Elegischer Gesang
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"Elegischer Gesang" ("Elegiac Song"), Op. 118, is a short work in E major by Ludwig van Beethoven scored for string quartet and four mixed voices.[1] The text is taken from the poem "Bey der Kunde von Jacobi's Tod" by Johann Christoph Friedrich Haug (1761–1829), written in honor of the death of philosopher and poet Johann Georg Jacobi (1740–1814). Although it was not published until 1826, it dates from 1814[2] and is dedicated to Beethoven's friend and patron Baron Johann Baptiste Pasqualati von Osterberg (1777–1830), whose wife Eleonore died three years earlier at the age of 24. It is one of Beethoven's least known works and is not often performed or recorded.