DLXXXVIII. BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van (1770-1827)
George Thomson (1757-1851) was an English publisher who employed many famous composers to create trio arrangements for singers of popular folksongs. It was Haydn who recommended Beethoven for the gig, but Thomson had also employed Ignaz Pleyel, Leopold Kozeluch, Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Carl Maria von Weber, Henry Rowley Bishop, and Robert Archibald Smith.
There was a huge market for such music in upper-middle class families, where the children might be fairly gifted singers or instrumentalists.
One can see that the instrumental parts are not too difficult, and the poetry of the songs can rise to magnificence.
Beethoven set his folksongs in their original languages:
Put round the bright wine
For my bosom is gay
The night may have sunshine
As well as the day
Oh welcome the hours!
When dear visions arise
To melt my kind spirit
And charm my fond eyes
When wine to my head
Can its wisdom impart
And love has it promise
To make to my heart
When dim in far shade
Sink the spectres of care
And I tread a bright world
With a footstep of air
Yes, mirth is my goddess
Come round me, ye few
Who have wit for her worship
I doat upon you
Delighted with life
Like a swallow on wing
I catch ev'ry pleasure
The current may bring
The feast and the frolic
The masque and the ball
Dear scenes of enchantment!
I come at your call
Let me meet the gay beings
Of beauty and song
And let Erin's good humour
Be found in the throng
If life be a dream
'Tis a pleasant one sure
And the dream of tonight
We at least may secure
If life be a bubble
Tho' better I deem
Let us light up its colours
By gaiety's beam
Away with cold vapours
I pity the mind
That nothing but dullness
And darkness can find
Give me the kind spirit
That laughs on its way
And turns thorns into roses
And winter to May
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