Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 01/01/2006, uploaded on 02/03/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Für Elise (Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor)         Ludwig van Beethoven

                If it had to be decided which piece contained Beethoven's most famous melody, it would probably be a toss-up between the opening notes of the Fifth Symphony or Für Elise. This short piece for solo piano is perhaps one of the most well-known compositions of all time.

                The actual title is the Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor and it dates from April 1810. However, the piece was not published until 1865, nearly four decades after Beethoven's death. Its popular title Für Elise (For Elise) has not yet been definitively explained. One possibility suggests that the work's discoverer Ludwig Nohl may have transcribed the title incorrectly and the original title may have been Für Therese. Regrettably, the original manuscript is now lost. In this case the dedicatee may have been Therese Malfatti von Rohrenbach von Dezza, to whom Beethoven proposed unsuccessfully in 1810, or the Countess Thérèse von Brunswick. The other possibility, proposed by Klaus Martin Kopitz, suggests the piece may have been written for the singer Elisabeth Röckel, the later wife of Johann Nepulmuk Hummel and a close friend of Beethoven.

                It has also been remarked that the trill-like figure that opens the piece represents the name of whoever the intended dedicatee might have been. Of the letters in the name Elise, E and S are capable of being translated into musical pitches. In Germany, the note E flat is called Es, sounding like the letter S. Thus, if the E flat is respelled enharmonically as D sharp, the resulting notes are E and D sharp which form the recurrent quasi-trill.      Joseph DuBose