Ecossaise (Beethoven): A Song History

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An ecossaise takes its name from the French word for "Scottish," a calque of the German schottisch.[1] The dance belonged to the contredanse family and was fashionable in France and England from the late 1700s into the early 1800s; set to a quick 2/4 meter, it was performed by couples in two lines, partners facing, who advanced toward the head of the set over the course of the figures.[2]

Photograph of a grand piano with a veneered case and carved legs, lid closed

Joseph Böhm, Grand Piano, wood, various materials, ca. 1815–20. Shown for its subject; it has no connection to the song.

That fashion found its way into concert music: Beethoven wrote ecossaises for piano, as did Schubert and Chopin, and he also wrote them for military band and small orchestra.[2] Among his piano examples is a set of six in E-flat major, composed in 1806 and published in 1807, which may be his own piano transcriptions of orchestral ecossaises.[3] A single E-flat ecossaise for piano dates from 1825.[4]

Shelley Stevens includes a Beethoven ecossaise in Classical Music For Mountain Dulcimer, a collection of 26 intermediate classical arrangements for solo mountain dulcimer in DAD tuning, published by Fingers Of Steel.[5]

Our book that contains the song "Ecossaise (Beethoven)"

Sources

  1. Dictionary.com: "Ecossaise".
  2. Britannica: "Ecossaise".
  3. IMSLP: "6 Ecossaises, WoO 83 (Beethoven, Ludwig van)".
  4. IMSLP: "Ecossaise, WoO 86 (Beethoven, Ludwig van)".
  5. Fingers Of Steel: "Shelley Stevens, Classical Music For Mountain Dulcimer".
  6. Image: Joseph Böhm, Grand Piano, wood, various materials, ca. 1815–20. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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