WoO 223 Thut auf, two-part canon for voice in C major
WoO 223 “Thut Auf” (Open) Canon (in C major), based on a separate text for two voices, NGA XII/2 AGA –
Origin and publication: Composed in August/September 1820 in Vienna. The first edition was published posthumously in 2003 in William Kinderman’s edition of Beethoven’s sketchbook Artaria 195.
While Gustav Nottebohm described the sketches in the Artaria 195 notebook as a “sketch in canon form” (Nottebohm, Beethoveniana II, p. 462), William Kinderman concluded that “Thut Auf functions well as a perpetual canon, in which the beginning represents the end.”
Sources:
1: sketches not extant.
2: D-B, Mus. ms. autogr. Beethoven Artaria 195, p. 75. Date: August/September 1820 (Kinderman, Artaria 195, vol. 1, p. 13).
Paper: horizontal, 25 x 30 cm, 16 staves.
Provenance: Artaria Publishing Archive, Vienna. Acquired at auction 1827 – Erich Prieger, Bonn, from 1897 – acquired 1901. Facsimile and description: Kinderman, Artaria 195. Further description: Klein/Katalog, pp. 180–189.
First edition: 2003, in Kinderman, Artaria 195, vol. 3, p. 75 (reproduction and transcription).
Documentary sources: Kinderman, Artaria 195, vol. 1, pp. 92–93; Nottebohm, Beethoveniana II, p. 462.
Mark Zimmer e Albert Willem Holsbergen wrote on the site www.unheardbeethoven.org: This short song (identified by Nottebohm and Biamonti as a canon) is found at page 75 of the Artaria 195 sketchbook amongst much sketch material for the Missa Solemnis, op. 123 and the piano sonata op. 109, as well as a number of small piano pieces that ended up as op.119 nrs. 7-11. The phrase “Thut auf” (Open up) is the sole phrase written into what appears to have been intended as a vocal piece of some kind. William Kinderman, in his commentary on the Artaria 195 sketchbook, notes that “in its character and intervallic structure, employing the falling third E-C within a larger descending progression, it bears a faint similarity to the beginning of the fugato in the finale of the Piano Sonata in A Major, op. 101.” It does not appear to be a strict canon, but lends itself to repetition in perpetuum. We have here repeated it only once, lest an infinitely large midi file overwhelm our server.
It is possible that “Thut auf” is derived from the poem “Frühlingsgruß” (Spring Greetings) by Wilhelm Müller. That poem appears in the collection “Gedichte aus den hinterlassenen Papieren eines reisenden Waldhornisten 1” (Poems from the Abandoned Papers of a Wandering Horn Player, vol. 1), which was published under the date 1821, but which according to the German de.wikisource.org actually appeared in October 1820. It may also have been printed earlier in a literary journal, which were common at this time. This poem contains the lines, “Thut auf, thut auf die Fensterlein” (Open up, open up the windows!), which with some repetition scans exactly with Beethoven’s upper voice. The bass line Beethoven provides contains a different phrase that scans nicely with the next line of the poem, “Ihr Mägdlein, laßt den Frühling ein!” (You girls, let the spring in!). Such a sentiment would appeal to Beethoven, who loved the out of doors and fresh air.
The score for Willem’s completion of this Canonsc work, long disregarded in the literature, may be downloaded here.
Frühlingsgruß
Du heller linder Abendwind,
Flieg hin zu meinem Schatz geschwind,
Es wird dich nicht verdrießen,
Und fächl’ ihr sanft um Wang’ und Kinn,
Treib deine jüngsten Düfte hin
Und sprich: Der Lenz läßt grüßen!
Die Laute nehm’ ich von der Wand
Und schlinge drum ein grünes Band.
Ein Vöglein hort’ ich schlagen,
Es schlug: Wer bindet an mit mir
Zu Lieb’ und Sang ein Festturnier
In grünen Rosenhagen?
Wohlauf im hellen Mondenschein,
Durch alle Gassen aus und ein
Mit Fiedeln und Schalmeien!
Thut auf, thut auf die Fensterlein,
Ihr Mägdlein, laßt den Frühling ein!
Dürft euch vor ihm nicht scheuen.
Er ist ein wohlgezogner Gast,
Ein Knäblein jung und blöde fast,
Auch etwas unerfahren;
Nehmt Amorn ihm als Lehrer an,
So wird er bald ein kluger Mann,
Noch eh’ er kommt zu Jahren.
Du heller linder Abendwind,
Was meint zu dir das liebe Kind,
Gefällt ihr deine Kunde?
Gut’ Nacht, Gut’ Nacht!
Die Fenster zu! Der neue
Gast verlangt nach Ruh’,
Der Wächter bläst die Stunde.
Johann Ludwig Wilhelm Müller (Dessau, 7 October 1794 – Dessau, 30 September 1827) was a German poet, best known for the texts he supplied to Franz Schubert’s Lieder.
Born into a family of artisans—his father Christian Leopold Müller was a shoemaker—he studied at the Dessau Gymnasium and then at the University of Berlin from 1812, focusing on historiography and philology. In Berlin, he engaged with leading Romantic intellectuals, including Gustav Schwab, Achim von Arnim, Clemens Brentano, and Ludwig Tieck. In 1813, he interrupted his studies to volunteer in the Prussian army, taking part in the battles of Lützen, Bautzen, Hanau, and Kulm. After postings in Prague and Brussels, he returned to Dessau in 1814 and completed his degree in Berlin in 1817.
Müller’s first poems appeared in 1816 in Bundesblüten, a collection of patriotic German songs by veterans of the Napoleonic Wars. After graduation, he was admitted to the Berlin Academy of Sciences and joined Baron Albert von Sack on a study tour to Italy. He spent 1818 in Rome and Naples, publishing his travel impressions in 1820 as Rom, Römer und Römerinnen.
In 1819, Müller became professor of Latin and Greek at the Dessau Gymnasium, and in 1820 librarian at the ducal library. In 1821, he married Adelaide Basedow, with whom he had two children: Auguste and Friedrich Max, the latter later a distinguished historian and philologist.
Müller was a prolific scholar and writer. In his brief life, he produced poetry, a textbook on Homeric poetry, a translation of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, a ten-volume anthology of 17th-century German poetry with Karl August Förster, and initiated a collection of Italian folk songs completed posthumously by Oskar Ludwig Bernhard Wolff. He died suddenly of a heart attack at 32.
Although Müller is no longer considered a major literary figure, his poetry was immortalised by Schubert, whose song cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise owe much to Müller’s verse.
Müller also made an early critical contribution to travel literature. In a four-part series published between 1820 and 1821 in Hermes oder kritisches Jahrbuch der Literatur, Reisebeschreibungen über Italien, he surveyed English, French, and German travel writing on Italy, evaluating it with acute critical insight. In the final part, he recognised the significance of medieval Italian artists, previously largely overlooked, establishing a foundation for Italian travel writing as an independent literary genre.