I'm delighted that my suggestion provided the information you needed.
I thought of the Beethoven cantata immediately when I read your
description.
The piece has a fascinating history:
"Beethoven's first sponsors during his youth in Bonn were members of
the Illuminati, a radical quasi-Masonic body which was soon to be
banned throughout Europe, and had already gone underground in Bonn ,
where it was known as the 'Reading & Recreation Society of Bonn'. In
1790 this society commissioned Beethoven to write his 'Cantata on the
Death of the Emperor Joseph II', who was an unusually reformist
ruler."
ABOLISH THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL: LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
http://www.revolve.com.au/polemic/abolish/08-earn_beethoven.htm
"The influence of the group of people with whom Beethoven associated
thus resulted in the young composer's admiration for the reformist
emperor Joseph II, who provided the first embodiment of the 'hero' in
Beethoven's music, in 1790, in the 'Cantata on The Death of Joseph
II'. The libretto was written by a local poet Severin Anton Averdok
for a memorial service held by the Reading & Recreation Society of
Bonn (i.e. the Illuminati) . It was Professor Eulogius Schneider who
suggested that the service include a musical tribute and commissioned
Beethoven to write one. After describing the victory of Joseph over 'a
monster called Fanaticism' Averdok's libretto continues: 'Here
slumbers in peace a mighty hero whose generous heart bore sorrowfully
the welfare of mankind right up to the end'. This eccentric ruler was
Beethoven's first ideological hero."
THE BEETHOVEN FILE: THE ILLUMINATI & THE RECYCLED THEMES
http://www.revolve.com.au/polemic/beetintro.html#illuminati
"Beethoven's twin cantatas on the death of Joseph II and the accession
of Leopold II (the Emperor is dead; long live the Emperor) are never
going to be repertory pieces, nor even get more than very occasional
concert outings; but they certainly earn a hearing... Beethoven was
only 20 when he wrote them, to a commission to mark the events in
Bonn, and it was partly the demands posed by the music that prevented
their performance. Probably still more responsible was a text that
celebrated Joseph's liberal policies by attacking, in true
Enlightenment vein, his defeat of 'a monster named Fanaticism'. This
was a scarcely veiled dig at clerical excesses, and needless to say
the Church took affront. But the appeal to the young Beethoven's
humanist idealism drew from him music in a vein that he was to mine
deeper when he came to write Fidelio not many years later, and even
the Ninth Symphony near the end of his life."
Bodil Arnesen: Discography
http://www.bodil-arnesen.com/reviews.htm
More background on the origins of the cantata may be found here:
Raptus Association: BEETHOVEN'S CANTATAS OF 1790
http://www.raptusassociation.org/cantatas.html
Google search strategy:
Google Web Search: beethoven cantata death emperor
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=beethoven+cantata+death+emperor
I hope this is helpful. If anything is unclear or incomplete, please
request clarification; I'll be glad to offer further assistance before
you rate my answer.
Best regards,
pinkfreud |
