25 Шотландских песен, Opus 108

Полное название цикла: "25 Шотландских песен для голоса, смешанного хора, скрипки, виолончели и фортепиано" (Opus 108). Произведение, представляющее собой собрание обработок народных песен на стихи различных поэтов, было опубликовано в Лондоне и Эдинбурге в 1818, а в Берлине в 1822.

Английское издание:
1. "Music, Love and Wine" ("O let me music hear, night and day!", 1817, автор текста: William Smyth)
2. "Sunset" ("The sun upon the Weirdlaw Hill;" 1818, автор текста: Вальтер Скотт)
3. "O sweet were the hours;" (1817, автор текста: William Smyth)
4. "The Maid of Isla" ("O maid of Isla from yon cliff;", 1817, автор текста: Вальтер Скотт)
5. "The sweetest lad was Jamie;" (1815, автор текста: William Smyth)
6. "Dim, dim is my eye;" (1815, автор текста: William Brown)
7. "Bonnie Laddie, Highland Laddie" ("Where got ye that siller moon", 1815, автор текста: James Hogg)
8. "The lovely lass of Inverness;" (1816, автор текста: Роберт Бёрнс)
9. "Behold, my Love" ("Behold my Love how green the groves;", 1817, автор текста: Роберт Бёрнс)
10. Sympathy ("Why, Julia, say, that pensive mien?", 1815, автор текста: William Smyth)
11. Oh, Thou Art the Lad of My Heart, Willy (1815, автор текста: William Smyth, variations on this air: Op 107 #9
12. Oh, Had My Fate Been Join'd With Thine (1816, автор текста: Дж. Г. Байрон)
13. Come Fill, Fill, My Good Fellow (1817, автор текста: William Smyth)
14. O How Can I Be Blithe (1816, автор текста: Роберт Бёрнс)
15. O Cruel was My Father (1816, автор текста: Alexander Ballantyne)
16. Could This Ill World Have Been Contriv'd (1816, автор текста: James Hogg)
17. O Mary at Thy Window Be, (1817, автор текста: Роберт Бёрнс)
18. Enchantress, Farewell (1818, автор текста: Вальтер Скотт)
19. O Swiftly Glides the Bonny Boat (1815, автор текста: Joanna Baillie)
20. Faithfu' Johnie ("When will you come again;", 1815, автор текста: Anne Grant)
21. Jeanie's Distress ("By William late offended;" 1817, народная)
22. The Highland Watch ("Old Scotia, wake thy mountain strain;", 1817, автор текста: James Hogg, для голоса, хора и фортепианного трио)
23. The Shepherd's Song ("The gowan glitters on the sward;", 1818, автор текста: Joanna Baillie)
24. Again, my Lyre, yet once again (1815, автор текста: William Smyth)
25. Sally in Our Alley ("Of all the girls that are so smart;", 1817, автор текста: Henry Carey)

После первого издания, опубликованного в Англии в 1818 году, Бетховен подготовил немецкое издание. В этой рукописи порядок песен изменен автором, издание было выпущено Шлезингером в Берлине в 1822 году.

Немецкое издание:
1. Musik, Liebe und Wein: Es schalle die Musik, Nacht and Tag!
2. Der Abend: Die Sonne sinkt ins Ettrick Thal
3. O köstliche Zeit: O kostliche Zeit
4. Das Islamädchen: O Islamagdlein, die du kuhn
5. Der schönste Bub: Der schönste Bub war Henny
6. Trub ist mein Auge: Trub, trub ist mein Auge wie
7. Frische Bursche, Hochlands Bursche: Wem den Silbermond ihr dankt
8. Die holde Maid von Inverness: Die holde Maid von Inverness kennt
9. Schau her, mein Lieb: Schau her, mein Lieb, der Walder Grun
10. Sympathie: Was, Julia sagt der Blick voll Gram
11. O du nur bist mein Herzensbub: O du nur bist mein Herzensbub
12. O hatte doch dies gold'ne Pfand: Ohatte doch dies gold'ne Pfand
13. Trinklied: Schenk ein, mein guter Junge, schenk hoch
14. O, wie kann ich wohl fröhlich sein: O, wie kann ich wohl fröhlich sein?
15. O, grausam war mein Vater: O, grausam war mein Vater
16. Wenn doch die ärge böse Welt: Wenn doch die ärge böse Welt
17. Mariechen, komm ans Fensterlein: Mariechen komm ans Fensterlein
18. O Zaub'rin, leb'wohl: Leb'wohl, o of the Zaub'rin
19. Wie gleitet schnell das leichte Boot: Wie gleitet schnell das leichte Boot
20. Der treue Johnie: O wann kehrst of the zuruck
21. Jeanie's Trübsal: Als William jungst mich schmahte
22. Die Hochlands Wache: Alt Schottland, wecke deiner Hohn
23. Des Schafers Lied: Die Masslieb glänzt auf grunem Grund
24. Noch einmal wecken Thränen: Noch einmal wecken Thränen bang
25. Das Baschen in unserm Strasschen: Von allen Mädchen glatt und schön

During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, there was a fashion for folk music in most parts of continental Europe. The audiences for this music largely consisted of musical amateurs who wanted easy pieces for vocal and instrumental performers, suitable for whatever number of singers and players might be available. The publisher George Thomson took advantage of the demand and started publishing these songs, with fairly traditional melodies, but with new words and with harmonies and instrumentations written by various composers. Haydn and later Beethoven were the best known of these.

Thomson asked Beethoven to participate in 1803. He did not agree until 1809, but then finished his first collection by 1810. Due to a series of disasters (involving problems in the reliablility of messengers, the Napoleonic wars, and reluctant smugglers—enough to provide material for a comic opera), Thomson did not receive the complete set until 1814. Thomson provided texts for the songs upon receiving them, adding yet another delay in their publication.

Given the circumstances of their commission and publication, it's no surprise that these songs do not have the typical exact fitting of word to text that Beethoven forged in his own original Lieder. But many musicologists are too quick to condemn the inexact fit; the critics miss the way that the settings fulfill the reason for their commission. They create a vivid (if often frequently sentimental) mood in just a few bars, and they provided pleasing entertainment for their audiences. Some of the most apt in this set include Number 11, "Oh, thou art the lad of my heart, Willy!" with its lightly jubliant, skipping setting, and the cheerfully grumbling Number 16, "Could this ill world have been contriv'd," with its staccato rhythms that are simultaneously easy for the instrumentalists and perfect for the mood.

(All Music Guide)

Среди песен цикла наибольшую популярность приобрела "Застольная" ("Come Fill, Fill, My Good Fellow" или "Schenk ein, mein guter Junge, schenk hoch"):

20. Faithfu' Johnie

Faithfu' Johnie is among the most obscure works within perhaps the most obscure corner of (arguably) the world's most famous composer. Beethoven's songs as a whole are rather generally neglected; and, overshadowed in scope, influence, and, ostensibly, artistic investment, by important middle-period works such as the Seventh and Eighth symphonies and the Op. 74 and Op. 95 string quartets, this and other folk song arrangements from the 1810s seem to interest scholars even less than, say, Wellington's Victory. Still, a consideration of Beethoven's realization of this Scottish tune shows the composer's concern for line, pacing, and expression, even when dealing with "lesser" artistic materials.

The song was included in the first set of 62 British folk tune settings sent to Edinburgh publisher George Thomson between 1810 and 1812. Thomson had previously commissioned the songs from Beethoven, and supplied him with the tunes, which the composer set for high voice, piano, and optional violin and cello parts. Although submitted with this early batch, the bulk of which was published between 1814 and 1816, Faithfu' Johnie was among a handful that Thomson found too difficult to perform and sent back for revision. Specifically, Thomson found the piano part in the original 1810 version (cataloged by Hess as 203), with its unrelenting stream of triplet figurations, "very brilliant and truly excellent, but...too difficult, and contain[ing] too many roulades to be generally played here." Beethoven grudgingly revisited the work, adopting a different version of the folk melody and setting it within a more sparse texture. At the same time, the second pass at the wong yielded more insight into the back-and-forth nature of the text (seen in the first verse: "When will you come again, my faithfu' Johnie/When will you come again?/When the corn is gathered, and the leaves are withered/I will come again, my sweet and bonnie, I will come again."). Beethoven's original version set the poetry to a continuous line; the later version, completed in early 1813 and published five years later as part of the Scottish Songs (25), Op. 108, articulates the change of voice with a recurring interlude, and conveys a sense of longing through a more dramatic melodic contour. Such touches may not raise these parlor tunes to the level of the sublime, but do lend them the kind of honest elegance with which Thomson hoped to preserve them.

(Jeremy Grimshaw, All Music Guide)