WoO 95 Chor auf die verbündeten Fürsten: Ihr weisen Gründer glücklicher Staaten, for Choir and Orchestra
Ziemlich lebahft
WoO 95 Chor auf die verbündeten Fürsten: Ihr weisen Gründer glücklicher Staaten, for Choir and Orchestra, September 1814, published in the Supplement of the GA (Gesamtausgabe), 1888. GA No. 267 (Series 25/4) – B. 259 – ICH. (WoO) 95 – T. 188; published in score and separate parts in Vienna, Steiner, April 1826.
Orchestra: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings. The original manuscript is preserved in the archive of the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna. The sketches are found in the 1814 notebook, which also contains drafts for the final version of Fidelio and others for the Piano Sonata in E minor, Op. 90, the Overture, Op. 115, the cantata The Glorious Moment, Op. 136, etc. Another — short — occasional composition, intended as a salute to the high authorities present at the historic congress; it is unclear whether it was actually performed. It has the character of a joyful martial hymn. The text is by the writer and journalist Karl Bernard, a close friend of Beethoven.
[By Biamonti Giovanni – Catalogo cronologico e tematico delle opere di Beethoven comprese quelle inedite e gli abbozzi non utilizzati, Torino, ILTE 1968]
Official title: WoO 95 Ihr weisen Gründer glücklicher Staaten Chor (A-dur) mit Orchester Widmung: – NGA X/2 AGA 267 = Serie 25/4 Beiname: Chor auf die verbündeten Fürsten (nach dem Text)
Creation and Publication: The work was composed in September 1814 in Vienna. The first edition of the score was published posthumously in 1888 as part of the AGA by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig. The choir was written in anticipation of the Congress of Vienna, which was officially inaugurated on 1st November 1814, but for which many participants had already arrived in Vienna in the last days of September. The potential clients and specific reason for the composition are not known. Theodor von Frimmel suspected that Beethoven’s choral piece was “für eine Akademie im Herbst 1814 entworfen, aber nicht aufgeführt” but could not provide further evidence. The autograph score is dated “1814 am 30ten[?] September”, which presumably indicates the completion of the work. The deciphering of the date has led to various interpretations. While Alexander W. Thayer interpreted the mark after the 3 as a full stop (thus “am 3.ten September”, TDR III p. 440), Gustav Nottebohm took it as a “1” (an unrealistic date “am 31ten September” Nottebohm/Beethoveniana II p. 300). For Armin Raab, a reading as “30ten September” is plausible, as the position of the sketches in the notebook known as the “Dessauer” suggests that “WoO 95 (certainly within a very short time) was composed in the last days of September 1814.”
Text: The writer is unknown. The previous identification with Joseph Karl Bernard was based on two misunderstandings: on one hand, WoO 95 was confused with a lost “Kriegslied” (WoO 220), and on the other, in a letter from Beethoven to Treitschke, the name “Werner” (for Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner, author of the “Kriegslied” [WoO 220]) was mistakenly interpreted as “Bernard.” The full text of WoO 95 has survived only in the autograph score and the transcription of the score. The first performance is unknown. Raab interprets the fact that Beethoven most likely did not correct the proofs of the surviving copy as an indication that there was no performance during the Congress of Vienna: the proof correction was postponed “nach Abschluß des Wiener Kongresses, als kein Markt mehr für solche Huldigungsmusiken bestand, erübrigte sie sich schließlich vollends.”
The sketches will be featured in an article specially created for the Beethovenian Music Research Center, www.lvbeethoven.org
