File last updated 10 January 2006.

The German Dances, WoO8, was composed in 1795, about the same time as the Trios, Op. 1, and the Piano Sonatas, Op. 2. The set was composed for orchestra. Although the publisher Artaria announced that the piano arrangements were by Beethoven himself, there is no conclusive evidence that it is true -- such arrangements were commonly produced by employees of the publisher -- although it should be said that the arranger was clearly a pianist, because the pieces do lie well under the hands.

All dances and trios are 16 bars, as 8+8 with both strains repeated. Most of the twenty three dances are cast as small binaries; four are small ternary forms. All but the first dance have trios; the set also has a lengthy coda with Posthorn solos (this 133-bar coda is essentially an independent piece). All dances except the first, therefore, are cast in a compound ternary design (dance--trio--dance da capo), though of course in performance for dancing these designs may have been altered substantially. They were very possibly played in the 'alternativo' manner that is still employed in Strauss waltzes of the mid-nineteenth century. Mozart already refers to this in notes for his K. 509 (1787): "Each German dance has its trio or rather 'alternativo' - after the 'alternativo' the dance is repeated, then comes the 'alternativo' again; it then goes via the introduction into the next dance."