Hess 335 – Second Exercise for Archduke Rudolph

The Archduke’s music catalog contains the following description: “Aufgabe für S.K. Hoheit den Erzh. Rudolf vor der Abreise. Mödling, 11ten Sept. 1820.” (Exercise for His Royal Highness Archduke Rudolph before his departure. Mödling, September 11, 1820.)

Thayer catalogs the piece as No. 216 in his Chronological Catalogue, though he suspects—assuming a dating error—that it may correspond to his No. 75.

Carl Czerny claims that the song “Gedenke mein” [WoO 130] (GA, Series 25, No. 281) was the chosen aria for this exercise, and that it was published in the Gesamtausgabe with the note: “Evidently composed in Mödling on September 11, 1820.”

In reality, the piece was composed in 1804, so it remains to be determined what exactly Beethoven’s exercise for Archduke Rudolph in 1820 consisted of.

Barry Cooper, in C/C, p. 267, suggests that “Gedenke mein” was drafted in 1804–5(?), but not completed until 1819–20.

Gerhard Croll, in Die Musiksammlung des Erzherzogs Rudolph (Beethoven-Studien: Festgabe der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Hermann Böhlaus, Vienna, 1970, pp. 52–53), states that there is “no legitimate doubt”, based on the Archduke’s music collection catalog, that this is indeed the exercise assigned to Archduke Rudolph in Mödling in 1820.

The same piece is also cited in Kinsky/Halm under entries 592–593.