, ingrata,
Dovevi a me pensar.
(In this dark grave
Let me rest;
When I lived, ungrateful,
You should have thought of me.)
Sixty-three composers obliged, but Beethoven's setting is the most memorable and favoured version. We can hear the development of the song as it transitions from calm, slow chords to thunderous quaver-movement and back again. Here is a performance by the great baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and pianist Jörg Demus.