Page 5 - UM0097-Rastlose-Liebe-Beethoven-Goethe-Nieuwenhuizen

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letter to Goethe in which he mentioned another important piece for choir and orchestra, in which he
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discusses the composition ꞌMeeresstille und glückliche Fahrtꞌ Opus 112 and about the journey he
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intended to make to meet Goethe once again.

Beethovenꞌs sketch of ꞌRastlose Liebeꞌ Unv 22 consists of no fewer than 149 bars, to which I do need
to add that some bars have not been written out in full and some other bars occur twice. But that does
not change the fact that the composer did write out the entire melody and the complete text. In addition,
there are several places where he indicates the ritornellos for the piano, as well as tempo differences
and ritenuti. I respected all these indications and added nothing myself. Beethoven sometimes repeats
words, which is probably influenced by the Italian style, which was highly valued in Vienna. He would
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ultimately be taught by the famous composer Anton Salieri. The reason for that was that he wanted to
gain a better insight into the Italian singing style and handle texts adequately.

As I indicated earlier, I have treated the notes that Beethoven left us with total respect, including all
the textual repetitions, no matter how strange they may seem. The piano score, on the other hand, had
to be worked out to a large extent. In particular the start proved a challenge, because there were no
clues as to how Beethoven wanted the piano to start and with what movement. Based on the final bars
of the piano party, I was able to deduce that there had to be a continuous movements eighth notes. It
is with that rhythm I let the piano start and that matches the course of the song melody very well. At
bar 17, the atmosphere changes and a kind of refrain announces itself. At this point, I let go of the
accompanying figure and the piano follows the song melody. I also apply that technique in the second
refrain in bar 64, which brings calm to the composition. The indications like in bars 21 and 22 are original
and were provided by Beethoven. That also goes for the indications above bars 17, 26 and 121.

The tempo indications probably comes from Beethoven, even though that is not mentioned above the
copy published by Gustav Nottebohm. If this indication did come from Beethoven, it is remarkable
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that he indicates it in German. At a later stage, we see that the composer increasingly writes the
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tempo indications in German, and returns to Italian in the final works.

As mentioned earlier, Beethoven planned to publish these German songs based on texts by Goethe at
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the same time in 1823 or later, but illness and concerns about his stepson Karl kept him from doing so.

After the publication of ꞌErlkönigꞌ WoO 131 in 2019, we now proudly present ꞌRastlose Liebeꞌ Unv 22. I
sincerely hope it will prove a welcome addition in the song literature of Beethovenꞌs songs.

Cees Nieuwenhuizen

5 Beethoven Briefe, Volume 5, page 36 No.1562, G. Henle Verlag, Munich, 1996
6 Composed June-July 1815, Steiner & Comp., Vienna, May 1822
7 Beethoven had already met him during the trip to Teplitz in July 1812 and intended to meet him again in 1823
8 The Italian operas of Salieri were very popular, as were those of other masters who have since been forgotten
9 Beethoven was taught by Salieri, probably between early 1799 and early 1800. Exact data is not known and
is often contradicted by musicologists
10 Zweite Beethoveniana, Gustav Nottebohm, page 409
11 It is only in much later works that we see the composer providing tempo indications in German, among other
things in the Piano sonatas Opus 90 and 101 and the songs, including Opus 98, 99, 100, 128 and WoO 138,
139, 143, 146, 147 etc.
12 WoO 131, Unv 22 and Unv 23

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