"Wo die Pulse sich jugendlich jagen", dance with chorus (B-flat major) for the play "The Consecration of the House" by Carl Meisl for soprano, chorus and orchestra WoO 98

Rarely did Beethoven record the genesis of his works in such detail as for his overture 'The Consecration of the House'. At the bottom of the first page of the manuscript we can read 'Overture written by L. v. Beethoven in late September 1822 for the inauguration of the Josephstadt Theatre – performed on 3 October 1822'. A similar note appears on a copy of the chorus for the like-named play (WoO 98). The piece was intended for the reopening of the Josephstadt Theatre on 3 October 1822, the emperors name day, by its new manager Karl Friedrich Hensler (1759-1825) after a full year of reconstruction. For the celebration Carl Meisl wrote a play entitled The Consecration of the House, and Beethoven was asked to provide incidental music. In a letter of 13 September 1822, written from his summer retreat in Baden (Vienna), Beethoven told his publisher Carl Friedrich Peters: 'Hardly had I arrived here than I met a theatrical manager who is building a theatre in Vienna which he is opening with one of my compositions. So to please him I have had to compose a few new pieces' (quoted from complete correspondence, 1496). To reduce his workload, Beethoven decided mainly to adapt his music for the play The Ruins of Athens (op. 113), which he had likewise written for the inauguration of a theatre – namely, in Pest in 1811. At the end of September he told his brother Johann: 'Meanwhile I have already composed a new dance with chorus and solo vocal pieces [WoO 98]. Health permitting, I will also compose an overture' (quoted from the complete correspondence, 1497). Although op. 113 already included an overture, Beethoven felt that a new one was indispensable, for the earlier one had entered the concert repertoire and should not be used to open a new theatre.