In December 1799, a song was published in London with the title “La Tiranna” described as “A Favourite Canzonetta for the Pianoforte, composed by L. van Beethoven of Vienna.” This was the first publication of Beethoven’s music in England.
Despite the Italian title and its description as a canzonetta (a type of Italian song), “La Tiranna” (“Tyranny”) has an English text. It’s Beethoven’s only setting of English-language verse prior to his British folk song settings a decade later.
The English-language text of “La Tiranna” was supplied to Beethoven by English writer and traveler William Wennington, who is known to have visited Vienna in 1798. He might have translated the text from an Italian source. The verses follow.
Ah grief to think! Ah woe to name,
The doom that fate has destin’d mine!
Forbid to fan my wayward flame,
And, slave to silence, hopeless pine!
Imperious fair! In fatal hour,
I mark’d the vivid lightnings roll,
That gave to know thy ruthless pow’r,
And gleam’d destruction on my soul!
Judging from Beethoven’s sketches, he seemed to be working with German phonetic equivalents of the English words, for example, “fätäl aùr” for “fatal hour.” See the article “Beethoven’s English Canzonetta” (jstor.org/stable/956322) and the score (jstor.org/stable/956324).
#Beethoven250 Day 111
“La Tiranna” (WoO 125), 1798
Despite the appealing novelty of singing a Beethoven song in its original English in a lieder recital, I have not been able to find a single live performance on YouTube.