Beethoven’s variations on paisiello’s duet. Paisiello indeed? Looks like Beethoven did not realise what he was actually writing

Alexander E. Maykapar

Abstract


The paper explores the original material for Beethoven’s Nel cor piu non mi sento (WoO 70), also known as the variations on Paisiello’s duet. There is no denial that Beethoven borrowed the tune from Paisiello’s opera La molinara (The Miller-Woman), however, it was not actually Paisiello who composed it in the first place. During his many years living in St Petersburg, Paisiello ‘picked up’ a local tune that was popular among the city dwellers late in the 18th century. Once the tune became part of La molinara, whose popularity in Europe was immense, it attracted Beethoven. Consequently, many other composers, whose names will be listed in the paper, also used the theme.

The truth about Paisiello was only revealed when, quite unexpectedly, the Variations on the same theme written by the Abbe Joseph Gelinek were found in the archive of the Russian National Museum of Music. He published his Variations in St Petersburg. There, he did not have to refer to Paisiello–it was enough to simply give a title of the Russian musical romance on the same theme. The title is the first line of the poem Na tol chtoby pechaly (Is it for the sake of sorrow…). The paper refers to the original source and provides the evidence that it really existed.

This finding adds to the list of Russian original material used by Beethoven. It also allowed to identify the source that inspired Paisiello on writing the duet that, in every sense of the word, became his signature tune. 137 In sum, the paper sheds new light on musical ties between Russia, Austria and Italy in the late 18th – 19th centuries.

Keywords: Nel cor piu non mi sento, Beethoven, Paisiello, Gelinek, Russian romance, «Na to-l' chtoby pechali…» (“In love God gave a heart / Of burning passion to inspire…”*)

For citation: Maykapar A. E. Beethoven’s variations on paisiello’s duet. Paisiello indeed? Looks like Beethoven did not realise what he was actually writing [Electronic source]. In: Sovremennye problemy muzykoznaniya / Contemporary Musicology, 2020, No. 1, pp. 23–44. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.56620/2587-9731-2020-1-023-044

 


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DOI: https://doi.org/10.56620/2587-9731-2020-1-023-044

Copyright (c) 2020 Alexander E. Maykapar

License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/