Goethe wrote the twin poems “Meeresstille” (Calm Sea) and “Glückliche Fahrt” (Prosperous Voyage) in 1795. Here is their first publication in the inaugural issue of a literary magazine “Muses’ Almanac for the Year 1796” edited by Friedrich Schiller.
English translations of Goethe’s twin poems “Calm Sea” and “Prosperous Voyage” are widely available, but here is how they appeared in an 1853 London edition of Goethe’s poems.
Goethe’s “Calm Sea” and “Prosperous Voyage” portray contrasting conditions: The calm sea is a windless sea that treacherously strands a ship in the open ocean. (An English-speaking mariner would call it “dead calm.”) Only when the wind picks up can a ship prosperously reach land.
Beethoven combined “Calm Sea” and “Prosperous Voyage” in a single composition for chorus and orchestra. Some of his first sketches date from March 1813, but it wasn’t finished until Autumn 1815, possibly not long before its first performance on Christmas Day 1815.
Although “Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage” is a short work (about 7 minutes), Beethoven took a lot of care in its composition, and it shows. He liked contrasts, and these two poems provided an ideal opportunity for a transition from eerie tranquility to triumphant joy.
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Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (Opus 112), 1814–15
A performance in Warsaw substitutes a boys’ chorus for the soprano and alto parts, perhaps a more historically accurate portrayal of the actual crew of a merchant ship.
The music for the “Calm Sea” poem begins with soft strings and hymn-like chorus, presaging the unbearably slow time-stopping movements of the late string quarters. The music simply refuses to budge, and Beethoven slows it down even more with pauses between syllables.
According to Barry Cooper, Beethoven’s “Calm Sea” sketches include 37 settings of the line “In der ungeheuern Weite” (“On the infinite expanse”). His final selection features a bone-chilling wailing crescendo on the word “Weite,” emphasizing its horrifying implications.
When the wind picks up for the “Prosperous Voyage” poem, the music erupts in joy. (This time it’s a premonition of the last movement of the 9th Symphony.) The sighting of “das Land” is repeatedly emphasized by the ship’s crew, first in reverent murmurs, then shouts of jubilation.
#Beethoven250 Day 290
Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage (Opus 112), 1814–15
A reduced orchestra and chorus give a better sense of the sonic textures of the composition but still manages sufficient power towards the end.
The sea was a popular subject for Romantic poets (including Coleridge, Byron, and Heinrich Heine), but John Clubbe notes that Beethoven never sailed on the ocean and never even saw an ocean except possibly when he went to Holland at the age of 12. (Beethoven, pp. 355-6)
“Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage” wasn’t published until February 1822. Beethoven dedicated the work to Goethe and sent him a copy. Goethe noted in his diary on 21 May 1822 “Received a score from Beethoven” but didn’t respond or acknowledge the gift.
Beethoven wrote to Goethe on 8 February 1823:
Still ever living, as I have lived since my youth, in your immortal and ever youthful works, and never forgetting the happy hours spent in your company, I am now faced with the fact that I too must remind you of my existence — I trust that you received the dedication to Your Excellency of ‘Meeresstille und Glückliche Fahrt’ which I have set to music. By reason of their contrasting moods these two poems seemed to me very suitable for the expression of contrast in music. It would afford me much pleasure to know whether I had united my harmony with yours in appropriate fashion. Indeed your criticism, which might almost be regarded as the very essence of truth, would be extremely welcome to me. For I love truth more than anything. … (Beethoven Letters No. 1136)
To this letter also Goethe had no response.