page_title: Three Equals for four trombones, WoO 30
section_title: Composition and first performance
hierarchical_section_title: Three Equals for four trombones, WoO 30 / Composition and first performance
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Der Linzer Schmidtorturm vor seiner Demolierung im Mai 1828. Aquarellierte Federzeichnung von Franz Laudacher
context_page_description: The Three Equals for four trombones, WoO 30, are three short equals for trombones by Ludwig van Beethoven.
  They were commissioned in the autumn of 1812 by the Stadtkapellmeister of Linz, Franz Xaver Glöggl, for performance as tower music on All Souls' Day. They were first performed at the Old Cathedral, Linz on 2 November 1812.
  Two of the equals were performed at Beethoven's funeral on 29 March 1827, both by a trombone quartet and also in vocal arrangements by Ignaz Seyfried.
  The arrangements of Nos. 1 and 3 by Seyfried are settings for men's voices of two verses from the 'Miserere'. These were sung at the funeral, alternating with the trombones. The remaining Equal, no. 2 was sung at the dedication of Beethoven's gravestone on the first anniversary of his death in March 1828.
  A clean manuscript copy, checked by Beethoven, was made of the original manuscript as part of a complete edition of his work by his Vienna publisher Tobias Haslinger.
context_section_description: Background
  Beethoven completed his seventh symphony in the summer of 1812, later published as Op. 92. He began work straight away on the eighth symphony, but continued to suffer the same headaches and high fever from the year before. His doctor again ordered Beethoven to rest in the Bohemian spa town of Teplitz, where he wrote the well-known letter to his "Immortal Beloved", whose identity is still unknown. He also finally met Johann von Goethe in Teplitz in July 1812, a somewhat equivocal meeting of minds. Beethoven, out walking in the company of Goethe, deliberately walked straight through the midst of some royalties with his hands in his pockets, and rebuked Goethe for being too deferential.
  Furthermore, Beethoven's youngest brother, (Nikolaus) Johann, had begun cohabiting during 1812 with Therese Obermayer, who already had a 5-year-old illegitimate daughter (Amalie Waldmann) from a previous relationship. Beethoven journeyed to Linz in late September 1812, primarily to convince Johann to end the relationship. Although he finished the eighth symphony after only four months in Linz in October, Johann remained obdurate, and Beethoven appealed instead to the bishop, to the civic authorities and to the police.
  Composition
  The Stadtpfeifer in Linz at the time was Franz Xaver Glöggl (also Gloeggl), whose full title was Stadtcapell- und Turmmeister (i.e. 'director of city music and tower master'). Glöggl had been appointed as Tonkünstler und Musik-Commissioneur in 1789, living at Schmidtor 41. The following year he was Stadt- und Dommusikdirektor und Casininounternehmer ('director of city and cathedral music, and casino manager'). He may have been the world's first basset-horn teacher. Glöggl lived in the Schmidtor-Turm (Schmidt gate tower), provided for the Stadtpfeifer's use by the city: "A narrow staircase led from the street into the tower, where the tower master lived with his fellows."
  Glöggl, as tower master, asked Beethoven for some trombone music to be played at the cathedral on All Souls' Day (2 November). According to an anonymous account (probably by Haslinger) printed in the introduction to Ignaz Seyfried's choral settings of the equals:
  "L. van Beethoven [...] was asked by the local cathedral Kapellmeister, Mr Glöggl, to compose for him so-called Equale for four trombones for All Souls' Day (November 2nd), which he would then have his musicians play, as was usual, on this feast. Beethoven declared himself willing; he actually wrote three movements for this purpose, which are indeed short, but which, through the excellence of their design, attest to the master's hand; and the current publisher of these same [works] was later so fortunate to be able to enrich his collection, which through the many autographs of this great composer had acquired such estimable worth, with this original manuscript."
  Beethoven may have written more than the three equals which have come down to us. 1838 Glöggl himself reported in a letter to Robert Schumann that “he [Beethoven] also wrote me some mourning pieces for trombones, of which I gave two to my friend Haslinger in Vienna, and one
  of them was played at his funeral. He wrote them in my room, and I kept one back for myself alone”
  According to the memoirs of Glöggl’s son Franz (though these were not written until 1872): “My father asked Beethoven to write him an Equale for 6 trombones, since in his collection of old instruments he still owned a soprano trombone and a quart trombone [presumably a bass trombone in F], whereas usually only alto, tenor, and bass trombones were used. But Beethoven wanted to hear an Equale as played at funerals in Linz, so it came about that my father one afternoon summoned three trombonists, since Beethoven was eating with us at that time, and had them play an Equale of this sort; following which Beethoven sat down and wrote one for 6 trombones, which my father also had his trombonists play.”
  However, there is no evidence in the manuscript itself that he composed a fourth piece that was subsequently separated from it. Beethoven's manuscript was acquired
caption: The Schmidtor-Turm, Linz, demolished in 1828. Pen and ink drawing with watercolour by Franz Laudacher.
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