It was not often the case that Beethoven was open to work with a musical idea that was not his own. When his friend Johann Maelzel approached him in 1813 about a promising idea that required the cooperation of the two, Beethoven said yes. The result was the Wellington’s Victory.
Prelude to Wellington’s Victory
In June 1813, Portuguese, Spanish and British armies under the command of Duke of Wellington defeated Napoleon’s French army near Vitoria. The victory led to the end of the Peninsular War and to be considered a major victory in the Napoleonic wars.
When the news broke in Vienna, Johann Maelzel, the German inventor, creator of mechanical musical devices and not least a showman, immediately saw the opportunity for his next gig. He approached Beethoven with his idea: to make a commemorative musical composition played on his invention the Panharmonicon. The composer agreed with some enthusiasm. He put in his diary: “I must show the English a little what a blessing there is in God save the King!”
Beethoven was busy with the score all summer, frequently visiting Maelzel in his shop for consultations. Main concern must have been the limitation of the Panharmonicon and the insert of show elements, like canon shots or gunfire. By October the score was ready for the cylinder engravements.
It is not certain at which moment in time did the two decide to take the music and expand it to a full orchestra version, but soon this plan and of a journey to London was on the table. The biggest concern was money, as a journey this long with the sophisticated machines of Maelzel was risky, but certainly expensive.
Preparations for the premier
Their plan for financing the trip to London was simple: make a benefit concert for the wounded with the Wellington’s Victory and the Seventh Symphony, capitalize on the highly probable success, and then make more concerts for their own benefit.
Beethoven focused on the orchestration (that included 100 musicians), Maelzel on the organization of the concerts. Given it was a charity event and Beethoven was involved, the opportunity to participate attracted many prominent musicians, local or passing by (Schuppanzigh first violin, Salieri, Spohr, Mayseder, Hummel just to name a few). A dear friend and inspiration, the double bass player Dragonetti was also in the orchestra.
Tomaschek, the Czech composer and music teacher, was not convinced by the seriousness of the piece, neither its musical value. He remembered the event saying, “I was very painfully affected to see a Beethoven, whom Providence had probably assigned to the highest throne in the realm of music, among the rudest materialists. I was told, it is true, that he himself had declared the work to be folly, and that he liked it only because with it he had thoroughly thrashed the Viennese.”
Tomaschek was convinced most musicians participated in the event only by dedication to the cause and saw nothing more in it than a buffoonery.
During the rehearsals it was Beethoven himself, who conducted the orchestra. Given his hearing condition and thus his ability to follow the tempo of the players it was rather comical than useful. Meanwhile Maelzel finished the posters for the concert, at first putting himself as the owner of the music. Beethoven objected and it was corrected with a sentence that said it has been composed by Beethoven “out of friendship, for his visit to London.”
The program was as the following:
I. An entirely new Symphony by Beethoven (the Seventh)
II. Two Marches (played by Mälzel’s Mechanical Trumpeter) with full orchestral accompaniment
III. Wellington’s Victory
The premier of Wellington’s Victory
The premier was on the 8th of December 1813, at the University Hall and by popular demand the concert was repeated on the 12th, at noon.
The success was bigger than anything they hoped for! Something to be repeated only later with his Ninth Symphony. Contemporary newspaper coverage and critiques were all positive, reporting on how the audience “rose to the point of ecstasy” in applause. Spohr, a violinist, confirmed the good reception adding that the second movement of the Seventh Symphony “was demanded da capo (from the beginning) at both concerts”. The only negative aspect was the volume, some from the audience found it simply to be too loud. As one observer remarked the concert was “seemingly designed to make the listener as deaf as its composer!”
Schindler went even further in his recollection calling the event “one of the most important moments in the life of the master, at which all the hitherto divergent voices, save those of the professional musicians, united in proclaiming him worthy of the laurel.”
The net result (deducting the costs) were 4006 florins (tickets were 5 and 10 fl). As promised the whole sum was handed over for the good cause.
As a closing act, Beethoven prepared a note of thanks to be published in the Wiener Zeitung newspaper (see the note at the end of the article). The text is very generous, pity it was never published for reasons covered in the next section.
The fight over the copyrights and revenue
Soon after the successful concerts the question of copyrights and the fair sharing of any possible income had risen. Maelzel was already planning his next move in Munich, where he wished to make the next performance. Beethoven refused to give him the scores and share the copyrights. In a desperate move Maelzel took some parts of the score, completed them, and went on his way. The composer immediately talked to his lawyer and made statements about his version of the story.
We certainly have some objective truths on this case, and we have testimonies, too. The originator of the piece beyond any doubt is Maelzel. He approached the composer with the idea, but not only that, he actively participated in the making of the music!
One testimony is from Ignaz (Isaac) Moscheles, saying, “I witnessed the origin and progress of this work, and remember that not only did Mälzel decidedly induce Beethoven to write it, but even laid before him the whole design of it; himself wrote all the drum-marches and the trumpet-flourishes of the French and English armies; gave the composer some hints, how he should herald the English army by the tune of “Rule Britannia”; how he should introduce “Malbrook” in a dismal strain; how he should depict the horrors of the battle and arrange “God save the King” with effects representing the hurrahs of a multitude.”
This statement is further validated by Carl Stein, whose father’s piano factory gave home to Maelzel’s shop floor. Stein believed Maelzel was unjustly treated by the composer.
Even Beethoven himself titled a copy of the score as, “On Wellington’s Victory at Vittoria, 1813, written for Hr. Mälzel by Ludwig van Beethoven.”
The active cooperation is further supported by the fact that whoever wrote music for the Panharmonicon had to consult the maker of this machine about the possibilities and limitations of it.
The two men some time later finally reconciled and settled the dispute between themselves. This newly found peace lead to another important common project, the Maelzel Metronome!
|Related: Beethoven and Johann Maelzel
Wellington’s Victory – as music
Beethoven’s Wellington’s Victory or Battle of Vitoria (or Battle Symphony) has the opus number of 91. It is an approximately 15-minute-long piece in its orchestral version. This full orchestration includes: flutes, piccolos, bassoons, oboes, clarinets, horns, trumpets, violins, violas, cellos, double bass, trombones, timpani, cymbals, bass drum and triangle. Specialty of the work is the inclusion of special effects, like artillery and hand guns.
The music has three parts, the Battle-Charge and the Victory Symphony. In the opening two armies approach each other (obviously the British and the French side). For the British we hear Rule Britannia, for the French “Malbrough s’en va-t-en guerre” (Marlborough has left for the war, today well known as For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow). Then muskets and cannons dominate the scene with the Brits as victors.
The last part, the Victory Symphony, includes the God Save the King (the British national anthem) and although carries some Beethovenian elements it is not to be counted among his real symphonies. As he himself put it later, it was nothing more “but an occasional work”.
Yet, for many years it remained a popular piece and was often requested during concert events.
* Beethoven’s note of acknowledgment intended for publication in the Wiener Zeitung after the successful concerts of the Wellington’s Victory. The note, at the end, was never published.
“I esteem it to be my duty to thank all the honored participants in the Academy given on December 8, and 12, for the benefit of the sick and wounded Austrian and Bavarian soldiers who fought in the battle at Hanau.
It was an unusual congregation of admirable artists wherein every individual was inspired by the single thought of contributing something by his art for the benefit of the fatherland, and coöperated without considering rank in subordinate places in the excellent execution of the whole.
While Herr Schuppanzigh at the head of the violins carried the orchestra by his fiery and expressive playing, Hr. Chief-Chapelmaster Salieri did not scruple to beat time for the drummers and salvos; Hr. Spohr and Hr. Mayseder, each worthy of leadership because of his art, collaborated in the second and third places and Hr. Siboni and Giuliani also occupied subordinate positions.
To me the direction of the whole was assigned only because the music was of my composition; had it been by another, I should have been as willing as Hr. Hummel[115] to take my place at the big drum, as we were all filled with nothing but the pure love of country and of joyful sacrifice of our powers for those who sacrificed so much for us.
But our greatest thanks are due to Hr. Mälzel, since it was he who first conceived the idea of this academy and there fell to him afterward the management, care and arrangement—the most arduous labors of all. I must also thank him in particular, because by the projection of this academy, he gave me the opportunity, long and ardently desired, by means of the composition especially written for this philanthropic purpose and delivered to him without pay, to lay a work of magnitude upon the altar of the fatherland under the existing conditions.
Ludwig van Beethoven”
