It all began back in June of 2000, when—in that sophisticated way that a composer conjures justifiable reasons for procrastination—I was playing through some of Beethoven's piano sonatas. Midway through reading the A-flat Major Sonata, Op. 26 ("the one with the variations"), I was struck by its strong orchestral potential. This thought led me to wonder if any orchestrations exist of this—or of any other—Beethoven sonata. I subsequently embarked upon a quest to find existing renditions, published or unpublished, of these works. I expected to uncover a veritable panoply; the amount on record, however, was suspiciously slim. What I did stumble upon, however, well made up for the dearth: a movement from the very sonata that had spurred my search was already orchestrated, and by none other than...the Great Master himself!

The movement in question is the "Marcia Funebre," transcribed as the final segment of Beethoven's virtually ignored Leonore Prohaska Suite, WoO 96. The actual orchestration is curious in quite a few respects. Most prominently, the chosen key of transposition is unusual: that of B minor, Beethoven's rarely used and dreaded "black key" (or "schwarze Tonart," as he referred to it on page 39 of his Scheide Sketchbook in 1815)—presented as tonic only in rarities such as the third Bagatelle of Op. 126 and the "Agnus Dei" of the Missa Solemnis, Op. 123.

Why had Beethoven undertaken this orchestration to begin with? (And who was this Leonore, who seems to reappear one time too many within the composer's dramatic output?)

Leonore Prohaska was a play written by Friedrich Duncker (d. 1842), cabinet secretary to the King of Prussia, who had accompanied the King to Vienna for the Congress of 1814. Its plot, as might be expected, is rather similar to that of Fidelio, although Duncker's play was based upon a true story, in which a young girl disguised herself as a soldier in order to fight through the war of liberation and was mortally wounded in battle. Intended as incidental music and never completed, the "Musik zu Friedrich Duncker's Drama" consists of an opening chorus for tenors and basses, a "Romanze" for soprano, a "Melodram" for harmonica and spoken voice, and the "Trauermarsch" from Op. 26, arranged for orchestra. According to Beethoven's biographer Thayer, Duncker preferred that Beethoven use this "Marcia Funebre" to his composing a new one. Although a production of this undertaking never took place, Beethoven maintained contact with Duncker, in 1823 requesting him to persuade the King to subscribe to his Missa Solemnis, which he did.

On the subject of transcribing piano music, Beethoven declared that "the unnatural mania, now so prevalent... should really be checked."

The practice of arranging was, for Beethoven, a generally unappealing one. In 1802, the composer wrote, "the making of transcriptions is on the whole a thing against which nowadays (in our prolific age of transcriptions) a composer would merely struggle in vain ..." On the subject of transcribing piano music, he later declared that "the unnatural mania, now so prevalent, for transferring even piano compositions to string instruments, instruments which in all respects are so different from one another, should really be checked. I firmly maintain that only Mozart could arrange for other instruments the works he composed for the pianoforte." The transcriptions of Beethoven's music that do exist in his own hand, therefore, are noteworthy. Major examples include his resetting of the Piano Sonata in E Major, Op. 14, No. 1, for string quartet; his rendition of the Violin Concerto, Op. 61, as a piano concerto; his arrangement of the Grosse Fuge, from Op. 133, for piano duet; and his transcription of the Second Symphony, Op. 36, for piano trio.

The above arrangements, when not reductions, are either expansions of piano music for a small ensemble (as in the case of Op. 14) or are written for a large ensemble equal in breadth to the original (as in the case of the Violin Concerto). Thus, Beethoven's transcription of his "Marcia Funebre" for orchestra is particularly unusual.

The serendipitous way in which I happened upon this orchestral rarity led me to wonder what, if any, orchestral works might have been incubating within the composer's mind at the time the piano sonata was conceived, from 1800-01. After all, Beethoven's tendency to work on several compositions at once was acknowledged by the composer himself in a letter to his early friend, Wegeler, written in 1800: "I live only in my music, and one piece is hardly down before another is already begun. As I am now writing, I often make three and four pieces at once." The notebook corresponding to this particular time period—Landsberg 7—affirmed Beethoven's assertion. Indeed, the piano sonata was sketched concurrently with (among others) the "Spring" Sonata for violin and piano, Op. 24; the Egmont Overture, Op. 84; and—most importantly—the Second Symphony, Op. 36. Original versions of certain prevalent motives in the symphony bear striking resemblance to parallel motives within the sonata. These similarities led me to contemplate further the relationship that this sonata might have with the orchestra medium—and thus, further possibilities for transcription.

Consequently, I undertook the orchestration of the three remaining movements of the sonata—that is, the first, second, and fourth—in adherence to the orchestrational styles of symphonies nos. 1-3, all of which were written in proximity to Op. 26. In other words, I attempted to complete the transcription of Beethoven's sonata as he might have written it in 1802, had he any inclination to do so. The resulting "Symphony, Op. 26," including Beethoven's transcription, was presented as part of a lecture-performance that took place in February a year ago at Juilliard, in partial fulfillment of my doctoral degree. An official world premiere of "Beethoven's New Symphony" was given by the Camerata New York, conducted by Richard Owen, in September as part of the annual Beethoven Festival in Oyster Bay, L.I., sponsored by Friends of the Arts.

I will be discussing the "Trauermarsch," WoO 96, and the orchestration process of the rest of the sonata, in a lecture-performance in Morse Hall on February 19 at 11 a.m., titled From "Marcia Funebre" to "Trauermarsch": Beethoven's Op. 26 and the Orchestra. This presentation will be sponsored by the L&M Department. All are welcome.

Dalit Hadass Warshaw, a fifth-year doctoral student in composition, teaches orchestration in the Evening Division.