Play this tune for a few hours in your home and feel your mood, mind and spirit improve for the better. Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor for solo piano, commonly known as "Für Elise" (English: "For Elise"), is one of Ludwig van Beethoven's most popular compositions.
It is not certain who "Elise" was. Max Unger suggested that Ludwig Nohl may have transcribed the title incorrectly and the original work may have been named "Für Therese", a reference to Therese Malfatti von Rohrenbach zu Dezza (1792–1851). She was a friend and student of Beethoven's to whom he proposed in 1810, though she turned him down to marry the Austrian nobleman and state official Wilhelm von Droßdik in 1816.
According to a recent study by Klaus Martin Kopitz, there is flimsy evidence that the piece was written for the German soprano singer Elisabeth Röckel (1793–1883), later the wife of Johann Nepomuk Hummel. "Elise", as she was called by a parish priest (she always called herself "Maria Eva" or "Betty"), had been a friend of Beethoven's since 1808. In the meantime it has been proven that Rudolf Schachner, who in 1851 inherited Therese von Droßdik's musical scores, was a relative of Babette Bredl who in 1865 let Nohl copy the autograph in her possession. Thus Kopitz's hypothesis is definitely refuted.
The pianist and musicologist Luca Chiantore argued in his doctoral thesis and his recent book "Beethoven al piano" that Beethoven might not have been the person who gave the piece the form that we know today. Chiantore suggested that the original signed manuscript, upon which Ludwig Nohl claimed to base his transcription, may never have existed. On the other hand, the musicologist Barry Cooper stated, in a 1984 essay in the Musical Times, that one of two surviving sketches closely resembles the published version. It has also been suggested that Elise simply refers to a term at this point in history which simply meant 'sweetheart', therefore suggesting this piece was written for Elise (Theresa Malfatti).
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