27 April: Fur Elise

It's believed that Beethoven completed Für Elise on April 27, 1810. 10 things you might not know about this piece of music:

1. The piece’s official name is “Bagatelle Number 25 in A minor.” A bagatelle is a piece of Music that is short and sweet, from the French word for a “trifle”.
2. It has also been known as an "Albumblatt," which means "album leaf", that is, a short and sweet solo piano piece that people would share with their friends by pasting them into each others’ music albums.
3. Occasionally, Für Elise is labelled as a "Klavierstücke" which is German for "Piano piece."
4. Beethoven was 39 years old when he wrote it.
5. It wasn’t published during his lifetime, but 40 years after he died. He wrote it, put it in a drawer, and 12 years later, got it out, made a few small changes and put it back in the drawer where it stayed until a German music scholar called Ludwig Nohl found it and had it published in 1867.
6. It’s thought that Beethoven was starting to lose his hearing at this time, and that he was best able to hear notes in the higher register, which might be why Für Elise uses the higher notes.
7. The original manuscript is lost, but we know that Beethoven had written on it, "Für Elise am 27 April [1810] zur Erinnerung von L. v. Bthvn" ("For Elise on April 27 in memory by L. v. Bthvn").
8. The words “Für Elise” mean “for Elise” in German. Needless to say, there has been speculation as to who “Elise” was and why Beethoven was writing music dedicated to her. Various musicologists have put forward three candidates. One is Therese Malfatti von Rohrenbach zu Dezza, (and the dedication on the front of the manuscript was misread) a woman Beethoven proposed to in 1810 but she turned him down and married the Austrian nobleman and state official Wilhelm von Droßdik in 1816. Did he write it in an effort to win her heart or was it his way of dealing with his broken heart because she said no? Might explain why it ended up gathering dust in a drawer… The second possibility is German soprano singer Elisabeth Röckel, the younger sister of Joseph August Röckel, who played a leading role in one of Beethoven's operas. Her parish priest referred to her as Elise, and it’s thought Beethoven had a thing for her, too. The third suggestion is Elise Barensfeld, a child music prodigy. Therese Malfatti was her piano teacher, so it might be that the tune was written for the young student as a favour to Therese.
9. The tune is a very well known and recognisable one, and has been interpreted in many different ways including blues and ragtime, and for other instruments such as the classical Guitar. It has even been used on a rap track. American rapper Nas built his 2002 song I Can around samples of this piece. It’s a simple melody which is easy for piano students to learn. The challenge for concert pianists and performers is how to put their own take on a tune that has been performed so many times before.
10. One unusual time and place you might hear it is in Taiwan on bin day. The bin lorries there play this tune, rather like an ice cream van, to tell people it’s time to put their bins out.

Character birthday

Dragonfly. A member of the Freedom League when Vixen and Ms Liberty decided to break away to form Female Force, an entirely female crime fighting team. Dragonfly was one of the reasons behind their decision. Dragonfly had been emotionally abused and physically threatened by her father and was somewhat phobic of men. She ran away from home and lived for some months in an abandoned house, until the bulldozers arrived to demolish it. The Freedom League were called in to deal with the house's strange squatter. Although the Freedom League offered her a safe haven, the males on the team terrified her and she shied away from conflict. She gratefully agreed to go with Vixen and Ms Liberty when they left, and has blossomed in the even safer environment they offered her.