Ex. 7-2: Das Glück der Freundschaft

Composed in the spring or summer of 1803, to an anonymous Italian poem ("Beato quei che fido amor") with a German translation by Christoph August Tiedge (1752–1841). Beethoven set both the Italian and German texts to the same music.

The song has two titles because of a publishing mistake. It was first published in 1803 by Leschenkohl in Vienna and Simrock in Bonn under the title Das Glück der Freundschaft (The Joy of Friendship). However, the publisher introduced errors in both the title and lyrics. On 22 October 1803, Beethoven wrote to his pupil Ferdinand Ries, asking him to arrange a corrected edition with the proper title — Lebensglück (Life's Happiness) — and six corrected passages in the text.

The poem is in praise of friendship: shared joy is doubled, and shared sorrow flows away. Beethoven wrote it the year after the Heiligenstadt Testament (1802), the private letter in which he despaired over his growing deafness. By 1803 he was composing with great energy again — this small song was even sketched among his drafts for the Eroica Symphony.

Around this time Beethoven was also studying Italian word-setting with Antonio Salieri, which suited an Italian song like this one.

From the album Beethoven: Lieder, Vol. 2 by Pamela Coburn and Leonard Hokanson (2004)
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