Two Pieces for piano (orphica) (C, F major) WoO 51

Since their first publication by Dunst of Frankfurt in 1830 these two pieces, marked 'Allegro' and 'Adagio', have been published as a piano sonata or 'easy piano sonata'. Franz Gerhard Wegeler corrected this classification in a letter to Anton Schindler dated 23 December 1827 (information kindly supplied by Klaus Martin Kopitz). Here he speaks of 'two small pieces for orphica which Beethoven composed for my wife' (Wegeler was married to Eleonore von Breuning, the pieces' dedicatee). Wegeler's statement not only raises doubts about the term 'sonata' but specifies the instrument (and thus narrows the date of origin). The orphica was a portable string instrument with keyboard that functioned basically like a small piano and had a maximum range of four octaves (though most were smaller). Carl Leopold Rölling, a glass harmonica virtuoso and inventor, built the first orphica in 1796 and described it in Vienna's Journal des Luxus und der Moden as an 'instrument which differs completely in construction from the theorbo, the lute and the English and Spanish zither (cithara) and excels them all in loveliness of sound and variety’. Critics, however, complained about the small keyboard, which in their opinion was suitable only for children or a lady's hands. The orphica did not meet with great success and few examples have survived. Its manufacture, which was exclusively limited to Vienna, ended around 1830.

How could Eleonore von Breuning have obtained such an instrument in Bonn? There were many personal ties between Bonn and Vienna. Two of her brothers, Lorenz and Stephan, lived in Vienna, Stephan between 1795 and 1796, Lorenz between 1794 and 1797. Her first husband, Franz Gerhard Wegeler, also resided in Vienna from 1794 to 1796. Thus Eleonore may well have visited her brothers or her friends Wegeler and Beethoven in Vienna. Or she may have received an orphica from them as a gift. (J.R.)