One of the most rewarding experiences for any music lover is stumbling upon a little-known corner of a composer’s work, especially when it reveals a surprising facet of their genius. For many, including myself, the vast landscape of Beethoven’s compositions is dominated by his symphonies, sonatas, and concertos. However, a delightful surprise awaits those who venture into his world of folk song arrangements. It was a friend who first introduced me to this captivating realm, posing that familiar question to a fellow music enthusiast: “Who do you think wrote this?”
The music that filled the room was immediately engaging – English lyrics with a distinctly traditional or folk-song quality, accompanied by piano and a gentle string ensemble. It evoked a classical, early-Romantic sensibility, yet there was an unexpected intimacy. This enchanting piece turned out to be none other than Beethoven. Like many, I vaguely recalled hearing that Beethoven had dabbled in arranging British folk songs, assuming them to be minor footnotes in his monumental output. How wrong I was. My friend unveiled a 7-CD collection entirely dedicated to Beethoven’s folk song arrangements, revealing a treasure trove of musical artistry that deserves far greater recognition.
Listen to a sample of Beethoven’s Folk Song Arrangements
This unexpected foray into Beethoven’s folk song settings began in 1806 when George Thomson, a music publisher based in Edinburgh, reached out to Beethoven in Vienna. Thomson was a shrewd businessman capitalizing on the burgeoning popularity of folk song arrangements for domestic enjoyment in Scotland. Since 1790, he had been commissioning arrangements from esteemed composers like Ignaz Pleyel, Leopold Kozeluch, and Joseph Haydn. Driven by a desire to elevate his publications, Thomson naturally sought out composers with international acclaim, and Beethoven was a prime target.
Listen to another example of Beethoven’s Folk Song Arrangements
George Thomson, the Edinburgh publisher who commissioned Beethoven’s folk song arrangements.
Thomson initially sent Beethoven a collection of 21 traditional melodies without lyrics in 1806. Beethoven didn’t set these to music immediately. In 1809, Thomson followed up with 43 melodies, including duplicates from the first set, requesting arrangements for one or more voices with piano or pedal harp accompaniment, and optional violin and cello parts. Crucially, these arrangements were intended for amateur musicians, requiring preludes and postludes that were both musically satisfying and technically accessible.
Thus began a decade-long professional relationship between Thomson and Beethoven, primarily conducted through correspondence in French. My exploration into this fascinating area of Beethoven’s output is heavily indebted to Barry Cooper’s comprehensive study, Beethoven’s Folksong Settings (1994), a truly groundbreaking work and my primary source of information.
Over the next ten years, Beethoven composed an astonishing 179 folk song arrangements for Thomson. Evidence suggests that Beethoven genuinely enjoyed this work. The melodies Thomson provided spanned Scottish, Irish, Welsh, and English origins. “The Cottage Maid,” a Welsh song from July 1810, stands as one of Beethoven’s earliest settings in this collection.
Listen to Beethoven’s arrangement of “The Cottage Maid”
When listening to these Beethoven Songs, it’s crucial to remember that the violin and cello parts are optional. The songs are designed to be complete and satisfying with just the piano accompaniment. This presented Beethoven with a unique compositional challenge. Simply transcribing the string parts into the piano would be musically redundant, making the strings seem superfluous when included. Conversely, the string parts couldn’t be so essential that their absence would diminish the musical experience. Beethoven masterfully navigated this delicate balance, creating string parts that are both interesting and, at times, independent of the piano, enriching the texture when present but not detracting from the musical substance when omitted.
In “Jeannie’s Distress,” a Scottish song arranged in 1817, the violin and cello engage in playful dialogues with the piano, their parts interwoven with delicate precision. Yet, the piano part itself is rich enough to stand alone as a complete and compelling accompaniment should the strings be absent.
Listen to Beethoven’s arrangement of “Jeannie’s Distress”
Particularly in the Scottish songs, Beethoven occasionally incorporates drone bass lines, a clear nod to the sound of bagpipes. However, this imitation is always subtle and refined, never resorting to caricature. “O how can I be blithe and glad,” arranged in 1816, offers a prime example of this skillful incorporation of folk elements.
Listen to Beethoven’s arrangement of “O how can I be blithe and glad”
Bagpipes, a source of inspiration for Beethoven’s drone bass lines in his Scottish folk song arrangements.
“Bonnie Laddie, Highland Laddie,” arranged the previous year, further illustrates Beethoven’s use of drone bass when the voice enters. It also showcases his ingenious technique of weaving elements of the song’s melody into the preludes and postludes. A fragment of the song’s tune forms the basis of the prelude and postlude, while the interludes feature rhythmic displacements that maintain listener engagement, even in strophic songs with repeated verses set to the same music, a common characteristic of many of the melodies Beethoven worked with.
Listen to Beethoven’s arrangement of “Bonnie Laddie, Highland Laddie”
A collection of Scottish tunes, representative of the source material Beethoven used for his arrangements.
Initially, Beethoven received only the melodies for the first batches of songs, lacking the crucial lyrics. He soon voiced his frustration to Thomson, emphasizing the importance of the words for “giving the true expression.” While Beethoven sought to preserve the traditional melodies and present them in a fashionable format, Thomson often commissioned poets to write new lyrics for the songs after Beethoven completed his arrangements. In a letter to Thomson in 1812, Beethoven firmly stated:
“I beg you always to add instantly the text for the Scottish songs. I cannot understand how you who are a connoisseur cannot realize that I would produce completely different compositions if I had the text to hand, and the songs can never become perfect products if you do not send me the text; and you will ultimately compel me to refuse further orders.”
Thomson, however, explained that providing texts wasn’t always feasible as many were yet unwritten. He did, however, commit to providing some texts when possible in the future. It appears that in later song batches, Beethoven likely had access to the lyrics on many occasions, as the settings clearly demonstrate a deep understanding of the songs’ narrative content.
In other instances, Thomson provided Italian expression markings alongside the melodies to convey the desired mood. These included terms like amoroso (lovingly), maestoso (majestically), scherzando (playfully), semplice (simply), teneramente (tenderly), and vivace (lively).
For the Irish song “The Deserter,” Thomson’s marking was affannato e agitato (breathless and agitated). Beethoven’s setting immediately reflects this in the prelude and verse, using musical figures that evoke agitation and breathlessness. At the refrain, the text’s mood shifts to something more resolute, indicated by the words animato e risoluto (animated and resolute) against the melody. Beethoven’s music adapts accordingly. As Barry Cooper notes, “even without any text to guide him, Beethoven could sometimes provide a setting rich in character.” This particular setting dates back to February 1812.
Listen to Beethoven’s arrangement of “The Deserter”
Later in their collaboration, Thomson began providing Beethoven with brief summaries in French to offer a clearer picture of the songs’ subject matter. One such song, sent in 1818, came with the description: “A meeting of friends after several years of separation, recalling with delight the innocent pastimes of their youth.” You might recognize this familiar tune.
Listen to Beethoven’s arrangement of a well-known folk song with this description
A portrait of Beethoven, capturing the composer during the period of his folk song arrangements.
A fascinating aspect of the folk melodies Beethoven worked with was their frequent grounding in scale systems outside the traditional major and minor keys of classical music. Beethoven seemed to relish the exotic modal harmonies present in many of these melodies. His harmonizations, while aiming to integrate these melodies into a classical framework, are often strikingly beautiful and unpredictable. The strong tonic-dominant relationships characteristic of classical music are often absent, allowing Beethoven to explore harmonic territories that were somewhat uncharted for the era. Thomson frequently praised Beethoven’s settings for their beauty and ingenuity, yet some proved “too bizarre” even for his taste. Beethoven’s 1818 setting of “Sunset” serves as a compelling example. He wrote to Thomson:
“There are some songs which cannot proceed without some trouble, although one does not hear this when playing or looking at them.”
Specifically regarding “Sunset,” he elaborated:
“…some harmonies can be found very quickly for harmonizing such songs, but with the simplicity, character, and nature of the tune, to do so successfully is not always as easy for me as you perhaps believe; an infinite number of harmonies can be found, but only one is suited to the genre and character of the melody.”
Listen to Beethoven’s arrangement of “Sunset”
Earlier, we touched upon Beethoven’s use of drone bass to evoke bagpipes in Scottish songs. This attention to “local” details is a hallmark of many of these arrangements. In “Could this ill world have been contriv’d,” a Scottish setting from 1816, Beethoven seizes upon the “Scottish snap” rhythm present in Thomson’s melody and makes it a prominent feature of the accompaniment from the outset. This rhythmic figure – a short note on the beat followed by a longer note – first appears in the song’s melody on the word “woman” in the second line. Beethoven ingeniously introduces it in the piano part right from the beginning, and the violin and cello contribute delightful “snaps” in their musical commentary. This rhythmic motif brilliantly captures the song’s ironic tone, expressing a man’s lament about the wiles of women and his simultaneous inability to live without them.
Listen to Beethoven’s arrangement of “Could this ill world have been contriv’d”
Despite the often lighthearted nature of these folk songs, some inspired settings of profound depth from Beethoven. “Return to Ulster,” an Irish song and one of Beethoven’s earliest for Thomson, is almost unimaginable as a setting created without knowledge of the lyrics. Its atmosphere is dark and evocative, perfectly suited to the Walter Scott text Thomson later paired with it for publication. Here again, Beethoven confronts a melody that resists easy integration into classical harmony, resulting in a song that transcends mere folk song. It enters the realm of Lieder, bearing a striking resemblance to the work of Schubert or Schumann.
Listen to Beethoven’s arrangement of “Return to Ulster”
While the vast majority of Beethoven’s folk song arrangements draw from British melodies (which, in Beethoven’s era, included Ireland), approximately 25 arrangements are based on Continental melodies, some sourced directly by Beethoven. These demonstrate his uncanny ability to instantly capture a national “feel” across a wide spectrum of moods and styles. Consider this Spanish Bolero from 1816.
Listen to Beethoven’s arrangement of a Spanish Bolero
Setting a Spanish song with a Portuguese melody, it was almost inevitable that Beethoven would evoke the sound of the guitar.
Listen to Beethoven’s arrangement incorporating guitar-like sounds
At the gentler end of the spectrum, we find the exquisite Swedish lullaby, “Lilla Carl.”
Listen to Beethoven’s arrangement of “Lilla Carl”
Beethoven’s Continental folk song arrangements also encompass Danish, Polish, Tyrolese, Swiss, Austrian, Cossack, Venetian, Russian, and Hungarian songs, each possessing a distinct individual character. The Tyrolese songs, in particular, are brimming with jovial alpine Gemütlichkeit.
Listen to Beethoven’s Tyrolese folk song arrangement
Given the sheer volume of Beethoven’s folk song settings – 179 in total – this exploration has only scratched the surface. However, I hope it has sparked your curiosity and encouraged you to discover this fascinating and often overlooked facet of Beethoven’s genius and versatility as a composer. To conclude, I’d like to share Beethoven’s 1817 rendition of an English song that likely needs no introduction.
Listen to Beethoven’s arrangement of a very famous English song
This article is based on a Keys To Music program first aired on ABC Classic FM (now ABC Classic) in December, 2005.
