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Sunday, June 5, 2016

Glass Harp Orchestra

Für Elise by Ludwig Van Beethoven
Played on Glass Harp 
by Robert Tiso

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The score was not published until 1867, 40 years after the composer's death. The discoverer of the piece, Ludwig Nohl, affirmed that the original autographed manuscript was dated 27 April. This manuscript has been lost.

It is not certain who "Elise" was. Max Unger suggested that Ludwig Nohl may have transcribed the title incorrectly and the original work may have been named "Für Therese", a reference to Therese Malfatti von Rohrenbach zu Dezza (1792--1851). She was a friend and student of Beethoven's to whom he proposed in 1810, though she turned him down to marry the Austrian nobleman and state official Wilhelm von Droßdik in 1816. According to a recent study by Klaus Martin Kopitz, there is flimsy evidence that the piece was written for the German soprano singer Elisabeth Röckel (1793--1883), later the wife of Johann Nepomuk Hummel. "Elise", as she was called by a parish priest (she always called herself "Betty"), had been a friend of Beethoven's since 1808. In the meantime it has been proven that Rudolf Schachner, who in 1851 inherited Therese von Droßdik's musical scores, was a relative of Babette Bredl who in 1865 let Nohl copy the autograph in her possession. Thus Kopitz's hypothesis is definitely refuted.

The pianist and musicologist Luca Chiantore argued in his doctoral thesis and his recent book "Beethoven al piano" 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, the musicologist Barry Cooper stated, in a 1984 essay in the Musical Times, that one of two surviving sketches closely resembles the published version. It has also been suggested that Elise simply refers to a term at this point in history which simply meant 'sweetheart', therefore suggesting this piece was written for Elise (Theresa Malfatti)


Ave Maria by Franz Schubert
played on glass harp by Robert Tiso.

This song is No. 6 of Schubert's Liederzyklus vom Fräulein vom See (Song-cycle from 'The Lady of the Lake'), composed in 1825. It is listed as Ellens Gesang. III. Hymne an die Jungfrau (Ellen's song, III. Hymn to the Virgin), and it is often referred to as Elles dritter Gesang (Ellen's third song).

The original source is The Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott ( 1771-1832), in the German translation (published 1819) by Adam Storck (1780-1822) in 1819 (the name Adam Storck is a pseudonym for Philipp Adam). The seven songs that form the song-cycle were published in 1826 as Schubert's Op. 52, with both Storck's German texts and the original English texts by Scott, under the title Sieben Gesange aus Walter Scotts Fräulein vom See (Seven Songs from Walter Scott's Lady of the Lake).

Often sung in Latin with an adaptation of the Roman Catholic Ave Maria text, this song is often referred to as "Schubert's Ave Maria", popular as both a wedding song and a funeral song.


Bolero Glass Harp Orchestra

Robert Tiso plays Bolero by M. Ravel on Glass Harp.
Recorded at "Porto Banana" - Italy by Robert Tiso.
Mixed and mastered at "La Sauna" - Italy by Giuio Ragno Favero.

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