Saturday Scenes

On the 27th of April in 1810, Beethoven composed the batatelle Für Elise. Ludwig Nohl discovered the manuscript in the possession of Babette Bredl forty years after Beethoven’s death. The original score included a dedication in Beethoven’s handwriting: For Elise on the 27th April for rememberance from L v. Bthvn.

The original manuscript has since been lost but one question remains: Who was Elise?

Für Elise – Wikipedia

Max Unger suggested that Ludwig Nohl may have transcribed the title incorrectly and the original work may have been named “Für Therese”, a reference to Therese Malfatti von Rohrenbach zu Dezza (1792–1851). She was a friend and student of Beethoven’s to whom he proposed in 1810, though she turned him down to marry the Austrian nobleman and state official Wilhelm von Droßdik in 1816.

According to a 2010 study by Klaus Martin Kopitz, there is evidence that the piece was written for the German soprano singer Elisabeth Röckel (1793–1883), later the wife of Johann Nepomuk Hummel. “Elise”, as she was called by a parish priest (she called herself “Betty” too), had been a friend of Beethoven’s since 1808. In the meantime, the Austrian musicologist Michael Lorenz has shown that Rudolf Schachner, who in 1851 inherited Therese von Droßdik’s musical scores, was the illegitimate son of Babette Bredl (who in 1865 let Nohl copy the autograph in her possession). Thus the autograph must have come to Babette Bredl from Therese von Droßdik’s estate and Kopitz’s hypothesis is refuted.

In 2012, the Canadian musicologist Rita Steblin suggested that Juliane Katharine Elisabet Barensfeld, who used “Elise” as a variant first name, might be the dedicatee. Born in Regensburg and treated for a while as child prodigy, she first travelled on concert tours with Beethoven’s friend Johann Nepomuk Mälzel, also from Regensburg, and then lived with him for some time in Vienna where she received singing lessons from Antonio Salieri. Steblin argues that Beethoven dedicated this work to the 13-year-old Elise Barensfeld as a favour to Therese Malfatti who lived opposite Mälzel’s and Barensfeld’s residence and who might have given her piano lessons. Steblin admits that question marks remain for her conclusion.

Meanwhile, the solo piano piece is one of Beethoven’s best known pieces.

On the 27th of April in 2013, the following photographs were composed and carefully preserved in hopes of equally confusing future generations:

And here are the creators of classics that took them:

• ClareRevell
• pendrift
• davey_steven
• noirem
• akaSylvia
• exRAFairman
• JanetIsserlis
• Jo_1067
• SockYarnShop
• martin_chrisj
• robdavies
• akrabat
• thermalhound
• icklemouse
• RacingHippo
• drewbenn
• HeideSpruck
• WadeyLady001
• madyline
• Pewari
• dugghelen
• dudleypj
• annemnicholas
• jamesnnb
• rnout

Would you like to see your photograph featured here?

Simply take a photo on a Saturday and tweet it to @SatScenes! Every week I retweet the Saturday Scenes and then collect them all for a special post here. We’d love to see yours.