Canons

Now some acorns are perfectly happy just being acorns. To wit, the many humorous, sometimes bawdy and sometimes flippant little canons that Beethoven penned throughout his life. It might be expected that someone with his musical genius and cantankerous social mien would vent his aspersions via music. Friends and enemies alike could be subjected to his canonic jibes. Lob auf den Dicken celebrates the composer’s rather rotund good friend, Ignaz Schuppanzigh, violinist in one of the first professional string quartets and one of the very few people who remained close to Beethoven throughout his life. By contrast, the composer fell out with Prince Karl Lichnowsky—dedicatee of several important compositions—and later jotted down Bester Herr Graf at the Prince’s expense. Es muss sein, which quotes a phrase that turns up in the finale of his String Quartet in F, Op. 135, apparently relates to a disagreement about money—not a trivial matter in Beethoven’s biography.


Lob auf den Dicken:
Schuppanzigh ist ein Lump,
Wer kennt ihn nicht
Den dikken Saumagen
Den Aufgeblasnen Eselskopf…
Wir stimmen alle ein,
Du bist der grösste Esel!
Praise to the Portly One:
Schuppanzigh is a scoundrel,
Who doesn’t recognize
That thick sausage skin,
That puffed-up donkey’s head…
We all agree: you are
the biggest ass!


Bester Herr Graf,
Sie sind ein Schaf!
Dear Prince,
You are a sheep!


Es muss sein!
It must be!

(c) Jason Stell