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Identity of Beethoven's Für Elise revealed by music expert

Next to the opening of his Fifth Symphony, Für Elise is one of Beethoven’s best-known melodies, a mainstay of piano lessons for generations and a ringtone on millions of mobile phones.

The identity of Elise, however, has eluded scholars down the years, hampered as they were by the loss of the original manuscript.

Now Klaus Martin Kopitz, a German musicologist and Beethoven expert, believes he has identified the woman of the title as Elisabeth Röckel.

If right he will have put to rest a number of previous theories, including that the title of the lost manuscript had been misread and originally referred to Theresa Malfatti, a woman Ludwig van Beethoven had pursued.

Miss Röckel was a German soprano and sister of Joseph August Röckel, a tenor who was conducted by the composer in Fidelio in 1806.
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)