Unv.17 – Hess 317 – “Europens Befreyungsstunde” (Cantata, Existence Doubtful) | Beethoven Music Research Center www.lvbeethoven.org

Unv. 17 “Europens Befreyungsstunde” — Cantata.

(Existence doubtful). (Formerly Hess 317).

Unv. 17 – Hess 317. Europens Befreyungsstunde.
A cantata bearing this title was sketched beginning in the middle months of 1814. The author of the poetic text is Josef Karl Bernard, as indicated in Michael Ladenburger’s article Der Wiener Kongress im Spiegel der Musik, in Beethoven: Zwischen Revolution und Restauration, Beethoven-Haus, Bonn, 1989, from page 293 (see: Der Wiener Kongreß im Spiegel der Musik, in Beethoven, Zwischen Revolution und Restauration, ed. by Helga Lühning and Sieghard Brandenburg, Sonderveröffentlichungen des Beethoven-Hauses, Bonn, 1989, pp. 275–306).

The complete autograph remains unknown, and it is not certain whether the work was ever finished. Several sketches for the piece have been located in the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Berlin (autograph manuscript Grasnick 20b); in the Conservatoire de Paris (Beethoven Ms 93); and in the Bodmer Collection of the Beethoven-Haus, Bonn (Mh 89).
[The Deutsche Staatsbibliothek is now the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (SBB); the Conservatoire de Paris has transferred its holdings to the Bibliothèque nationale; and the Bodmer manuscript in Bonn has been re-catalogued as SBH 625 (SV 137).]

Two additional sketch leaves have been identified in the Heyer Collection in Cologne. The same work is mentioned in George Kinsky, Musikhistorisches Museum von Wilhelm Heyer in Köln, catalogue, vol. 4, musical autographs no. 223, 1916, p. 182. The complete text of the cantata was first published in Festschrift zum 60. Geburtstag von Joachim Schmidt-Görg, Bonn, 1957, pp. 363–366.

The work is also cited in Wilhelm Virneisel, Kleine Beethoveniana, p. 361. (A copy of the text and one page of the sketches were reproduced in facsimile in Beethoven: Zwischen Revolution und Restauration, Beethoven-Haus, Bonn, pp. 296–297.)

Textanfang: „Nach Frankreichs unheilvollem Sturz“. Sketched at the beginning of 1814. Beethoven had planned this cantata for his grand academy concert in the Redoutensaal on 27 February 1814 in Vienna, as reported by Georg Friedrich Treitschke at the beginning of March that year (BGA 707). However, the performance did not take place owing to censorship on 17 February. The authorities also rejected another application for 10 September 1814—on both occasions without providing justification (notes by Friedrich von Gentz, Hofrat at the State Chancellery, and Freiherr von Bretfeld, concerning the nature of the text; a facsimile of the censorship notes appears in Ladenburger, Kongreß, p. 296; see that source for the text). The cantata text, however, is decidedly anti-French and revanchist. The publicly expressed hostility toward the French—found in Bernard’s text—was probably considered undesirable in light of the reconciliation among nations sought during the Congress of Vienna.

Beethoven’s nephew Karl reported in a conversation book from early May 1825: “Bernard spoke again of an oratorio for which he had written the book, and you had almost finished the music, but which was not passed by the censors?” He then added: “Now they would let it pass” (BKh 7, p. 259ff.). Nevertheless, the surviving sketches do not suggest that Beethoven had progressed very far with the work.

Europens Befreyungsstunde by Joseph Karl Bernard (1780–1850). The handwritten libretto is preserved in D-B (Mus. ms. autogr. Beethoven 37.34; reprinted in Virneisel, Beethoveniana, pp. 363–366).

(1) D-B, Mus. ms. autogr. Beethoven Grasnick 20b, fols. 14r–15r.

(2) D-BNba, Coll. FL C. Bodmer, HCB Mh 89, 2 leaves. Facsimile: DBH/online.

(3) D-BNba, HC Bodmer Coll., HCB BSk 15/63, one leaf. Facsimile: DBH/online.

(4) F-Pc (in: Pn), Ms. 93, one leaf. Facsimile: Gallica.

(5) D-Dl, Mus. 4l93-D-12,l, one leaf. Facsimile: Ullrich, Oratorienpläne, p. 25. (This is the first of the two leaves formerly in the Wilhelm Heyer Collection; see Kinsky/Heyer no. 223.)

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