LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN, SONATE PATHÉTIQUE IN C MINOR OP. 14
ANONYMOUS HARMONIE ARRANGEMENT
CHEMISCHE DRUCKEREY, PL.-NR. WIEN, CA 1810

The Sonate pathétique op. 13 was written in the years 1798 and 1799 and was published in 1799. The composition was dedicated to Carl von Lichnovsky, the generous patron of Haydn and Mozart and became very popular after publication.

The only reliable information on the present historical Harmonie version is its announcement in the Wiener Zeitung (issue No. 73 of 12 September 1810) by the Chemische Druckerey, that assigned the issue with the plate-number 1488.

It is very unlikely, that Beethoven provided the arrangement himself. The maker of this version must have been one of the many excellent Viennese wind arrangers of the time. Alexander Weinmann presumed, that Georg Druschetzky (1745-1819) could be considered as the one. This presumption is based on the fact that the wind arrangement of Beethoven’s Septet Op. 20 by Druschetzky appeared with the same publisher two years later, in 1812. The (very able) arranger however remains anonymous.

The arrangement presents the complete piano sonata in the original key, except for the second movement, that was transposed from A-flat to B-flat. Here, the arranger also added an up-beat for the first bar, that is not present in the original version.

A remarkable feature of this arrangement is the writing for the horns. The ingenious change of crooks to meet the demands of the music and a daring solo for the second horn in the Adagio cantabile are exceptional in the Harmoniemusik repertoire.

The arrangement is so successful that if we would not have had knowledge about the original piano version, this wind guise would come across as an attractive original piece for harmonie.

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