It is one of the most recognised pieces of music on earth — the first real song half the world's piano students ever learn. And we are not sure who it was written for. We are not even certain it is called Für Elise.
A piece Beethoven never published
Beethoven wrote the little A-minor bagatelle (catalogued WoO 59, Bagatelle No. 25) around 1810 and then did nothing with it. It wasn't published in his lifetime. It sat, unknown, for forty years after his death.
Found in 1867 — with a name on it
In 1867 a scholar named Ludwig Nohl found the manuscript and transcribed it. On it, in Beethoven's hand, was a dedication: "Für Elise, on the 27th of April, in memory of L. v. Beethoven." That's where the name comes from. The original autograph has since been lost — so Nohl's reading is all we have.
So who was Elise?
Nobody close to Beethoven called Elise fits neatly. The leading theory is almost funny: Nohl misread the handwriting, and it actually said "Für Therese" — Therese Malfatti, a woman Beethoven reportedly hoped to marry around exactly the time he wrote it. Another theory points to the soprano Elisabeth Röckel, nicknamed Elise. With the manuscript gone, the argument can't be settled.
The love note we can't address
So the most-played beginner piece in history is, most likely, a tender little gift to a woman Beethoven didn't marry — and whose name we may have been getting wrong for 150 years. Every hesitant student picking out those opening notes is playing someone's lost love letter.
Wear it
Our Für Elise tee sets the title plate — BEETHOVEN · Für Elise · Bagatelle No. 25, WoO 59 — above the real opening bars of the score, framed in a vintage botanical wreath of roses, wheat and a song thrush, in gold. There's a matching laptop sleeve too.
Read next
Beethoven's Fifth: four notes, and a story we can't prove · Eine kleine Nachtmusik is missing a movement · Why we put sheet music on a shirt — or browse Wearable Music.
0 comments