WoO 178 Signor Abate! Canon
WoO 178 “Signor Abate!” Canon for Abbot Stadler, around 1820, first published in the G.A. in 1863. GA No. 265/13 (series 23, page 197), Bruers 217, KH (WoO) 178. Nottebhom, pages 162 and 164.
The original manuscript is unknown. The text is comical. To the words plaintively imploring in Italian: “Signor Abate! Io sono ammalato. Santo padre vieni e datemi la benedizione” si intrecciano quelle tedesche ben differenti: “Hol’ Sie der Teufel, wenn Sie nicht kommen!”.
[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 178 Signor Abate! Kanon (B-dur) nach einem eigenen Text Widmung: – NGA XII/2 AGA 256/13 = Serie 23/S. 197
Creation and publication: it is not possible to provide an exact date for the period of composition. The earliest source of the Canon is its first posthumous edition of 1863 as part of the AGA published by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig. According to Gustav Nottebohm, the Canon was written for Abbot Stadler. Maximilian (Johann Karl Dominik) Stadler (1748–1833) was a composer and organist. He lived in Vienna from 1796 to 1810 and again resided in the Austrian capital from 1815, and was a friend of numerous musicians (at the beginning of 1803 Beethoven had initially thought of dedicating the Variations Op. 35 to Stadler). The closing formula of Beethoven’s letter to Abbot Stadler of 26 February 1826 reads: „Ehrwürdiger Herr, ihren Seegen nächstens“. This led Alfred Chr. Kalischer to date the Canon to the summer of 1826. Kalischer had to admit that „noch keine Andeutung darauf vorgefunden“. Beethoven also seems to have alluded frequently to the cleric’s blessing, as shown by the following anecdote, quoted in the memoirs of Ignaz Franz Castelli: „Eines Nachmittags befanden sich Stadler und Beethoven bei Steiner, und als der Letztere wegging, kniete er vor Stadler nieder und sprach: ,Ehrwürdiger Herr, geben Sie mir Ihren Segen!’ — Stadler darüber gar nicht verlegen, machte das Kreuz über ihn und murmelte im Tone, als ob er ein Gebet dazu spräche: ,Nutzt’s nix, so schadt’s nix,’ Beethoven küßte die Hand und wir Uebrigen lachten“.
Assuming that the anecdote is truthful, that it happened in this way and is indeed connected with the creation of the Canon, the basic data can be determined: Sigmund Anton Steiner was Beethoven’s most important publisher from 1815; the relationship cooled considerably in 1820, and Stadler returned permanently to Vienna in 1815; one may therefore presume that a meeting between Beethoven and Stadler in Steiner’s shop and the related creation of the Canon took place between 1815 and 1820.
The sketches will be featured in an article specially created for the Beethovenian Music Research Center, www.lvbeethoven.org
