Musical contribution - February 2019

Romanze in F - Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) (LiVE sample set: Dresden, Silbermann).

To my surprise, I recently discovered that of the three great Viennese classical composers, nothing by Beethoven has ever appeared in the Musical Contribution. We’ve featured Haydn and Mozart, but up until now, nothing by this third great name in the list. Although he never wrote original organ music, his music lends itself perfectly to our beloved instrument.

In 1798, Beethoven wrote two compositions under the name “Romanze”, for orchestra and solo violin. We know almost nothing else about these early romantic works.

We play the violin part (upper staff) with a leading stop. It doesn’t much matter which stop is used, but it shouldn’t be too similar to the timbre of the accompaniment. This creates a lovely dialog, particularly in bars 51-55 and 68-71. There is also a melody in bars 9-16 of the upper staff, but this should still be played on one keyboard together with the left hand.

This piece was composed around the dawn of the romantic period, so the melody can be played with a degree of rubato.

Warm regards,

André van Vliet