WoO 182 O Tobias!, Canon
The musical examples on this page are by Graziano Denini.
WoO 182 – “O Tobias!”, Canon for Haslinger, 10 September 1821, published by Nottebohm in the Allgemeine Musikzeitung of 21 October 1863. G.A. 256/9 (Series 23, page 189) Bruers 213 – KH (WoO) 182 – Thayer 226 – Nottebohm, pages 162/10.
It is introduced in the letter written by Beethoven to his friend and publisher Tobias Haslinger on 10 September 1821 and is preserved in the Beethovenhaus. Unger cites some existing sketches in the library of the Paris Conservatory. Text: “O Tobias! Dominus Haslinger! O! O!”. Other Canons and musical jokes directed at Haslinger are those listed under numbers 794, 806, 843, 884 in the Biamonti catalogue.
Official title: WoO 182 O Tobias! Kanon (d-moll) nach einem eigenen Text Widmung: -NGA XII/2 AGA 256/9 = Serie 23/S. 189
Outlined at the beginning of September 1821, transcribed in two versions in a letter addressed to Tobias Haslinger on 10 September 1821. The first edition was published posthumously in 1863 in the Leipziger Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung. Tobias (Carl) Haslinger (1787–1842) worked from around 1813 as managing director at the publishing house of Sigmund Anton Steiner in Vienna. In 1815, he merged with Steiner to form the joint company S.A. Steiner & Comp. Beethoven sent Haslinger the Canon with a letter dated 10 September 1821 (BGA 1439). The composer himself recounts the anecdote of the composition:
„Als ich gestern auf dem Weege nach vien mich im wagen befand, überfiel mich der schlaf um so mehr als ich beynahe nie (des FrüHaufstehens wegen hier) recht geschlafen hatte, – während ich nun schlummerte, so traümte mir, ich reiste sehr weit nicht weniger nach Siryen nicht weniger nach Indien – wieder zurück nicht weniger nach arabien, endlich kam ich gar nach Jerusalem die Heilge stadt erregte den gedanken an die Heilgen Bücher kein Wunder, wenn mir nun auch der Name Tobias einfiel, u. wie natürlich mußte mir also auch unser Tobiasser‘l und das pertobiassen dabey in den Sinn kommen, nun fiel mir während meiner Traum-reise folgender Canon Ein: [Einzeilige Notierung] allein kaum erwachte ich, fort war der Canon u. es wollte mir nichts mehr davon in’s Gedächtniß kommen, jedoch als ich mich anderen Tages wieder hieher begab im selben Fuhrwerk (eines armen österreichschen Musikanten) u. die gestrige Traumreise wieder jezt wachend fort-sezte, siehe da, gemäß dem Gesez der IdeenAssociation fiel mir wieder selber Canon ein, ich hielt ihn nun wachend fest, wie einst Menelaos den Proteus, u. erlaubte ihm nur noch, daß er sich in 3 Stimmen verwandlen durfte: [Notation in score].“
The sketches are intermixed with those for the Sonata Op. 110. In the letter to Haslinger there is a one-line transcription and a score with a freely composed central part. William Drabkin states: „The addition of a third voice […] gives the piece greater internal movement and, at the same time, a harmonic fullness that a simple succession of sixths and tenths cannot achieve.“
Sources: autograph and sketches
(1) D-B, Mus. SM. autogr. Beethoven Artaria 197, page 1. Facsimile and description: Drabkin/Artaria97; additional facsimile: SBB/.
(2) F-Pc (in: Pn), Ms 51
(3) folio 2, and Ms 99, sheets 1–2. The sheets belong to a reconstructed pocket notebook from late 1821. Dating of the sketches for WoO 182: beginning of September 1821 (JTW p. 381), facsimile: Gallica.
Score: D-B Nba, BH 23, sheet 1verso–2, letter to Tobias Haslinger (BGA 1439). Dating: 9/10/1821. Double page; WoO 182 at the bottom of sheet 1verso, score on sheet 2recto at the bottom and 2verso at the top. Paper: vertical format, 23 × 19.5 cm, with freehand lines. Provenance: Carl Meinert, Dessau (Catalogue/Bonn 1890 no. 320) – Countess Irma Adelmann von Adelmannsfelden, Wiesbaden – acquired in 1913. Facsimile and description: DBH/online.
First Edition 1863. In: Gustav Nottebohm, with numerous previously unpublished letters of Beethoven. AmZ, Neue Folge 1 (1863), 21 October 1863, column 727f (Canon open and closed). Letter documents: BGA 1439, 1444. Bibliography: Drabkin/Artaria 197 Vol. 2 p. 30. Indices: Thayer/1865 no. 226 (p. 140) — Nottebohm/1868 p. 162 (no. 10) — Hess/Green no. 285.
Letter to Tobias Haslinger, page 2 (Canon)
Letter to Tobias Haslinger, page 3 (Canon resolution – Part I)
Letter to Tobias Haslinger page 4 (Canon resolution – Part II)
The original letter is kept at the Beethovenhaus in Bonn and is catalogued as BH 23. Unlike other Beethovenian Canons, it also contains its resolution. In Paris there are preparatory sketches (Ms 51/3b, Ms 99), probably part of a single pocket notebook, preceded and followed by sketches for the second and third movements of Sonata Op. 110 (as defined in the book by D. Johnson, A. Tyson, and R. Winter, Pocket Sketchbook of Late 1821), while sketches for this same Canon can also be found on the first page of Artaria 197.
In this regard, what D. Johnson, A. Tyson, and R. Winter write is very interesting: that this Canon was composed during the writing of Sonata Op. 110 and the Credo for Mass Op. 123.
It is a two-voice Canon at the octave, with the addition of another voice that intones a different melody, beginning with a motif echoing the “Dies Irae” from Mozart’s Requiem.
In the original manuscript, at measures 13–14 Beethoven inserts two sforzandos, but in the realisation they are omitted; I have followed this indication. In the second voice, the non-canon part, at measure 12 Beethoven does not indicate whether the C should be sharp or natural, but since we are in dominant harmony and in other passages Beethoven marks a natural, I would consider this note as a continuation of C#.
I find, however, some liberties taken by various transcribers incomprehensible: Rudolph Klein, at measure 5, indicates the D of the first movement as a quaver followed by a quaver rest; Beethoven correctly indicates a minim D (a rest in the middle of the word “Dominus” would make no sense).
In the Breitkopf edition, the second voice, the free one, is written in treble clef an octave higher; Beethoven, however, writes this melody in tenor clef and an octave lower.
Sketch No. 1 in the manuscript Ms 51/3b at the National Library of France
Sketch No. 2 in the manuscript Ms 51/3b at the National Library of France
Sketch No. 1 in the manuscript Ms. 99 at the National Library of France
Sketch No. 2 in the manuscript Ms. 99 at the National Library of France
Artaria 197 – Sketch page 1 lines 1-4
