WoO 167 – Brauchle–Linke, Canon in C major | Beethoven Music Research Center www.lvbeethoven.org

WoO 167 Brauchle – Linke, Canon

WoO 167 Brauchle – Linke, a canon for the amateur composer F. S. Brauchle and the cellist J. Linke, summer 1815, first published in the Thayer catalogue and, in modern times, by Willy Hess in the fifth fascicle of the Supplemente zur GA, 1962. Hess 249 – KH (WoO) 165 – Thayer 263 (page 196).

Official title: WoO 167 Brauchle, Linke Kanon (C-dur) nach einem eigenen Text Widmung: – NGAXII/2 AGA- SBG V/31 (2. Auflage: 33; Hess 249)

Origin and publication: an exact determination of the date of origin is not possible; the mention of Joseph Xaver Brauchle and Joseph Linke points to the year 1815. The first edition appeared posthumously in 1865 in the chronological list by Alexander W. Thayer (see Header).

Joseph Xaver Brauchle (1783–1838) was an educator, music teacher, composer, tutor, and secretary to Anna Maria Countess Erdödy (see also Op. 70, regarding the dedication). In 1815 in particular, Beethoven maintained an intense correspondence with him and with the countess. The cellist and composer Joseph Linke (1783–1837) was a member of the Rasumowsky Quartet and, from 1823 onwards, a member of the Schuppanzigh Quartet. He spent the summer of 1815 with Countess Erdödy at her estate in Jedlesee, and in early 1816 went with her to Paucovec Castle in Croatia. In the spring of 1815 Beethoven approached Linke with technical questions about a cello composition (BGA 800), possibly concerning the Op. 102 sonatas, which were written in 1815 and perhaps intended for him. In the one-line autograph notation, entries are marked at bars 1 and 5. Indeed, the canon may also be performed in four parts (Klein/Kanons p. 14, SBGV/31). No documented sketches. Autograph: D-B, Mus. SM. autogr. Beethoven Landsberg 3. Eight bars; on the last three staves there appears a non-autograph melody in D major.

Title: upper right: “Canon v. Beethoven”. Format: one leaf; text on the recto, verso blank. Paper: vertical format, 19 × 13 cm, 10 staves. Provenance: Ludwig Landsberg – acquired in 1862. Facsimile: SBB. Description: Bartlitz/Catalogue p. 41. First edition 1865: “Canon v. Beethoven”, in Thayer/1865, p. 196, addendum to no. 263.

WoO 167 Vierstimmiger Kanon Brauchle linke

Landsberg 3 (Schizzo)

Landsberg 3 was probably once part of a Taschenbuch—one of those pocket notebooks that Beethoven used to carry with him on his walks, in which he jotted down musical ideas—but in fact it contains only a single leaf in vertical format with just ten staves, the lines drawn by hand with a five-point pen.

On the first page (recto) we find the Canon, written in ink in a neat hand and without erasures (a few corrections were added later in pencil). Alongside the Canon, on the last three staves, there is a melody in D major, likewise in 2/4 and also written in ink in a neat hand without erasures. The second page (verso) is blank.

According to R. Klein “Joseph Xaver Brauchle, als Erzieher (“Magister”) der Kinder der Gräfin Erdödy eine Standesperson, betätigte sich auch als Komponist; Joseph Linke seinerseits war als Cellist Berufsmusiker und gehörte dem Privatquartett des Fürsten Rasumowsky an, als dessen Palais in der Silvernacht 1814 abbrannte, wurde er zwar nicht brotlos, da der Fürst den Mitgliedern seines Quartetts eine lebenslängliche Pension aussetzte, fand aber nunmehr in der Appartements der Gräfin – in der Krugerstraße – logiert hatte und ihr trotz eines Streites, der ihn zum Ausziehen bewog, in Freundschaft verbunden bleib, hatte speziell in Sommer 1815 wieder enge Beziehungen zu ihr und ihrem Personal. Die Gräfin wohnte damals in ihrem Sommerhaus in Jedlesee, das heute noch zum Teil erhalten ist (XXI. Jeneweingasse 17). Der in einem Berliner Autograph erhaltene Kanon über die Namen ihrer Angestellten ist mit dem Ort und der Zeit in Zusammenhang zu bringen.
Der Kanon weist im Original nur zwei Einsatzzeichen (Takt 1 und 5) auf, ist aber ohne weiteres vierstimmig korrekt auszuführen.”

This canon has also been included in the Hess catalogue as Hess 249 and in the Biamonti catalogue as Biamonti 610.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rudolf Klein, Beethoven: Sämtliche Kanons.

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