{"id":39819,"date":"2022-08-02T19:04:50","date_gmt":"2022-08-02T17:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latouchemusicale.com\/?p=39819"},"modified":"2023-02-22T13:59:18","modified_gmt":"2023-02-22T12:59:18","slug":"fur-elise-anecdotes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latouchemusicale.com\/en\/fur-elise-anecdotes\/","title":{"rendered":"F\u00fcr Elise: 4 Anecdotes to Know About This Mythical Piece"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is F\u00fcr Elise<\/em>?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

F\u00fcr Elise<\/em> is a piece of classical piano music composed in Vienna in 1810 by pianist-composer Ludwig van Beethoven. Classified as a Bagatelle, the song was not really known until 1867, when it was published on score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The song is composed of 103 bars and its running time is about 3 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

F\u00fcr Elise<\/em> is now the most famous classical piano song in the world, followed closely by Pachelbel\u2019s Canon<\/a>. It has been interpreted and arranged many times throughout history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who wrote F\u00fcr Elise<\/em>?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The composer of F\u00fcr Elise<\/em> is the German pianist Ludwig van Beethoven. Very famous in his lifetime, he was even more so after his death. Today he is one of the most famous classical pianists and composers<\/a> in the world, alongside Mozart, Schubert, Debussy and Chopin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"fur
Ludwig Van Beethoven: author of F\u00fcr Elise.<\/em>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Who was Ludwig van Beethoven?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Beethoven is a German pianist and composer born in the city of Bonn in 1770.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His father, also a musician, taught him music from an early age. The young Beethoven seems to be gifted and quickly finds himself an exceptional musician.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the age of 27, Beethoven became deaf. He then composed all his symphonies, piano pieces or chamber music without being able to listen to them. Thus the Ninth Symphony<\/em> or the Missa solemnis<\/em> were born in the deafness of their author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beethoven died in 1827 in Vienna, after bequeathing to humanity an exceptional musical production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Mozart or Haydn, he was the last symbol of a movement called Viennese classicism and prepared, through his compositions, the advent of romanticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beethoven had a considerable influence on the later international music scene. He influenced not only the classical world, but also all other musical genres, and even jazz pianists<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did Beethoven write this piano piece<\/em>?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We always thought that Beethoven had written F\u00fcr Elise<\/em> to honor a certain Elise, as the name indicated. But we were not aware of any Elise in his entourage. Either the sources mentioning Elise had disappeared, or Elise had never existed\u2026 We develop this topic in several of the 4 anecdotes to follow!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4 little-known anecdotes about F\u00fcr Elise<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1 \u2013 A dedication to Therese Malfatti?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Several hypotheses are put forward as to the true dedicatee of this piece. The first of these argues that the real name of the music should have been F\u00fcr Therese<\/em>! This music is said to have been intended for a certain Therese <\/a>Malfatti, an Austrian musician close to Beethoven. The composer asked her to marry him in 1810 (the date of the composition of his F\u00fcr Eli<\/em>se) but she rejected her request. But then, why is the play called F\u00fcr Elise<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly after the death of the famous German composer, a musicologist named Ludwig Nohl discovered Beethoven\u2019s music sheet, Called Bagatelle in A minor, WoO 59<\/em>. When he read it, he realized that he could not properly discern all the letters contained in the title, especially on the name of the dedication. Nevertheless, he managed to distinguish the last two letters from the name: \u201cse\u201d. He then had the idea of arbitrarily name it \u201cElise\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 \u2013 A dedication to Therese of Brunswick?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Another hypothesis is that this name of Therese to which many clues bring us actually refers to a certain Therese from Brunswick. The latter was a pupil of Beethoven but also his lover. They were both said to have been in a romantic relationship for more than two years, from 1806 to 1808.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not the first time the composer has dedicated one of his pieces to Therese from Brunswick. In 1809, he had composed his Piano Sonata No. 24 in F sharp major, Opus 78, <\/em>which<\/em> he dedicated to Therese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 \u2013 A dedication to Elisabeth R\u00e0ckel?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A third hypothesis, more recent and made by Klaus Martin Kopitz, would be that F\u00fcr Elise<\/em> is in fact a dedication to a certain Elisabeth Rackel, German singer, who was actually named Maria Eva Elise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This assumption is viable insofar as the two protagonists had a friendly relationship, if not more (without being able to verify it). A contemporary source mentioned an interesting anecdote about it: during a dinner, Beethoven would have pinched Elizabeth\u2019s arm by gesture of affection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4 \u2013 Posthumous fame<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

F\u00fcr Elise<\/em> was not known during the author\u2019s lifetime. Indeed, as previously said, it was a musicologist who found this piece in Beethoven\u2019s affairs. Following this discovery, he decided to publish it in 1867, 40 years after the death of the German composer (Beethoven died in 1827). Thus, during all these years, the song remained unknown to the general public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

>> Learn easily F\u00fcr Elise<\/em> on La Touche Musicale app<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You certainly know F\u00fcr Elise by the pianist Beethoven. But do you know these 4 anecdotes about this composition and its author?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":39821,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"%%post_title%% %%sep%% %%sitetitle%%","_seopress_titles_desc":"You certainly know F\u00fcr Elise by the pianist Beethoven. But do you know these 4 anecdotes about this composition and its author?","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[118],"class_list":{"0":"post-39819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-articles-all-about-piano","8":"tag-default-article"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latouchemusicale.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latouchemusicale.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latouchemusicale.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latouchemusicale.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latouchemusicale.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/latouchemusicale.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latouchemusicale.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latouchemusicale.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latouchemusicale.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latouchemusicale.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}