#Beethoven250 Day 19
“Erhebt das Glas mit froher Hand” (WoO 109), 1790?
This is a Trinklied, a drinking song. “Raise a glass with gladsome hand to say farewell,” but don’t be sad, for “the friendship of true hearts will not be broken.”
#Beethoven250 Day 19
“Klage” (WoO 113), 1790?
Klage is Lament, from a poem by Ludwig Hölty. The same moon whose “silvery light” brought peace to a “carefree boy” will now “shine upon the coffin.”
On Christmas Day 1790 Haydn was passing through Bonn on his way to England for the first of two 18-month visits. Beethoven might have met Haydn at this time, and perhaps showed him the score for the Joseph II cantata — the most impressive music Beethoven had written to that date.