WoO 196 Es muss sein! scherzo or idea for a canon
WoO 196 “Es muss sein!”, scherzo or idea for a canon, April 1826, was published in facsimile in the Zeitschrift für Deutschlands Musikvereine und Dilettanten by Gassner (Karlsruhe), 1844, Part 3, later by Thayer, and more recently by M.A.F. (1957) and Hess in the fifth fascicle of the Supplemente zur GA, 1962. Bruers 331 – Hess 270 – KH (WoO) 196 – L., IV, page 353/h, 2 T. 261.
The KH catalog provides no information about the original manuscript. For the various solutions, see Thayer, R., and M.A.I. as cited above. According to Holz, a wealthy Viennese music lover, Hofkrieger Dembscher, was unable to attend the premiere of the Quartet Op. 130 performed by the Schuppanzig ensemble. He planned to have the work privately repeated at his residence by other musicians and sought to obtain the parts. Initially, Beethoven was angry but eventually agreed, requesting a sum of 50 florins as compensation for Schuppanzig. The words with which Dembscher accepted the request, “Wenn es sein Muss!”, interpreted with a sense of humorous fatalism, provided Beethoven with the first inspiration for the playful canon in question: “Es muss sein! heraus mit den Beutel!”
[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 196 Es muß sein! Kanon (F-dur) nach einem eigenen Text Widmung: – NGAXII/2 AGA- SBG V/51 (2. Auflage: 52; Hess 270)
Origin and publication: probably written between 31 July and 3 August 1826. The first edition was published posthumously in 1908 in Alexander W. Thayer’s biography of Beethoven. The wealthy music patron and cellist Ignaz Dembscher (c. 1776–1838) frequently organized string quartet concerts at his home, mainly featuring Joseph Mayseder’s Quartet Association. Beethoven had, on several occasions, provided him with parts from his quartets.
Dembscher had not attended the premiere of Op. 130 on 21 March 1826, performed by the Schuppanzigh Quartet in Vienna, but boasting that he could present better musicians at his own residence, he claimed that he would surely receive the scores from Beethoven. Beethoven was upset by this and, in April 1826, responded to Dembscher’s request for the material, demanding 50 florins as compensation for Schuppanzigh. Initially, Dembscher refused to pay and asked Karl Holz to mediate with Beethoven, which Holz declined.
According to Holz’s recollections, in July 1826 Dembscher asked “ob es seyn muß,” unintentionally inspiring both the canon and the theme of the finale of Op. 135. Dembscher eventually paid the 50 florins on Schuppanzigh’s name day, 31 July 1826. Between 31 July and 3 August 1826, Beethoven wrote a letter in a conversation book, to which the canon was to be attached. On 3 August, Karl Holz noted in the conversation book: “Den Canon möchte ich mir gerne abschreiben; ich will ihn machen lassen.” By the end of August 1826, he recorded: “Mir liegt so wenig daran, daß ich ihn [Dembscher] nicht einmahl ärgern will. Wenn ich so gemein seyn wollte, wie er, so könnte ich mich leicht rächen; ich ließe den Canon drucken, mit einer Anekdote, daß man ihn mit Händen greifen sollte.”
Holz published the anecdote only in 1843, when he issued the canon as a facsimile in Gassner’s Zeitschrift für Deutschlands Musik-Vereine und Dilettanten, accompanied by an “Original-Anecdote von Beethoven.” While in 1826 Beethoven’s anger at Dembscher was still strong, the reason for the 1843 publication (Dembscher had died in 1838) lay in correcting Anton Schindler’s erroneous account of the incident and its origin. Schindler had claimed that the motto “Muß es sein – Es muß sein” arose from Beethoven’s weekly discussions with his housekeeper, which Holz described as “ganz unrichtig” and “reine Erfindung.” Holz does not name Dembscher directly, referring to him instead as “ein in Wien bekannter wohlhabender Musikliebhaber D***.”
The sketches will be featured in an article specially created for the Beethoven Music Research Center, www.lvbeethoven.org
