Source: Yangcheng Evening News
"Alice" Thales Malfati
The year 2020 marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of the great German composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827). Although Beethoven never married, his emotional world was not barren, and he had several "eternal lovers". Chinese two famous piano pieces, "Dedicated to Alice" and "Moonlight Sonata", which are familiar to the Chinese, were written by Beethoven to his lovers.
Listening to "Dedicated to Alice" often improves your math scores
Beethoven's piano sketch in A minor, WoO 59, played by the French "piano prince" Richard Clayderman in China, is a melodious, rhythmic and tireless piece. Emma Gray, a Doctor of Clinical Psychology in the United Kingdom, found that the melody and tone of classical music help people improve learning efficiency and deepen memory, and listening to Beethoven's "Dedicated to Alice" can improve math test scores by 12%.
"Dedicated to Alice" is an A-B-A-C-A five-part body melody. The very singing Diebu A appears 3 times in the whole song, and the right hand melody falls into the silver plate like a crystal clear pearl, which is both crisp and pleasant, gentle and idyllic, as if the stream flows, the picture sense is extremely strong, just like the warm sun shining into the house, Beethoven stands next to Alice, obsessively watching her practice over and over again.
The B insert shifts to F major, the colors are bright, expressing Beethoven's fiery love for Alice, and the fast running of the 32-point note has a feeling of impatience. The C insert returns to the main key A minor, and the homophonic repetition of the left hand resembles a muffled thunder coming from afar, symbolizing both the ruthless destruction of free love by decaying traditional consciousness and the inner uneasiness of Beethoven. The "Mannheim Rocket" pattern composed of three chords rushed to the peak and was followed by a downward chromatic scale, Beethoven was powerless to get rid of the feudal etiquette, the anger was vented and then calmed down, returning to part A, Alice was still practicing calmly, and Beethoven was still silently admiring her.
Beethoven's "Dedicated to Alice" alone is enough to go down in history
"Dedicated to Alice" is almost as well-known as "Happy Birthday", and some music critics say that even if Beethoven does not write other songs, just one "Dedicated to Alice" is enough to make him famous.
"Dedicated to Alice" was discovered 40 years after Beethoven's death by the German music scholar Ludwig Noor (1831–1885), who collected material for Beethoven's biography and found a manuscript of the piece while collating the letters of Beethoven's student Teresz Malfatti (1792–1851). Beethoven read on the front page: "Dedicated to Alice in Memory, Ludwig van Beethoven, on the morning of April 27." The piece was first published in 1867 as a collection of Beethoven letters by the German publisher Johann Friedrich van Frycher Kota (1764–1832), and the score was a copy that Noel gave to the publisher.
The German musicologist Max Ernst Unger (1883–1959) believes that Beethoven's scrawled handwriting may have been a typographical error in Nord's copying of the score, and that he copied "Therese" (Elise).
Thales became a student of Beethoven in 1806, and the two admired each other, but after all, the social identities were very different, and the two could not become a family. In April or May 1810, Beethoven wrote to Thales: "Farewell, Dear Thales, may good things accompany you throughout your life." Please don't forget me, no one wants you to have a good, happy life like me, even if you don't realize it. The drop is "loyal to your servant and friend Beethoven." "Dedicated to Alice" was probably created before and after Thales and Beethoven's breakup.
Thales married an Austrian nobleman in 1816.
The identity of "Alice" is still controversial
According to a 2010 research article published by Klaus Martin Copitz, a German musicologist and authority on Beethoven studies, "Alice" was actually the sister of the German soprano Elisabeth Lockeer (1793–1883), the sister of the tenor Joseph Auguste Locker (1783–1870) who played Anna in Mozart's opera Don Juan in 1806, in which She played Mozart's opera Don Juan. According to the literature of Vienna's Stephen's Cathedral, Elizabeth Locker was also called Maria Ava Alice, and letters written to her by friends also referred to her as "Alice".
Elizabeth, who became Beethoven's girlfriend in 1808, recorded her intimate relationship with Beethoven in her diary: "Beethoven would lovingly squeeze my arm." Elizabeth remained in a relationship with Beethoven after marrying the composer John Nebomk Hummel (1778–1837) in 1813, and after Beethoven's death on 26 March 1827, she also received a lock of Beethoven's hair.
In 2014, Canadian music scholar Rita Stepblin (1951-2019) argued that "Alice" was most likely Alice Ballensfield (1796-1820). The manuscript was found at Thales Malfati's residence because she was across the street from Alice Malfati's residence, while the former taught the latter to play the piano, and perhaps the latter took the manuscript with her when she went to learn the piano, and later forgot there.
Born in Regensburg, Germany, Alice Ballensfeld was a famous soprano who toured Vienna with Beethoven's assistant Johann Nepomuk Meltze (1772–1838). Meltze is versatile, often performing on the same stage with Beethoven and assisting Beethoven in conceiving musical compositions. He also invented the hearing aid for Beethoven and was the inventor of the hundred-tone piano and the modern metronome.
Beginning in 1809, Alice studied vocal music in Vienna with antonio Salieri (1750-1825), a composer of the Holy Roman Empire, and Beethoven often consulted Salieri, coupled with Alice's relationship with Beethoven's assistant, it was natural for Beethoven to meet and fall in love with her.
The song "Dedicated to Alice" is so well-known that for a century and a half someone has been studying who the song was written for. In fact, it does not matter who the song is written to, as long as you know that it was written by Beethoven to his lover.
Texts "Moonlight Song" and "Moonlight Sonata"
The Moonlight Sonata was very popular during Beethoven's lifetime, and it was also the favorite of the "King of the Piano" Liszt (1811-1886), who taught thousands of students, but never taught students to play the piece, but used it as a reserved repertoire for his own performances.
Chinese teaching version of the sixth grade primary school Chinese textbook has a text called "Moonlight Song". One night, while walking, Beethoven heard the intermittent sound of the piano coming out of a low house on the side of the road, playing his music. Beethoven overheard the conversation between the brothers and sisters in the house, and the sixteen- and seventeen-year-old blind sister wanted to hear how Beethoven himself played. Beethoven heard this and pushed the door in and played the song again. At this time, a gust of wind blew out the candle, the moonlight shone into the room, and Beethoven improvised a song in the moonlight. After playing, Beethoven returned to the inn and spent the night writing the improvised piece. This is where the Moonlight Sonata comes from.
The Moonlight Sonata was composed by Beethoven in 1801. Beethoven began to lose his hearing in 1798, and from 1801 he had to communicate with people with the help of hearing aids and even through writing, when he was deaf and even wanted to commit suicide because of his deafness. In a suicide note in October 1802, Beethoven wrote: "For me, ending my life is no big deal, only art has stopped me." Therefore, Beethoven at that time may have faintly heard the piano in the house while walking on the path, but he would never have heard the conversation between the brothers and sisters in the house.
Moreover, although the piano was invented by the Italian Bartolomeo Cristofri (1655-1731) around 1698, the manufacturing process was not mature at first, it did not become popular, and in the time of Beethoven, the piano slowly became popular, but it was very expensive, and the piano could only be seen in the court and aristocratic families. It was not until 1820 that the piano used a cast iron skeleton to carry the tension of the strings, and the volume was even louder. In 1801, a poor boy who made a living by making leather boots had to raise a blind sister who had a piano in the house, which was impossible.
A bust based on Beethoven's 1812 mask
The Moonlight Sonata was written by Beethoven to lovers
In fact, the Moonlight Sonata, like "To Alice", was written by Beethoven to his lover, who dedicated the title of the song to his student Countess Giulietta Quetzaldi (1784-1856) in 1802.
Giulietta Quetzaldi followed her parents to Vienna in June 1800. In May 1799, Beethoven taught the daughters of Countess Anna Brunswick of Hungary to learn piano, and Julieta was a relative of the family, and from 1801 Beethoven also taught her to play the piano.
In a letter dated 16 November 1801 to his physician Franz Gerhard Weigler (1765-1848), Beethoven described Julietta as a charming girl: "Once again there was some joy in my life, and I began to participate in social activities again. You can't imagine how lonely and lonely I have been in the past two years, and how miserable my life has been. Now everything has changed, this sweet, charming girl loves me and I love her, and now I can enjoy my happiest time again. But unfortunately, our status is very different, and there is no doubt that I cannot marry her. ”
On 14 November 1803, Julietta married the amateur composer Count Winzel Robert von Garenberg (1783–1939) in Vienna and settled in Naples, Italy.
The Moonlight Sonata has nothing to do with moonlight
The reader now knows that the Moonlight Sonata was not composed by Beethoven for a blind woman in the moonlight, it has not even the slightest connection with the moonlight, and the use of the title "Moonlight" is misleading to both the player and the audience.
The official name of the Moonlight Sonata is The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C minor (Op. 27 No.2), Beethoven's own annotation is "a sonata in the style of fantasy". Five years after Beethoven's death, the German poet Ludwig Raelstab (1799-1860) likened the first movement of the piece to "as beautiful as the moonlight sprinkled on Lake Lucerne", so the song was given the nickname "Moonlight Sonata".
Beethoven wrote a playing tip on the first page of the "Moonlight Sonata": "The whole piece should be played gently, all the time stepping on the sustain pedal." "The piano sustain effect is much better now than in Beethoven's time, if you keep stepping on the sustain pedal, the sound will be muddy, so now play this piece to lightly pedal, or change the pedal when changing chords."
The first movement of the Moonlight Sonata is the most famous, and the famous American score editor Albert Ernest Will (1879-1945) selected the "Piano Masterpieces" to include this movement. The tonality of the ascending C minor determines that this movement is expressive of melancholy emotions, the left hand is basically supported by an octave bass, showing Beethoven's firm belief in love, while the triplet in the middle of the right hand flows like a spring of water, with a sense that this love is endless.
As soon as the theme appeared, the three consecutive homophonic high notes were obviously questions, and the injustice of society was always asked "why", especially the application of the small nine degrees of discordant chords, and the sharp and harsh sound expressed Beethoven's inner entanglement and anger, he seemed to find a way out, had been struggling, shouting.
Although the melody of "Moonlight Sonata" is not as smooth and beautiful as "Dedicated to Alice", it leaves room for thinking, can touch the soul more, and will remind people of the past, think about the current situation, and look forward to the way out in the future. If the reader feels this piece with his heart, he will not find the shadow of the moonlight in any way. (Text, photo/ Liu Zhirong)