Beethoven's dream
Beethoven loved plays on words. He often teased his close friends in particular with playful letters and musical jokes. Tobias Haslinger was often on the receiving end of such friendly teasing, as was Sigmund Anton Steiner, the owner of a publishing house of the same name. In 1821 Haslinger was still an employee there. The letter really only serves the purpose of sending a canon to Haslinger on the text "O Tobias, Dominus Haslinger, o!". Beethoven first of all notes it down as a simple canon, then in full in a three-part score.
Beethoven describes the supposed genesis of the composition in rather flowery terms, whereby the irony cannot be ignored. On a journey from Baden to Vienna he had fallen asleep and dreamt of a journey through the Orient. In Jerusalem the Bible came to him and with it the name Tobias, as well as the one-part melody noted. However, on waking up again he had forgotten this. When he covered the same stretch of road on the way back, this time awake, a similar melody occurred to him, which he then wrote down as a three-part canon (WoO 182).
Beethoven ends the letter with exhortations that Haslinger should please think of his soul - this was also a topic which often came up in Beethoven's correspondence with Haslinger and seemed to be a running joke between the two of them. (J.R.)
