44-891: Wellington's Victory , or the Battle of Vitoria (also called the Battle Symphony ; in German: Wellingtons Sieg oder die Schlacht bei Vittoria ), Op. 91, is a 15-minute-long orchestral work composed by Ludwig van Beethoven to commemorate the Marquess (later Duke) of Wellington 's victory over Joseph Bonaparte at the Battle of Vitoria in Spain on 21 June 1813 and the German campaign of 1813 in Germany thus ending
88-519: A sonata form that, stripped of the development section, features an extended coda . The first theme is a fanfare in D major, which switches to the distant key of B-flat major for the second theme. This is " God Save the King ", the British national anthem: However, the final cadence (bars marked E in the score above) is not played. Instead, motif D is repeated so as to switch back to D major and to
132-672: A companion piece to "Opus 27, No. 1" ( Piano Sonata No. 13 in E-flat major , 1800–01), paired in same opus number, with both being subtitled Sonata quasi una Fantasia , the only two of the kind in all of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas. Furthermore, the Piano Sonata, Op. 27 No. 2, in C-sharp minor is also catalogued as "Sonata No. 14", because it is the fourteenth sonata composed by Ludwig van Beethoven. Given composers' inconsistent or non-existent assignment of opus numbers, especially during
176-420: A composer's juvenilia are often numbered after other works, even though they may be some of the composer's first completed works. To indicate the specific place of a given work within a music catalogue , the opus number is paired with a cardinal number ; for example, Beethoven 's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor (1801, nicknamed Moonlight Sonata ) is "Opus 27, No. 2", whose work-number identifies it as
220-581: A composer's works, as in the sets of string quartets by Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) and Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827); Haydn's Op. 76, the Erdödy quartets (1796–97), comprises six discrete quartets consecutively numbered Op. 76 No. 1 – Op. 76 No. 6; whilst Beethoven's Op. 59, the Rasumovsky quartets (1805–06), comprises String Quartet No. 7, String Quartet No. 8, and String Quartet No. 9. From about 1800, composers usually assigned an opus number to
264-453: A composition, Prokofiev occasionally assigned a new opus number to the revision; thus Symphony No. 4 is two thematically related but discrete works: Symphony No. 4, Op. 47, written in 1929; and Symphony No. 4, Op. 112, a large-scale revision written in 1947. Likewise, depending upon the edition, the original version of Piano Sonata No. 5 in C major, is cataloged both as Op. 38 and as Op. 135. Despite being used in more or less normal fashion by
308-628: A hero's brains. "Now, having got so far, I Find that – by the Lord Harry! The fourth is left nothing to carry. So there the thing remains." Mironton, mironton, mirontaine. The song is one of several contemporary tunes that are played by the musical box of the Negress head clock , made in Paris in 1784. Rita Dove references the song and the clock in her 2009 poem "Ode on a Negress Head Clock, with Eight Tunes". Ludwig van Beethoven used
352-457: A large percussion battery (including muskets and other artillery sound effects ), and a usual string section of violins I and II, violas , cellos , and double basses . In the orchestral percussion section one player plays the timpani, the other three play the cymbals , bass drum and triangle . On stage there are two 'sides', British and French, both playing the same instruments: two side drums ( englisches/französisches Trommeln in
396-533: A machine large enough to perform the music. As an alternative, Beethoven rewrote the Siegessinfonie for orchestra, added a first part and renamed the work Wellington's Victory . The piece was first performed in Vienna on 8 December 1813 at a concert to benefit Austrian and Bavarian soldiers wounded at the Battle of Hanau , with Beethoven conducting. It was immediately popular with concertgoers. Also on
440-563: A number of important early-twentieth-century composers, including Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) and Anton Webern (1883–1945), opus numbers became less common in the later part of the twentieth century. To manage inconsistent opus-number usages — especially by composers of the Baroque (1600–1750) and of the Classical (1720—1830) music eras — musicologists have developed comprehensive and unambiguous catalogue number-systems for
484-611: A pensive hour, Not knowing why or how her Dear lord from England stays. While sitting quite forlorn in That tower, she spies returning A page clad in deep mourning, With fainting steps and slow. "O page, prithee come faster! What news do you bring of your master? I fear there is some disaster, Your looks are so full of woe." "The news I bring fair lady," With sorrowful accent said he, "Is one you are not ready So soon, alas! to hear. "But since to speak I'm hurried," Added this page, quite flurried, "Marlborough
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#1732772639479528-781: A result, the plural opera of opus tends to be avoided in English. In other languages such as German, however, it remains common. In the arts, an opus number usually denotes a work of musical composition , a practice and usage established in the seventeenth century when composers identified their works with an opus number. In the eighteenth century, publishers usually assigned opus numbers when publishing groups of like compositions, usually in sets of three, six or twelve compositions. Consequently, opus numbers are not usually in chronological order, unpublished compositions usually had no opus number, and numeration gaps and sequential duplications occurred when publishers issued contemporaneous editions of
572-641: A work or set of works upon publication. After approximately 1900, they tended to assign an opus number to a composition whether published or not. However, practices were not always perfectly consistent or logical. For example, early in his career, Beethoven selectively numbered his compositions (some published without opus numbers), yet in later years, he published early works with high opus numbers. Likewise, some posthumously published works were given high opus numbers by publishers, even though some of them were written early in Beethoven's career. Since his death in 1827,
616-439: Is dead and buried!" And here he shed a tear. "He's dead! He's dead as a herring! For I beheld his berring, And four officers transferring His corpse away from the field. "One officer carried his sabre, And he carried it not without labour, Much envying his next neighbour, Who only bore a shield. "The third was helmet bearer – That helmet which in its wearer Fill'd all who saw it with terror, And cover'd
660-574: Is preserved in the Berlin State Library . After the Battle of Vitoria, Beethoven's friend Johann Nepomuk Maelzel talked him into writing a composition commemorating this battle that he could notate on his 'mechanical orchestra', the panharmonicon , a contraption that was able to play many of the military band instruments of the day. However, Beethoven wrote a composition for large band (100 musicians), so large that Maelzel could not build
704-586: Is said that Napoleon liked to hum the tune, for instance when crossing the Memel (June 1812) at the beginning of his fatal Russian campaign . The melody also became widely popular in the United Kingdom. By the mid-19th century it was being sung with the words " For He's a Jolly Good Fellow ", often at all-male social gatherings. By 1862, these lyrics were already familiar in America. From this version,
748-474: Is the "work number" that is assigned to a musical composition , or to a set of compositions, to indicate the chronological order of the composer 's publication of that work. Opus numbers are used to distinguish among compositions with similar titles; the word is abbreviated as "Op." for a single work, or "Opp." when referring to more than one work. Opus numbers do not necessarily indicate chronological order of composition. For example, posthumous publications of
792-608: The Baroque (1600–1750) and the Classical (1750–1827) eras, musicologists have developed other catalogue-number systems; among them the Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis (BWV-number) and the Köchel-Verzeichnis (K- and KV-numbers), which enumerate the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , respectively. In the classical period , the Latin word opus ("work", "labour"), plural opera ,
836-572: The Battle of Malplaquet in 1709, the bloodiest battle of the War of the Spanish Succession . It tells how Marlborough's wife, awaiting his return from battle, is given the news of her husband's death. It also tells that he was buried and that a nightingale sang over his grave. For years it was only known traditionally, and does not appear among the many anecdotic songs printed in France during
880-555: The Bourbon dynasty's influence on Spanish nobility. There the name Marlborough was modified to an easier to pronounce Mambrú. It was sung by children while playing Rayuela ( Hopscotch ). The Spanish guitarist and composer Fernando Sor (1778–1839) created a series of variations for guitar on the theme. It then spread to Latin America. The rage endured for many years, slowly fading after the French Revolution , although, it
924-403: The metronome , convinced Beethoven to write a short piece commemorating Wellington's victory for his invention, the panharmonicon . It never caught on as anything more than a curiosity. Nonetheless, Mälzel toured Europe showing off Beethoven's work on the mechanical trumpeter and the enthusiasm for the music convinced Beethoven to turn it into a full-blown "victory overture ". The manuscript of
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#1732772639479968-537: The score ), two bass drums ( Kanone in the score), two (four) ratchets , played by eight to ten instrumentalists. The work has two parts: the Battle ( Schlacht ) and the Victory Symphony ( Sieges Sinfonie ). The first part is programme music describing two approaching opposing armies and contains extended passages depicting scenes of battle. It uses " Rule Britannia " for the British side and " Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre " ("Marlborough has left for
1012-453: The French throne) he was wet-nursed by a peasant named Geneviève Poitrine . The nurse, whilst rocking the royal cradle, sang "Marlborough s'en va-t-en guerre". The name, the simplicity of the words, and the melodiousness of the tune, interested the queen, and she frequently sang it. Everybody repeated it after her, including the king. The song was sung in the state apartments of Versailles , in
1056-989: The Mendelssohn heirs published (and cataloged) them as the Italian Symphony No. 4 in A major, Op. 90 , and as the Reformation Symphony No. 5 in D major and D minor, Op. 107 . While many of the works of Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) were given opus numbers, these did not always bear a logical relationship to the order in which the works were written or published. To achieve better sales, some publishers, such as N. Simrock , preferred to present less experienced composers as being well established, by giving some relatively early works much higher opus numbers than their chronological order would merit. In other cases, Dvořák gave lower opus numbers to new works to be able to sell them to other publishers outside his contract obligations. This way it could happen that
1100-600: The Prince of Commanders Is gone to war in Flanders , His fame is like Alexander 's, But when will he ever come home? Mironton, mironton, mirontaine. Perhaps at Trinity Feast , or Perhaps he may come at Easter, Egad! he had better make haste or We fear he may never come home. Mironton etc. For Trinity Feast is over, And has brought no news from Dover, And Easter is pass'd moreover, And Marlborough still delays. Milady in her watch-tower Spends many
1144-553: The best work of an artist with the term magnum opus . In Latin, the words opus (singular) and opera (plural) are related to the words opera (singular) and operae (plural), which gave rise to the Italian words opera (singular) and opere (plural), likewise meaning "work". In contemporary English, the word opera has specifically come to denote the dramatic musical genres of opera or ballet, which were developed in Italy. As
1188-536: The case of Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47); after his death, the heirs published many compositions with opus numbers that Mendelssohn did not assign. In life, he published two symphonies ( Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 11 ; and Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56 ), furthermore he published his symphony-cantata Lobgesang , Op. 52, which was posthumously counted as his Symphony No. 2; yet, he chronologically wrote symphonies between symphonies Nos. 1 and 2, which he withdrew for personal and compositional reasons; nevertheless,
1232-466: The cases of César Franck (1822–1890), Béla Bartók (1881–1945), and Alban Berg (1885–1935), who initially numbered, but then stopped numbering their compositions. Carl Nielsen (1865–1931) and Paul Hindemith (1895–1963) were also inconsistent in their approaches. Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) was consistent and assigned an opus number to a composition before composing it; at his death, he left fragmentary and planned, but numbered, works. In revising
1276-415: The first four symphonies to be composed were published after the last five; and (c) the last five symphonies were not published in order of composition. The New World Symphony originally was published as No. 5, later was known as No. 8, and definitively was renumbered as No. 9 in the critical editions published in the 1950s. Other examples of composers' historically inconsistent opus-number usages include
1320-458: The kitchens and in the stables – it became immensely popular. From the court it was adopted by the tradespeople of Paris, and it passed from town to town, and country to country. It became as popular in England as in France. Johann von Goethe came to hate Marlborough simply on account of the prevalence of the tune he encountered during travels in France. It also became popular in Spain due to
1364-2404: The melody also became the tune for a popular American campfire tune The Bear Went Over the Mountain . The song has been translated into several languages, including an English version published by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in the 19th century. Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre, mironton, mironton, mirontaine, Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre, Ne sait quand reviendra. Il reviendra-z-à Pâques, mironton, mironton, mirontaine, Il reviendra-z-à Pâques, ou à la Trinité. La Trinité se passe, mironton, mironton, mirontaine, la Trinité se passe, Malbrough ne revient pas. Madame à sa tour monte, mironton, mironton, mirontaine, Madame à sa tour monte si haut qu'elle peut monter. Elle voit venir son page, mironton, mironton, mirontaine, elle voit venir son page, tout de noir habillé. Beau page, mon beau page, mironton, mironton, mirontaine, beau page, mon beau page, quelles nouvelles apportez? Aux nouvelles que j'apporte, mironton, mironton, mirontaine, aux nouvelles que j'apporte, vos beaux yeux vont pleurer! Quittez vos habits roses, mironton, mironton, mirontaine, quittez vos habits roses, et vos satins brodés! Monsieur Malbrough est mort. mironton, mironton, mirontaine, Monsieur Malbrough est mort. Est mort et enterré. Je l'ai vu porter en terre, mironton, mironton, mirontaine, Je l'ai vu porter en terre, par quatre-z-officiers. L'un portait sa cuirasse mironton, mironton, mirontaine, l'un portait sa cuirasse l'autre son bouclier. L'autre portait son grand sabre, mironton, mironton, mirontaine, L'autre portait son grand sabre, et l'autre ne portait rien. On planta sur sa tombe mironton, mironton, mirontaine, on planta sur sa tombe un beau rosier fleuri. La cérémonie faite, mironton, mironton,c mirontaine, la cérémonie faite chacun s'en fut coucher. Alors autour de sa tombe Mironton, mironton, mirontaine Alors autour de sa tombe Romarins l'on planta. Sur la plus haute branche Un rossignol chanta On vit voler son âme, Au travers des lauriers. Chacun mit ventre à terre, Mironton, mironton, mirontaine Chacun mit ventre à terre, Et puis se releva. Marlborough
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1408-496: The middle of the 18th century. Beaumarchais used the tune in his 1778 play The Marriage of Figaro for a despairing love song for Cherubino. In 1780 it became very popular. For instance, the tune concludes a sonata (in D-major) for viola d'amore and viola composed by Carl Stamitz in 1780 while in Paris. And it happened that when Louis XVII of France was born in 1785 (son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and heir to
1452-545: The performance was "seemingly designed to make the listener as deaf as its composer". Musicologist Frédéric Döhl described performances of this work as "not like an evening at the Berlin Philharmonie , but rather like a modern-day rock concert". Wellington's Victory is something of a musical novelty. The full orchestration calls for two flutes , a piccolo , two oboes , two clarinets , two bassoons , four horns , six trumpets , three trombones , timpani ,
1496-470: The phrase stemming from phrase A of the "God Save the King" tune. Later a second phrase joins in, still in imitative style, derived from the anthem's phrase B, thus building up a little double fugue. It all ends with a section based on motif (which reworks motifs C+D of the original theme) and at last by a final derivative of phrase A: The first version of "Wellington's Victory" was not written for an orchestra. Mälzel , known today primarily for patenting
1540-413: The programme were the premiere of his Symphony No. 7 and a work performed by Maelzel's mechanical trumpeter. This performance, which featured 100 musicians, has been noted as being particularly loud. Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim described it as a "sonic assault on the listener" and the "beginning of a musical arms race for ever louder... symphonic performance", quoting an unnamed attendee as remarking that
1584-423: The re-exposition of the fanfare theme. This is followed by the re-exposition of "God Save the King", now in the main key (D major) and adopting the pace of a "Tempo di menuetto moderato". Again the final cadence (E) is avoided and replaced by successive repetition of motif D, this time leading to a coda in imitative style. This fugal section ("Allegro") starts as a string octet (later joined by the full orchestra) with
1628-593: The rule of Bonaparte's Confederation of the Rhine and the birth of the German Confederation . It is known sometimes as "The Battle Symphony" or "The Battle of Vitoria", and was dedicated to the Prince Regent, later King George IV . Composition stretched from August to first week of October 1813, and the piece proved to be a substantial moneymaker for Beethoven. The autograph manuscript of the work
1672-475: The same opus number was given to more than one of his works. Opus number 12, for example, was assigned, successively, to five different works (an opera, a concert overture, a string quartet, and two unrelated piano works). In other cases, the same work was given as many as three different opus numbers by different publishers. The sequential numbering of his symphonies has also been confused: (a) they were initially numbered by order of publication, not composition; (b)
1716-479: The second part of this version was discovered by Willy Hess in a revised copy by the author (Hess 108). The novelty of the work has waned, and "Wellington's Victory" is not performed often today. Many critics lump it into a category of so-called "battle pieces", along with Tchaikovsky 's 1812 Overture and Liszt 's Hunnenschlacht ( Battle of the Huns ): Charles Rosen wrote that "Beethoven's contribution lacks
1760-398: The serious pretentiousness or the incorporation of ideology of Felix Mendelssohn 's Reformation Symphony , or of Hector Berlioz 's Symphonie funèbre et triomphale , but it is only the less interesting for its modesty." In their book Men of Music , Wallace Brockway and Herbert Weinstock termed the piece an "atrocious potboiler". Opus number In music , the opus number
1804-452: The un-numbered compositions have been cataloged and labeled with the German acronym WoO ( Werk ohne Opuszahl ), meaning "work without opus number"; the same has been done with other composers who used opus numbers. (There are also other catalogs of Beethoven's works – see Catalogues of Beethoven compositions .) The practice of enumerating a posthumous opus ("Op. posth.") is noteworthy in
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1848-530: The war", also popularized today as " For He's a Jolly Good Fellow ") for the French side. Beethoven may have elected to not use " La Marseillaise " to represent the French forces, as Tchaikovsky later did in the 1812 Overture , perhaps because playing "La Marseillaise" was considered treasonous in Vienna at the time. If this first part is pictorial music, the second is far from vulgar and exhibits some typical Beethoven composing techniques. It can be considered as
1892-427: The works of composers such as: Malbrough s%27en va-t-en guerre " Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre " (Marlborough is going off to war), also known as " Mort et convoi de l'invincible Malbrough " (The death and burial of the invincible Marlborough), is a folk song in French. The burlesque lament on the death of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650–1722) was written on a false rumour of that event after
1936-409: Was used to identify, list, and catalogue a work of art. By the 15th and 16th centuries, the word opus was used by Italian composers to denote a specific musical composition, and by German composers for collections of music. In compositional practice, numbering musical works in chronological order dates from 17th-century Italy, especially Venice . In common usage, the word opus is used to describe
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