WoO 220 Kriegslied für die zum heiligen Krieg verbündeten deutschen Heere
(lost)
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WoO 220 “War Song for the German Armies United for the Holy War.”
The text is by Zacharias Werner (1768–1823).
According to Max Unger, Beethoven composed this piece for voices and orchestra around 1813–1814. The same work is also mentioned in Unger’s article Ein verschollenes Kriegslied von Beethoven (“A Lost War Song by Beethoven”), published in the second morning edition of the Frankfurter Zeitung on June 15, 1940. Thayer, Vol. III, p. 418, also refers to the piece, of which all traces have been lost.
Official title WoO 220 Kriegslied für die verbündeten Heere Lied nach einem Gedicht von Ludwig Zacharias Werner Widmung: -NGA- AGA- SBG – (Hess 123)
Origin and Publication: Composed in Vienna in 1813–14. The work is lost. It was probably one of the compositions written by Beethoven for the Congress of Vienna. Evidence of its existence emerges solely from a letter Beethoven addressed to Georg Friedrich Treitschke, following the performance of Treitschke’s Singspiel Die gute Nachricht on 11 April 1814: “If you wish to make use, in your operetta, of the war song for the allied armies by Werner, which I have set to music, it is at your disposal” (BGA 712; regarding Treitschke’s Singspiel, see WoO 94).
Text: Ludwig Zacharias Werner (1768–1823), Kriegslied für die zum heiligen Kriege verbündeten deutschen Heere, published in Frankfurt am Main in 1813 by Johann Friedrich Werner. According to Max Unger, Werner wrote the text to the melody of Reiterlied by Christian Jakob Zahn (“Wohlauf, Kameraden, aufs Pferd, aufs Pferd”, text by Friedrich von Schiller) (Max Unger, Ein verschollenes Kriegslied von Beethoven, in Frankfurter Zeitung, 15 June 1940, second morning edition).
Bibliography: BGA 712; TDR III, p. 418.
Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner (Königsberg, 18 November 1768 – Vienna, 17 January 1823) was a German poet, dramatist, and preacher.
Werner was born in Königsberg, East Prussia. He studied law at the University of Königsberg, but his outlook on life was shaped by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his German followers. For years he oscillated violently between an aspiration toward the state of nature—which led him into a series of ill-considered and unhappy marriages—and a sentimental admiration, common among many Romantics, for the Roman Catholic Church, which in 1811—after his initiation into Freemasonry—resulted in his conversion.
Werner’s talent was recognised early, earning him, despite his temperament, a minor government post in Warsaw, later exchanged for one in Berlin. During his travels and through correspondence, Werner came into contact with many eminent literary figures of his time, and succeeded in having his plays performed with considerable success. Attila, in particular, provided the literary source on which Temistocle Solera based the libretto for the eponymous opera set to music by Giuseppe Verdi. Werner was later ordained a priest, gave up writing in favour of preaching, and became a popular preacher in Vienna, where in 1814, during the celebrated Congress, his eloquent and inspired sermons were attended by large crowds of worshippers.
(Source: Wikipedia)
