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Beethoven's settings of Opferlied

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    Beethoven's settings of Opferlied

    I am confused about the number of times Beethoven set this and the forces required for each setting. According to my painstaking research (read: five minutes spent googling), there are five versions:

    1. Hess 145, for voice and piano - I have seen dates for this ranging from 1794 to 1796.

    2. WoO 126, for voice and piano - This is a revised version of the previous done between 1801 and 1802 and published in 1808.

    3. Op. 121b (Biamonti 766), for...I don't know (see below) - A version from 1822. From what I can tell, this version is sometimes called Op. 121b along with the next version.

    4. Op. 121b (Biamonti 790), for soprano, chorus, and orchestra - A version from 1824. This is the version everyone is probably most familiar with.

    5. Hess 91, for soprano, chorus, and piano - This is the 1824 version with the orchestral parts in a piano arrangement.

    So I think I have all this figured out, but the 1822 version confuses me. According to the liner notes of a CD I have, says the 1822 version is "for chorus and orchestra" and "calls for clarinets, a horn, a viola and a violoncello, and leaves the addition of bassoons optional". But then later it says, of the 1824 version, "And instead of three solo horn parts (or, as in the present recording of the 1822 version, a small choral group), Beethoven had a soprano alternate with the chorus." I don't have any idea what that is supposed to mean. It seems to say that there are three horns in the 1822 version, but there is only one (and two in the 1824 version). Furthermore, other notes I have found online say that the 1822 version is for "soprano, alto and tenor soloists with four-voice chorus, two clarinets, horn, viola and cello". That seems to match up with the instruments, but now it's talking about three vocal soloists?

    The only thing I can figure is that in my liner notes, "three solo HORN parts" was a mistake, and they meant "three solo VOCAL parts", which they then for some reason replaced with a "small vocal group" on the recording.

    Or is there a different version from 1822 entirely?

    #2
    The 1822 version is for SAT soli, SATB ch, 2 clarinets, horn and strings (but no violins).
    The 1824 version is S solo, SATB ch, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns and strings.
    'Man know thyself'

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