Official title: Opus 107 Variationen über Volkslieder für Klavier und Querflöte oder Violine ad libitum Widmung: — NGAV/4 AGA 115-119 = Serie 14/4-8

Composition and publication: Beethoven composed seven of these ten variations between July and November 1818. Numbers 6 and 7 were written later at the request of George Thomson at the beginning of 1819, and No. 3 in April/May of the same year. The original English edition of Nos. 2, 6 and 7 (together with the Variations Op. 105) was published in score in July 1819 by Thomas Preston in London and George Thomson in Edinburgh. The original German edition of Nos. 1–10 followed, in part, in August/September 1820 by Simrock in Bonn and Cologne. On 28 December 1818, Thomson confirmed that he had received twelve pieces (Op. 107 Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5 and 8–10, and five pieces from Op. 105) which he intended to publish in England (see Op. 105). However, the publisher rejected three of these pieces (Op. 107 Nos. 1, 8 and 10) (BGA 1275, 1283); Beethoven replaced them with Op. 105 No. 3 and Op. 107 Nos. 6 and 7.

Thomson also rejected Op. 107 No. 3 and requested two new variations to replace No. 8, initially rejected, in order to return to the intended total of twelve pieces (and to the six numbers of Op. 105). Beethoven also granted this request. Thomson wished to publish twelve sets of variations with Preston in four volumes of three pieces each. However, he discontinued publication after the third volume, whose contents (Op. 107 Nos. 2, 6, 7) had been entered at Stationers’ Hall on 25 July 1819. Since he had requested and received replacements for four pieces he disliked, he ended up with a total of sixteen works that could be distributed on the Continent. Six of them, corresponding to Thomson’s first and second volumes, were published by Artaria in Vienna as Op. 105. Beethoven offered eight of the remaining ten pieces in March 1820 to Simrock in Bonn (BGA 1365, 1370, 1372), Maurice Schlesinger in Paris (BGA 1374), and Diabelli in Vienna (BKh 1 p. 333). In the end, Simrock published all ten pieces, although Beethoven had given the publisher the option “ein oder das andere Thema welches ihnen vielleicht nicht so gefällt oder zweckmäßig scheint gegen eins von der Überzahl vertauschen zu können” (BGA 1384, 1392). The Simrock manuscripts served as the model, not the original English edition, which in any case contained only three of the pieces. The opus number was either not supplied by Beethoven despite the announcement (BGA 14001) or reached the publisher too late (see BGA 1403 of 5 August 1820).

The absence of the opus number and the rest of the correspondence with Simrock suggest that the edition was completed in August 1820 and appeared at Michaelmas (late September).

Themes:

Number 1: “Teppichkrämerlied”, taken from the Singspiel “Der Körbel (or Körbchen)flechter an der Zauberquelle” by Friedrich Satzenhofen; see WoO 158 No. 5.

Number 2: “Bonny laddie, highland laddie”, Scottish folk song; see Op. 108 No. 7.

Number 3: Not identified, described in the original edition as “Air de la Petite Russie” (i.e. of Ukrainian origin), initially referred to by Beethoven in the engraving as “italienne”, then as “Ecossais” (for him equivalent to Scottish, Irish, or Welsh), and later corrected (BGA 1384).

Number 4: “The pulse of an Irishman ever beats quicker”, Irish folk song; see WoO 153 No. 46.

Number 5: “A Madel, ja a Madel”, Tyrolean song; see WoO 158 No. 6.

Number 6: “Merch Megan”, Welsh folk song; see WoO 155 No. 11.

Number 7: Air cosaque, probably of Ukrainian origin; see WoO 158 No. 16.

Number 8: “Oh Mary, at the window be”, Scottish folk song; see Op. 108 No. 17.

Number 9: “Oh! thou art the lad of my heart”, Scottish folk song; see Op. 108 No. 11.

Number 10: “The Highland Watch”, Scottish folk song; see Op. 108 No. 22.

First performance unknown.

The sketches will be featured in an article specially created for the Beethovenian Music Research Center, www.lvbeethoven.org