(no subject)

[brooksmoses]

So, I was recently figuring out where to put the diacriticals in the title Beethoven's "Für Elise", which had come up in conversation with tiger_spot, and discovered that it might have been nearly named for her. The following conversation came out of this, and she was sufficiently amused that I figured I'd share:

BrooksMoses: Huh. "Für Elise" was apparently (according to one theory) originally titled "Für Therese": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fur_Elise
Tiger_Spot: Interesting.
Tiger_Spot: "intended to marry"? What happened?
BrooksMoses: I have no idea.
Tiger_Spot: The main Beethoven article is not helpful.
Tiger_Spot: Hm.... according to this site, Beethoven had an affair with Josephine von Brunsvick, Therese's younger sister.
BrooksMoses: That could do it.
Tiger_Spot: Hm... and this other website proposes an entirely different Therese, Therese Malfatti, for "Fur Therese".
BrooksMoses: Heh. Interesting.
Tiger_Spot: I get the feeling this is all rather poorly documented.
BrooksMoses: Yup. If only he'd kept a diary. "Day N: Wrote piece of music. Decided to title it for my dear betrothed Therese. Day N+5: Boffed Therese's sister. Had wonderful time. Day N+6: Therese found out about sister, hates me. Woe am I. Day N+7: Not marrying Therese after all. Telling Therese Malfatti that music is named for her, in hopes of catching her eye. Day N+23: Therese Malfatti hates me too. Am out of Thereses. Will rename music "Für Elise", since that at least has the right letters for the notes. Must find an Elise."

Comments

[leback.livejournal.com]

I feel compelled to mention this (http://www.intellectualwhores.com/beethoventheory.html).

[brooksmoses]

Oh, dear, yes. That's terrifically funny, especially in context.