Für Elise – and its enduring mysteries

Many years ago, I picked up a little music box during our travels in Europe, I don’t recall where, and when the little contraption is wound, it plays the Für Elise tune. The tune was interesting and the mechanic in me has never tired of watching the little drum spin when wound up, the comb reeds hitting the bumps on the cylinder thus making music, as the governor fan spins away mysteriously (actually for speed control). Every now and then, as I pass our curio shelf, I would give it a windup and the magnificent tune created by Beethoven would tinkle away to remove any silence in the living room. It is still a part of our collection, even after so many home moves over continents.

This research started with an episode in Malayalam’s Top singer program where a participant sang the song (Januvariyil Viriyum from the movie Akale – it has fabulous songs incidentally) which starts in the scales of the iconic Für Elise. The brilliant Music director M Jayachandran, explains why he composed it so and provides a tantalizing aside that Beethoven perhaps wrote it as a tune of rejection for a girl Elizabeth, who was a chorus singer in his symphony troupe (adding that it could also possibly be for another girl) who rejected him. As the tune had been part of us for so many years, this intrigued me and I decided to check it out, and wow! what a trip it was and the stuff I learnt! I can’t put it all here, but I will pen some highlights anyway!

Have you ever been to Vienna in Austria? Oh! What a glorious city it is, not small in any way and full of cultural history and sights to see (and a great Kerala restaurant which we visited a few times). The memory of our visiting the city in the late 90’s is fading away from my mind, but I remember it as a rich, vibrant and colorful city, teeming with magnificent buildings, the huge Schonbrunn palace, countless museums, beautiful parks, and boulevards. But more than all that, it was home to the prodigal German musician Ludwig Van Beethoven in the last decade of the 18th century and the first two decades of the 19th. Most of his great musical pieces and symphonies were composed in Vienna, at the same time as he was getting afflicted with depressing deafness. Can you imagine a situation where the greatest music composer was creating just those, but not able to hear them fully! Next time you complain about something, try imagining the genius Beethoven’s plight! But added to the tragedy was the sad fact that every single one of the girls he was attached to, rejected a life with him and Beethoven died a bachelor, aged 56!

Beethoven already a piano virtuoso, aged 20, arrived in Vienna in 1792 or thereabouts (He had visited the city earlier in 1787 and perhaps even met Mozart) and after a period of playing and composing music, found some influential patrons, just as Napoleon and his troops were running amok in Austria. As the 19th century dawned, Beethoven was already popular and his music was in great demand.

Around 1798, Beethoven’s hearing started to get affected, followed by bouts of tinnitus. Whether it was otosclerosis, due to a typhus attack, a virus infection, syphilis, due to his habit of dunking his head often in cold water, or a result of his fondness of lead sweetened cheap wine, is still being contested, and the source of another of the many mysteries connected with the prodigy. But he got over his initial fears, still heard quite a bit and went on to compose great music, both short and long pieces. Like any other artist, he had his creative circle and many muses figured in his life, many of whom he was smitten by. As days passed, he flitted from one girl to the other, and some of the pieces he wrote were dedicated to the ladies he fell in love with! In his final years, he became a virtual recluse, quite eccentric, even getting arrested for vagrancy and often under the influence.

But let’s get to the mysterious Für Elise. To start with you have to first understand that it belonged to a class comprising short light & mellow but unpretentious instrumental compositions known as a bagatelle or even a not so demanding albumblatt, or album leaf. Perhaps it was more an album leaf, a little piece written in dedication to a friend or admirer, to be inserted into their album or autograph book, though not intended for publication. Now comes the first of the intriguing parts of the tale, it was never published in his lifetime and found some 40 years after Beethoven’s death, in the personal collection of a lady named Babett Bredl who had nothing to do with him! But naturally, the researcher Ludwig Nohl who discovered it, was mystified.

Nohl a music teacher, published his book New Beethoven letters in 1867. In his book, he titled the piece Für Elise and introduced it to the wide world. As it turned out, Bredel had not allowed Nohl to take the original Beethoven autograph (she confirmed that Nohl saw it though, so it existed), so he copied it and told the world of his findings in his book including the jotting on the autograph which announced: "Für Elise am 27 April zur Erinnerung von L. v. Bthvn "For Elise – April 27, as a remembrance from L von Bthvn". The search for Elise was on and it, of course, started with Bradel. How did she get it?

Babett Bredel, a retired teacher in Munich who had nothing to do with the circle of greats in Vienna, actually obtained it from her illegitimate son Rudolph Schachner who in his youth had become an intimate friend and music partner of a much older Therese von Droßdik nee Malfatti. As it turned out, this Therese was once upon a time, a good friend of Beethoven and that is how she got it from Beethoven. Should have been an open and shut case.

Or so they thought at first till other researchers put on their thinking hats! Was it Therese? Was it one of the many other women Beethoven had his eyes on and was passionate about? Did Nohl misread Beethoven’s terrible handwriting which could have meant Für Therese instead of Für Elise, setting off the hunt? Did Nohl invent the whole story and compose the piece himself? Nohl had mentioned that Theresa’s sister had told him that Beethoven had been interested in marrying Theresa Malfatti, years ago. All very intriguing, right? 

Let’s see and for that, we have to go visit the music scene in Vienna during what was Beethoven’s formative years, his ‘heroic period’. In 1808 Beethoven received an invitation to become music director in Kassel, Germany from Jerome, Napoleon’s brother. This alarmed several of his wealthy Viennese friends, who agreed to guarantee Beethoven an annual salary of 1,400 florins to keep him in Vienna, so he stayed. In 1809, Vienna surrendered to Napoleon in the battle of Wagram, and I am sure Beethoven who once thought the world of Napoleon, was shattered, he quickly composed a piece celebrating Wellington’s victory after the defeated emperor of France sailed to Elba. It was in 1809, as Napoleon was fighting Austrian forces, that Beethoven’s mentor Joseph Hayden passed away.

Beethoven was creating history, however, with his remarkable output, but on a personal front, life was certainly gloomy. As we saw before he was fighting bouts of depression caused by the deafness creeping on him, trying to come to terms with it, and on a personal front, all his liaisons with women he lost his heart to, were resulting in failure mostly due to his slightly lesser social status and because most of the girls he tried to woo were of much higher noble standing.

But the genius and high flying, dark-complexioned, short gent with a crude shaped head and a pockmarked face, bushy eyebrows, a mane of graying uncombed hair, sharp and piercing eyes, uneven temper, and one sporting a relatively unkempt appearance, tried repeatedly to land a permanent partner mostly from among his students, was forever involved in fruitless relationships, eventually finding physical solace only in the cubicles of Vienna’s red streets. While Vienna celebrated his music, sad was his personal story, to say the least.

Almost always, he was attracted to women whose social or marital status were well above his standing and reach. Beethoven continued to try and somewhere, sometime, in 1810, he found one lady for whom he created and dedicated the lovely short piece which we now title Für Elise. It is described as a small work, as lovely as a summer breeze, reminding one of a bird swaying on a tree-top, with a rhythm full of grace, a theme that any child or adult could learn and love.

Magdalena Willman whom he proposed to in the late 18^th rejected it saying he was ‘too ugly and half crazy’, Giulietta Gucciardi his dear and fascinating girl, decided that marriage with a count was certainly better. Following them came Josephine, who again went on to marry in her class. But a year later her old husband died and she is rumored to have been having an affair with the pianist. Rumor also has it that her sister Theresa was secretly engaged to Beethoven for some years, but at this time he had some kind of a liaison with a Countess Erdody (she and her friends had helped him get the pension and remain in Vienna) who got expelled from Austria for other reasons. It was at this juncture that the 40-year-old virtuoso got infatuated with and started courting the 18-year-old Theresa Malfatti, his doctor’s daughter. His marriage proposal was promptly turned down.

Did the rumored dinner event where he gifted the now-famous autograph, take place?? Most certainly not, but it is a good tale. As they said - Malfatti served an exceedingly strong punch at the soirée, and Beethoven drank huge quantities of it. So drunk was he that he was unable to play the piece, and in no condition to propose anything to anyone. It seems that Therese made him instead write her name on the title page. He wrote, in almost illegible writing, "Für Therese".

On the rebound, we hear of Bettina von Arnim, then a singer named Amalie Sebald (who called him a tyrant) and an actress named Rahel Levin (surreptitious perhaps – as her lover and later her husband Count Varnhagen was also around) followed. Then came the revelation that Beethoven was seeing Josephine, the sister of Theresa and the juicy rumor that she was pregnant with Beethoven’s daughter! Beethoven dedicated his work to many of these girls, so it is difficult to figure out who he thought the most about. Each theory on the Für Elise dedicatee has its supporters and opponents and I simply enjoyed reading the papers written by Max Unger writing in 1925 who was firmly behind Theresa Malfatti, the theories of Barry Cooper and the new discoveries by Rita Steblin.

Based on the dating of the autograph to 1810, Unger checked out the ladies in Beethoven’s circle at Vienna during that time, only to conclude that the lady favored with Für Elise in 1810 could have been none other than Theresa Malfatti. Secondly, the autograph originated from Theresa Malfatti’s collection. In German script Theresa and Elise look similar, Nohl according to Unger, made an error in the transcription, for the piece was ‘for Theresa’. Kopitz another researcher then wrote that it must have been written for one Elsie Rockl, and that this autograph was later gifted to Theresa Malfatti.

Barry Cooper opined that Elise is a common endearment in German poetry, and so Beethoven would have used that pet name for Theresa, just like he often modified other people’s names, playing with words. Another researcher Johannes Quack suggested that the opening notes refer to the musical notes in the name Elsie.

But Rita Steblin questioned this hypothesis, not accepting a potential ‘transcription error by Nohl’ which Unger had postulated. While establishing that it was indeed composed in the Spring of 1810, she agrees that Beethoven was indeed smitten by Theresa in the spring of 1810 and gifted her many musical pieces. Though Für Elise is written and gifted to one Elsie, Beethoven is getting ready for marriage with Theresa, though by May the project falls through.

Steblin then introduces a child singing prodigy Elsie Barensfeld, all of 14 years in age, who lived right across Theresa Malfatti’s residence, with her master Johann Malzel. Steblin believes that Theresa gave piano lessons to Elsie across the street, and as a novice, Theresa may have asked Beethoven to compose an easy piece for her ward Elsie, who in turn was about to leave Vienna. She returned later, stayed on for another three years with Malzel after which she had to leave again due to police pressure who believed that Malzel would go on to seduce his young tenant and pupil! Before she left, she returned the autograph piece to Theresa. Though not established, it is a plausible theory. Cooper quickly rebutted this theory stating that Elsie was known as Lissette in 1810, so there is no way Beethoven would have addressed the piece to Elsie, instead of Lissette.

It is difficult to really establish if the most likely candidate is Theresa Malfatti as widely accepted or if it is Elsie Barensfeld, but what we do know is that it ended up with Theresa from whom it passed on to Schachner and eventually to Babett Bredel. Thanks to Nohl, the fabulous composition reached the public, or else it may never have surfaced, ever! Oh! I forgot to mention - In 1817 Therese von Malfatti married a Hungarian Baron von Drosdick, who died in a few years; she lived on to the age of 60 and died in 1851.

There are so many more mysteries concerning Beethoven, such as his letter to the immortal beloved, his real relations with Josephine (mother of his rumored daughter), the mysteries involving his brother Kaspar Karl, Karl’s wife Johanna Reiss and their son Karl, who later became the focus of Beethoven’s life and despair till his passing. We also know that Beethoven was not completely deaf, he could hear some frequencies and used many hearing aids and other contraptions during the last decades of his life. During his last years, he even used a wooden rod as an aid when composing, one end of which was placed in the soundbox of the piano and the other held between his teeth! Like his music, his life has so much more to reveal!

But I have to add a little tidbit, if Beethoven had worked further on the Für Elise piece, it may have been composed differently according to Barry Cooper, since Beethoven was planning to publish a collection of his bagatelles in 1822, and he made a number of modifications to the original Für Elise. Would it have sounded better than the Für Elise which we know today? I don’t know all that nor have I heard the revised version being performed, so this dummkoff won’t know! My only connection with pianos and this kind of music is an occasional listening to the greats on CD’s and the radio, as well as a short acquaintance with somebody I hugely respect, another bloke from Palghat, the great Pianist and keyboard player Stephen Devassy.

Close to his death, Beethoven summoned his old acquaintance (the very doctor Malfatti who rebuffed his wedding proposal to Theresa his daughter), who after some hesitation agreed to visit him and prescribed some frozen Roman punch for the stimulation of the illustrious patient's system. But I guess it just gave him some comfort like alcohol usually does. In March, 1827, months after completing his last string quartets, Beethoven died at the age of 56, leaving behind some sketches for a 10th symphony and a letter written to the ‘Immortal Beloved’.

So now, when somebody asks you or mentions Für Elise or you hear somebody hum its tune in a party, put on your wise man’s cap and ask them ‘do you know the mysteries behind the tune’?

I can assure you that 99% of the attendees won’t know and then you can grandly tell them, ‘well, I know now and I know it because there is a crazy fella called Maddy in USA who wastes a lot of otherwise useful time researching such matters and spends the remainder writing about it’.

But do tell them how they can get here and read about it…

References

Beethoven and Therese von Malfatti - Max Unger and Theodore Baker (The Musical Quarterly, Jan., 1925, Vol. 11, No. 1)
Beethoven's 'Elise': an alternative solution Barry Cooper (The Musical Times, Winter 2014, Vol. 155, No. 1929)
Beethoven's Revisions to 'Für Elise' - Barry Cooper (The Musical Times, Oct., 1984, Vol. 125, No. 1700)
Who was Beethoven's 'Elise'? A new solution to the mystery – Rita Steblin (The Musical Times, Summer 2014, Vol. 155, No. 1927)

Marnie Laird performing Für Elise 

Stephen Devassy performing Für Elise 

Januvariyil song – M Jayachandran 

Flowers top singer episode 326B