Für Elise (Bagatelle in A minor, WoO 59)

Background

The Bagatelle in A minor, WoO 59, was first published in 1867 by Ludwig Nohl, who had copied it from a Beethoven manuscript headed, as he read it, "Für Elise am 27 April zur Erinnerung von L. v. Bthvn" ("for Elise on 27 April, as a remembrance"). The year is given as 1810. The manuscript is now lost, which is why the dedication remains a puzzle.

No Elise has ever been firmly identified in Beethoven's circle. One long-standing theory is that Nohl misread Beethoven's notoriously messy handwriting and the name was really Therese, meaning Therese Malfatti, a young pupil whom Beethoven is believed to have hoped to marry in 1810. Other researchers have proposed the singer Elisabeth Röckel, who was known as Elise. None of these ideas is proven.

The piece is a small rondo: the famous theme (A) alternates with two contrasting episodes, giving the pattern A, B, A, C, A.

How to practise it

Learn the sections in this order: the theme first, then the stormy C section, then the gentler B section. The theme comes back several times, and the C section needs the longest to settle. If you have not yet learned the theme, the opening theme arrangement breaks it down step by step.

The B section moves to F major. The right hand sings a slower tune while the left hand plays continuous broken chords (F, A, C and back). Keep the left hand quieter than the melody. It ends with very fast thirty-second notes that lead back to the theme; practise these in groups, stopping on the first note of each group, before joining them up.

The C section is the dramatic heart of the piece. The left hand plays one note, a low A, over and over in sixteenth notes, like a drumbeat, while the right hand plays loud chords above it.

Repeated notes tire the hand if you play them from the arm. Keep the wrist loose and the finger close to the key, and try both one finger and changing fingers (3, 2, 1) to see which stays more even. Play the left hand alone, very softly at first, for a full minute without stopping.

At the end of the C section the right hand climbs an A minor arpeggio across three octaves and then falls back down a chromatic scale (every key, white and black) to the opening E and D sharp. Learn the chromatic scale on its own with fingers 3 on black keys and 1 or 2 on white keys.

Tempo ladder: each section at half speed until secure, then three-quarter speed, then full speed, before playing the whole piece. Musically, keep the theme soft and intimate each time it returns, so the C section's storm makes its full effect.

For a general method of splitting a long piece into sections like these, see how to practise piano.