Hess 254 – “Hol dich der Teufel!”.

Canon Fragment in G Major for Ignaz Schuppanzigh (1801) This humorous and sharply worded musical fragment was composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1801 as a jest directed at his friend and violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh, known for his jovial personality and close association with Beethoven’s chamber music.

Manuscript and Publication History: The autograph is preserved at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, catalogued as BH 61. It appears at the end of the last page of the manuscript for Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in D Major, Op. 28. First published in 1930 in Veröffentlichungen des Beethovenhauses, Volume VI, Table VII, with facsimile and translation by Schiedermair. Later printed in: Mac-Ardle–Misch, Letters (1956), p. 26. Willy Hess, Supplement zur Gesamtausgabe, Vol. V (1962), p. 96 (erroneously cited as p. 93).

Musical Structure and Style: The fragment is extremely short, only 2½ bars long. It begins with a proposta (initial voice), followed by the beginning of the riposta (answering voice), which features chromatic counterpoint. The riposta enters on the dominant, suggesting Beethoven may have intended a fugato or a canon at the fifth. However, the sketch breaks off abruptly, making it impossible to reconstruct a complete version without speculative additions. Musicologist Albert Willem Holsbergen created a four-part round based on the fragment, preserving its humorous and slightly “demonic” chromatic flavor.

Context and Humor: The phrase “Hol dich der Teufel!” translates to “May the devil take you!”, a playful insult likely aimed at Schuppanzigh in jest. Beethoven reused similar wording in 1819 in another humorous canon for the publisher Steiner. The theme bears resemblance to the finale of the Piano Sonata Op. 27 No. 1, suggesting Beethoven may have been riffing on familiar musical ideas in a comic setting.

Provenance: The manuscript passed through several hands:

• Heinrich Steger (Vienna)
• Edmund Schebeck (Prague)
• Adalbert Ritter von Zanna
• Johann Nepomuk Kafka (Vienna)
• Carl Haslinger, Tobias Haslinger, Sigmund Anton Steiner (Vienna)
• Kunst- und Industriekontor (Vienna)

This lineage is documented in Brandenburg’s essay “Die Beethovens Autograph JN Kafka” in Beethoven Studien, Bonn, 1981.