WoO 135 Die laute Klage: Turteltaube, du klagest so laut, for Voice and Piano
Andante sostenuto
WoO 135 – “Die laute Klage”: “Turteltaube, du klagest so laut” for voice and piano, c. 1809, published Vienna, Diabelli, April 1837. GA. 254 (series 23/41) – Boett. IX/1 – B. 255 – KH. (WoO)135 – L. IV, p. 358/2 – N. p. 186 – T. 271.
Two original manuscripts exist: the first, in a sketch very close to the final one, at the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin; the second, a fair copy, at the Friends of Music in Vienna. Text by Herder. The music responds to the romantic sadness of the text and is expressively refined in its simplicity.
Turteltaube, du klagest so laut
Und raubest dem Armen seinen einzigen Trost,
Süßen vergessenden Schlaf.
Turteltaub’, ich jammre wie du,
Und berge den Jammer in’s verwundete Herz,
In die verschlossene Brust.
Ach, die hart verteilende Liebe!
Sie gab dir die laute Jammerklage zum Trost,
Mir den verstummenden Gram!
[By Biamonti Giovanni – Catalogo cronologico e tematico delle opere di Beethoven comprese quelle inedite e gli abbozzi non utilizzati, Torino, ILTE 1968]
Official title: WoO 135 Die laute Klage Lied (c-moll) nach einem Gedicht von Johann Gottfried Herder für Singstimme und Klavier Widmung: — NGA XII/1 Nr. 89, 107 AGA 254 = Serie 23/41
Origin and publication: The song was probably sketched at the beginning of 1814. The two surviving fair copies were made in quick succession, most likely at the end of 1814 or in the spring of 1815. The first edition was published posthumously in April 1837 by Diabelli & Co. in Vienna. Beethoven wrote the sketches, which cannot be clearly dated, on a type of paper he mainly used in the spring of 1814. According to Sieghard Brandenburg, the two autograph copies were probably written around the same time that op. 94 was sketched. The second copy became necessary because of the numerous corrections and revisions that had been added to the first.
Even the second copy should not be regarded as a print-ready model. It apparently came from the “Beethoven estate” to Diabelli, who published the song together with WoO 118 in 1837. This edition is preceded by a one-and-a-half-bar prelude, which is not included in the original and therefore omitted from the NGA XII/1. It is, however, reproduced in the AGA. Text: Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), from Herder’s collection „Zerstreute Blätter“, Vol. 4, Gotha 1792, Chapter I „Blumen, aus Morgenländischen Dichtern gesammlet“. Beethoven noted „Die laute Klage“ and four other poems on a single sheet. First performance unknown.
The sketches will be featured in an article specially created for the Beethovenian Music Research Center, www.lvbeethoven.org
