Beethoven, Ludwig van.

notated in black ink on two systems per page of up to 11 staves, containing bars 32 to 63 of the song (beginning "laß des Jünglings Opfer wohl gefallen"), with revisions, deletions and alterations by the composer, particularly to the solo soprano and the violoncello obbligato, which diverge markedly from the final version, many revisions in pencil (including to the soprano solo), and with fainter sketches and alternative passages noted in pencil on the lower free staves and margins, the cello obbligato part written above the soprano part, comprising some thirty-three bars (of seventy-four)



4 pages, folio (c.35.5 x 31.5cms), 23-stave paper (watermark: "FS" crowned  [cf. Tyson no.57]), presentation inscription at the foot of the first page by August Artaria to John Ella ("Authographe de L.Beethoven presenté à M^{r Ella, en temoignage d'estime par Auguste Artaria, Vienna, ce 22 Decembre 1845"), with later annotations in ink and pencil, some probably by Ella (including the attribution to Beethoven, the title and bar numbering),  [Summer 1824], tear in the first system  on the first page repaired (apparently by Beethoven), a few small holes to first leaf repaired (slight text-loss), wear along central fold to the first page, some staining and browning, Ella's annotations rather faint}

L.v. Beethoven, Chorwerke mit Orchester (mit Kritischem Bericht), Gesamtausgabe, X, 2, edited by Armin Raab, (Munich, 1998) p.243.

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From the collection of John Ella. This manuscript has not been on the market since Ella acquired it from August Artaria after Beethoven's death.  Artaria may have acquired the manuscript directly from the auction of Beethoven's effects in1827.

This is the only surviving section of Beethoven's original autograph composition draft of his song for soprano, chorus and orchestra. The manuscript contains nearly half this orchestral song ("Gesang"). This striking manuscript is written on large-format paper, with a considerable amount of sketching and re-working by the composer.

The Opferlied  is a work from Beethoven's final period, composed directly after the Ninth Symphony (and on similar paper), thus contemporary with work on the first of the celebrated late string quartets and, like them, a profound and original work.  The Opferlied  is one of a group of choral songs, notable for their unusual instrumentation (all very  fine but all too rarely heard).  It is scored for clarinets, bassoons, horns and strings, including a prominent solo part for cello.  Over half of the present manuscript is taken up with the second solo verse "Sei stets der Freiheit Wehr und Schild!", scored for soprano, cello obbligato and wind sextet.

The manuscript contains some important differences from the text found in the seven-page full score published by Schott in 1825 (plate no. 2279; pp.3-6).  The cello obbligato part evidently caused Beethoven a few problems, and there are several working pencil sketches for some alternative passages written above the part in the score.  This affects especially  bars 44-47, where the solo soprano line also diverges markedly  from the published text.  Moreover the cello part throughout this section has even quavers rather than the dotted rhythms found in Beethoven's final version. 

Beethoven used this unusual 23-stave paper in his autograph piano score of  Op.121b (now in Berlin)--and indeed also in the autograph manuscript of the finale of the Ninth Symphony  Op.123 and autograph sketches for the late quartets Opp.127 and 132.  The revised fair copy of Opferlied is in the Stadtbibliothek in Vienna.

Beethoven first set Friedrich von Matthison's poem "Die Flamme lodert" in 1794-1795 and revised that song in 1801 (WoO 126). There is an early version of the present song drafted in 1822 (for 3 solo voices, chorus and chamber orchestra (without violins).  The present manuscript is for his setting of 1824 Op.121b:  "...with the Opferlied, as with the much better-known instance of Schiller's Ode to Joy, one may detect some elements of a desire in Beethoven around this time to gather up the unfinished business of the past and attend to ideas that had waited long for definitive expression. He was already beginning to suspect that not much time was left to him" (Joseph Kerman in TNG, iii, 93).