Fur Elise

This is the first time I've awakened (since I started keeping track) with a song that doesn't have words. I woke up with Fur Elise by Beethoven in my head, and not the most well-known part, either. It was what piano teachers call the "B section" (or, according to Wikipedia, below, the C section), the part that young piano students don't know about. They just want to play the part they've heard before, and don't realize how technically challenging the B and C parts are.

I heard this song most recently at a piano recital on Wednesday at Holy Cross, given by Olga Oseth. She's a 20-year-old college student who works at Lake Song. She did a lovely job on it.

Here's some interesting info about Fur Elise:

Für Elise

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"Für Elise", opening

Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor (WoO 59 and Bia 515) for solo piano, commonly known as "Für Elise" (English: "For Elise"), is one of Ludwig van Beethoven's most popular compositions.^[1][2][3]

[edit] History

The score was not published until 1867, 40 years after the composer's death. The discoverer of the piece, Ludwig Nohl, affirmed that the original autographed manuscript was dated 27 April. This manuscript has been lost.
It is not certain who "Elise" was. Max Unger suggested that Ludwig Nohl may have transcribed the title incorrectly and the original work may have been named "Für Therese"^[4], a reference to Therese Malfatti von Rohrenbach zu Dezza (1792–1851). She was a friend and student of Beethoven's to whom he proposed in 1810, though she turned him down to marry the Austrian nobleman and state official Wilhelm von Droßdik in 1816.^[5] According to a recent study by Klaus Martin Kopitz, there is flimsy evidence that the piece was written for the German soprano singer Elisabeth Röckel (1793–1883), later the wife of Johann Nepomuk Hummel. "Elise", as she was called by a parish priest (she always called herself "Betty"), had been a friend of Beethoven's since 1808.^[6] In the meantime it has been proven that Rudolf Schachner, who in 1851 inherited Therese von Droßdik's musical scores, was a relative of Babette Bredl who in 1865 let Nohl copy the autograph in her possession. Thus Kopitz's hypothesis is definitely refuted.
The pianist and musicologist Luca Chiantore argued in his doctoral thesis and his recent book "Beethoven al piano" that Beethoven might not have been the person who gave the piece the form that we know today. Chiantore suggested that the original signed manuscript, upon which Ludwig Nohl claimed to base his transcription, may never have existed.^[7] On the other hand, the musicologist Barry Cooper stated, in a 1984 essay in the Musical Times, that one of two surviving sketches closely resembles the published version.^[8] It has also been suggested that Elise simply refers to a term at this point in history which simply meant 'sweetheart', therefore suggesting this piece was written for Elise (Theresa Malfatti).^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Music

Bagatelle in A minor ("Für Elise") Problems listening to this file? See media help.

Piano performance (MIDI rendition)

The piece is in A Minor and is set in 3/8 time. It begins with an A minor theme marked 'Poco moto' (with movement), with the left hand playing arpeggios alternating between A minor and E major. It then moves into a brief section based around C major and G major, before returning to the original theme. It. then enters a lighter section in the subdominant key, F major. It consists of a similar texture to the A section,where the right hand plays a melody over left hand arpeggios. It then enters a 32nd note C major figure before returning to the A section. The piece then moves to an agitated theme in D minor with an A pedal point, as the right hand plays diminished chords. This section then concludes with an ascending A minor arpeggio before beginning a chromatic descent over two octaves, and then returning to the A section. The piece ends in its starting key of A minor with an authentic cadence. Despite being called a bagatelle, the piece is in rondo form. The structure is A - B - A - C -A. The first theme is not technically difficult and is often taught alone as it provides a good basic exercise for piano pedalling technique. However, much greater technique is required for the B section as well as the rapid rising A minor figure in the C section.
The letters that spell Elise can be decoded as the first three notes of the piece. Because an E♭ is called an Es in German and is pronounced as "S", that makes E-(L)-(I)-S-E: E-(L)-(I)-E♭-E, which by enharmonic equivalents sounds the same as E-(L)-(I)-D♯-E. Furthermore, since "Dis" is the pronunciation of D♯, if the first several notes of the composition are sung with note names, it becomes E-Dis-E-Dis-E (...), creating a word that, as a mondegreen, sounds significantly similar to the name "Elise" (the "L" sound and "D" sound are alveolar consonants).