WoO 225 (previously Hess 303 ) – Grossen Dank, Canon (sketch)
for Archduke Rudolf
WoO 225 (previously Hess 303 ) – Grossen Dank, Canon (sketch) for Archduke Rudolf, July 1823. WoO 225 – Hess 303.
“Grossen Dank, Canon (sketch) for Archduke Rudolf, July 1823.
It concerns a canon, “Grossen Dank für solche Gnade”, which Beethoven, in two letters of July 1823 to Archduke Rudolf, states he composed for him, and which the Archduke himself mentions in his reply of 31 July. The music, however, is not transmitted; only Nottebohm refers to a sketch—listed above—among the drafts for the Ninth Symphony. Nothing relating to it has been found among the Archduke’s papers. The canon was resolved by Albert Willem Holsbergen. For further details, see the website www.unheardbeethoven.org.
James Green: “Grossen Dank für solche Gnade” (“Many thanks for such a favour”). See the references in Thayer IV, pp. 441–3, and in Thayer V, p. 21, where it is maintained that the canon “Grossen Dank”, mentioned by Beethoven in a letter of July 1823, appears among the sketches for the Adagio of the Ninth Symphony (the canon is noted in Beethoven’s sketchbook Landsberg 8, p. 100). In any case, it survives only in sketch form, and was published in Nottebohm II, p. 177.
[The letter in question is Anderson 1214 / Brandenburg 1713, written to Archduke Rudolf in July 1823. In truth, Beethoven does not actually cite the canon in the letter; it is not included in the letter, and no trace of it survives there. What Hess does not state very clearly is that it is Thayer (i.e., Riemann) who maintains that the “canon” was found among the Ninth Symphony sketches, whereas in fact only sketches for the canon are present, not the complete canon. Nottebohm published only those sketches. Beethoven scholarship (Nottebohm, Unger, and Kinsky/Halm) generally refers to the piece simply as a “canon for two voices”. A. Willem Holsbergen, however, has realised it both in four and eight voices. For additional information, see the website www.unheardbeethoven.org. Holsbergen writes: “It seems plausible to me that Beethoven had in mind the four-voice solution (the second voice entering one bar later, a second below; the third voice entering after two bars, a third below; and the fourth voice entering after three bars, a fourth below), rather than the rather uninteresting two-voice version.”]
The canon, so designated by Beethoven himself in the aforementioned letter, is also written on page 100, penultimate stave, of the sketchbook known as Landsberg 8, named after its first owner. The Landsberg 8 sketchbook is held in Berlin at the Staatsbibliothek. It is written in ink and in a hand that is quite easy to decipher; however, Beethoven does not write out the full text, leaving the central portion without words and marking only two short strokes. In order to complete the canon, I have therefore assumed that the text repeats the opening three times before concluding with “für solche Gnade”.
As he often does in his sketches, Beethoven does not indicate either the clef or the key signature in which the canon is to be performed; Nottebohm, on this point, suggests treble clef and the key of C major. I, on the other hand, considering the opening and final notes, have attempted to realise it in G major. Willem Holsbergen writes on the website www.unheardbeethoven.org: “It seems plausible to me that Beethoven had in mind the four-voice solution (the second voice entering after one bar, a second below; the third voice entering after two bars, a third below; and the fourth voice entering after three bars, a fourth below), rather than the rather uninteresting two-voice version.”
In this regard, I do not agree with Holsbergen’s version because, unless one were to add a fifth voice, the canon as thus conceived would lack a proper conclusion; but above all, this solution generates a series of parallel fourths that are not particularly pleasing to the ear. Another resolution—slightly less orthodox than the two-voice version in unison with asymmetrical entries—might be a five-voice one, with the third and fifth voices in unison two bars apart, and the second and fourth voices a fourth below, entering a bar and a half after the first and third respectively, as shown in the example.
Letter 1713
Beethoven to Archduke Rudolf
[Hetzendorf, shortly before 25 July 1823]
Your Imperial Highness,
on returning from a short stroll, humming a canon, “Grossen Dank +++”, I was on the point of setting it down on paper for Your Imperial Highness when I found myself confronted by a petitioner harbouring the foolish notion that his request might be more favourably received by Your Imperial Highness if presented through me. What was I to do? It is never too early to perform a good deed, and at times even the foolish must be granted a hearing.
The bearer of this letter is Mr Drechsler, Kapellmeister of the theatres of Josephstadt and Baden; he aspires to the post of second Court Organist. He has a solid knowledge of thoroughbass, is an able organist, and is also esteemed as a composer — all qualities which may recommend him for that position. He believes, rightly, that the best recommendation, the one that could secure him the post with certainty, would be that of Your Imperial Highness, since Your Imperial Highness, as a great connoisseur and performer, is better able than any other to appreciate true merit. His Imperial Majesty would, of course, attach greater value to such a testimonial than to any other. I therefore add my humble plea to that of Mr D[rechsler], knowing full well the kindly and gracious disposition of Your Imperial Highness, in the hope that the august protector and promoter of all that is good will likewise in this case lend his support as far as lies in his power.
Tomorrow you will receive my canon together with the confession of my sins, conscious and unconscious, for which I shall implore Your magnanimous absolution. Alas, my eyes do not yet permit me to convey in person to Your Imperial Highness my wishes for every blessing.
Your Imperial Highness’s most faithful and most devoted servant,
Beethoven
Postscript
It is furthermore worth noting that Mr v. D. has been an unpaid professor of thoroughbass at St Anna for ten years.
To His Imperial Highness Archduke Rudolf,
most eminent Cardinal, etc. etc.
Source: autograph, one bifolium, three written pages; Vienna, Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (A 84/132).
