Contredanses, WoO14

There were balls in Vienna even before the Strauss family settled there and composers as distinguished as Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven wrote dances for them. No one knows the occasion for which Beethoven supplied these little Contredanses but it was probably for an event in the winter season of 1802 - and a grand event too since they are scored for orchestra (although they were also published in more cheaply accessible alternative versions for piano and for two violins and bass). Unlike the same composer’s German Dances and Ländler written for similar occasions, the Contredanses are in duple rather than triple time and have nothing to do with the history of the waltz. They do, on the other hand, have something to do with the history of the symphony since one of them is based on a tune Beethoven had just used in his Prometheus ballet and was to use again not only in his piano Variations in E flat but also in the last movement of his “Eroica” Symphony in the same key.