On 22 December 1814 Beethoven wrote to Johann Baptist Rupprecht, a former businessman who had taken up horticulture and poetry after the economic turmoil of the Napoleon invasions. Rupprecht had apparently asked Beethoven to set his poem to the composer’s “heavenly” music:
With the greatest pleasure, my esteemed R, I will set your poem to music and, what is more, I will shortly bring it to you in person — Whether my setting will be heavenly, I do not know, since I am only earthly. However I will do my utmost to justify as far as possible your exaggerated predilection for me. (Emily Anderson, ed., Beethoven Letters, No. 506)
The Rupprecht poem that Beethoven set to music is titled “Merkenstein,” about one of the ruined old castles that delighted the 19th century Austrians. The Merkenstein ruins are in Lower Austria near Baden and date from at least the twelfth century.
“Merkenstein” consists of six stanzas that Beethoven set strophically, conjuring nostalgia-tinged memories of the ruins through the progress of a day from dawn to night and back to dawn, concluding
Nature has come to appear to me
Eternally youthful amid your ruins.
If Rupprecht wanted something “heavenly” and sublime for his “Merkenstein” poem, Beethoven didn’t oblige. The clarion call of “Merkenstein” at the beginning of each stanza sounds more military than heavenly, and the 6/8 rhythm helps give the rest more of the feel of a folksong.
#Beethoven250 Day 278
“Merkenstein” (WoO 144), 1814
An animated score accompanies this recording by Peter Maus.
Beethoven also wrote a completely different second setting of “Merkenstein in 3/8 rather than 6/8 time, for two closely linked voices in parallel thirds and sixths. The duet gives the words even more of a pastoral and folksong aura — a loving couple united in their rapture.
#Beethoven250 Day 278
“Merkenstein” for duet (Opus 100), 1814
This recording with an animated score includes only the first three of the six stanzas.
During the summer of 1815, Beethoven wrote again to Johann Baptist Rupprecht:
A very long time ago I jotted down two melodies for your “Merkenstein”, — But both these compositions were buried under a pile of other papers. The day before yesterday I found the one which I am enclosing. The other one is for two voices and in my opinion is the better work. But I have not yet been able to find it — Since, however, in spite of my great untidiness nothing in my house is ever lost as a rule, I will let you have the other setting too, as soon as I find it — (Beethoven Letters No. 553)
The letter continued with a request:
You would afford me a great pleasure if you were to send me sometime six of your poems which have not yet been published, so that I might set them to music.
It seems that Beethoven was searching for a collection of related poems — in retrospect suggesting that he was perhaps already thinking about an extended song composition that would be unlike anything he had previously done.