Für Elise

Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor (WoO59, Bia515) for solo piano, commonly known as "Für Elise" (, ), is one of Ludwig van Beethoven's most popular compositions. It was not published during his lifetime, only being discovered (by Ludwig Nohl) 40 years after his death, and may be termed either a ''Bagatelle'' or an . The identity of "Elise" is unknown; researchers have suggested Therese Malfatti, Elisabeth Röckel, or Elise Barensfeld.

History

The score was not published until 1867, forty years after the composer's death in 1827. The discoverer of the piece, Ludwig Nohl, affirmed that the original autograph manuscript, now lost, had the title: "Für Elise am 27 April 810zur Erinnerung von L. v. Bthvn" ("For Elise on April 27 in memory by L. v. Bthvn"). The music was published as part of Nohl's ''Neue Briefe Beethovens'' (New letters by Beethoven) on pages 28 to 33, printed in Stuttgart by Johann Friedrich Cotta.

The version of "Für Elise" heard today is an earlier version that was transcribed by Ludwig Nohl. There is a later version, with drastic changes to the accompaniment which was transcribed from a later manuscript by the Beethoven scholar Barry Cooper. The most notable difference is in the first theme, the left-hand arpeggios are delayed by a 16th note. There are a few extra bars in the transitional section into the B section; and finally, the rising A minor arpeggio figure is moved later into the piece. The tempo marking ''Poco moto'' is believed to have been on the manuscript that Ludwig Nohl transcribed (now lost). The later version includes the marking ''Molto grazioso''. It is believed that Beethoven intended to add the piece to a cycle of bagatelles.

Whatever the validity of Nohl's edition, an editorial peculiarity contained in it involves whether the second right-hand note in bar 7, that is, the first note of the three-note upbeat figure that characterizes the main melody, is an E4 or a D4. Nohl's score gives E4 in bar 7, but D4 thereafter in all parallel passages. Many editions change all of the figures to beginning with E4 until the final bars, where D4 is used and resolved by adding a C to the final A octave. A point in favor of the D4 is that the ascending seventh of the motive in this form is repeated in sequence in bars 9 to 11 that begin the second section of the principal theme.

The pianist and musicologist argued in his thesis and his 2010 book ''Beethoven al piano'' (new Italian edition: ''Beethoven al pianoforte'', 2014) that Beethoven might not have been the person who gave the piece the form that we know today. Chiantore suggested that the original signed manuscript, upon which Ludwig Nohl claimed to base his transcription, may never have existed. On the other hand, Barry Cooper wrote, in a 1984 essay in ''The Musical Times'', that one of two surviving sketches closely resembles the published version.

Identity of "Elise"

It is not certain who "Elise" was, although a list of possible dedicatees have been suggested by various scholars over the years. Evidence suggests that "Elise" was a close friend of Beethoven and probably an important figure in his life.

Therese Malfatti

Max Unger suggested that Ludwig Nohl may have transcribed the title incorrectly and the original work may have been named "Für Therese", a reference to Therese Malfatti von Rohrenbach zu Dezza (1792–1851). She was a friend and student of Beethoven's to whom he supposedly proposed in 1810, though she turned him down to marry the Austrian nobleman and state official Wilhelm von Droßdik in 1816. Note that the piano sonata no. 24, dedicated to Countess Thérèse von Brunswick, is also referred to sometimes as "für Therese". The Austrian musicologist Michael Lorenz Michael Lorenz
"'Die enttarnte Elise'. Die kurze Karriere der Elisabeth Röckel als Beethovens 'Elise'"
, ''Bonner Beethoven-Studien'' vol. 9, (Bonn 2011), 169–90. has shown that Rudolf Schachner, who in 1851 inherited Therese von Droßdik's musical scores, was the son of Babette Bredl, born out of wedlock. Babette in 1865 let Nohl copy the autograph in her possession. Dr. Robert Greenberg, who teaches much music through "The Great Courses", as well as the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and elsewhere, points out that Beethoven's notoriously sloppy handwriting might easily have lead to the title "Fur Therese" being misread as "Fur Elise".

Elisabeth Röckel

According to a 2010 study by Klaus Martin Kopitz, there is evidence that the piece was written for the 17-year-old German soprano singer Elisabeth Röckel (1793–1883), the younger sister of Joseph August Röckel, who played Florestan in the 1806 revival of Beethoven's opera ''Fidelio''. "Elise", as she was called by a parish priest (later she called herself "Betty"), had been a friend of Beethoven's since 1808, who, according to Kopitz, perhaps wanted to marry her. But in April 1810 Elisabeth Röckel got an engagement at the theater in Bamberg where she made her stage debut as Donna Anna in Mozart's ''Don Giovanni'' and became a friend of the writer E. T. A. Hoffmann. In 1811 Röckel came back to Vienna, in 1813 she married there Beethoven's friend Johann Nepomuk Hummel.

In 2015 Kopitz published further sources about Beethoven's relationship to Röckel and the famous piano piece. It shows that she was also a close friend of Anna Milder-Hauptmann and lived together with her and her brother Joseph August in the Theater an der Wien. In a letter to Röckel, which she wrote in 1830, she indeed called her "Elise".

In 2020 an extended English version of Kopitz's essay was published with some new sources.

Elise Barensfeld

In 2014, the Canadian musicologist Rita Steblin