Chamber music composition for seven instruments by Ludwig van Beethoven
The Septet in
E-flat major for
clarinet,
horn,
bassoon,
violin,
viola,
cello, and
double bass,
Op. 20, by
Ludwig van Beethoven, was sketched out in 1799, completed, and first performed in 1800 and published in 1802.[1] The score contains the notation: "Der Kaiserin Maria Theresia gewidmet" (Dedicated to the
Empress Maria Theresa).[1] It was one of Beethoven’s most popular works during his lifetime, much to the composer's dismay.[2][3] Several years later, Beethoven even wished the score to have been destroyed, saying: "That damn work! I wish it were burned!"[4][5]
The overall layout resembles a
serenade and is in fact more or less the same as that of
Mozart's
string trio, K. 563, in the same key, but Beethoven expands the form by the addition of substantial introductions to the first and last movements and by changing the second
minuet to a
scherzo. The main theme of the third movement had already been used in Beethoven's
Piano Sonata No. 20 (Op. 49 No. 2), which was an earlier work despite its higher opus number. The finale features a violin
cadenza.
The scoring of the Septet for a single clarinet, horn and bassoon (rather than for pairs of these wind instruments) was innovative. So was the unusually prominent role of the
clarinet, as important as the violin.
The Septet was one of Beethoven's most successful and popular works and circulated in many editions and
arrangements for different forces. In about 1803, Beethoven himself arranged the work as a trio for clarinet (or violin), cello, and piano, and this version was published as his Op. 38 in 1805 in Vienna. Beethoven dedicated the Trio Op. 38 to Professor
Johann Adam Schmidt (1759–1809), a German-Austrian surgeon and ophthalmologist, and a personal physician of Beethoven, whom he attended to from 1801 until 1809.
Conductor
Arturo Toscanini rearranged the string section of the Septet so that it could be played by the full string section of the orchestra, but he did not change the rest of the scoring. He recorded the Septet for
RCA Victor with the
NBC Symphony Orchestra on November 26, 1951, in
Carnegie Hall.
Influence
Franz Schubert composed his 1824
Octet (in F major, D. 803) for the clarinetist
Ferdinand Troyer who had requested a piece similar to Beethoven's Septet, and the works accordingly resemble each other in many ways.
The theme song for the Spanish dub of the French TV series Once Upon a Time... Man (Érase una vez... el hombre) is sung to the tune of the Septet.[10][11][12] The lyrics were written by the Spanish singer-songwriter
José Luis Perales.[13]