Replacement for amateurs
The Ten National Airs Varied for Piano with Flute (or Violin) Accompaniment, op. 107, is the last composition Beethoven wrote for George Thomson, the Scottish publisher and collector of folk songs. Thomson's publications were aimed at amateurs. He therefore expressly asked Beethoven to keep the part for the melody instrument simple but still brilliant "so that as many as possible of our ladies can play and enjoy them". Yet some of the variations Beethoven sent him were still too demanding, so Thomson requested replacements. The autograph score shown here with the theme and variations for numbers 6 and 7 is one of the replacements, in which Beethoven endeavoured to take into account Thomson's wishes. Did he really succeed? Wherever the flute is not separately notated, it plays the melody line in the piano, but is not really indispensable. The piano part is clearly more demanding, and so the question arises how many ladies were really in a position to be able to "play and enjoy" the music ... (J.R.)
