L.v. Beethoven. First edition of "An die ferne Geliebte", op.98, 1816

Ludwig van Beethoven

An die ferne Geliebte Ein Liederkreis von Al:Jeitteles. Mit Begleitung des Piano=Forte in Musik gesetzt, Seiner Durchlaut dem regierenden Herrn Fürsten Joseph von Lobkowitz, Herzog zu Raudnitz…ehrfurchtsvoll gewidmet von Ludwig van Beethoven. 98^tes Werk, Vienna: bei S.A. Steiner und Comp., [1816] 

FIRST EDITION, 20 pages, large oblong folio (25.5 x 34cm), engraved music and title, plate number 2610, vignette of a lover serenading his distant beloved, with later pencil price ("f 1.39"), with inserted printed advertisement leaf, unbound, browning to title, spine strengthened, a few small stains; with another copy of the same edition, without price and advertisement leaf, unbound, modern folder

An die ferne Geliebte, Beethoven’s only song-cycle, is a pioneering work and set the standard for the later Lieder cycles of the nineteenth century. The words are by Aloys Jeitteles (1794-1858), a doctor who later settled and practised in his birthplace, Brünn (Brno).

The six songs in the cycle comprise: "Auf dem Hügel" ("On the Hill"); "Wo die Berge" ("Where the Mountains"); "Leichte Segler" ("Light sailing Clouds"); "Diese Wolken in den Höhen" ("These Clouds on high"); "Es kehret der Maien" ("May returns"); and "Nimmt sie hin denn, diese Lieder" ("Accept, then, these songs").

The theme of the cycle is one of love’s yearning, the treatment a conventional one in terms of the familiar natural phenomena of hills and valleys, flowers, birds and purling brooks. All but the last song are strophic in form. The last, anticipates Schumann, in recalling material from the first song of the cycle.

The second of the two copies here bears the variant title-page with the words "Für Gesang und Piano-Forte". The advertisement leaf in the first announces the publication of the Seventh and Eighth Symphonies.

LITERATURE:

Kinsky/Halm, p.278; Dorfmüller, pp.335-336; Hoboken Beethoven, no.415, p.171

PROVENANCE:

Sotheby’s, London, 4 December 1992 (lot 417)