DAILY DOSE of BEETHOVEN (October 16, 2020)
Although Beethoven composed only one opera, “Leonore” (later known as “Fidelio”), he had grown up with great theater in Bonn (see posts of July 30th, and 31st), and during his life composed incidental music for several plays, including “Egmont” (April 17th post), “Coriolan” (May 29th), “The Ruins of Athens”, and “King Stephen” (last 2 days' posts).
THE BACKGROUND
Johann Friedrich Leopold Duncker (1770-1842), was first a war councilor, then the first lecturing cabinet secretary of the King of Prussia and a secret senior government councilor in the cabinet of Friedrich Wilhelm III.
He accompanied the King of Prussia to the Congress of Vienna in 1815, as his cabinet secretary. The Prussian delegation included Wilhelm von Humboldt, and Beethoven hoped they could be a positive force in the congress, which was tasked with redrawing the map of Europe at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Unfortunately that did not happen, and under the direction of Prince Metternich, the dictatorial Carlsbad Decrees were implemented in 1819.
Duncker was an admirer of Beethoven and in 1823, convinced the Prussian King to subscribe to Beethoven's “Missa Solemnis”. When he arrived in Vienna in 1814, Duncker brought a play with him that he had written, called "Leonore Prohaska", and asked Beethoven to compose incidental music for it, which he did. Unfortunately, the play was not performed, as the subject is a noble one.
Elenora Prochaska was a poor domestic servant who grew up in a military orphanage. Women were not allowed in the military at the time, but she wished to defend her country, Prussia, during the Napoleonic Wars. So, she disguised herself as a man, August Renz, joined the infantry, and saw battle. In 1813 she was severely wounded, and it was only then that field surgeons realized she was a woman. Though rushed to a hospital, she died within three weeks.
Plays and poems were written about her as a chaste heroine, and she became known as "Potsdam's Joan of Arc". Decades later the city of Potsdam built a monument: "in memory of the maiden heroine.".
THE MUSIC
Beethoven composed four pieces of music for the play:
1. A Chorus of Soldiers for a capella male chorus:
“We build and we perish; from the rubble,
When our ashes will have long ago been dispersed by the wind,
The temple of freedom and love will arise.
“We follow the King and fight for justice,
Which safeguards life, freedom, love,
For the struggling human race.
“Joyfully we look Death in his pallid face,
The Righteous One’s judgement calls us to fight,
To fight for freedom and love.
2. A Romance for Soprano and Harp:
“A flower blooms in the garden that’s mine,
That flower will I nurture and care for;
I shall wear it next to my heart,
As long as I call it ‘flower of mine’
It will give me cheer and blessing.
“An angel sowed it in my life,
It is not of earthly issue,
It rises in charming majesty
In a flowerbed spreading sweet fragrance,
Washed by the dew of heaven.
“And another flower I call my own,
It burns my heart intensely,
It burns in the purple of the dawn,
It shall be to me a sacred bloom,
And so I tend it in the silence.
“You, to whom I consecrated it, remember me,
Keep faith with me, still love me,
Then that flower will one day be your own;
Else it will fade on my gravestone,
And Time will bring you no other.”
3. A melodrama, spoken dialogue over a glass harmonica.
The glass harmonica was invented by Benjamin Franklin. Mozart composed a well-known work for it, but we were unaware that Beethoven had until now. Modern performances often substitute orchestral instruments. (See photo below)
4. A Funeral March for Elenora.
He composed an original march, which is now lost, but also orchestrated the Funeral March from his Piano Sonata, No. 12, Op. 26. In 1801, two years before his Eroica Symphony (see post of April 18th), Beethoven had inscribed on that movement of sonata No. 12, in Italian—“Funeral March for the Death of a Hero." That is the one included in the instrumental music.
Beethoven’s Op. 26 was Chopin's favorite among Beethoven's sonatas (see post of July 21st). He patterned his sonata in Bb minor, including the famous Funeral March movement on it. We include that movement as a bonus.