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Opus 71 Sextet in E flat major for 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons and 2 horns

I) Adagio – Allegro – II) Adagio – III) Menuetto quasi allegretto – IV) Finale – Allegro

Opus 71- Sextet in E flat major for 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons and 2 horns op. 71, 1796 (the first two periods composed perhaps earlier), published in detached parts in Leipzig, Breitkopf and Härtel, April 1810 (and not 1813, as it is erroneously written in the Thayer and Prod’homme catalogues); in the score in GA. GA. no. 61 (series 8/3) – B. 71 – L. III, p. 138 71 – No. 71 – P. 79 – T. 120 – KH 71.

Official title: “Opus 71” Sextet (E flat major) for two clarinets, bassoons and two horns each Dedication: – NGA VI/1 AGA 61 = Series 8/3

The original manuscript is lost. Sketches of the third and fourth movements are held in the Kafka collection at the British Museum in London, along with those of Sonata op. 49 no. 2 and the aria “Ah, perfido!”. Nottebohm mentions other sketches of the Finale, referring to those of Sonata op. 10. “The Sextet is one of my first compositions, and moreover, it was composed in a single night. All that can really be said about it is that it was written by an author who has produced some of the most beautiful works.” This is what Beethoven wrote in August 1809 to the publisher Breitkopf, proposing the publication of the Sextet. The extreme brevity of time used in the composition of the work should be understood in the sense that, within the space of a night or so, it was not properly “created” but merely put together from pre-existing material, as can also be inferred from the disparate sketches mentioned above. The clarinets, especially the first, play the leading role; the bassoons are less significant (except in the second movement, where the first bassoon divides and intertwines the melody, developments, and ornaments with the clarinet), and the horns are more subdued.

Creation and publication: The autograph score of the 3rd movement was transcribed in the spring of 1796 at the latest. Beethoven probably noted sketches in connection with a planned but not implemented extension of the 4th movement in the winter of 1796/97. The original edition in parts was published by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig in April 1810.

Beethoven’s direct information about Op. 71 dates back to 1809: „von meien Frühen sachen und noch dazu in einer Nacht geschrieben“ (BGA 395). In the copy of the parts reviewed by the composer, the Minuetto and Trio, which is also preserved as an autograph score, was added later. It may have been created separately or separated at an earlier moment from the rest of the autograph, which is now lost (Landon/ 3p71; Voss/ NGA VI/1 p. 342f). Based on the origin of the transcription, H. C. Robbins Landon suggested that the sextet was composed in 1796 for the Feldharmonie of Prince Esterházy: Fonte II; Landon/Op71). Armin Raab, on the other hand, pointed out that the work, like the octet op. 103, might have been written in an earlier version from Beethoven’s Bonn period for the local orchestra (Raab/Harmoniemusik, p. 124).

In July 1809, Beethoven asked Breitkopf & Härtel to send music by various composers for study and performance. As for payment, he only mentioned: „ich werde schon einige Entschädigung für sie auf eine Art veranstalten, daß sie zufrieden seyn sollen“ (BGA 392). On 3 August 1809, Breitkopf & Härtel announced Op. 71: „mit dem nächsten Postwagen erhalten sie ein oder noch ein anderes Lied und ein Sextett für Blasende Instrumente als eine künftige Entschädigung für die opera benevolentie, welche ich ihnen für mich auferlege“ (BGA 394). The work was proposed to Leipzig on 8 August: „Ich habe Bey Hr. Kunz und Kompagnie ein Sextett für 2 Clarinetti 2 fagotti 2 Hörn, 2 Deutsche Lieder oder Gesänge abgegeben, damk man ihnen diese bald möglichst übermache – sie bleiben ihnen als Gegengeschenke für alle diese Sachen, die ich mir als Geschenke von ihnen ausgebeten […] das Sextett ist von meinen Frühen sachen und noch dazu in einer Nacht geschrieben – man kann wircklich nichts anders dazu sagen, daß es von einem Autor geschrieben ist, der wenigstens einige bessere Werke, hervorgebracht -doch für manche Menschen sind d.G. werke die besten“ (BGA 395). The work remained without an owner until 19 February 1811 (BGA 486). According to the publisher’s printed books, the first edition of the sextet was completed in April 1810 and published in May 1810. A preview had already appeared in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung in January 1810 (AmZ 12, 1809/10, Intelligenzblatt 2, column 6, alongside the string sextet arrangement of Op. 68) and two months earlier, on 12 November 1809, in the Allgemeinen Anzeiger der Deutschen (repeated on 24 June 1810).

Information on the opus number: The opus number 71 first appears as a title in the four-hand piano arrangement by Xaver Gleichauf, Bonn, Simrock 1826/27. In the Hofmeister/Index of 1819, it is omitted; Artaria mentions, in a letter to Beethoven dated 24 July 1819, the number 71 in a list of skipped numbers (BGA 1317). In Artaria’s Catalogue des Oeuvres of 1819, the prelude in F minor WoO 55 is listed as Opus 71 and the present sextet as Op. 51; in the second edition of the catalogue in 1837, it appears both as Op. 51 (this number later became the number for the Two Rondos for piano Nos. 1 and 2) and also as Op. 71, which was then finalised but defined as “Sestetto pour 2 Violon, Alto, Vcllo, Contrabaß et Cors obl.”. In both the Hofmeister and Artaria lists, the key indicated is F major, an error likely due to the notation of the clarinets in B-flat.

First execution unknown.

The sextet was heard at a concert by the Schuppanzigh Quartet in April 1805 with Joseph Beer on clarinet (and other unknown musicians). In the magazine (AmZ 7, 1804/05. 15 May 1805, col. 535) we read: „Zuweilen werden wol auch grössere Stücke aufgeführt; unter diesen gefiel vorzüglich das schöne Beethovensche Sextett aus Es, eine Komposition, die durch schöne Melodien, einen ungezwungenen Harmoniefluss und einen Reichthum neuer und überraschender Ideen glänzt. Die Klarinette wurde dabey von Herrn Pär, in Diensten des fürstlich Lichtensteinschen Hauses, äusserst vollkommen vorgetragen.“

Sketches:

4th movement: GB-Lbl, Add. Sig.ra 29801 (“Kafka”), Bl. 103r. Date: Winter 1796/97 (Johnson/Fischhof vol. 1 p. 177f), facsimile and transcription: Kerman/Kafka.

2nd and 3rd movement, score: GB-Lbl, Add. Ms. 29801 (“Kafka”), pp. 104v-105r. Date: early 1796 or earlier (Johnson/Fischhof vol. 1 p. 101 f, 421).

Title: Title folio 104v “Menuetto quasi allegretto”, folio 105r “trio”. Extension: 2 pages of musical text. Paper: horizontal format, 23 x 32.5 cm, double-spaced.

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