WoO 174 – “Glaube und hoffe!”, principle of a canon
WoO 174 “Glaube und Hoffe!”, canonic principle, for M. Scheslinger, 21 September 1819, first published by Nohl in Briefe Beethovens, 1865, No. 217. GA No. 285/3 (series 25, p. 275) – Bruers 201 and 272/3 – KH (WoO) 174.
The manuscript is part of the Wittgenstein collection. The canon was written for Moritz Scheslinger of Berlin, son of the publisher A. Martin Scheslinger, on the occasion of his visit to Beethoven on business.
[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 174 Glaube und hoffe Vierstimmiger Satz (B-dur) nach einem eigenen Text Widmung: – NGA XII/2 AGA 285 = Serie 25/22
Origin and publication: Written on 21 September 1819 in Vienna for Maurice Schlesinger. The first edition appeared posthumously in Ludwig Nohl’s edition of Beethoven’s letters in 1865, but as early as 1863 Adolph Bernhard Marx had published a facsimile of the autograph score in the second edition of his biography of Beethoven. On 3 July 1822 the Parisian music publisher Maurice Schlesinger (1798–1871) wrote to Beethoven:
“Stets werde ich mich der Stunden erinnern die ich das Glück hatte bey Ihnen zuzubringen, den mir damals gegebenen Anfang eines Canons, ehre ich wie ein Heiligthum, und bewahre solchen mit der höchsten Sorgfalt, zur Freude aller derer die nie das Glück hatten etwas von Ihrer Hand geschriebenes zu sehen” (BGA 1476).
During his visit to Vienna in 1819, Schlesinger was introduced to Beethoven by Tobias Haslinger in Steiner’s music shop. He earned Beethoven’s favour by sending him a roast veal from Vienna to Mödling, an act Beethoven recalled with gratitude years later (BGA 1458). Schlesinger recounted the anecdote in 1859 in a letter to Adolph Bernhard Marx, who reproduced it in the second edition of his Beethoven biography.
Ludwig Misch comments: “In der Fassung, in der diese Komposition auf einem Gedenkblatt für den jüngeren Schlesinger niedergeschrieben […] und entsprechend in der Gesamtausgabe unter den Canons gedruckt ist, stellt sie keinen Kanon dar, sondern einen frei imitierenden Satz, in dem nicht eine der drei Oberstimmen das vom Baß eingeführte Motiv kanonmäßig getreu wiederholt.”
Text: based on Paul: “Glaube, Hoffnung, Liebe”, from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians 13:1–13. If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding bronze or a tinkling cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and surrender my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind; it is not envious, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. It does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, thought as a child, reasoned as a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. Now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.
The sketches will be featured in an article specially created for the Beethovenian Music Research Center, www.lvbeethoven.org
