The only known publication of the year 1800 is the Rondo in G major, Op. 51, No. 2, which came from the press of Simrock. As for the compositions of the year it is safe to assume that Beethoven put the finishing touches to the first Symphony, the Septet, Op. 20, and the Quartets, Op. 18. Furthermore, there can be little doubt but that the Sonata for Horn, Op. 17, the Pianoforte Sonata, Op. 22, the Concerto in C minor, and the Variations for Four Hands on the melody of the song “Ich denke dein,” belong to this year. The “Variations très faciles” on an original theme in G were sketched and probably completed. The only chronological clues to the Horn Sonata are the date of its first performance, April 18, 1800, and the anecdote by Ries concerning the rapid completion of the work. No sketches have been found and nothing is known of the autograph; but according to Nottebohm the beginning of a clean copy of the Adagio is to be found among the sketches for the Sonatas Op. 22 and 23. Punto was still in Munich in 1800, and since the work seems assuredly to have been designed for him, there is equal certainty that it was composed in that year. It was published by Mollo in March, 1801. The Septet, for four strings and three wind-instruments, dedicated to the Empress Maria Theresia, was played at the concert at which the Symphony in C major was brought forward, April 2, 1800; but it had been heard previously in the house of Prince Schwarzenberg. Inasmuch as sketches for it are found among those for the Quartets, specially the one in A major, which belong to the year 1799, its inception may be placed in that year, though it was probably finished in 1800 shortly before its performance. There is no date on the autograph. It was offered to Hoffmeister in the letter of December 15, 1800, and was published by him in 1802. The Septet speedily won great popularity and was frequently transcribed. Hoffmeister had an arrangement for string quintet which he advertised on August 18, 1802. Ries thought that Beethoven had made it, but he was in error; nevertheless, Beethoven gave Hoffmeister permission to publish an arrangement in which strings were substituted for the wind-instruments, and himself transcribed it as a pianoforte trio with violin or clarinet ad lib. This arrangement was made as a tribute of gratitude from the composer to his new physician, Dr. Johann Schmidt. The doctor played the violin and his daughter the pianoforte, both fairly well, and Beethoven arranged his popular piece for family use and, as was customary at the time, gave Dr. Schmidt the exclusive possession of the music for a year.[99]
The theme of the minuet in the Septet was borrowed from the Pianoforte Sonata, Op. 49, No. 2, but its treatment is original. There has been considerable controversy without absolutely definitive result touching the melody which is varied in the Andante. Kretschmer, in his “Deutsche Volkslieder” (Berlin, 1838; Vol. I, No. 102, p. 181), prints the melody in connection with a Rhenish folksong (“Ach Schiffer, lieber Schiffer”), and there is a tradition that Czerny said that it was taken by Beethoven from that source. Nottebohm offers evidence deserving of consideration that the melody is a folktune; but Ries and Wegeler, who lived on the Rhine, had nothing to say on the subject. Erk and Böhme (“Deutscher Liederhort,” Vol. I, p. 273) publish folksongs dealing with the legend which is at the base of “Ach Schiffer, lieber Schiffer,” but the melody of the Andante is not to be found among them, and Böhme gives it as his opinion that the song printed by Kretschmer was written to Beethoven’s melody by Kretschmer’s collaborator Zuccalmaglio. It is not likely that the melody, had it lived in the mouths of the people, would have escaped so industrious a collector as Erk, who, moreover, was a native of the Rhine country. The evidence would seem to indicate that the melody was original with Beethoven.
Compositions Sketched in 1800
The Pianoforte Sonata in B-flat, Op. 22, also belongs to this year, as appears from the fact that it was offered to Hoffmeister in the letter of December 15. It was still in an unfinished state on the completion of the Sonata for Horn, as is shown by the circumstance that sketches of it are mingled with a fair transcript of a passage from the latter work. There are also sketches for Op. 22, among those for the Quartet in B-flat, Op. 18, No. 6, and the later movements of the Quartet in F—no doubt the revision. The sketches therefore belong to the year 1800, but may date back to 1799, from which it would appear that Beethoven worked an unusually long time on the Sonata. The principal labor was performed most likely in the summer of 1800, which Beethoven spent at Unterdöbling. It was published in 1802 by Hoffmeister and Kühnel. Sketches from the “Six Easy Variations” are found amongst some for the last movement of the Quartet in G, which seem to be nearly finished. Again we can fix the year as 1799 or 1800. Of special importance is the fact that the theme of the Variations is the same as the first episode of the rondo of the Sonata in B-flat, and the circumstance that the sketches are of almost the same date indicates that the identity was not accidental. The Variations were advertised as new by Traeg on December 16, 1800.
The Variations in D for four hands on the melody of Goethe’s poem, “Ich denke dein,” were conceived at practically the same time as those just described. Beethoven at first intended to give each stanza a separate setting, and to this end made two sketches, which are associated with the Quartet sketches and belong to the year 1799. He then took the melody of the first stanza as a theme for variations for four hands in the same year and wrote them into the autograph album of two sisters, the countesses Therese Brunswick and Josephine Deym. On September 22, 1803, he offered them to Hoffmeister in the place of the Trio Variations, Op. 44, with the remark that he considered them better than the latter. Hoffmeister, however, published the Trio Variations (in 1804). The Variations in D were not published until the beginning of 1805, and were described as having been written in 1800 for the two countesses mentioned, and dedicated to them.
An autograph preserved in the Royal Library in Berlin contains four of the variations on “Ich denke dein,” an Adagio in F major noted on four staves (three with treble, one with the bass clef), a Scherzo in G major, ¾ time, and an Allegro in G major, 2/4. Albert Kopfermann, who published the Adagio for the first time in No. 12, Vol. I, of “Die Musik,” considers, no doubt correctly, that the three compositions were written for an automatic musical instrument. Though the number of new compositions produced in 1800 was small, attention must be directed to the fact that the revision and completion of works for publication, together with the planning of new works, gave a deal of occupation to Beethoven. Amongst the compositions made ready for the printer were the Quartets, which were not ready till near the end of the year. To them must be added the Sonata in E-flat, Op. 27, No. 1, and the Concerto in C minor, the autograph of which distinctly bears the date 1800. It is certain, moreover, that Beethoven began working on “Prometheus” in this year, and the summer must have been a busy one for him.
Chapter XIX
The Year 1801—Concerts for Wounded Soldiers—Vigano and the Ballet “Prometheus”—Stephan von Breuning—Hetzendorf—“Christus am Ölberg”—Compositions and Publications of the Year—The Funeral March in the Sonata, Op. 26—The “Moonlight” Sonata—The Quintet, Op. 29.