Deryk Barker wrote:

>I don't believe anyone does know.  It has been suggested that it was
>actually 'fur' somebody else and the name somehow got confused.  Ah!
>Therese, that was it.

The autograph was given to researcher Nohl by a member of the
Drossdick/Malfatti family.  Therese Malfatti, who was Beethoven's pupil
in 1810, married in 1816 a Baron von Drossdick.  She died in 1851 and
Drossdick followed some years later.  On the autograph this family member
wrote that she had given permission to researcher Nohl to copy the
autograph and this he did.  And he published it.  He obviously really
thought that Beethoven had written down Elise, for he asked the owner if
she maybe knew something about one Elise.  She did not.  In the family
the story of Beethoven's courtship of Therese was an often told story,
so it's somewhat amazing that Nohl continued to hold on to the name Elise.
Unfortunately these days the autograph is gone, so we only have that copy,
but the facsimile I have clearly shows that it was a misreading of Therese.
Looking at the facts there are actually no proofs that Beethoven asked
Therese to marry him, as was said in the family.  But there's a lot of
circumstantial evidence that he at least was interested in the girl.  In my
opinion it's not too speculative to assume that the gift was the result of
this short "affair" (from about February/March till about May/June 1810).
BTW, the sketches for the piece date from 1808, when Therese had not yet
entered his life.  So he even didn't write a completely new piece for his
"beloved"!  Whatever it may have been between the two:  it was a trifle.

Joyce Maier
www.ademu.com/Beethoven