Arrangement for military music
The model for this copy of the Septet op. 20 was an arrangement for eleven wind instruments by Bernhard Crusell, which was published by Peters in Leipzig in 1825. Bernhard Crusell (1775-1838) was a famous Swedish clarinet virtuoso, composer and translator of the time (he translated great opera libretti into Swedish with great success). Crusell had learnt his trade in a military band and was the musical director of the two royal grenadier regiments in Stockholm from 1818 onwards. So it is not surprising that he arranged Beethoven's septet for military band instruments: flute in E flat, so-called clarinet in E flat, 2 clarinets in B flat, 2 horns in E flat, 2 bassoons, trumpet, serpent and trombone. Of note in this instrumentation is the use of the flute in E flat and serpent (a bass instrument with a serpentine curve, played with a cup mouthpiece from a brass instrument), both of which were typically used in military music in the nineteenth century.
Crusell's arrangement received a very favourable review in the Frankfurt Allgemeiner musikalischer Anzeiger in 1826: "The famous melodious work, which would alone be sufficient to represent Beethoven's earlier period, has been arranged with taste and experience for flute, a (small) clarinet in E flat and 2 in B flat, 2 horns, 2 bassoons, trumpet, serpent and trombone, and is also extremely effective in this form." (J.R.)
