When Beethoven visited the director of music at the cathedral in Linz, Franz Xaver Glöggl, in autumn 1812, the latter asked his guest to "compose socalled Equali for 4 trombones for All Souls’ Day [2 November]”. Beethoven readily complied – and it was to be his own funeral music. For in 1827 the Equali were sung in an arrangement for male choir as a “dirge for Beethoven’s funeral procession”. The original instrumental version is today a core work in the trombonist’s repertoire. Our Urtext edition is based on the musical text in the Beethoven Complete Edition and contains a score and single parts (both in the original C and in modern bass clef).
