WoO 128 – “Plaisir d’aimer” for Voice and Piano (Sketch)
Adagio
WoO 128 – Plaisir d’aimer, for voice and piano (Sketch), 1799, published by J. Chantavoine in Die Musik, 20th issue, March 1902, alongside the song Que le temps me dure (catalogue number 44 of this list); and in the critical edition by Hess in the fifth volume of the Supplemente (Tur GA, 1962). B. 286/2 – Boett. V/l – H. 131 – KH. (WoO)128 – P. 113.
According to KH. and Hess in the aforementioned Supplemente volume, there are three sketches of this song: two for solo voice and one with the added piano part, all preserved in the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin. The text is by an unknown author. It is interesting to note, as a curiosity, a certain melodic resemblance to the Romance in G major Op. 40 for violin and orchestra, which Beethoven would compose a few years later.
Lyrics (French original)
Plaisir d’aimer,
besoin d’une âme tendre
Que vous avez de pouvoir sur mon cœur.
De vous, hélas, en voulant me défendre
Je perds la paix sans trouver le bonheur.
[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 128 Plaisir d’aimer, Romance (G major) for Voice and Piano
Dedication: — NGAXII/1 No. 81 AGA-SBGV/9 (Hess 131)
Composition and Publication: The Romance was sketched towards the end of 1798/99 and was likely completed shortly thereafter. Jean Chantavoine published an initial reconstruction of the work, based on the sketches, in 1902 in the Berlin journal Die Musik (photographs and PDF files sourced from the Beethoven-Haus website in Bonn). A full facsimile edition appeared in 1978. Since the only surviving copy of the song differs only slightly from the third sketch, which lacks the text, it is clear that the song was likely completed shortly after these drafts. The existing differences indicate that the copy does not directly stem from the sketch but from a complete transcription of Beethoven’s works.
Text: The lyrics appear in a song collection printed around 1794 titled Six Songs Humbly Inscribed by Permission to Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales, composed by the Chevalier de Montlivault. The song features the same text, “the words by the Marquis de Bonnay.” Another song based on this text was written by Clementine de Lannoy de Clervaux and published by Hummel in Berlin in 1798, although the author of the text is not named.
The sketches will be featured in an article specially created for the Beethovenian Music Research Center, www.lvbeethoven.org
