Beethoven had met the Giannatasio family when his nephew Karl was taken under the father’s care and education. In early 1819, Karl was back with his uncle, but Beethoven remained on good terms with the family. As Thayer describes it:
“their relations remained pleasant, and early in 1819 Beethoven found occasion to supplement his verbal protestations of gratitude with a deed. Nanni, the younger daughter of Giannatasio, was married on February 6, 1819, to Leopold Schmerling. When the young couple returned to the house after the ceremony they were greeted by a wedding hymn for tenor solo, men’s voices and pianoforte accompaniment. The performers were hidden in a corner of the room. When they had finished they stepped forth from their place of concealment. Beethoven was among them and he handed to the bride the manuscript which he had written to words of Prof. Stein.” (Thayer / Forbes, p. 732)
The composition that Beethoven wrote for Nanni Giannatasio is known as the Hochzeitslied, or Wedding Song (WoO 105). The text was by Dr. Anton Joseph Stein, Professor of Classical Literature at the University of Vienna, and a tutor in the imperial household:
Arise, friends, sing to the god of marriage!
Extol Hymen at the ceremonial altar,
May our fervent prayers bring happiness
Happiness for a noble couple!
Above all, let us in joyful song
Praise the worthy double lineage
From which this noble couple issued!
Two different versions of Beethoven WoO 105 Wedding Song exist differentiated by Hess numbers 124 and 125. No scores are readily available, but some information is available from this article (in German) by Willy Hess: jstor.org/stable/41114258
Hess 124 is in A major. The solo part is written in the bass clef for a bass solo, and the choral refrain is in four parts. This might be the version performed at the wedding, although family tradition had it that the solo part was sung by a tenor.
Hess 125 is in C major. The solo part is written in the treble clef, which was customary at the time for a soprano. The choral refrain is monophonic. This might be the presentation copy given to the newlyweds.
#Beethoven250 Day 315
Wedding Song (WoO 105), 1819
An advertisement may precede this studio recording of the Hess 124 version.
#Beethoven250 Day 315
Wedding Song (WoO 105), 1819
An advertisement may precede this studio recording of the Hess 125 version.
Sometime around the spring of 1819, Anton Diabelli, who had opened his own music publishing firm in Vienna, had a publicity idea: He issued an invitation to some 50 composers in Vienna to compose one variation each on a silly waltz tune that he wrote. These composers included Carl Czerny, Schubert, Mozart’s son, the Archduke Rudolph, and of course, Beethoven.
But for Beethoven, variations were like potato chips. He couldn’t stop at just one.…