Hess 264 – “Te solo adoro”. Canon for 2 Voices in E-flat Major, 8 Measures, Unpublished

Both this piece and the one described under number 263 were found in sketch form, in Beethoven’s own hand, on page 8 of the trombone part of the Ninth Symphony. They are preserved in the Bodmer Collection, catalogued as Mh 28 by Unger. [The manuscript Mh 28, now re-catalogued as SBH 570, is housed at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn.]

Max Unger, in a letter to Donald W. MacArdle, emphasized: “I recognize only my deciphering of the one in E-flat major (N.B.: Both are in E-flat major – W.H.), which is to some extent a kind of preliminary study made before the currently known version. (GA, Series 25, No. 285/1.) Another attempt by Beethoven to set the same words to music is simply indecipherable. The music, written in pencil, has faded considerably and is almost illegible. In any case, the attempt seems to me a failure, because Beethoven does not appear to have found the right rhythm for the words here…”

It should be added that in March 1957, Max Unger acknowledged the two aforementioned canons and stated that he must have been thinking of another one—either a fourth version or, more likely, a third sketch from the Bodmer Collection at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn. This matter, therefore, still requires clarification.

[The piece is similar to—or may be an early version of—WoO 186. To be clear, there are at least three similar, yet distinct, versions of the text “Te solo adoro,” catalogued as WoO 186, Hess 263, and Hess 264. It is unclear to which of the three—or possibly to an unknown fourth—Unger was referring in his letter to MacArdle.] This version (Hess 264) was published by Hess in SBG, Volume V, 1962, p. 83.