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The Music of Robert Louis Stevenson

Beethoven's VIIth Sonatina

By J.F.M. Russell ©2019

Robert Louis Stevenson began studying the piano and composition at age 36 and learned the penny whistle two years later. He played the flageolet, a version of the whistle equipped with keys, almost until the end of his life. His arrangements and compositions include more than 120 pieces. This site describes his complete works through facsimiles, transcriptions, recordings, quotations and commentary.

"An interesting chapter in his life will be written when all his scattered pieces are brought together, and the musical side of his character unexpectedlyrevealed to the vast public that knows him now only as the winsome versifier and the accomplished romancer."

Robert Murrell Stevenson (1916-2012) in Robert Louis Stevenson's Musical Interests, 1957.

Significant References in Works of R.L.S.:

None.

Comments:

This is an arrangement of an early Beethoven sonatina written before 1792. RLS transcribed only the solo part. Editions of Beethoven's works do not call this the "VIIth Sonatina," and Stevenson may have copied his part from an edition similar to the Schirmer work shown above where the table of contents lists seven sonatinas of Beethoven. The Sonatina in G appears as number 5 in the list while the Sonatina in G minor appears as number 7. The titles and the first few notes of both look almost identical from a distance and so RLS may have confused number 5 with number 7 and assigned the misleading title.

Stevenson's arrangement is transposed from G major to A major but leaves out the last ten bars of the first movement, probably because they are out of the range of his instrument. He has also altered some notes in measure 15 of the first movement to avoid going down to a low D, and in measure 27 of the second movement he has erroneously transcribed an A for the printed note B. In measure 17 and elsewhere he has transposed the melody up an octave, evidently to make it easier to play.

In the transcriptions and recordings above, the piano part has been derived from Beethoven's original score, and the recording is in the key of G, not A major.

Other works by Beethoven arranged by RLS include the clarinet trio Amor Contadino, the solo Gegenliebe, and the two songs Home from the Daisied Meadows, and Tempest Tossed.

Stevenson mentions Beethoven in Booth-Mehew letters 140 (September 19, 1873), 294 (July 16, 1874), 347 (January 4 1875), 366 (February 19, 1875), 427 (December 6 1875), 1695a (September 6, 1886), 1927 (October 1887), 1971 (December 18, 1887), and 1991 (January 2, 1888), 2243 (August 1890).