Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II
Ludwig van Beethoven's Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II, WoO 87 is a cantata with a libretto by Severin Anton Averdonk, written in 1790 and intended for the funeral of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor. Composed when Beethoven was nineteen, it was neither published, nor apparently performed until it premiered in Vienna in November 1884, fifty-seven years after Beethoven's death, and it was first printed in an 1888 supplement to the Complete Works. It remains one of Beethoven's lesser-known works.
Composition
The work is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, strings and SATB chorus with solo soprano and bass (there is also a solo semichorus SSATB). The seven movements takes approximately 35 minutes to perform.