Ex. 2-3: Fra le beate alme felici

Salieri wrote this song after his pupil Marianna Auenbrugger died in August 1782, at 23. It is the last of three parts of an ode in her memory. A publisher in Vienna printed the ode together with her one piano sonata. The picture on the title page shows a tomb and a weeping angel.

The writer of the words is not known. The title page calls him only "a friend and admirer" of Marianna. In the first two parts the singer mourns her. In this last part the singer speaks to her, now at peace among the blessed, and tells her that she will always live in our hearts.

Marianna and her elder sister Katharina were fine pianists in Vienna. In 1780 Haydn wrote that the two of them played as well as the greatest masters. Their father, a doctor, knew Salieri well. He wrote the words of one of Salieri's operas and was a witness at his wedding.

From the album Salieri: Lieder, sung by Ilse Eerens with Ulrich Eisenlohr, fortepiano. This recording is the whole ode in one track, and this song starts at about 3:50.
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