Manchester Beethoven studies

By Barry Cooper

Manchester Beethoven studies presents ten original chapters by scholars with close ties to the University of Manchester. It throws new light on many aspects of Beethoven’s life and works, with a special emphasis on early or little-known compositions such as his concert aria Erste Liebe, his String Quintet Op. 104 and his folksong settings. Biographical elements are prominent in a wide-ranging reassessment of his religious attitudes and beliefs, while Charles Hallé, founder of the Manchester-based Hallé Orchestra, is revealed to have been a tireless and energetic promoter of Beethoven’s music in the later nineteenth century.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Release date: Apr 25, 2023
• ISBN: 9781526155672

Book preview

Manchester Beethoven studies

ffirs01-fig-5001.jpg

Manchester Beethoven studies

Edited by

Barry Cooper and Matthew Pilcher

Manchester University Press

Copyright © Manchester University Press 2023

While copyright in the volume as a whole is vested in Manchester University Press, copyright in individual chapters belongs to their respective authors, and no chapter may be reproduced wholly or in part without the express permission in writing of both author and publisher.

Published by Manchester University Press

Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL

www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 5261 5568 9 hardback

First published 2023

The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Cover credit:

Josef Willibrord Mähler, portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven, c. 1804–5. Photo: Birgit and Peter Kainz, Wien Museum, CC BY 4.0.

Cover design:

Abbey Akanbi, Manchester University Press

Typeset

by New Best-set Typesetters Ltd

Contents

List of figures

List of musical examples

List of tables

List of contributors

List of abbreviations

Introduction – Barry Cooper and Matthew Pilcher

1 Beethoven's indebtedness to his teacher Christian Gottlob Neefe: a comparison of their Variations on Themes by Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf – Kris Worsley

2 Beethoven's Erste Liebe, Himmelslust, WoO 92: sources, languages, text-setting – Matthew Pilcher

3 Situating Beethoven's chamber music with wind: genre, topic and transcription – Martin Harlow

4 Beethoven's variation sets and the role of the slow variation – Artur Pereira

5 A hermeneutic approach to word cues in the score of Beethoven's Concerto No. 4 in G major for pianoforte and orchestra, Op. 58 – Sara Eckerson

6 Born under a gloomy star: new perspectives on Beethoven's String Quintet Op. 104 – Jos van der Zanden

7 Transcending slowness in Beethoven's late style – Marten Noorduin

8 Beethoven's faith and beliefs in the context of his age: some unexplored avenues and reassessments, with special reference to Sailer – Susan Cooper

9 Beethoven's view of Scotland – Barry Cooper

10 Charles Hallé: a Beethoven champion in Manchester – Siân Derry

Index

Figures

2.1 Kafka Miscellany, © British Library Board, Add. MS 29801, folio 75v, staves 15 and 16.

2.2a Kafka Miscellany, © British Library Board, Add. MS 29801, folio 123r (c. early 1791), staves 1–4.

2.2b Kafka Miscellany, © British Library Board, Add. MS 29801, folio 129r (c. 1791), staves 3–4.

2.2c Kafka Miscellany, © British Library Board, Add. MS 29801, folio 129r (c. 1791), staves 15–16.

2.3 Kafka Miscellany, © British Library Board, Add. MS 29801, folio 47v (1793), staves 11–12.

2.4 Erste Liebe, WoO 92 (autograph manuscript), staves 7–11. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, Mus.ms.autogr. Beethoven, L. v., Artaria 167/1 (Mus.ms. 1248/15).

2.5 First page of Halem's ‘Die Liebe’, Musenalmanach (1786).

2.6 Erste Liebe, WoO 92 (autograph manuscript), bars 121–5. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, Mus.ms.autogr. Beethoven, L. v., Artaria 167/1 (Mus.ms. 1248/15).

2.7 Erste Liebe, WoO 92 (autograph manuscript), bars 64–8. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, Mus.ms.autogr. Beethoven, L. v., Artaria 167/1 (Mus.ms. 1248/15).

2.8 Erste Liebe, WoO 92 (autograph manuscript), bars 77–82. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, Mus.ms.autogr. Beethoven, L. v., Artaria 167/1 (Mus.ms. 1248/15).

2.9 Erste Liebe, WoO 92 (autograph manuscript), bars 73–6. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, Mus.ms.autogr. Beethoven, L. v., Artaria 167/1 (Mus.ms. 1248/15).

2.10a Erste Liebe, WoO 92 (autograph manuscript), bars 73–6. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, Mus.ms.autogr. Beethoven, L. v., Artaria 167/1 (Mus.ms. 1248/15).

2.10b Erste Liebe, WoO 92 (autograph manuscript), bars 143–7. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, Mus.ms.autogr. Beethoven, L. v., Artaria 167/1 (Mus.ms. 1248/15).

2.10c Erste Liebe, WoO 92 (autograph manuscript), bars 250–4. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, Mus.ms.autogr. Beethoven, L. v., Artaria 167/1 (Mus.ms. 1248/15).

2.11 Erste Liebe, WoO 92 (autograph manuscript), bars 43–7. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, Mus.ms.autogr. Beethoven, L. v., Artaria 167/1 (Mus.ms. 1248/15).

2.12 Erste Liebe, WoO 92 (autograph manuscript), bars 305–10. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, Mus.ms.autogr. Beethoven, L. v., Artaria 167/1 (Mus.ms. 1248/15).

2.13a Erste Liebe, WoO 92 (autograph manuscript), bars 311–18. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, Mus.ms.autogr. Beethoven, L. v., Artaria 167/1 (Mus.ms. 1248/15).

2.13b Erste Liebe, WoO 92 (autograph manuscript), bars 319–24. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, Mus.ms.autogr. Beethoven, L. v., Artaria 167/1 (Mus.ms. 1248/15).

4.1 Chopin's Variations Op. 2, original edition, title page.

6.1 Advertisement in the Wiener Zeitung (29 November 1815, 1323) of a string quintet arrangement of Beethoven's Piano Trio Op. 1 No. 1.

6.2 Review in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, mit besonderer Rücksicht auf den österreichischen Kaiserstaat of 9 October 1817, with ‘Kaufmann’ mentioned.

6.3 Advertisement in the Regensburger Zeitung of 17 January 1818.

6.4 Allgemeine musikalische ZeitungIntelligenz-Blatt 4, May 1819, cols 15–16. On the left announcements of arrangements by the Dresden Kaufmanns and on the right one of Beethoven's [Op. 104] Quintet.

6.5 Advertisement in the Wiener Zeitung of 18 February 1819.

7.1a Czerny's first editorial metronome mark in the third movement of the Sonate (in A-dur) für das Pianoforte … 101stes Werk (Vienna: Tobias Haslinger, c. 1831–33 (first state)).

7.1b Czerny's second editorial metronome mark in the third movement of the Sonate (in A-dur) für das Pianoforte … 101stes Werk (Vienna: Tobias Haslinger, c. 1833–35 (second state)).

7.1c Czerny, On the Proper Performance of All Beethoven's Works for the Piano, 63.

7.2a Czerny's editorial metronome mark in the third movement of the Sonate (in As-dur) für das Pianoforte … 110tes Werk (Vienna: Tobias Haslinger, c. 1831–33 (first state)).

7.2b Beethoven's metronome mark in the third movement of the Ninth Symphony. Frans Liszt, arr. Beethoven:Symphonie No. 9, ed. José Vianna da Motta, Franz Liszt: Musikalische Werke, iv/2–3 (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1922).

7.2c Gesang der Mönche, [WoO 104, in Sammlung von Musikstücken alter und neuer Zeit als Zulage zur neuen Zeitschrift für Musik, vol. 6 (June 1839) (reprint from Scarsdale, NY: Annemarie Schnase, 1963).

7.3 Cello Sonata Op. 102 No. 2/ii. Deux sonates pour le pianoforte et violoncell Op. 102 (Bonn: N. Simrock, 1817).

7.4a ‘Heiliger Dankgesang’, Op. 132/ii. GA.

7.4b String Quartet Op. 59 No. 2/ii, with Beethoven's metronome mark from 1817. String Quartet in E minor, Opus 59 No. 2 (Leipzig and Vienna: Ernst Eulenburg, 1911).

10.1 Piano Sonata Op. 2 No. 2/iv, bars 57–65. Hallé's New Edition, Chappell & Co.

10.2 Piano Sonata Op. 109, realisation of Beethoven trills according to Hallé's Practical Pianoforte School.

10.3 Exercises for Op. 106, from Hallé's Practical Pianoforte School, Part 1.

Musical examples

1.1 Neefe, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf (‘Das Frühstuck schmeckt viel besser hier’), bars 1–16 (theme). [Bonn: Welsch und Paraquin], 1793.

1.2 Beethoven, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf (‘Es war einmal ein alter Mann’), WoO 66, bars 1–37 (theme). Bonn: Simrock, 1793.

1.3a Neefe, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf, Variation 1, bars 1–5.

1.3b Neefe, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf, Variation 2, bars 1–6.

1.3c Neefe, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf, Variation 4, bars 1–4.

1.4a Beethoven, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf, WoO 66, Variation 1, bars 1–5.

1.4b Beethoven, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf, WoO 66, Variation 2, bars 1–19.

1.4c Beethoven, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf, WoO 66, Variation 3, bars 1–5.

1.5a Neefe, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf, Variation 12, bars 1–4.

1.5b Beethoven, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf, WoO 66, Variation 7, bars 1–5.

1.6a Neefe, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf, Variation 9, bars 1–6.

1.6b Beethoven, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf, WoO 66, Variation 5, bars 1–5.

1.7a Neefe, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf, Variation 3, bars 1–4.

1.7b Beethoven, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf, WoO 66, Variation 4, bars 1–4.

1.8a Neefe, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf, Variation 5, bars 1–4.

1.8b Neefe, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf, Variation 5, bars 9–12.

1.8c Neefe, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf, Variation 6, bars 1–4.

1.9a Neefe, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf, Variation 7, bars 1–4.

1.9b Neefe, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf, Variation 7, bars 9–13.

1.10 Neefe, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf, Variation 8, bars 1–4.

1.11 Beethoven, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf, WoO 66, Variation 6, bars 1–10.

1.12 Neefe, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf, Variation 13, bars 1–15.

1.13a Beethoven, 13 Variations on a Theme by Dittersdorf, Variation 13, bars 1–8.

1.13b Neefe, Jägerlied, bars 1–8. Christian Gottlob Neefe and Johann Adam Hiller, Vademecum für Liebhaber des Gesangs und Klaviers (Leipzig: Dyk, 1780).

All examples in Chapter 2 are taken from NA except where indicated.

2.1 Transcription of sketch from Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, A 65.

2.2a Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 62–5.

2.2b Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 67–71.

2.2c Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 122–5.

2.3 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 44–9.

2.4 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 314–17.

2.5 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 319–22.

2.6 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 32–5.

2.7 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 224–33.

2.8 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 242–53.

2.9 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 266–9.

2.10 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 270–7.

2.11 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 32–9.

2.12 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 48–54.

2.13 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 61–71.

2.14 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 158–68.

2.15 Transcription of brief sketches for Erste Liebe in Kafka Miscellany, folio 76r, staves 12 and 14.

2.16 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 174–9.

2.17 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 325–38.

2.18 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 180–6.

2.19 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 196–203.

2.20 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 206–12.

2.21 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 62–5.

2.22a Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 116–17.

2.22b Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 121–3.

2.23 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 124–30.

2.24 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 174–86.

2.25 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 68–71.

2.26 Erste Liebe, WoO 92, bars 73–81.

All examples in Chapter 3 are taken from NA except where indicated.

3.1 Trio WoO 37/ii, bars 1–4.

3.2 Octet, Op. 103/i, Oboe 1, bars 1–9.

3.3 Octet, Op. 103/iii, Trio, bars 1–8.

3.4 Octet, Op. 103/iv, bars 55–63.

3.5 Rondino WoO 25, autograph score, bars 108–43 (small notes indicate Beethoven's cuts).

3.6 Sextet, Op. 81b/i, bars 15–19.

3.7 Sextet, Op. 81b/ii, bars 1–8.

3.8 Piano and Wind Quintet, Op. 16/iii, bars 1–8.

3.9 Sextet, Op. 71/i, Clarinet 1, bars 1–2, 10–13.

3.10 Sextet, Op. 71/iv, bars 1–4.

3.11 Sextet, Op. 71/iv, bars 41–5.

3.12 March in B flat, WoO 29, bars 1–4.

3.13 Serenade Op. 25/vi, bars 1–8.

3.14a Cavatina, ‘Wer hörte wohl jemals mich klagen’, from Weigl, Die Schweizerfamilie (extract).

3.14b Carrousel Musik for Türkische Musik, first movement, Trio, bars 1–8.

All Beethoven examples in Chapter 4 are taken from GA except where indicated.

4.1 Neefe, Veränderungen über die Melodie der Romanze in der Jubelhochzeit: Kunz fand einst einen armen Mann, end of Variation 11 and beginning of Variation 12. Leipzig: Schwickert, 1774.

4.2 Mozart, Variations on ‘Je suis Lindor’, K. 354, end of Variation 11 and beginning of Variation 12. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozarts Werke: Kritisch durchgesehene Gesammtausgabe, 24 series (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1877–83, 1910), series 21.

4.3 Beethoven, Variations on ‘Quant’ è più bello’, WoO 69, end of Variation 8 and beginning of Variation 9.

4.4 String Quartet Op. 18 No. 5/iii, end of Variation 3, Variation 4 and beginning of Variation 5.

4.5 Diabelli Variations, Op. 120, Variation 8.

4.6 7 Variations on ‘God Save the King’, WoO 78, end of Variation 7 and short da capo of theme before the final unnumbered variation.

4.7 8 Variations on ‘Tändeln und Scherzen’, WoO 76, end of Variation 6 and beginning of Variation 7.

4.8 24 Variations on ‘Venni Amore’, WoO 65, Variation 23 (Adagio sostenuto).

4.9 6 Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 34, theme da capo (Adagio molto).

4.10 15 Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 35, Variation 15 (Largo).

4.11 15 Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 35, Variation 15 (Largo).

4.12 15 Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 35, Variation 15 (Largo).

4.13 Diabelli Variations, Op. 120, Variation 31 (Largo, molto espressivo).

4.14 Violin Sonata Op. 96/iv, slow unnumbered variation.

4.15 Violin Sonata Op. 96/ii, bars 18–24.

4.16 ‘Kakadu’ Variations, Op. 121a, introduction, bars 29–30.

4.17 ‘Kakadu’ Variations, Op. 121a, Variation 9.

All examples in Chapter 5 are taken from NA except where indicated.

5.1 Fourth Piano Concerto, Op. 58/i, bars 1–5.

5.2 ‘Waldstein’ Sonata, Op. 53/i, bars 35–42. Cooper, ed., The 35 Piano Sonatas, vol. 2, 201.

5.3 Fourth Piano Concerto, Op. 58/i, bars 50–4.

5.4 Fourth Piano Concerto, Op. 58/i, bars 170–3.

5.5 Fourth Piano Concerto, Op. 58/i, bars 270–7. Concerto No. 4 in G major for Pianoforte and Orchestra, Op. 58, ed. Jonathan Del Mar (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2014).

5.6 Fourth Piano Concerto, Op. 58/i, bars 253–7. Concerto No. 4 in G major for Pianoforte and Orchestra, Op. 58, ed. Jonathan Del Mar (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2014).

5.7 Fourth Piano Concerto, Op. 58/ii, bars 19–29.

5.8 Fourth Piano Concerto, Op. 58/iii, bars 321–9.

5.9 Fifth Piano Concerto, Op. 73/i, bars 78–81.

6.1 String Quintet Op. 104/i, bars 222–7. NA.

Both examples in Chapter 9 are taken from GA.

9.1 Highland Harry.

9.2 The Highland Watch.

All examples in Chapter 10 are taken from NA except where indicated.

10.1a Piano Sonata Op. 2 No. 1/iii, bars 59–62, with Beethoven's fingering.

10.1b Piano Sonata Op. 2 No. 1/iii, bars 59–62, with Hallé's fingering.

10.2a Piano Sonata Op. 2 No. 2/i, bars 84–9, with Beethoven's fingering.

10.2b Piano Sonata Op. 2 No. 2/i, bars 84–9, with Hallé's fingering.

10.3 Andante in F, WoO 57, bars 46–7, fingering according to Hallé.

10.4a Andante in F, bars 4–5 and realisation according to Hallé.

10.4b Piano Sonata Op. 13/ii, bars 71–2 and realisation according to Hallé.

10.5a Rondo in G, Op. 51 No. 2/i, bars 1–2 and realisation according to Hallé.

10.5b Piano Sonata Op. 26/i, bars 25–6 and realisation according to Hallé.

10.6a Exercises for Op. 106, from Hallé's Practical Pianoforte School, Part 1.

10.6b Piano Sonata Op. 106/i, bars 1–4.

10.6c Piano Sonata Op. 106/i, bars 112–17.

10.7a Exercises for Op. 106, from Hallé's Practical Pianoforte School, Part 1.

10.7b Piano Sonata Op. 106/i, bars 278–90.

10.8a Exercises for Op. 106, from Hallé's Practical Pianoforte School, Part 1.

10.8b Piano Sonata Op. 106/i, bars 106–9.

Tables

1.1 A comparison of Neefe's and Beethoven's Dittersdorf Variations.

1.2 Beethoven's use of opposite-mode variations to create symmetry within variation works (works with only one opposite-mode variation (or variation group) appearing at the centre of a work).

1.3 Beethoven's use of opposite-mode variations to create symmetry within variation works (works with several opposite-mode variations (or variation groups) creating three- or four-fold symmetry).

2.1 Beethoven's concert arias, insertion arias, ensembles.

2.2 Scale and structure in the arias and vocal works with orchestra.

2.3 Sub-sections in Erste Liebe.

2.4 Metre and declamation in Erste Liebe.

3.1 Beethoven's music for large wind ensemble.

4.1 Beethoven's variation sets within multi-movement works.

4.2 Beethoven's independent variation sets.

4.3 Mozart's sets of variations containing a concluding slow–fast pair.

4.4 Beethoven's slow variations within multi-movement works.

4.5 Beethoven's slow variations within independent sets.

4.6 Penultimate variation with larger note values in Beethoven's multi-movement works and independent sets.

4.7 Selected independent sets with a slow–fast concluding pair by prominent Romantic composers.

5.1 Word cues in the Fourth Piano Concerto, Op. 58, first movement.

5.2 Word cues in the Fourth Piano Concerto, Op. 58, second movement.

5.3 Word cues in the Fourth Piano Concerto, Op. 58, third movement.

9.1 Scottish contributions to Thomson's edition of Beethoven's Irish settings.

9.2 References to conditions in Scotland in Thomson's letters to Beethoven.

10.1 Selected list of most frequently performed works in Hallé's Manchester concerts, 1857–95.

10.2 Concerts by the Hallé Orchestra in celebration of Beethoven's centenary year, 1870–71.

10.3 List of Beethoven works as found in Charles Hallé's Practical Pianoforte School.

Contributors

Barry Cooper is a professor of music at the University of Manchester. He is best known for his research on Beethoven and has written or edited eight books on the composer, the most recent being The Creation of Beethoven's 35 Piano Sonatas (Abingdon, 2017). His critical performing edition of Beethoven's 35 Piano Sonatas (London, 2007), with extensive commentary, was proclaimed ‘Best Classical Publication’ of the year by the Music Industries Association. He has also published critical performing editions of Beethoven's Mass in C (2016) and Missa solemnis (2019). His completion of the first movement of Beethoven's unfinished Tenth Symphony has been performed in about thirty countries and appeared in a new edition in 2013 (Vienna: Universal Edition). His other publications include Child Composers and their Works: A Historical Survey (Lanham, 2009); monographs on English Baroque keyboard music and on music theory in Britain in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; three catalogues of musical source material; and numerous journal articles. In 2017 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Tucumán, Argentina.

Susan Cooper, an independent scholar based in Manchester, has contributed widely to Beethoven studies, particularly cross-disciplinary work. At the International Manchester Beethoven Research Symposia her presentations have included many with a historical, classical or literary slant. Other recent publications include an English translation, with extensive commentary, of Gottfried Fischer's reminiscences of Beethoven's youth (for The Beethoven Journal, 2022) and an article on Beethoven and Horace (for the series Speculum Musicae; in press). Work in progress includes an article on Fischer's treatment of Beethoven's teachers and an edition and discussion of Der Sieg des Kreuzes, Bernard's libretto written for Beethoven.

Siân Derry is a senior lecturer and Assistant Director of Postgraduate Studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. After training as a pianist, she completed her doctoral studies at the University of Manchester with a thesis on ‘Beethoven's Experimental Figurations and Exercises for Piano’. Her interests include piano organology, pedagogy and performance practices of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She has published on Beethoven's fingering indications for the Fourth Piano Concerto, Op. 58 (Bonner Beethoven Studien), and Beethoven as a child prodigy (Oxford University Press). Her forthcoming edition for Bärenreiter Verlag is entitled Figurations and Exercises for Piano: Beethoven on Piano Playing.

Sara Eckerson is a post-doctoral scholar at the Program in Literary Theory, University of Lisbon, and a researcher at the Centre for Comparative Studies, University of Lisbon. Her academic interests include the intersections of literature and music in the fields of performance practice and hermeneutics, as well as expressive word cues in Beethoven. She has also published articles on Handel and Milton (in Yale Journal of Music & Religion) and on the philosophy of music (in Teorema).

Martin Harlow is Emeritus Professor of Music at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester. A clarinettist, he specialises in wind repertoire and historical performance practice of music of the Classical period. His edited volume of essays Mozart's Chamber Music with Keyboard was published by Cambridge University Press. Numerous articles by him have appeared in musicological and organological journals. His editions are with Bärenreiter, Ut Orpheus Edizioni and A-R Editions. For Edition HH he has recently edited the seven violin sonatas of Anton Eberl and the clarinet music of Anton Stadler.

Marten Noorduin obtained his PhD from the University of Manchester in 2016 with a thesis on Beethoven's tempo indications. He was a researcher on the AHRC-funded project ‘Transforming Nineteenth-Century Historically Informed Practice’ at the University of Oxford, and he has since held a research fellowship at the State Institute for Music Research in Berlin. He currently holds a position as researcher and lecturer at the Lübeck Academy of Music, and has published research articles, essays and reviews in Nineteenth-Century Music Review, The Musical Times, Notes, Eighteenth-Century Music and several collected editions on a variety of topics related to music in the long nineteenth century.

Artur Pereira is a researcher based at the University of Manchester (where he completed a PhD in 2015) with particular interests in the music of Beethoven and the early Romantic period. He is also a pianist with an international career as a soloist and chamber musician. His recorded albums feature historically informed performances of Beethoven's piano sonatas and piano music by Portuguese composers.

Matthew Pilcher is a pianist and musicologist who completed a PhD at the University of Manchester in 2012 on Beethoven's vocal works. His research interests include keyboard and vocal works of the long nineteenth century, with a particular emphasis on word–music relationships and narrative theory. For A-R Editions Matthew has contributed articles on Schubert, Liszt and Classical forms and genres. He currently lectures at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, previously having taught at the Royal Northern College of Music, the University of Manchester and the University of Idaho.

Kris Worsley is a pianist and musicologist based in North Nottinghamshire. His repertoire as a pianist encompasses a broad range of historical periods, but he also enjoys bringing the work of little-known composers from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to wider audiences. He has also performed his own realisations of unfinished works by Mozart and Beethoven. He teaches at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama as well as running a private teaching practice from his home. He completed a PhD at the University of Manchester in 2005.

Jos van der Zanden is an independent researcher in the field of Viennese Classicism working in the Netherlands, where he has published books on Beethoven, Schubert and Mozart. In recent years he has contributed scholarly work on biographical aspects of Beethoven, such as his relationships with Christian Gottlob Neefe, Ferdinand Ries, Karl Amenda, Therese Malfatti and Carl Czerny. In 2020 he completed his PhD at the University of Manchester. His book Beethoven and Greco-Roman Antiquity is published by Routledge.

Abbreviations

Literature

Library sigla

Pitch

Pitches of individual notes are indicated according to the following scheme, from bass upwards, in which c1 = middle C:

CC–BB, C–B, c–b, c1–b1, c2–b2, c3–b3, c4–f4.

Introduction

Barry Cooper and Matthew Pilcher

The Manchester connection

This book has emerged from the coming together of a number of Beethoven scholars in Manchester over a period of more than ten years. In June 2009 there began a series of symposia based at the University of Manchester, in which scholars met about five or six times a year to discuss their Beethoven research. The founder members were Barry Cooper (chairman), Erica Buurman, Siân Derry and Matthew Pilcher. The last three of these were still students at the time, but have gone on to complete doctoral dissertations on Beethoven and to publish some of their research. Each symposium was devoted to a particular topic, early examples including neglected works; composers who influenced Beethoven; Beethoven's dedications; and a particular work such as Wellingtons Sieg or the Eroica Symphony. As more people began to contribute, the symposia came to be known as International Manchester Beethoven Research Symposia, with contributions from scholars and students representing up to six countries, and the symposia are still ongoing.

These activities led in 2012 to a full-scale three-day Beethoven conference, organised by the founder members of the symposia, with keynote papers presented by Lewis Lockwood and the late Sieghard Brandenburg. From the symposia and conference there emerged plans to publish a book consisting of a series of papers by scholars who have attended the symposia; most of them also attended the conference. These plans have taken a long time to come to fruition, but have resulted in the present collection of ten papers. All the authors have at some stage been regular attenders at the symposia, apart from Martin Harlow, who worked at the nearby Royal Northern College of Music, with close connections to the university. Thus all are associated with Manchester, and six of the authors gained their doctorate at the university. The book's title, Manchester Beethoven Studies, is therefore a precise indication of its origins.

Manchester has long-standing associations with Beethoven. Of the various institutes that have come together to form the present University of Manchester, the earliest was founded in 1824, the year of the premiere of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Even before this, however, Manchester had a flourishing musical life, centred on a society known as the Gentlemen's Concerts, which was active throughout Beethoven's adult life and well beyond.¹ A Beethoven overture – presumably Prometheus – was performed at one of these concerts as early as 12 April 1803, and a symphony, the First or possibly the Second, was performed on 8 July 1806, along with one of his string quartets.² The ‘Razumovsky’ Quartets had arrived by 1811, when an edition of them was acquired by Thomas Appleby, a leading light in the Gentlemen's Concerts, as is reported in a valuable anecdote told to Thayer by Appleby's son Samuel, though attempts at performing the quartets at that stage proved unsuccessful.

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Although Beethoven himself never visited Manchester or indeed anywhere in Britain, Liszt gave a recital in the city in 1824, only a year after meeting Beethoven in Vienna, and he returned again the following year. Later, other major composers gave recitals in Manchester, such as Chopin in 1848; but in the second half of the nineteenth century the leading musician in the city was undoubtedly Sir Charles Hallé (1819–95), who founded the orchestra named after him, which still flourishes today. Hallé was so active in so many fields that his energetic promotion of Beethoven's music is often overlooked or at best relegated to a footnote. This oversight has now been rectified by Derry's penetrating chapter in the present volume. Hallé's promotion of Beethoven's music extended to performances of all nine symphonies and all thirty-two of Beethoven's Viennese piano sonatas, at a time when sonatas were rarely performed in concerts. The idea of performing these as a set was surely new, and Hallé also performed many lesser-known Beethoven works. In addition he produced his own editions of Beethoven's piano sonatas, making efforts to keep closer to the original texts than most late-nineteenth-century editors, as Derry explains. His Practical Pianoforte School, which contains many Beethoven sonatas, is actually an important guide to performance practice: it shows that although trills were customarily begun on the main note by the 1870s, grace notes were still being shown to be played on the beat as in Beethoven's day; only later did the modern corruption of playing them before the beat become the norm. It was also Hallé who persuaded the Forsyth brothers to move to Manchester, where Forsyth's is still the main music shop.

Other cultural issues

Beethoven's knowledge of Manchester must have been minimal, but he was much better informed about Scotland and about Edinburgh in particular. This was due mainly to his correspondence with George Thomson (1757–1851), as explained in Barry Cooper's account of Beethoven's view of Scotland. Beethoven was intrigued by the strange melodies of some of the Scottish folksongs, and sought to enhance their seemingly exotic effects in his numerous settings. In his last few years he also read some of Sir Walter Scott's novels, gleaning further impressions of life in Scotland in earlier times. Scotland's view of Beethoven also emerges from the correspondence. The main complaint about his music was that most people found it far too difficult technically, and Thomson rejected several of Beethoven's compositions on these grounds. Even those that were accepted did not sell well, and at times Thomson despaired of the poor taste of his fellow countrymen. Beethoven's connections with various other countries, notably France and England,⁴ have been explored in detail, but previous studies of his connections with Scotland have been patchy, focusing mainly on his folksong settings.

Another aspect of Beethoven's cultural surroundings is explored in Susan Cooper's re-examination of his attitudes to religion. This is a subject that has frequently been discussed, but some conclusions reached have been unconvincing and not sufficiently supported by evidence. She begins by drawing attention to members of Beethoven's family (on his mother's side) who were particularly religious, notably his uncle Peter Keverich, who became a prior in Koblenz but has been completely ignored in English-language literature on Beethoven. She then challenges claims that Beethoven hardly ever set foot inside a church after moving to Vienna, and that he was opposed to the Church as an institution; he readily criticised bad priests, but not the institution. She demonstrates that there is no firm evidence that he disputed any of the traditional doctrines of the Church; and his fascination with oriental and Egyptian religions went only as far as was compatible with Christian doctrine – he was not interested in polytheism, despite his occasional references to the Greek gods. His interest in the writings of Johann Michael Sailer has never previously been fully appreciated, and certain unidentified quotations that he copied down prove to be taken from Sailer. Sailer's edition of Thomas a Kempis may also have influenced Beethoven's religious thinking. The result of these investigations is a very different image of Beethoven's religious outlook from that commonly circulated by people who are themselves not well acquainted with the Church and its doctrines.

Beethoven in Bonn

Beethoven's activities in Bonn have received increased attention in recent times, after many years in which this period of his life was generally regarded as an uninteresting precursor to his main period in Vienna. As John D. Wilson has observed recently, ‘The tendency to undervalue Beethoven's Bonn years has, until very recently, been entrenched in both popular and scholarly narratives of the composer's creative development.’ ⁵ Among Beethoven's teachers in Bonn was Christian Gottlob Neefe, and although the extent of Neefe's role in Beethoven's musical education has recently been called into question,⁶ Kris Worsley makes a strong case that the two composers were sufficiently in touch with each other, shortly before Beet­hoven's departure to Vienna, to compose two sets of variations that have much in common with each other. Beethoven's theme, like Neefe's, was taken from Dittersdorf's opera Das rote Käppchen, which had been performed in Bonn in February 1792, and even the two themes themselves are quite similar, as are their treatments by the respective composers in the variations. The precise chronology is uncertain, but it may well be that Beethoven modelled his set (WoO 66) partly on Neefe's, as well as taking into account Neefe's earlier sets of variations. He may therefore have been attempting to emulate or outshine his colleague, or simply paying homage to him shortly before departure for Vienna.

Another work that probably also dates from 1792 is Beethoven's aria Erste Liebe (WoO 92), which is commonly known by its Italian name Primo amore. It has already been established by Ernst Herttrich that the aria was originally composed to a German text but was later dubbed with a poor Italian translation, which is neither good linguistically (suggesting it was not made by a native Italian speaker) nor well fitted to the music, and rarely achieves suitable rhymes. Pilcher has now explored the aria much more thoroughly, pointing out many specific weaknesses in the Italian text, and demonstrating Beethoven's excellent response to the meaning and structure of the original German. Many questions still remain, including the occasion and reason for the substitution of Italian words, and why Artaria did not publish the work when offered it sometime prior to 1814. Pilcher also makes a strong case that the aria was probably composed for Magdalena Willmann (1771–1801), whom Beethoven knew well in Bonn and later in Vienna. He is even said to have fallen in love with her and proposed marriage;⁷ and although she was not his ‘first love’, he may have felt particular attraction to the text he set for her, writing the longest aria he ever produced, at 350 bars. It is regrettable that recent recordings of it still use the faulty Italian text rather than the original German.

Style and notation

Beethoven's Bonn compositions also figure in two other chapters in the present volume, where they are discussed alongside later works. In one of them, Martin Harlow provides an overview of Beethoven's chamber music with wind instruments. As he points out, this is a rather disparate group of works and cannot be described as a self-contained genre, but it raises issues of what qualifies as a genre. What Harlow describes as ‘Beethoven's first extant and substantial experiment with wind instruments’ is a Trio for keyboard, flute and bassoon (WoO 37) dating from 1786, and it is roughly contemporary with what appears to be a triple concerto for the same combination of instruments plus orchestra (WoO 207 or Hess 13), of which only part of the slow movement, a Romance cantabile, survives. Later chamber works that use wind instruments include an Octet (Op. 103), a Septet (Op. 20), two sextets (Opp. 71 and 81b) and a Quintet (Op. 16), which differ more in their instrumentation than in the simple number of instruments used, and were written for quite different purposes. But all are substantial, multi-movement works, with four, six, four, three and three movements respectively. Harlow also includes discussion of Beethoven's marches and dances for larger wind ensembles or military bands, mostly composed on request in 1809 and 1810, and he concludes with some perceptive observations about the use of wind-band effects in larger works, including most of the symphonies, which are rarely considered from this angle.

The other chapter that includes examination of works composed in Bonn is Artur Pereira's study of Beethoven's sets of variations. These extend from his first known work, the Dressler Variations of 1782 (WoO 63), to his final substantial composition, the String Quartet Op. 135 of 1826, and the variation form appears frequently in between, both in independent sets and in movements within longer works. Again the Bonn works are given due attention. Pereira's list of Beethoven's variations presents over seventy sets altogether, and there are also several quasi-variation movements such as the slow movement of the Violin Concerto and the last two movements of the Ninth Symphony. A particular characteristic of many of these sets is Beethoven's penchant for concluding with a slow variation near the end, followed by a faster closing section. Pereira demonstrates that this practice clearly derives from Mozart, who often did something similar, whereas other composers rarely did so until a later period. The device is highly effective in terms of expression and rhetoric, and is paralleled by a number of movements in sonata form or rondo form that have a slow passage just before the end of the coda.

There are, of course, different degrees of slowness, ranging from a gentle Andante to a profound Largo, and Pereira discusses this issue. But in very slow movements, there is a tendency for modern performers to exaggerate the expressive quality by taking tempi that border on motionlessness. This situation, as discussed by Marten Noorduin, is particularly evident in some of Beethoven's late works, where performers aiming for a transcendental, otherworldly experience often take movements far more slowly than Beethoven appears to have intended, sometimes even blatantly disregarding his metronome marks to achieve this purpose. Noorduin demonstrates that this slowing-down, not just of slow movements but also of some fast ones (though by no means all), and not just in late works, began shortly after Beethoven's death, partly prompted by Schindler; and even today's ‘historically informed’ performances do not always escape the influence. It is the adagios of the late period, however, that have tended to receive the greatest amount of slowing-down, especially the ‘Heiliger Dankgesang’ in the String Quartet Op. 132, where the shape of the chorale melody is liable to be lost in performances where each chord of the chorale might last as long as four seconds – probably only half the speed Beethoven intended.

One of Beethoven's lesser-known late works, and one which does not have a very slow movement, is the String Quintet Op. 104, written in 1817. It is, however, merely an arrangement of the Piano Trio Op. 1 No. 3, and it has been largely disregarded in recent years, especially since Alan Tyson argued