Opus 32 An die Hoffnung, Die du so gern – for Voice and Piano
Opus 32 – An die Hoffnung, Die du so gern – for voice and piano, Op. 32, March 1805, published in Vienna by Kunst und Industrie Comptoir, September 1805. GA. no. 215 (Series 23/1) – B. 32 – KH. 32 – L. IV, p. 322 – N. 32 – T. 123.
The original manuscript is lost. Sketches of the work are to be found in the Fidelio sketchbook. This is a short song written for Countess Josephine Brunsvik, widow of Deym, for whom Beethoven had begun to develop feelings of love—feelings which, over the following two years, would grow into an emotional attachment seemingly oriented, as in the earlier case of Giulietta Guicciardi, toward marriage. This aspiration, too, was ultimately doomed to failure. Nevertheless, the printed edition carries no dedication.
The text is taken from Christian A. Tiedge’s poem Urania (1801), Book I: Klage des Zweiflers (“Lament of the Doubter”), verses 168–185. The music does not lack moments of effective illumination of phrases and individual words. Notably, the transition into C major with “O Hoffnung! Lass durch dich emporgehoben” is immediately tinged with melancholy through the descent from E natural to E flat at the words “den Dulder ahnen,” and in the subsequent harmonic modulations.
In 1815, Beethoven would return to this same text in Op. 94, this time adding at the beginning the questioning stanza “Ob ein Gott sei?” and elaborating the setting in broader and more intricate musical forms, giving each stanza a distinct musical interpretation.
[By Biamonti Giovanni – Catalogo cronologico e tematico delle opere di Beethoven comprese quelle inedite e gli abbozzi non utilizzati, Torino, ILTE 1968]
Official title: „Opus 32“ An die Hoffnung Lied nach einem Gedicht von Christoph August Tiedge für Singstimme und Klavier Widmung: — NGA XII/1 Nr. 28 AGA 215 = Serie 23/1
Origin and Publication: The Lied was most likely composed in February or March of 1805. The original edition was published in September of the same year by the Kunst- und Industrie-Comptoir in Vienna. On 24 March 1805, Countess Josephine Deym (1779–1821) reported to her mother, Anna Brunsvik (1752–1850): „Der gute Beethoven hat mir ein hübsches Lied, das er auf einen Text aus der Urania ,an die Hoffnung für mich geschrieben, zum Geschenk gemacht“* (La Mara/Brunsvik, p. 59). A song by Beethoven appears in the Brunsvik siblings’ correspondence as early as January 1805; however, as neither the title nor the incipit is mentioned, it is not possible to determine with certainty whether this refers to Op. 32 or, as Helga Lühning suggests, to the first version of the Lied WoO 136 (Lühning/NGA XII/1 KB, p. 29; see also BGA 216).
Joseph Schmidt-Görg has hypothesised that the Lied Op. 32 may have been a New Year’s gift to Josephine Deym (Schmidt-Görg/Deym). If this were the case, „wäre dann Josephines Mitteilung an die Mutter vom 24.3.1805 sinnlos, denn diese hätte das Lied, das die bei ihr lebende Tochter Therese seit dem 17.1.1805 in Abschrift besaß und mehrfach aufgeführt hat, längst kennen müssen“? (BGA 216, note 1). What is certain is that in 1805 Josephine Deym did in fact possess two Beethoven songs in manuscript form (BGA 221 and 225). In a letter dated 7 March 1806, Charlotte Teleki (1782–1843) wrote to Josephine and Therese Brunsvik, explicitly mentioning both the title and the opening lines of the songs, which appear to refer to Op. 32 and WoO 136: “J’ai bien une autre grâce à vous demander — ce sont les deux airs an den Hoffnung und ich denke dein, imagine toi que je les ai presque entièrement oubliés, je pourrais pleurer pour cette perte: je les aimais tant; je serais charmée si tu voulais être si bonne de me les faire copier” (Goldschmidt/Brunsvik, p. 124).
The sketches do not provide any concrete evidence for establishing a definitive date.
Text: Christoph August Tiedge (1752–1841), Urania. Ein lyrisch-didaktisches Gedicht, Halle 1801. The text comprises three stanzas from the first song, Klagen des Verzweiflers. Beethoven made use of the second edition (Halle 1803), in which the author had substantially revised the poem. The title Lied an die Hoffnung derives from the table of contents in Tiedge’s publication. Beethoven returned to and reworked the text in the spring of 1815 (see Op. 94).
Dedication: The original printed edition bears no dedication. Despite Josephine Deym’s statement that the song was “für mich geschrieben”, there exists no official dedication.
This song belongs to Beethoven’s minor works which were not published with an opus number that could be considered authorised or definitive. In such cases, publishers often assigned numbers based on internal or adopted cataloguing systems. The number 32, assigned by the Kunst- und Industrie-Comptoir, forms part of a sequence—only partially reconstructable—alongside variations, piano pieces, and Lieder. Most subsequent editions retained the number 32. The designation Op. 32 was officially established in Artaria’s Catalogue des Oeuvres, Op. 106 (1819), and later became standard in various published editions.
The first performance likely took place in March 1805 at the residence of Countess Josephine Deym, within a private circle.
The sketches will be featured in an article specially created for the Beethovenian Music Research Center, www.lvbeethoven.org
Ob ein Gott sei? Ob er einst erfülle,
Was die Sehnsucht weinend sich verspricht?
Ob, vor irgendeinem Weltgericht,
Sich dies rätselhafte Sein enthülle?
Hoffen soll der Mensch! Er frage nicht!
Die du so gern in heil’gen Nächten feierst
Und sanft und weich den Gram verschleierst,
Der eine zarte Seele quält,
O Hoffnung! Laß, durch dich empor gehoben,
Den Dulder ahnen, daß dort oben
Ein Engel seine Tränen zählt!
Wenn, längst verhallt, geliebte Stimmen schweigen;
Wenn unter ausgestorb’nen Zweigen
Verödet die Erinn’rung sitzt:
Dann nahe dich, wo dein Verlaßner trauert
Und, von der Mitternacht umschauert,
Sich auf versunk’ne Urnen stützt.
Und blickt er auf, das Schicksal anzuklagen,
Wenn scheidend über seinen Tagen
Die letzten Strahlen untergehn:
Dann laß’ ihn um den Rand des Erdentraumes
Das Leuchten eines Wolkensaumes
