[99] It was performed for the first time at a concert of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde on April 4, 1824, but it had been completed a long time before.
[100] “Zweit. Beeth.,” p. 540 et seq.
[101] Czerny wrote in the catalogue of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde concerning this song, the “Opferlied” and “Der Kuss,” “sketched at a very early period.” The note cannot be considered seriously, as there is nothing to show that he had any information on the subject.
[102] See list of compositions in the chapter of this work devoted to 1809.
[103] B. and H., Series XXV, Nos. 120 and 287.
[104] See ante.
[105] Nottebohm’s “Zweit. Beeth.,” p. 208.
[106] Page 157 et seq.
[107] There are several stories touching the origin of the fugue-theme of the Scherzo of the D minor symphony, which may be given for what they are worth. Czerny says that the theme occurred to Beethoven while listening to the twittering of sparrows in a garden. Holz told Jahn that one evening Beethoven was seated in the forest at Schönbrunn and in the gloaming fancied he saw all about him a multitude of gnomes popping in and out of their hiding-places; and this stirred his fancy to the invention of the theme. Another story has it that it flashed into his mind with a sudden outbursting glitter of lights after he had long been seated in the dark.
[108] “Sinfonie at the beginning only 4 voices, 2 viol. viola, basso, amongst them forte with other voices and if possible bring in all the other instruments one by one and gradually.”