Adelaide (Beethoven)
During the period he created Adelaide, Beethoven was in his mid twenties; he had come to Vienna in 1792 to pursue a career and was in the early stages of making a name for himself as pianist and composer.
A. Peter Brown suggests that in writing Adelaide, Beethoven was strongly influenced by Haydn's song O Tuneful Voice (Hob.
The German-language title page may be translated: The text of Adelaide is an early Romantic poem that expresses an outpouring of yearning for an idealized and apparently unattainable woman.
Einsam wandelt dein Freund im Frühlingsgarten,— Mild vom lieblichen Zauberlicht umflossen, Das durch wankende Blüthenzweige zittert, Adelaide!
Your friend wanders alone in the garden of spring, Gently bathed in lovely magical light, Which shimmers through the swaying branches of flowers: Adelaide!
In the reflection of the river, in the snows of the Alps, In the golden clouds of sinking day, In the fields of stars thy face beams forth, Adelaide!
Evening breezes whisper through the tender leaves The silver bells at Maytime rustle in the grass, Waves roar and nightingales sing, Adelaide!
My most ardent wish will be fulfilled if you are not dissatisfied with the manner in which I have set your heavenly "Adelaide" to music, and are incited by it soon to compose a similar poem; and if you do not consider my request too indiscreet, I would ask you to send it to me forthwith, that I may exert all my energies to approach your lovely poetry in merit.
"[9] The second part of Beethoven's song sets the extravagant death fantasy of the final stanza, in which flowers sprout from the poet's grave to express his undying love.
In the piano, he compresses the melodic outline from the beginning of the song, with its upbeat from F leading to repeated Ds and then the dominant seventh supporting E♭.
In fact, Matthisson appreciated the song greatly; he later wrote (in an 1811 introduction to an edition of his collected poems):[13] Several composers have animated this little lyrical fantasy through music; I am firmly convinced however that none of them so threw the text into the shade with their melody as did the genius Ludwig van Beethoven in Vienna.
[16] Various composers, including Sigismond Thalberg and Franz Liszt (who wrote three versions, S.466) prepared arrangements of the song for solo piano.
Later in the nineteenth century, the critic Eduard Hanslick called Adelaide "the only song by Beethoven the loss of which would leave a gap in the emotional life of our nation."
