Ludwig van Beethoven: Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage - Sheet music | Carus-Verlag

Ludwig van Beethoven Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage

op. 112

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Beethoven’s Meeres Stille und Glückliche Fahrt (Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage) op. 112 for four-part mixed chorus and symphony orchestra – his setting of a pair of poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – defies straightforward categorization, but can best be described as a choral ode. Beethoven in fact never voyaged by sea, but his composition, premiered in 1815, continues to surprise even today.

He depicted in music the smooth surface of the motionless water and the oppressive calm, which meant nothing other than being becalmed, a delayed voyage, and short rations in the era of sailing, with the same intensity as a freshening increasing wind, with which Aeolus, the God of the winds, ultimately enabled the longed-for "prosperous voyage" to take place. The composed calmness of the motionless sea is conveyed in the low register used throughout, in which the chorus sings the first poem accompanied by washes of pianissimo sounds on the strings. There is a surprising moment with the musical portrayal of the "ungeheuere Weite" (immense breadth), at which the vocal-instrumental writing suddenly crescendos to forte and unfolds into a texture of over five octaves. By contrast "Glückliche Fahrt" is written in restlessly-compiled meters, whose musical setting in flowing movement with diatonic scale passages evokes happy excitement and confidence. The work was dedicated to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, whom Beethoven greatly admired throughout his life.

The work has now been published in a new critical edition based on the first printed edition and the performance score which Beethoven himself checked and corrected. 

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  • Calm Sea.

    Profound silence rules the waters,
    motionless the sea at rest,
    and the troubled skipper gazes
    over mirrored surfaces.
    Not a breath from any quarter
    deathly silence devastates!
    In the endless vastness not a
    single wavelet undulates.
     

    Prosperous Voyage.

    The mists rend asunder,
    the sky fills with brightness
    and Aeolus unfetters
    the frightening bond.
    The winds whisper lightly,
    the skipper takes action.
    Be sprightly! Be sprightly!
    The waves are dividing,
    the distance approaches;
    ...
  • Meeres Stille.

    Tiefe Stille herrscht im Wasser,
    Ohne Regung ruht das Meer,
    Und bekümmert sieht der Schiffer
    Glatte Fläche rings umher.
    Keine Luft von keiner Seite!
    Todesstille fürchterlich!
    In der ungeheuern Weite
    Reget keine Welle sich.
     

    Glückliche Fahrt.

    Die Nebel zerreißen,
    Der Himmel ist helle
    Und Aeolus löset
    Das ängstliche Band.
    Es säuseln die Winde,
    Es rührt sich der Schiffer.
    Geschwinde! Geschwinde!
    Es theilt sich die Welle,
    Es naht sich die Ferne;
    ...
  • Foreword of the Edition Carus 10.395

    Sven Hiemke
    Translation: Gudrun and David Kosviner

    Beethoven’s setting of Meeres Stille und Glückliche Fahrt (Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage) op. 112 belongs to those compositions in the history of music which cannot be categorized unequivocally. This work for four-part mixed choir and symphony orchestra could most closely be described as a “choral ode” – a genre which was preferably associated with poetry of a sophisticated literary standard and whose form is strongly determined by the text. Beethoven’s work, too, is entirely suffused by the underlying text in two sections by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The pair of poems “Meeres Stille” and “Glückliche Fahrt” were written in 1795 and first published in the Musen-Almanach für das Jahr 1796 which was edited by Friedrich Schiller. The musical setting is based on a version revised by Goethe and presumably found by Beethoven in the Cotta edition Goethe’s Werke. The becalmed sea is here described in regularly alternating seven-syllable and eight-syllable trochaic lines; the prosperous voyage, on the other hand, is set in restless compound meters with a flowing movement which evokes associations of

    ...
  • Vorwort der Ausgabe Carus 10.395

    Sven Hiemke

    Beethovens Vertonung Meeres Stille und Glückliche Fahrt op. 112 gehört zu jenen Werken der Musikgeschichte, die sich einer eindeutigen Gattungszuordnung entziehen. Am ehesten lässt sich das mit vierstimmig gemischtem Chor und sinfonischem Orchester besetzte Werk noch der Chor-Ode zuordnen – einer Gattung, die bevorzugt mit literarisch anspruchsvollen Dichtungen verbunden war und deren musikalische Anlage stark vom Text her bestimmt ist. Auch Beethovens Werk ist ganz von der zugrundeliegenden zweiteiligen Dichtung Johann Wolfgang von Goethes durchdrungen. Das Gedichtepaar „Meeres Stille“ und „Glückliche Fahrt“ entstand 1795 und erschien erstmals in dem von Friedrich Schiller herausgegebenen Musen-Almanach für das Jahr 1796. Der Vertonung liegt eine von Goethe überarbeitete Fassung zugrunde, die Beethoven vermutlich in der Cotta-Ausgabe Goethe’s Werke fand. Das regungslose Meer wird hier in regelmäßig wechselnden sieben- und achtsilbigen Trochäen zeilen beschrieben, die „Glückliche Fahrt“ hingegen ist in unruhigen zusammengesetzten Metren gefasst, deren fließende Bewegung freudige Erregung und Zuversicht assoziieren lässt.

    Beethoven

    ...
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full score Carus 10.395/00, ISMN 979-0-007-18811-5 44 pages, paperback
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29,00 € / copy
vocal score Carus 10.395/03, ISMN 979-0-007-18812-2 20 pages, paperback
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choral score Carus 10.395/05, ISMN 979-0-007-18813-9 8 pages, DIN A4, without cover Minimum order quantity: 20 copies
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from 20 copies 3,80 € / copy
from 40 copies 3,42 € / copy
from 60 copies 3,04 € / copy
set of parts, complete orchestral parts Carus 10.395/19, ISMN 979-0-007-24538-2 23 x 32 cm
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  • 1 x set of parts, harmony parts, flute 1, flute 2, oboe 1, oboe 2, clarinet 1, clarinet 2, bassoon 1, bassoon 2, horn 1, horn 2, horn 3, horn 4, trumpet 1, trumpet 2, timpani (10.395/09)
    each: 43,00 €
    6 x individual part, violin 1 (10.395/11)
    each: 4,80 €
    5 x individual part, violin 2 (10.395/12)
    each: 4,80 €
    4 x individual part, viola (10.395/13)
    each: 4,80 €
    3 x individual part, violoncello (10.395/14)
    each: 4,80 €
    2 x individual part, double bass (10.395/15)
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text (without music) for download, html file, Introductory text, German Carus 10.395/00-310-000
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text (without music) for download, html file, Introductory text, English Carus 10.395/00-320-000
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text (without music) for download, html file, Singing text, english translation Carus 10.395/00-360-000
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text (without music) for download, html file, Singing text, original Carus 10.395/00-380-000
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  • Ludwig van Beethoven was without doubt one of the most influential composers in the history of music. His works formed the culmination of many genres – particularly instrumental – of Viennese classicism, and laid the foundation for the following decades. But Beethoven’s vocal works set standards too: the late Missa Solemnis is one of the most impressive choral works of its time; but his earlier Mass in C also opens up new worlds of expression for the liturgical text, and set the benchmark for the further development in the composition of the mass. And with the final chorus of the Ninth Symphony, the setting of Schiller’s Ode to Joy, Beethoven created one of the most frequently-performed and best known choral pieces of all, writing a timeless musical memorial to himself. Personal details

Reviews

... Jedenfalls ist hier eine präzise edierte Urtext-Edition vorhanden...
Gustav Danzinger, CHOR aktuell, 4/2019

.... Das ... Stück dauert ca. acht Minuten und besticht durch die eindrucksvolle Vertonung der dem Text innewohnenden Kontraste.
Andreas Peterl, Singende Kirche, 2/19

... Das Gelegenheitsvverk eignet sich durch seine weltliche Vorlage in erster Linie für profane Anlässe in Verbindung mit anderen Beethoven-Werken wie etwa der „Chorphantasie“ oder anderen orchesterbegleiteten Chorvverken aus dem weltlichen Bereich. mk
Kirchenmusikalische Mitteilungen der Erzdiözese Freiburg, Mai 2019

... Carus punktet mit dem sehr guten Vorwort des Herausgebers Sven Hiemke, dessen Texte man immer mit Freuden liest.
Roman Emilius, Gottesdienst und Kirchenmusik, 06/2020

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