"Für Elise" (English: "For Elise") is the popular name of one of Ludwig van Beethoven's (1770-1827) most popular compositions, the Bagatelle in A minor (WoO 59 and Bia 515) for solo piano, marked poco moto, dated 27 April 1810. The original autographed manuscript has been lost and the piece itself was not published until 1865. It is not certain who "Elise" was.

Some scholars have suggested she was Beethoven's fifth mistress[by whom?], while others have suggested that the discoverer of the piece, Ludwig Nohl, may have transcribed the title incorrectly and the original work may have been named "Für Therese" (Therese being Therese Malfatti von Rohrenbach zu Dezza [1792-1851], a friend and student of Beethoven's to whom he proposed in 1810 but she turned down to marry the Austrian nobleman and state official Wilhelm von Droßdik in 1816). Another - somewhat dubious - theory is that Elise was Elisabeth Röckel (1793-1883), a German soprano and sister of Joseph August Röckel. How the autograph of the 'Albumblatt' WoO 59 ended up in the possession of a certain Babette Bredl (who also owned other copies of Beethoven's works in Therese Malfatti's hand!) in Munich, during Röckel's lifetime, is still to be explained.

The piece begins in 3/8 with a right-hand theme accompanied by arpeggios in the left hand; the harmonies used are A minor and E major. The next section moves to the relative major, using the chords C major and G major. A lighter section follows, written in the key of F major, then a few bars in C major before the first section returns without alteration.

Next the piece moves into an agitated theme set over a pedal point on A. After a gauntlet of arpeggios and a chromatic descend over an octave and a half, the main theme returns, and the piece ends in its starting key of A minor with an authentic cadence. The piece, though called a bagatelle, is in rondo form.

It provides a good basic exercise on piano pedaling technique.

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