Ludwig van Beethoven, Skizzenblatt zu Lieder verschiedener Völker, WoO 158, Nr. 7, Nr. 17 und Nr. 22, Partitur, Autograph

Continental songs for Thomson

Once Beethoven had successfully arranged numerous Irish, Scottish and Welsh folk-songs for the Scottish publisher and collector of folk-songs George Thomson between 1810 and 1815, the latter approached him on 1 January 1816 with a new idea. He wanted to go beyond the British Isles and was considering publishing continental songs. In his letter he mentioned setting two or three songs from Germany, Poland, Russia, the Tyrol, Venice and Spain respectively. Beethoven accordingly sent Thomson a package with arrangements on 2 May 1816. In his letter of 8 July 1816, in which Thomson confirmed the arrival of the package, he also commissioned a further eleven songs. He sent seven melodies with the letter, asking Beethoven to choose the other four himself, preferably Swedish, Danish, Sicilian and Calabrian ones. Beethoven chose one from Sweden, one from Hungary and two from the Tyrol, which he arranged for Thomson following the usual pattern: for voice with piano, violin and cello accompaniment. Three of these four settings can be found on this leaf. The first two pages contain the complete version of the Swedish lullaby (WoO 158, 1st part, no. 17), but without the voice. The draft for the Tyrolean song (WoO 158, 1st part, no. 7) begins at the bottom of page 2 and on the last page there is a sketch for the Hungarian grape harvest song (WoO 158, 1st part, no. 22). It is not quite clear where Beethoven found the melodies. The Hungarian song appeared in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung's sixteenth year in 1816, although the Swedish lullaby did not. Printed collections of folk-songs could, however, be purchased at that time. (J.R.)