Only asked this in a place where it's rather hidden- anyone have any idea what piece by Pleyel (or someone else) this is based on? Will try to find out myself, of course, too... I think from a search I recall that there are other pieces contemporary with this with the same title (unsurprisingly). It is not (as is clear on inspection of score) - unless it's a very abstracted version of it! - the theme now sometimes attributed to Pleyel, sometimes to yet others, that Brahms and his friends attributed to Haydn (and that at the time of this piece I think was still attributed to Haydn anyways). Eric 15:40, 18 August 2011 (UTC)
Comparing it with other "Pleyel's Hymn"/"Pleyel's German Hymn" works at Library of Congress' digital American Memory site, the theme does seem to be the same as that used by Bricher and Briggs for instance (to name two composers who wrote pieces named similarly to this one that I just checked, written around the same time.) Was there, I wonder, a Diabelli-ish competition to write variations on a theme - not exactly similar since some wrote it for Ditson, some for White&Smith (Ryder), etc. - but some sort of community work as has precedent - or just something in the air... and I still wonder what the theme is - need to go check the Pleyel we have on offer, if it even is by him :) The Pleyel published in the US in the 1840s-1880s seems to have been mainly??? arrangements by Maylath of violin duets of his, so it's there that I will go first, I do think. Eric 02:15, 23 August 2011 (UTC)