MUSIC 1770-1827

Printed music in first or early editions – musical manuscripts – books – ephemera.

A series of commented catalogues, celebrating the

250. BIRTHDAY of LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

Part I.

Introduction:

In 1819 Anton Diabelli (1781-1858), music editor in Vienna, asked 50 Austrian composers including Beethoven to write a variation on a waltz by Diabelli himself, intending to publish all those variations in a charity publication called “Vaterländischer Künstlerverein”, to use the profits to benefit orphans and widows of the Napoleonic Wars. – The famous result: Beethoven did not want to restrict himself to a simple variation published together with the all contributions of his more or less gifted fellow composers, but used this idea to demonstrate the universe of his art of variations, today known as “Diabelli Variations” op. 120. – Diabelli understood this idea as an extraordinary chance and published Beethoven’s work as separate volume 1 of his project and in a volume 2 all the other variations.

A special effect of this project for us today is, that – beside the initial impulse to one of the most important classical work of variations – this publication offers a profound insight into the very rich musical culture of Biedermeier Austria, especially the musical scene of Vienna around 1820. You find geniuses like Schubert and Liszt, key personalities like Hummel, Czerny, Moscheles, rediscovered gifted composers like Mayseder and Voříšek, but also musicians known today practically only because of their participation in this project (e.g. Franz de Paula Roser, Joseph von Szalay).

The effect of this compilation gave the impulse for a series of catalogues, celebrating the 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven, beginning with its first part “Beethoven, his teachers, inspirers and providers of musical theory”, as far as these issues are reflected in the stock of our music antiquarian shop.