Annoyed Etha Williams wondered:

>Just a little question about Fur Elise, that annoying little piece we are
>probably all sick of hearing from every beginning pianist who walked the
>face of this earth: Does anyone know who this "Elise" was?

It's a misreading of the name Therese.  The surname of this girl was
Malfatti and she was an 18-year-old piano pupil of Beethoven.  He wrote
on the autograph "Fur Therese", gave it to her as a personal present, but
never published it.  Later on, many years after his death (and hers) a
member of her family handed over the autograph to researcher Ludwig Nohl,
who published it, but obviously misread the name, due to Beethoven's
hieroglyphs.  BTW, take my advice and don't listen to it for at least half
a decade and then try it again.  It will be as a new, for it's not bad at
all, but, alas, too often heard, far too often.

Joyce Maier
www.ademu.com/Beethoven