WoO 35 – Instrumental Canon for De Boer – 3 August 1825. Bruers 222 Hess 273 KH (WoO 35) .

Published by L. Nohl in Neuen Briefen Beethovens, 1867, page 274, number 290, and later by others; most recently by Willy Hess in the sixth issue of Supplemente zur GesamtAusgabe, 1963. The original manuscript is part of the Paul Warburg collection in New York. A sketch can be found in the De Roda notebook. It is a small piece of 8 bars, probably for two violins or cellos, written for the Dutch painter and music enthusiast Samson De Boer, a great admirer of Beethoven, on the occasion of his visit to the composer.

Official title: WoO 35 Kanon (A-dur) für zwei Violoncelli Widmung: — NGAXII/2 AGA-SBG VI/3 (Hess 273)

Origin and publication: Written on 3 August 1825 in Baden near Vienna. The first edition appeared posthumously in Ludwig Nohl’s New Letter Edition of 1867. Beethoven wrote this instrumental canon for “Monsieur SM de Boger.” Based on Theodor von Frimmel’s theory (Frimmel/Handbuch vol. 1 p. 55), it had been suggested that the dedicatee was the Dutch painter and amateur musician Otto de Boer. Jos van der Zanden provided evidence that it was actually Samson Moses de Boer (1771–1839) (Zanden/Wo035), who stayed in Vienna from 4 July to 14 August 1825 and was listed in the Wiener Zeitung as “Eigenthümer” and “Holländischer Rentierer” (6 July 1825, p. 647, and 17 August 1825, p. 789). In early August, he visited Beethoven in Baden and presented himself as “mitglied der academie in Amsterd[a]m bildende Künste” (BKh 8 p. 35).

Beethoven may have sketched the canon without text during the visit, just before producing the fair copy. This is suggested by de Boer’s letter to the Amsterdam Academy of 15 March 1827, in which he reports that Beethoven showed him the work in a pocket notebook (Zanden/Wo035 p. 53f). The conversations documented in the Konversationshefte make no mention of this composition (BKh 8 pp. 35–38). Since the autograph is dated 3 August, it is presumed the visit occurred on that day. De Boer was an amateur cellist (Zanden/Wo035 p. 54f). Therefore, it makes sense to correct the previously assumed instrumentation from two violins to two cellos. The first performance is unknown.

Sketches: D-BNba NE 47a (“De Roda”), folio 30r. Dating: by 3 August 1825 at the latest, facsimile: DBB/Online. Title on heading: “Canon in 8va,” under the musical text: “Souvenir pour Monsieur SM de Boger / par Louis van Beethoven / Baden le troisieme Aaout. (!) 1825.” Measurements: one sheet; one page of score. Paper: 25 × 21.5 cm, 3 hand-drawn staff lines. Provenance: Otto Schulz, Leipzig — Frederick Locker-Lampson, London — Paul Warburg, New York.
Facsimile: Zanden/Wo035 p. 52. First printed edition: 1867. “Canon in 8va” (closed reproduction), in: Nohl/Neue Briefe p. 274 n. 290 (reproduced from the transcription later found by Otto Schulz in Leipzig, see above).

Bibliography: BKh 8 pp. 35–38, 337 — Klein/Kanons p. 48f — Zanden/WoO 35.