Beethoven: 12 German Dances for Orchestra, WoO 8 (with score)

The Twelve Minuets (WoO 7) and Twelve German Dances (WoO 8) were written for a ball held by the Viennese Artists' Pension Society on 22 November 1795. Beethoven had written them free of charge 'out of love for his fellow artists', since the ball (a masked ball) was a benefit event intended by the Society 'to enhance the financial basis of its fund for its valued members, widows and orphans'. Two years later, on 26 November 1797, the dances and minuets were repeated at the same event on account of their great popularity. Already three weeks after the ball in 1795 they appeared in a piano reduction, it being well known that they 'had been received with applause' (to quote the publisher's advertisement). Beethoven revised the minuets in 1797, fine-tuning the sound and its impact. As for WoO 8, it is difficult to prove whether they were revised owing to the nature of the sources. However, we can assume that Beethoven brought his new knowledge and experience to bear on their composition. (J.R.)
00:00 German Dance no.1 in C Major
00:33 German Dance no.2 in A Major
02:01 German Dance no.3 in F Major
03:31 German Dance no.4 in B♭ Major
05:21 German Dance no.5 in E♭ Major
07:16 German Dance no.6 in G Major
09:11 German Dance no.7 in C Major
10:36 German Dance no.8 in A Major
11:56 German Dance no.9 in F Major
13:38 German Dance no.10 in D Major
14:56 German Dacne no.11 in G Major
16:12 German Dance no.12 in C Major
17:25 CODA
Helmut Koch, Kammerorchester Berlin

[@ginamorris6712]

These pieces should be played more, .They are too beautiful to be hidden from true lovers of classical music

[@Timrath]

I notice the absence of violas. Mozart, too, has always scored all his dance music without violas. Does anyone know why that is? They always included violas in their other orchestral works, but always left them out in their dance music.
My guess is that the violists played along with the bass part, so they didn't need their part written separately, but that's just a guess.

[@ClassicalMusicDIGITALIZED]

A very keen observeration and interesting question, which I myself cannot answer

[@canardeur8390]

On the other side, one can notice the 1st violin part is often divided into two parts.
One can imagine 1st & 2nd violins playing the 1st violin part, and violas playing 2nd violin part.
In a certain way, this is what Benjamin Britten wrote in his Variations on a theme of Purcell: 1st & 2nd violins playing the same melody until theme D.