Opus 112 “Meeresstille und Glückliche Fahrt” for choir with orchestral accompaniment
I) Meeresstille: Poco sostenuto – II) Glückliche Fahrt : Allegro vivace
Opus 112 – Meeresstille und Glückliche Fahrt for choir with orchestral accompaniment, op. 112, on a text by Goethe and dedicated to him, late 1814–summer 1815, published in Vienna by Steiner, in full score, choral and orchestral parts, and reduction for voice and piano, February 1822. GA no. 209 (series 21/2) – B. 112 – KH. 112 – L. IV, p. 114 – N. 112 – T. 197.
Official title: Opus 112 Meeres Stille und Glückliche Fahrt (D-dur) nach Gedichten von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe für Chor und Orchester Widmung: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe NGA X/2 AGA 209 = Serie 2112
The original manuscript is unknown. Sketches are part of the Bodmer collection at the Beethovenhaus. Some are reported by Nottebohm.
Writing to Goethe on February 8, 1823 (about a year after sending the printed copy with the dedication), Beethoven said that the contrast expressed in the poetic text had seemed suitable to be conveyed through music as well, and he hoped that his harmonies would resonate with those of the poet. Here too, however, as already in the Pastoral Symphony and in some other works guided externally by more or less programmatic motives, the music is rather an “expression of feeling than a painting.”
The first part, Meeresstille, Poco sostenuto, has a character of serene, august gravity, although it contains a central episode (where the text refers to the “absence of wind and the terrifying deathly calm hanging over the endless expanse of motionless waves”) full of dark anxiety, as in the imminence of a storm. The second part, Glückliche Fahrt, unfolds instead in a lively movement, effectively sustained by the orchestra (which in the first part had been employed more modestly, though certainly not insignificantly).
A striking episode is inspired by the joyful animation of the sailors who, as soon as the winds begin to blow again, resume their voyage with the confidence of soon reaching the land whose outline they already begin to discern in the distance.
Orchestra: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, strings.
Meeres Stille
Tiefe Stille herrscht im Wasser,
Ohne Regung ruht das Meer,
Und bekümmert sieht der Schiffer
Glatte Fläche ringsumher.
Keine Luft von keiner Seite!
Todesstille fürchterlich!
In der ungeheuern Weite
Reget keine Welle sich.
Glückliche Fahrt
Die Nebel zerreißen,
Der Himmel ist helle,
Und Äolus löset
Das ängstliche Band.
Es säuseln die Winde,
Es rührt sich der Schiffer.
Geschwinde! Geschwinde!
Es teilt sich die Welle,
Es naht sich die Ferne;
Schon seh ich das Land!
Creation and Publication: The sketches were written between the end of 1814 and the beginning of 1815, and in June/July 1815. The autograph score, now lost, was completed in Vienna at the latest by December 1815, prior to the premiere on the 25th of that month. The original edition of the score was probably published in May 1822, with the piano reduction and parts following after May of the same year. Two letters from Beethoven to Archduke Rudolf may refer to the work on Op. 112. First, in December 1814, he wrote about a planned academy: „nach dieser Akademie für die Armen [am 25.12.1814] kommt eine im Theater […] hiefür habe ich einiges neue im werden“ (BGA 760). On 23 July 1815 he wrote: „Als Sie Sich neulich in der Stadt befanden, fiel mir leider dieser Chor ein, ich eilte nach Hause selben niederzuschreiben, allein ich verhielt mich länger hiebey, als ich anfangs selbst glaubte, und so versaümte ich I.K.H. zu meinem größten Leidwesen“ (BGA 824).
If the work had indeed been planned for an academy at the “Theater” in January or February 1815—a performance that did not take place—then work on Op. 112 may only have resumed a few months later (BGA 760; TDR III, p. 464; JTW, pp. 237–239).
Exactly when Sigmund Anton Steiner acquired Op. 112 for publication is unknown. In correspondence, the work is mentioned for the first time in a brief letter from Beethoven in April 1820, which included part of the performance material: „Der Part gehört zu dem Chor, wozu der Bauer [Franz X. Gebauer] die Stimmen hat“ (BGA 1380). The publisher presumably received the plates for engraving in the second half of 1815, or at the latest at the beginning of 1816, when Charles Neate also received a copy for publication in London (BGA 889, 983).
The score, parts, and piano reduction—which Beethoven did not write himself but revised—were simultaneously advertised in the Wiener Zeitung on 28 February 1823 (Thayer/1865; KH erroneously gives 1822) as „neu erschienen und zu haben“, although the score had certainly been published earlier: it is already listed in Wh5 1821/22, and on 21 May 1822 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe noted in his diary that he had received a dedicated copy (BGA 1562). Friedrich Rochlitz wrote in the Leipziger Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung on 9 October 1822 (col. 676): „Die Partitur ist schön gestochen. Das Werk wird […] auch in gestochenen Stimmen und im Klavierauszuge ausgegeben“. The parts and piano reduction are listed in Wh6 1822/23 and may also have appeared in 1822. This is indicated by the copy for the engraver of the piano reduction, checked by Beethoven, dated 19 April 1822 (KH erroneously gives December), and probably delivered promptly to the publisher, as well as a copy of the parts, also dated 1822.
Text: The pair of poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, „Meeres Stille“ and „Glückliche Fahrt“, were written in 1795 and first appeared in Schiller’s Musen-Almanach in 1796. Goethe later revised the poems. Beethoven probably first consulted the text in the Cotta edition of Goethe’s Werke (Vol. 1, Stuttgart and Tübingen 1815, p. 66). For the original edition of Op. 112, the text may have been revised following the Vienna reprint of this edition, Goethe’s Werke, Vol. 1, Original-Ausgabe, Vienna 1816, p. 74 (Raab/NGA XI2, p. 218).
Dedication: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, born 28 August 1749 in Frankfurt am Main, died 22 March 1832 in Weimar. Beethoven admired Goethe throughout his life. However, after meeting him several times in July 1812 at Teplitz and Karlsbad, Beethoven reported to Gottfried Christoph Härtel in Leipzig that „Göthe behagt die Hofluft zu sehr mehr als es einem Dichter ziemt“ (BGA 591). Goethe tersely noted in his diary on 21 May 1822: „Von Bethofen Partitur empfangen.“ Beethoven probably did not include a covering letter with the copy of the work sent to the celebrated dedicatee. Only nine months later did Beethoven remedy this omission. On 8 February 1823, he asked Goethe to have Grand Duke Karl August order a copy of the Missa solemnis:
„ich hoffe Sie werden die Zueignung an E. E. von Meeres stillen u. Glückliche Fahrt in Töne gebracht von mir erhalten haben, Beyde schienen mir ihres Kontrastes wegen sehr geeignet auch diesen durch Musick mittheilen zu können, wie lieb würde es mir seyn zu wissen, ob ich passend meine Harmonie mit der Ihrigen verbunden, auch Belehrung welche gleichsam als Wahrheit zu betrachten, würde mir äußerst willkommen seyn, denn letztere liebe ich über alles, u. es wird nie bey mir heißen: Veritas odium parit. […] E. E. dörfen aber nicht denken, daß ich wegen der jezt gebeteten Verwendung für mich ihnen MeeresStille u. Glückliche Fahrt gewidmet hätte, dies geschah schon im Mai 1822 […]- die Verehrung Liebe u. Hochachtung welche ich für den einzigen Unsterblichen Göthe von meinen Jünglingsjahren schon hatte, ist immer mir geblieben, so Was läßt sich nicht wohl in Worte faßen.“ (BGA 1562)
Beethoven’s letter probably remained unanswered. Furthermore, no order for the Mass ever arrived from Weimar.
Premiere: 25 December 1815, as part of the annual charity academy benefiting the Bürgerspitalfonds, in the large Redoutensaal of Vienna. Report: AmZ 18 (1816), 31 January 1816, col. 78. In this academy, the overture Op. 115 and the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives, Op. 85, were also performed.
Sketches:
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PL-Kj, Mus. ms. autogr. Beethoven Mend.-Stift. 1 (“Mendelssohn 1”), p. 99. Facsimile: SBB and partially in Nottebohm/Beethoveniana II, p. 309.
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December 1814 to February (July?) 1815, Skizzenbuch von 1814/15, sheets preserved in various locations.
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June/July 1815 (Raab/NGA X/2, p. 219): Beethoven Mend.-Stift. 1 (“Mendelssohn 1”), p. 30. Facsimile: SBB, Nottebohm/Beethoveniana II, p. 317.
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D-B, Mus. ms. autogr. Beethoven Artaria 153, pp. 54–57 (Bartlitz/Katalog, p. 103). Facsimile: SBB
Score: D-BNba, BH 85. Engraving copy. Copyist: Wenzel Rampl. Beethoven’s detailed instructions to the conductor appear on the first page of the music:
Title: p. 1 recto, unknown hand, „Meeresstille / u. Glückliche Fahrt / von Göthe / in Musick gesetzt [ursprünglich: gesetz; von Beethoven mit Bleistift ergänzt] / Vom [!] Ludwig van Beethoven“. Beethoven’s pencil note above the title: „von dieser partitur soll / der Chor ge- / stochen werden“, in red chalk to the right: „von dieser / Partitur soll / der Chor / gestochen werden“, below the title in pencil: „Nb. Diese Partitur ist zum / Stich bestimmt“, at the bottom in red chalk: „H: von UmlauF. Bl. lv“. Rampl’s header title: „Meeresstille“, with Beethoven’s notes: left „J = 84 Melzels / Metronom“, right „Nb: bey diesem ersten Tempo hebe / der Kapellmeister beym Taktgeben die Hand so / niedrig / als möglich / auf # / außer / beym / Forte – / beym ersten / Takt etwas / höher / beym 2ten / u 3ten / schon nach / lassend / u. beym 4ten / wieder ganz / die unmerklichste / Bewegung / # Nicht / mit / dem mindesten / Geräusch / verbunden / sondern mit / äußerster / Stille“.
28 leaves: leaf 1 recto title, 54 pages of musical text, leaves 1 verso to 28 verso blank. Paper: horizontal format, 23.5–24 × 30 cm, 16 staves (17th staff added by hand to the musical text).
New information from the Centro Ricerche Musicali www.lvbeethoven.org (July 2024)
On pages 317–318 of his Zweite Beethoveniana, Gustav Nottebohm writes: “Entwürfe zum zweiten Theil von ‘Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt’, aus denen hervorgeht, dass das Werk ziemlich vorgeschritten war:”
This sketch refers to the third-to-last and penultimate stanzas of Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s poem Glückliche Fahrt, which correspond to measures 108–111 of the score, and, as can be seen in the two examples below, the parts are virtually identical.
Long before the publication of Beethoven’s music, this piece—author unknown—appeared in the Musen-Almanach für das Jahr 1796, published in Neustrelitz, on pages 83a and 83b. An interesting foreshadowing of the rarefied atmospheres of the composition by the Master from Bonn.
