WoO 1 Musik zu einem Ritterballet for orchestra
I) Marsch – II) Deutscher Gesang. Allegro moderato – III) Jagdlied. Allegretto (Deutscher Gesang. Allegro moderato). – IV) Romanze. Andantino (Deutscher Gesang. Allegro moderato) – V) Kriegslied. Allegro assai con brio (Deutscher Gesang. Allegro moderato) – VI) Trinklied. Allegro con brio (Deutscher Gesang. Allegro moderato) – VII) Deutscher Tanz. Walzer (Deutscher Gesang. Section breve)) – VIII) Coda. Allegro vivace – Andantino
The musical examples and videos on this page are by Graziano Denini
WoO 1 Musik zu einem Ritterballet for orchestra, winter 1790–1791, first published (score) in the GA. Supplement, 1888. GA. no. 286 (series 25/23) – B. 149 – KH. (WoO) l – P. 29 – Sch. p. 217/27 – T. 12. The original manuscript is in the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin.
The Bohemian Count Ferdinand Ernst Waldstein, an intelligent music lover and one of Beethoven’s first friends and patrons, had come to Bonn (in 1787 at the latest) to complete his novitiate in the Order of the Teutonic Knights, into which he was solemnly inducted on June 17, 1788.
The Knightly Ballet, which he staged with the collaboration of the choreographer Habich of Aachen, was performed in the Bonn Foyer on March 6, 1791, the last Sunday of Carnival, with the participation of all the nobility in ancient Germanic costumes. According to the correspondent of the Theater Kalender of Gotha for the year 1791, it was about “the life of our first fathers, devoted to war, hunting, amorous adventures, and banquets.” The music was for some time attributed to Waldstein himself, and his name appeared in the first performance; But it is by Beethoven, who perhaps, according to some scholars, should have been deliberately “kept low” so that the attribution to his noble collaborator would have more plausibility. It could also be, however, that some themes were by Waldstein. The work consists of eight small pieces, all in D major, except for the fourth, which is in B minor:
I. March (flute, 2 clarinets, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings):
II. Deutscher Gesang (2 clarinets, horns, and strings):
III. Jagdlied (flute, 2 clarinets, 2 horns, and strings):
IV. Romance (Strings solo, Pizzicato): followed by a reprise of the Deutscher Gesang.
V. Kriegslied (2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings): followed by a reprise of the Deutscher Gesang.
VI. Trinklied (flute, 2 clarinets, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings):
VII. Deutscher Tanz (Waltz) (2 clarinets, 2 horns, and strings)
VIII. Coda (piccolo, 2 clarinets, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings): with another brief return of the Deutscher Gesang interspersed.
Door Douglas Johnson, BEETHOVEN STUDIES, deel 1, pagina 224.
This is the autograph of the so-called Ritterballet, WoO 1, which received no explicit entry in the Nachlass auction catalogue. Gräffer has made a few errors. The autograph is in two separate gatherings, and he has mistakenly entered the dances of the second gathering first (doubtless as he found them). At the same time he has misplaced the indication “Walzer”, which actually belongs to the following “Duetscher Tanz” (eight parts), but which appears here in place of the “Trinklied” (eleven parts). And in the first part of the score, which begins with the “Marsch”, he has omitted the “Minnelied” which follows the “Jagdlied” in the autograph