Guitarist Tariq Harb performs the famous and delicate piano piece "Für Elise" composed by Ludwig van Beethoven.
I've always wanted to play this piece on guitar since I used to play bits of it on the piano and played other arrangements of it on the violin. I recently completed this adaptation of it for guitar and to be honest, it feels very much at home on the instrument. I am excited to share this performance with you and I hope you enjoy it!
For those interested in the score, it is available via my online shop:
Standard notation: tariqharb.com/product/beethoven-fur-elise-bagatelle-in-a-minor-woo-59-arr-harb/
Tablature (TABS): tariqharb.com/product/beethoven-fur-elise-bagatelle-in-a-minor-woo-59-arr-harb-tabs/
"Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor (WoO 59, Bia 515) for solo piano, commonly known as "Für Elise", is one of Ludwig van Beethoven's most popular compositions. It was not published during his lifetime, only being discovered by Ludwig Nohl 40 years after his death, and may be termed either a Bagatelle or an Albumblatt. The identity of "Elise" is unknown; researchers have suggested Therese Malfatti, Elisabeth Röckel, or Elise Barensfeld.
The score was not published until 1867, forty years after the composer's death in 1827. The discoverer of the piece, Ludwig Nohl, affirmed that the original autograph manuscript, now lost, had the title: "Für Elise am 27 April [1810] zur Erinnerung von L. v. Bthvn" ("For Elise on April 27 in memory by L. v. Bthvn"). The music was published as part of Nohl's Neue Briefe Beethovens (New letters by Beethoven) on pages 28 to 33, printed in Stuttgart by Johann Friedrich Cotta.
The version of "Für Elise" heard today is an earlier version that was transcribed by Ludwig Nohl. There is a later revised version from 1822, with drastic changes to the accompaniment which was transcribed from a manuscript by the Beethoven scholar Barry Cooper. The most notable difference is in the first theme, the left-hand arpeggios are delayed by a 16th note. There are a few extra bars in the transitional section into the B section; and finally, the rising A minor arpeggio figure is moved later into the piece. The tempo marking Poco moto is believed to have been on the manuscript that Ludwig Nohl transcribed (now lost). The later version includes the marking Molto grazioso. It is believed that Beethoven intended to add the piece to a cycle of bagatelles.
Whatever the validity of Nohl's edition, an editorial peculiarity contained in it involves whether the second right-hand note in bar 7, that is, the first note of the three-note upbeat figure that characterizes the main melody, is an E4 or a D4. Nohl's score gives E4 in bar 7, but D4 thereafter in all parallel passages. Many editions change all the figures to beginning with E4 until the final bars, where D4 is used and resolved by adding a C to the final A octave. However, the use of the note D4 in bar 7 can be traced back to a draft Beethoven wrote for the piece that is today housed in the Beethoven-Haus Bonn. Another point in favor of the D4 is that the ascending seventh of the motive in this form is repeated in sequence in bars 9 to 11 that begin the second section of the principal theme.
The pianist and musicologist Luca Chiantore argued in his thesis and his 2010 book Beethoven al piano (new Italian edition: Beethoven al pianoforte, 2014) that Beethoven might not have been the person who gave the piece the form that we know today. Chiantore suggested that the original signed manuscript, upon which Ludwig Nohl claimed to base his transcription, may never have existed. On the other hand, Barry Cooper wrote, in a 1984 essay in The Musical Times, that one of two surviving sketches closely resembles the published version.
Für Elise is widely recognized around the world. It is a piece of intermediate difficulty, graded at a level 7 out of 10 by The Royal Conservatory of Music. According to the pianist Lang Lang, "it may appear simple, but it presents its own challenges." A large number of children's toys incorporated the tune. In Taiwan, Für Elise is one of the two melodies garbage trucks play to ask residents to bring out their trash, the other being Maiden's Prayer. Für Elise is nearly universally featured on ringtone websites."
Read more about "Für Elise" on Wikipedia.
Guitar: Martin Blackwell, cedar double-top and Brazilian rosewood back and sides, 2019
Strings: Savarez, CR 540
Guitar support: Murata
Camera: Sony a6400 - camera mic used for tutorial
Mics used for performance: Rode NT55 (matched pair)
www.tariqharb.com
tariqharb
tariqharbmusic
Tariq Harb teaches at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada: www.concordia.ca/faculty/tariq-harb.html
Online store: tariqharb.com/shop/