Biamonti 259 – Minnlied, around 1800.

Biamonti 259 – Minnlied: “Der Holdseligen sonder Wank sing ich frölichen Minnesang” (To the most gracious, without hesitation, I sing a joyful love song), melody sketch for Voss’s Minnlied, around 1800. It is found in a manuscript that Nottebohm, Zweite Beethoveniana, page 574, attributes to a period before 1800. It is also written a second time in a different rhythmic notation, later crossed out. Next to it is the note: “Titel: liechte Lieder”.

News from the Beethovenian Musical Research Centre (December 2024):

In Zweite Beethoveniana (p. 574), Nottebohm writes: “Auf einem Handschrift nach der Zeit vor 1800 angehörenden Blatte steht eine Melodie zu Voss’ “Minnelied”. Beethoven schreibt die Melodie nochmals in anderer Taktart hin, streicht diese Fassung aber durch. Nebenan ist bemerkt: Titel – leichte Lieder” [“On a manuscript from before 1800, there is a melody for Voss’ “Minnelied”. Beethoven rewrites the melody in a different time signature, but crosses out this version. Next to it, it says: Title – Easy Songs.” So, Beethoven was thinking of a collection of such songs.”]

The manuscript is located in Vienna at the Friends of Music; it is called A64 and is catalogued by Douglas Johnson as belonging to the single sheets dating from around 1795-1799, alongside some sheets from the Kafka Skizzenbuch (56-57, 71-72, 126-128, 149, 158-159), two sheets from the Fishhoff-Skizzenbuch (sheets 41-42), Fogli BH 99 and NE 91, Grasnick 1 (sheet 41), and manuscript Add. 29997 from the British Museum (sheet 8). [Johnson, Tyson, Winter “The Beethoven sketchbooks”]

There are two articles about this song: one is the already mentioned article 63 from Zweite Beethoveniana by Gustav Nottebohm; the other is an article found in Der Merker, February 1913 issue, number 4 (pages 123-126). Both articles contain a transcription of the song, which differs in the final section. In the absence of the original, from which we could derive the correct version, we present both versions.

In the article from Der Merker, there are more detailed notes about the preparatory sketches for this song: “Das Wesentlichste, was es enthält, ist eine Melodie zum ‘Minnelied’ von Voß. Allem Anschein nach ist diese Melodie mit einemmal erstanden, fertig, wie sie dasteht. Ein bei Beethoven seltener Fall. Sie scheint in einer ruhigen Stunde, in einer friedlichen Stimmung aufgeschrieben zu sein, denn die Schrift lässt an Deutlichkeit nichts zu wünschen, es fehlen auch Schlüssel, Ton- und Taktart nicht.” [The most important thing contained in (sheet A64) is a melody for Voss’s ‘Minnelied’. Apparently, this melody was created all at once, finished as it is. A rare case for Beethoven. It seems to have been written in a calm moment, in a peaceful mood, because the handwriting is perfectly clear, and there is no lack of key, tonality, or time signature.]

Mandyczewski continues: “This first version has a friendly, intimate, familial expression and would have certainly been dear and precious to us. But the writer would not have been Beethoven if he had not immediately been dissatisfied with what he had written and not immediately modified it. With the same pen still in hand, you can see in the manuscript that he changes the rhythm of the melody […] This new melody is extraordinarily captivating; the movement is faster and more varied, the expression more intimate, more urgent. It surely pleased Beethoven more than the first draft, because he made several variants for the final verse of the last stanza; perhaps one or the other could have served as a continuation for the accompanying instrument. The last notes of the sketch, which certainly have an instrumental character, are surely meant for this. The clarity with which all this is written on the sketch sheet suggests that Beethoven did it with more affection than firmness, and it might be precisely the grace of the song, which fits so closely with the poet’s words, that drew Beethoven towards the idea of ‘easy songs’. In pencil, probably at a later time, he writes on the sheet: ‘Titel – Leichte Lieder’ and includes pieces by Klinger, Klopstock, etc.” […] But Beethoven reconsidered the title “Easy Songs” and therefore crossed out the more detailed sketch. It also seems that he thought about transposing the song to F major.