*FREE* Fur Elise - A Minor - Holiday Prodigies

A colorful version of Beethoven’s most popular compositions, Fur Elise.

Meaning “for Elise” in German, Beethoven’s “Für Elise” has become a standard for piano and music enthusiasts all over. However, this bagatelle, a short, lighthearted, and generally frivolous piece of music, seemed to not mean that much to Beethoven.

Composed on April 27th, 1810, he never published this piece. Instead, it sat in a drawer until 1822, when Beethoven revised it slightly, and shoved it back into the same drawer. In 1827, Beethoven died, and his bagatelle never saw the light of day. It was only in 1867, 40 years after Beethoven’s death, that a musicologist named Ludwig Nohl found the composition and published it. (Source)

This arrangement of Für Elise is an excerpt of a larger composition known as a rondo, exploring multiple themes and key changes. We’ll focus on the central theme in the key of A Minor. Previous Prodigies releases of this have been in the time signature of 3/4 versus this version in 6/8. While it’s the same number of 8th notes, how we interpret the beat and where we place our accents is quite different. You’ll see 8th notes in groups of 3 and the beat is represented by the dotted quarter note.