For Elise
by zuza_her_mother on July 20, 2008
in students
Yesterday I suddenly felt like listening to ‘For Elise’ by Beethoven – I guess that everyone knows this feeling, when a song just can’t get out of your head. After a few clicks I found the perfect version on youtube, played by Ivo Pogorelich. It is marvellous – I bet that even Beethoven would envy him (if he could hear it, and if he was alive). While listening, I cought myself doing that thing again! AGAIN, I was wondering how it happened – why he titled it ‘For Elise’? Who was she? What was their relationship? And, most importantly, did she like the song?
With a little help of my best friends, google and wikipedia, I found out that ‘For Elise’ was originally titled ‘For Therese’ (Beethoven’s handwriting must have been worse than Shakespeare’s was – a person who was rewriting his works simply read ‘Elise’ instead of ‘Therese’) and Therese was Therese Malfatti von Rohrenbach zu Dezza, a student of Ludwig and a daughter Viennese merchant. Beethoven fell in love with her and even proposed to Therese – but she said no and married some rich guy because her father wanted her to. And Wilhelm (the rich guy) and Therese lived happily ever after. The end.
‘How boring‘ I thought. However, this is only a theory, speculation, call it what you want, that is most probable. Because no-one knows anything about any Elise in Beethoven’s life. But does it mean that there weren’t any? He didn’t keep a diary, so we don’t have a pink heart with ‘LUDWIG + ELISE’ in it, but he left a letter. A letter which was discovered after he died, a letter adressed to his ‘Immortal Beloved’. It means it was adressed to …
… Therese! Their love was immortal! Therese was married, but she and Ludwig STILL loved each other secretly! Her father forced her to marriage with Wilhelm just because he had the money and was some very important figure! And Beethoven could only write letters to her beacuse he couldn’t hear therefore he could talk to her on the phone! OH MY GOD THAT IS SO ROMANTIC!!!!
No. And by no, I mean no. And they didn’t have a telephone that time.
It was Elise! If he had wanted to write to Therese, he would have writen ‘Therese’, don’t you think? Also, she dumped him! Even a happy dancing strawberry would hold a gruge! So, it must have been Elise. But then, who was she? Was she a woman he loved all his life? Was she an inspiration to write this lovely piece of music? Was she picking daises from some Austrian field and giving them to Ludwig, unconscious that he loved her? Did she die at young age and left Beethoven only with memories, daisies and a song he wrote for her?
That is romantic.
And I wonder, if Ludwig wrote lyrics for his music, what they would be like?
For Elise I’m the one who cares
The one who dares
Play on her nerves
For Elise I would even burn Rome
And I would roam
To bring her home
For her I’d live in misery
For century
Infinity
For her I’d even die and I would kill
Obeying
Her whim
For her I’d cross the deepest seas
For glory
Of my Elise
But after one stormy night
She needed soul
To go through rites
She put me down on my knees
And so I died
For my Elise
Well, zuza, your post deserves lavish praise, which you should be getting more of. Most people just listen to music (or muzak) – on, and off (Let’s press the button and shuffle). When you do, it seems to be on and on, in your head. So you dig into it and start creating your own convincing stories, because little anecdotes that often surround music are too trivial and limiting. I’m encouraged – you’ve managed to combine prose and poetry in one post, a rare stunt not only on this blog.
I agree with you, wojtek_t (by the way – why did you change it from albs_t?). It’s a great feat to combine both genres here, and, as far as I’m concerned, it takes a genius to hear a song and create a poem like this plus such a reflection on a song :). Well done!
Hello to you, Zuzia, from Canterbury.