Tag Archives: François Couperin

Bagatelle No.25 WoO 59/Bia 515

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Für Elise

Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor WoO 59/Bia 515 for solo piano, commonly known as “Für Elise”, is one of Ludwig van Beethoven’s most popular compositions. It is usually classified as a bagatelle. The composition was not published during Beethoven’s lifetime, having been discovered by Ludwig Nohl 40 years after the composer’s death. The identity of “Elise” is unknown.

Bagatelle No. 25 WoO 59, Bia 515
(image via wikipedia.org / Knowledge via wikipedia.org}

Unpretentious

A bagatelle is a short piece of music, typically for the piano, and usually of a light, mellow character. The name bagatelle literally means “a short unpretentious instrumental composition” as a reference to the light style of a piece. The earliest use of the name “bagatelle” for a musical work was by François Couperin, in his tenth harpsichord ordre (1717), in which a rondeau is titled “Les bagatelles’.