WoO 116 – Que le temps me dure, two completed sketches of singing in C minor and C major, with bass and intermediate accompanying figures
WoO 116 – Que le temps me dure, two completed sketches of singing in C minor and C major, with bass and intermediate accompanying figures, November 1792 – beginning 1793. Boett. III/3 – B. 286/1 – H. 129 – KH. (WoO)116 -P. 113/1.
They are found, with the singing part inserted in the first line of the piano part, on the last page of a sheet also containing sketches of the Variations on Se vuol ballare for Piano and Violin (referred to in the following no. 46), published in July 1793. Both versions are found on folio 3-recto of the Miscellanea Fischhof [Skizzen (Konvolut von losen Skizzenblättern überwiegend aus der Bonner und der frühen Wiener Zeit)], a collection of scattered sheets of sketches from Beethoven’s late Bonnense and early Viennese periods, preserved at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesizt. The parts of the singing are inserted, as per the lieder practice of the Classical period, in the staff of the right hand of the piano, together with some indications for the correct execution of the accompaniment. It is presumable that they were written within the first half of the same year. The version in C minor was published by Chantavoine in Die Musik, I, 12, of 15 March 1902, together with the Aria Plaisir d’aimer referred to in no. 201 of the present catalogue; and by Max Unger, with a partly different musical text, in Zeitschrift für Musik of November 1935, together with the C major version that the Chantavoine had not published. Both editions were included in the fifth issue of the Supplemente Zur GA. by W. Hess, 1962. Unger also included a complete version of both songs as an appendix to the same Zeitschrift issue. The text, except for a small modification of the first verse (Que le jour me dure), is that of the Aria called of the three notes (because it is composed entirely on the notes G, A, B), by Rousseau. The poet is sad because away from his beloved the day passes very slowly and the countryside is wild and insensitive. Far from her he cries, but everything passes when he hears and sees her.
[By Biamonti Giovanni – Catalogo cronologico e tematico delle opere di Beethoven comprese quelle inedite e gli abbozzi non utilizzati, Torino, ILTE 1968]
Que le (jour-temps) me dure!
Passé loin de toi,
toute la nature
n’est plus rien pour moi.
Le plus vert bocage,
[quand]tu n’y viens pas,
n’est qu’un lieu sauvage,
pour moi, sans appas.
Hélas! si je passe
Un jour sans te voir,
Je cherche ta trace
Dans mon désespoir…
Quand je l’ai perdue,
Je reste à pleurer,
Mon âme éperdue
Est près d’expirer.
Le coeur me palpite
Quand j’entends ta voix,
Tout mon sang s’agite
Dès que je te vois;
Ouvres-tu la bouche,
Les cieux vont s’ouvrir…
Si ta main me touche,
Clicca qui per aggiungere il proprio testo
Clicca qui per aggiungere il proprio testo
Clicca qui per aggiungere il proprio testo
Titolo ufficiale: WoO 116 Que le temps me dure Lied (C minor/C major) after a poem by Jean-Jacques Rousseau for voice and piano NGA XII/1 No. 100 AGA-SBG V/3-4 (Hess 129-130)
Origin and publication: the two surviving sketches were annotated in Vienna in the first half of 1793. Beethoven probably never elaborated these sketches. The first editions of the sketches appeared posthumously: published in 1902 by Jean Chantavoine in the Berlin magazine Die Musik and in 1935 by Max Unger in the Neue Zeitung für Musik in Leipzig. The dating of the two sketches results on the one hand from the type of paper that Beethoven used almost exclusively before 1794 after moving to Vienna, and on the other hand from the sketches for the WoO 40 variations belonging to the same period contained in the miscellany “Fischhof”. Helga Lühning considers the second sketch to be an alternative sketch and not a further revision of the first. Perhaps Beethoven had in mind a combination of both sketches (minor key and melodic style from the first and 2/4 time from the second draft). Text: The three-stanza poem by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) first appeared as “Air de trois Notes” in “Les Consolations des Misères de ma Vie, ou Recueil d’Airs, Romances et Duos” (Paris 1781, no. 53, p. 97). In the sketches, Beethoven transcribed only the text of the first stanza.
The sketches will be treated in an article specifically created by Beethoven Music Research Centre www.lvbeethoven.org
Chantevoine writes in his essay “Zwei Französische Lieder Beethovens” (1902): “Among Beethoven’s sketchbooks in the Royal Library of Berlin there are 56 loose sheets from different periods. The following sketch of a French song can be read on one of these sheets. The poem is by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and was published for the first time in three volumes [cfr. Les Consolations des Miseres de ma vie, or Recueil d’Airs, Romances et Duos by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Paris, 1781). For German translations, as well as various arrangements and later compositions of this poem in Germany, see: Dr. Max Friedländer, The German Song in the 18th Century (Berlin. Cotta 1902).].
This short and very simple composition may seem insignificant. Two errors also appear in prosody, which can be explained by Beethoven’s poor command of French: the monosyllabic words “loin” and “rein” are calculated as two syllables.
But if we take a closer look at this song, we will find the first traces of the characteristics that would later develop in Beethoven’s vocal music: the appropriateness of melodic expression and declamatory purity. The beautiful and modest melody is interrupted by pauses, like a soft sigh, like a lament in solitude. Similarly, the interval of a diminished fifth in relation to the surplus sixth chord (in the third measure before the close) brings something strange and unsettling to the otherwise flowing melody and reaches the climax of the word “sauvage” (desolate).
The date of composition of this song may be approximately 1793, as on the same sheet there are sketches for the variations on “If He Wants to Dance”. (WoO 40 Variations (12) in F major for piano and violin).
On November 2, 1793, Beethoven wrote to Eleonore von Breuning:
Dear Eleonore, my dearest friend,
I have already spent a whole year here in the capital, and only now am I sending you a letter, but that does not mean that I have not kept it constantly present and alive in my thoughts. How many times have I spent time with you and your dear family, even if mostly not with the serenity I would have liked. I always have the fatal dispute before my eyes and my behavior on that occasion seems execrable to me, but what to do; What I would not give to be able to completely erase from my life the way I acted, so unworthy of me and in contrast with my usual character. Of course, it was also circumstances that created a distance between us and I suspect that someone had turned the things we said to each other against each other, thus preventing any possibility of reconciliation. Each of us believed he was convinced of what he said and instead it was only ebbs of anger, and we were both deceiving ourselves. Your good and noble character assures me, my dear friend, that you have long since forgiven me, but it is said that the sincerest repentance is that of one who confesses his sin willingly, and that is what I wanted. And now let’s pass in the towel over this whole story, it just must teach us that, when friends dispute, it is always better that no one gets in the way and that the friend addresses the friend directly.
You will find here attached a dedication of mine to you [2] relating to a work that I would like to be more important and more worthy of you. They have insisted so much that I publish this little work here and I take advantage of the opportunity, my very kind E., to give you a sign of my esteem and friendship and of my constant attachment to your family. Accept this littleness, thinking that it comes from a devoted friend, if it will give you pleasure, I will be fully satisfied. May it serve to remind you a little of the time when I spent so many blissful hours in your house, and to keep me alive in your memory, until one day I return, which will not be so soon, what a joy it will be for both of you, my most gracious friend. You will find in your friend a more cheerful man, on whose face time and a better destiny have erased the traces of an unpleasant past.
If you were to see B. Koch, [3] I would ask you to tell you that it is not nice of you never to write me anything. I have written to you twice and to Malchus [4] three, but no one has answered me, tell you that, if you do not want to write, at least pass the task to Malchus.Before closing, one more prayer: I would be so happy to have a mohair jacket made by your hands again, my dear friend, forgive my friend for this impudence due to the predilection for everything that comes from your hands, between us, there is also a bit of vanity underneath: I would like to be able to say that I have something of one of the best and most admirable maidens in all of Bonn. It is true that I still have the waistcoat, which he had the goodness to give me at the time in Bonn, but it is now out of fashion to the point that I can keep it in the wardrobe of clothes only because it represents something of yours so dear to me. I would be very pleased to receive a dear letter from you soon and if my letters in turn please you, I promise to satisfy you as much as possible, every letter from you is welcome, so you intend to show your admiration.
Your true and devoted friend
- v. Beethoven
The V’s will be a bit difficult to play, especially the trills in the coda, but don’t be scared, everything is built so that you only must do the trill, leaving out the other notes, since they are also found in the violin part. I would never have done anything like this if I had not already often noticed in Vienna that one listens to my improvisations from time to time mostly in the evening, the next day puts them on paper and makes himself look good about them; Anticipating that he will hasten to publish them under his name, I have decided to precede him.
There is also another reason, which is to set a trap for the local piano teachers, some of whom are my sworn enemies. So I wanted to take revenge, convinced that one day or another someone would invite them to play the V’s, putting them in difficulty.
Beethowen