Glück zum neuen Jahr!

You've probably noticed it too: from early December to mid-January, almost all e-mails end with greetings for the holidays and the New Year. And our good old post office sends us cards from companies we haven't heard from in eleven months. But we're not the only ones! As far back as the late 18th century, these exchanges of compliments were considered "a real burden, particularly pedantic in Germany. Printed New Year's greetings, very fashionable 30 years ago, seem however to be gradually diminishing, and becoming a rather confidential custom, a sign of elegance" (at least, this is the opinion of Brockhaus's Lexicon of Conversations, in 1817).

Two examples of these "signs of elegance" can be found in Beethoven's work, written on the words "Glück zum neuen Jahr", the common expression of Happy New Year at the time. The first is a four-part imitative movement, a free canon of sorts, written on January 1, 1815 for one of Beethoven's patrons and friends, Baron Jean-Baptiste de Pasqualati (WoO 165). The second is a full-fledged canon in three parts, dedicated on December 31, 1819 to Countess Maria von Erdödy (WoO 176). Beethoven had already dedicated the piano trios op. 70 (1809) and the sonatas for cello and piano op. 102 (1819) to her. These canons, whether mysteriously notated in a single voice with no indication of where the others are to enter, or written in the form of a multi-part score, are like many other examples of the little musical phrases that Beethoven wrote for the "good taste" of the society of his time. It remains to be seen whether they were sung, or whether they remained "music for the eyes". Whatever the case, they playfully combine a sense of good manners with great skill in counterpoint.

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