Composition and Publication
During the period he created "Adelaide", Beethoven was in his mid twenties; he had come to Vienna in 1792 to pursue a career and was in the early stages of making a name for himself as pianist and composer. He had only recently completed his studies with Joseph Haydn. A. Peter Brown suggests that in writing "Adelaide," Beethoven was strongly influenced by Haydn's song "O Tuneful Voice" (Hob. XXVIa:42, c. 1795), written by the elder composer shortly before. Like "Adelaide", "O Tuneful Voice" sets a love poem, is in moderate tempo with a steady triplet accompaniment, and wanders from key to key in its middle section.
In composing "Adelaide" Beethoven made many sketches. Barry Cooper assigns the work of composition to "an unusually long time during 1794, 1796, and perhaps 1796." The song was published by Artaria in Vienna; the first edition bears no date, but an advertisement for it appeared 8 February 1797 in the Wiener Zeitung.
Beethoven dedicated the work to Matthisson. The title page reads:
- ADELAIDE by MATTHISSON. A cantata for voice with keyboard accompaniment. Set to music, and dedicated to the author, by LUDVIG van BEETHOVEN. Artaria and Co., Vienna.
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