WoO 99 Italian Songs “a cappella”
Beethoven, during his stay in Vienna, studied with the great masters of his time and, although occasionally and over many years, studied from Antonio Salieri. A clear reflection can be seen in the Italian Songs (26 small pieces: duets, trios, quartets, for voices only), on verses by Metastasio, written in the period between the end of 1792 and the beginning of 1803. These songs have been revised and corrected by Salieri, especially in the rhythmic part, the fluidity and properties of the poetic-musical phrasing. Almost all the songs have no accompaniment but are a cappella. A glance at the lyrics of the song “Bei labbri che Amore”, for example, which we report in full below, is enough to realize such a revision work.
The largest number of manuscripts (originals or copies) belong to the “Artaria collection no. 166”, which is already preserved in the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. A few others are in the society of the Friends of Music in Vienna or in another manuscript (copy) also preserved in Berlin.
All these songs, which Beethoven considered as exercises and which he probably never thought of publishing, remained ignored for many years even after his death.
The first to speak of it was Thayer in no. 264 of his catalogue (1864), including “Italienische Gesänge. Ein zwei bis vier-stimmig, meistherttheils ohne Begleitung und noch ungedruckt” (Italian songs for two and up to four voices, mostly without accompaniment and not yet printed). There are 19 of them (i.e. numbers 1-6, 16-19, 20-22 and 26-31) of which nine were published in full and commented on by Nottebohm eight years later, with the original texts and corrections by Salieri.
Numbers 7-9, and 12-15 are copies of songs by Baron Carl Doblhof, another pupil of Salieri, made by Beethoven for his study and www.lvbeethoven.it/HessAnhang48-56/ practice; likewise nos. 10 and 11 are copies of songs by Alexander Cornet, a Viennese singing master of the time. www.lvbeethoven.it/hessanhang51-52/.
The four remaining numbers: 23 scene and aria: “WoO 92a – “No, non turbarti”, scene and aria for soprano and string orchestra“; 24 song: “WoO 119 – “O care selve”, canzonetta for one-voice choir, with solo response and piano…; 25 duets: “WoO 93 – “Nei giorni tuoi felici”, duet for soprano, tenor and orchestra” and 32 scenes and arias: “WoO 92 – “Primo amore, piacere del ciel”, scene and aria for soprano and orchestra” belong to Beethoven but do not fall into the category contemplated in this catalogue number and have been treated separately by us.
The rest were found around 1954 by Willy Hess, who wrote the catalogue including 25 songs (not including a first sketch of the Duet “Fra tutte le pene”) and the publication of 24 of them (not including the quartet “Silvio amante disperato” and the melody and duet “Hess 229 Languisco e moro, per te, mio ben, ch’adoro. Melodic inspiration for Soprano and instrumental bass, for Soprano e Tenor “) in a critical edition according to Salieri’s corrections (but with mention, in the appendix, of Beethoven’s original passages) in the first fascicle of the Supplemente zur GA.
The piano accompaniments mentioned by cat. Thayer are not by Beethoven, but by Kapellmeister Benedict Randartinger, who was also (together with Schubert) a disciple of Salieri. These songs are present on our website and in World Premiere: Artaria 166b Manuscript notebook with 20 Italian songs by Beethoven, Alexander Cornet and Baron Carl Doblhof-Dier with piano accompaniment by Benedikt Randhartinger – Beethoven Music Reserch Centre www.lvbeethoven.org In the following summary table we give the list of all the songs in chronological order with their references to the various catalogues and publications in the Hess Supplements and in the Nottebohm Studios. The chronology must always be understood with a certain approximation.
| Title | Organic | Tone | Text | Year | KH | Hess | SBG I | Thayer/1865 (264) | Biamonti |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bei labbri che amore | Duet S.T. | E flat major | (La Gelosia). | 1792 – 1794 | 1 | 211 | 1 | 4 | 58 |
| Ma tu tremi, o mio tesoro | Trio S.C.T. | G major | (La Tempesta). | 1792 – 1794 | 6 | 212 | 7 | 5 | 60 |
| E pur fra le tempeste – Melodia per Tenore. | Melody for Tenor. | E flat major | (La tempesta). | 1800 | - | 232 | 24 | - | 217 |
| Sei il mio ben | Duet S. T. | C major | (Cantata XXIV). | 1800 | - | 231 | 2 | - | 216 |
| Giura il nocchier | Trio S. C. B. | C major | (La Gelosia). | 1792 – 1794 | 5b | 227 | 8 | - | 59 |
| Giura il nocchier | Quartet S. C. T. B. | C major | (La Gelosia). | 1792 – 1794 | - | 230 | 21 | - | 215 |
| Giura il nocchier | Quartet S. C. T. B. | B flat major | (La Gelosia). | 1795 – 1800 | 5a | 221 | 22 | 26 | 336 |
| Ah rammenta | Duet | E major | (Il ritorno) | 1792 - 1794 | - | - | - | - | - |
| Chi mai questo core | Trio S. T. B. | C major | (Il ritorno). | 1799 | 2 | 214 | 13 | 16 | 202 |
| Scrivo in te | Duet S.T. | D major | (Il nome). | 1795 - 1796 | 11 | 215 | 3 | 17 | 128 |
| Per te d’ amico aprile | Trio S..C. B. | E flat major | (Il nome). | 1792 – 1796 | 9 | 216 | 9 | 18 | 127 |
| Nei campi e nelle selve | Quartet S.C.T.B. (First draft). | C major | (Cantata XXVII). | 1792 – 1796 | 7a | 217 | 15 | 19 | 109 |
| Nei campi e nelle selve | Quartet S.C.T.B. (Second draft). | C major | (Cantata XXVII). | 1792 – 1796 | 7b | 220 | 16 | 22 | 110 |
| Fra tutte le pene | Duet S. C. | E flat major | (Zenobia). | 1796 - 1797 | 3a | 208 | 4 - 5 | 1 | 144 |
| Fra tutte le pene | Trio S. C. T. | E flat major | (Zenobia). | 1796 - 1797 | 3b | 225 - 209 | 10 - 11 | 30 - 2 | 145 |
| Fra tutte le pene | Quartet S. C. T. B. | B flat major | (Zenobia). | 1796 - 1797 | 3c | 224 - 210 | 17 - 18 | 29 - 3 | 146 |
| Salvo tu vuoi lo sposo? | Melody alone | C major | (Zenobia). | 1796 - 1797 | - | - | - | - | - |
| Salvo tu vuoi lo sposo? | Duet S. .T. | C major | (Zenobia). | 1796 - 1797 | - | 228 | 6 | - | 141 |
| Quella cetra ah pur sei | Quartet S. C. T. B. | F major | (Cantata a Maria Teresa). | 1796 - 1797 | 10b | 218 | 12 | 20 | 148 |
| Quella cetra ah pur sei | Trio S. T. B. | G major | (Cantata a Maria Teresa). | 1796 - 1797 | 10c | 219 | 20 | 21 | 150 |
| Quella cetra ah pur sei | Quartet S. C. T. B. | G major | (Cantata a Maria Teresa). | 1796 - 1797 | 10a | 213 | 19 | 6 | 213 |
| Già la notte s’ avvicina. | Quartet S. C. T. B. | B flat major | (La pesca). | 1802 | 4b | 223 | 14 | 28 | 341 |
| Già la notte s’ avvicina. | Trio C. T. B. | B flat major | (La pesca). | 1802 | 4a | 222 | 23 | 27 | 342 |
| Silvio amante disperato. | Quartet S. C. T. B. | A minor | (Cantata XXVII). | 1792 - 1802 | 12 | 226 | - | 31 | 335 |
Official title: WoO 99 Mehrstimmige italienische Gesänge Widmung: -NGAXIII/1 AGA-SBG I (Hess 208-232).
Creation and publication: Composed between 1801 and the beginning of 1802 in Vienna. The first editions of the various cantos appeared posthumously: numbers 11b and 11c in 1855 (or perhaps even earlier) by Artaria in Vienna. The numbers 1, 5c, 7, 9 and 11 in 1873 in the famous “Beethovens Studien” by Gustav Nottebohm; all other problems appeared only in various publications edited by Willy Hess in the 20th century. The complete songs (except for Nos. 6 and 15) were first released in 1959 as part of the SBG by Breitkopf & Härtel in Wiesbaden. The Italian polyphonic songs were written during the lessons that Salieri gave to Beethoven. The exercises include numerous annotations and pencil corrections. Beethoven, from Salieri, wanted to learn how to set up texts and prosody, because Joseph Haydn and Johann Georg Albrechsberger (from whom he had taken lessons) had not given importance. For Salieri, the text is the starting point of the work approach. Starting from the text, we move from monody to duet and finally trio and quartet. Each voice presents a new melodic part, the development of which was the fulcrum.
Probably the student and teacher moved on to a new text when the previous one had been completely done. Autograph sources reveal Beethoven’s modus operandi: first he made sketches and sketches, which he then elaborated into the score. Only in a third phase did he prepare a corrected preliminary copy, which was submitted to the teacher to be corrected (let’s call it a “model version”). Not all the passages of the work of most of the songs have been preserved in manuscript and for some there are no autograph sources. It is not documented exactly when Beethoven began taking music/vocal writing lessons from Salieri. The dating of the Italian songs is that of Gustav Nottebohm, whom Kinsky/Halm and Willy Hess (SBG I Revisionsbericht p. 29-35) used as a guide. Nottebohm places these compositions in the period from 1793 to 1802 (Nottebohm/Studien p. 207), according to Hess they were written between 1792 and 1801 (SBG I preface p. 5). Investigations of writing and paper allowed Richard Kramer and Douglas Johnson to place the period of origin in a very precise and detailed way, i.e. 1799 and from 1800 to 1802 (Kramer/op30 pp. 145-159, Johnson/Fischhof vol. 1 pp. 169, 195). Sieghard Brandenburg narrows the period further and indicates “für die wesentlich kürzere Zeitspanne 1801 bis Anfang 1802″, since none of the papers used is dated earlier than those used for the sketchbook called “Grasnick 2”, used until the summer of 1799 (Brandenburg/Keßler vol 1 p. 32). The chronological order of the individual passages and their sources can now be reconstructed as shown in the book by Julia Ronge (Ronge NGAXIII/1 KB p. 29-36) and in our individual pages, edited by Graziano Denini. All texts are by Pietro Metastasio. The sources (except for no. 14) are substantially autograph (the previous system can be consulted in the response table above).
Willy Hess:
Under number 264 of his Chronologisches Verzeichniss (Chronological Catalogue) of Beethoven’s works, A.W. Thayer enumerates 32 compositions of Italian songs, some of which were presumably composed in the Bonn period and others no later than about 1814. That is not correct. Gustav Nottebohm, in Beethovens Studien, Leipzig-Winterthur, 1873, says that Beethoven had begun composing a cappella songs between 1793 and 1802, as studies on the composition of songs in Italian, guided by Antonio Salieri. Schubert also made similar studies with Salieri, in part using the same poetic texts by Pietro Metastasio that Beethoven had used in his time. Cf. Alfred Einstein, Schubert, Pan-Verlag, Zurich, 1952, from p. 60.
Thayer includes some songs in this grouping improperly. The pieces he listed with numbers 7 to 15 are not compositions by Beethoven, but songs by other composers that Beethoven himself had copied as exercises for study (for further references, see the chapter “Doubtful and Spurious Compositions”). II piece 23 and the scene is aria “No, non turbarti!” (no. 119 of this catalogue); piece 25 and the duet “Nei giorni tuoi felici” (no. 120 of this catalogue); the aria no. 32 “Primo amore piacer del ciel” was published in GA, series 25, with no. 271.
Piece number 24 would be more properly the Lied with piano accompaniment “O care selve antiche”, published in GA, series 25, with no. 279. Referring to the incipit of Thayer’s thematic list, in previous editions of my catalogue I have classified it, under no. 69, as a four-voice a cappella choir. Hans Bottcher in his Beethoven als Liederkomponist, Benno Filser, Augsburg, 1928, suggests that the autograph of this quartet is in the British Museum, Add. Ms. 29801, folio 62v. [It is now in the British Library and the autograph is part of the Kafka Sketchbook, located by Kerman in folio 62v.]
The part is also listed in Bottcher’s Table III/4. The same opinion is expressed in Kinsky/Halm on p. 581. In any case, the autograph of the Kafka Sketchbook in London is undoubtedly identical to the Lied with piano accompaniment published in the GA. It has Beethoven’s autograph indication “Coro, solo, Coro”, as in number 24 of the Thayer. All the other pieces by Thayer report the number of voices (duet, trio, quartet) explicitly. The two pieces are probably identical, although the incipit given by Thayer does not completely coincide with the song.
We point out some differences between the London manuscript and the GA (which is based on a manuscript contained in Sketchbook 153 of the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin). In the upbeat of the vocal part, the piano bass has a pause, and the first voice has a B instead of a G, which had probably already been corrected in the second copy (which considers the Berlin manuscript). In bar number 9, both piano chords are distinctly D-LA-C, and not E-LA-C; The bass is a bit confusing, D instead of C. Therefore, there was originally a dominant seventh chord on D (without the third), instead of the sixth chord of A minor.
In the third last bar, the left-hand chord is G-Si-D, instead of G-B. In addition, at the end, a “da capo” would be required (so the indication “Coro, solo, Coro” would make sense); that is, the piece ends with the choral part of bar 12. This would be a great advantage, from the point of view of a beautiful and flowing form, and it is very likely that the indication “da capo” was simply forgotten in the Berlin manuscript and in the GA.
The piano accompaniment indicated by Thayer for many of the pieces is not original to Beethoven. We will return to these pieces when discussing autographs. Thus, of the 32 compositions enumerated by Thayer, only 19 remain fixed as a cappella songs proper, that is, those corresponding to the following numbers: 1-6, 16-22 and 26-31.
In addition, there are other songs that Thayer did not know at all, some of which I would later find in Vienna no later than 1954. In the following list I give an overview of all the songs known today, for which I provide the dating attempted by Nottebohm. The order of presentation follows that of Thayer, with the pieces unknown to him placed at the end. I express my gratitude to Prof. Giovanni Biamonti of Rome, for the help he has provided me in determining the sources of the texts not cited by Thayer.
Willy Hess
