Freudvoll und Leidvoll, from Egmont, in G, Hess 94 (mp3)

Freudvoll und Leidvoll, from Egmont, in G, Hess 94 (mp3)
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Performer: Mark S. Zimmer
Length: 1:13
Freudvoll und Leidvoll, from Egmont, in G, Hess 94
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Author: Willem
Length: 1:20
Freudvoll und Leidvoll in G, Hess 94 (1810).

This is yet another draft of Klaerchen's song from Egmont (op.84) for voice and piano. It is in the key of G,rather than the final key of A, and the piano part is kept rudimentary, or not written out in full. The comparison of this sketch with the other versions gives us the opportunity to peep over the Master's shoulder while he's at work, and see which notes he considered to be essential.

No matter how hastily this sketch was jotted down, even here we see the creative mind at work: in bars 14-16 the eighth notes have been replaced by two sixteenth (giving "schwebender Pein" more urgency) and at bars 33-35 there occurs a sixteenth triplet accompaniment.

Of the four versions of this song found on The Unheard Beethoven, this one, Hess 94, probably comes second in order of composition. It is not yet in the final key of A, but the bass line of the first section moves upward with the voice as it does in the final version found in op.84, rather than the contrasting downwards motion heard in Hess 95. The two versions in Hess 93 are in the final key of A and have several characteristics found in the final version that are not present here or in Hess 95.

Opus: 84
Hess: 94



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