Beethoven and the Piano. Philology, Context and Performance Practice
hg. von Leonardo Miucci, Claudio Bacciagaluppi, Daniel Allenbach und Martin Skamletz
(Musikforschung der Hochschule der Künste Bern, Bd. 16)
Schliengen: Argus 2023
420 Seiten, mit zahlreichen Abbildungen und Notenbeispielen
Format 19 x 28,5 cm
Fadenheftung, Hardcover
ISBN 978-3-931264-96-3
doi.org/10.26045/kp64-6180
Together with the symphonies and the string quartets, the piano works build up the core of Beethoven’s output, both considering their compositional ambitiousness as well as their reception. This book reflects the state of the art for research on these topics on the occasion of the Beethoven jubilee year 2020. Beethoven’s piano works are considered along three main perspectives. The first concerns the relationship between the notated score and its performance. A key issue of performance practice studies from any epoch is the degree of information implied in the presence or absence of certain notational signs. If no contrary indication is present, the performer is supposed to resort to common standard practice. But what was precisely standard practice in the time of deep transformation in which Beethoven lived? And was the composer himself not constantly unsettling the rules and consciously working against expectations of any kind? In order to interpret the suggestions contained in the notation, the work of philology is obviously a necessary premise. Though generations of scholars have examined the sources, new insights can still be gathered from the manuscripts and the printed scores, regarding the composer’s working habits in preparing his compositions, or some peculiar traits of notation that he invented. Finally, Beethoven’s times witnessed the greatest development also in piano building. Many questions remain indeed open on the instruments he knew and played, which have wide-ranging consequences on how today’s scholar and performer should view his piano compositions.
The volume is available here as a free PDF download, identical to the printed edition. The individual contributions can also be downloaded separately below. The print edition is available directly from Edition Argus.
Content
Notation and performance
Clive Brown | Czerny the Progressive
Barry Cooper | Beethoven’s Pedal Marks Revisited
Neal Peres Da Costa | The Case for Un-Notated Arpeggiation in Beethoven’s Compositions for or Involving the Piano
Siân Derry | Beethoven’s Tied-Note Notation. An Ongoing Debate
Marten Noorduin | Beethoven’s Indicators of Expression in His Piano Works
Yew Choong Cheong | A Historically Informed Perspective of Beethoven’s Idiosyncratic Dynamics and Accents in His Piano Works
Leonardo Miucci | Beethoven’s Piano Quartets WoO 36. Conservatism and Evolution
From sketch to print
Sandra P. Rosenblum | Publishers’ Practices and Other Happenings in the Life of Beethoven’s Quintet for Piano and Woodwinds Op. 16
Susanne Cox | Beethoven’s ‘Concept’. Working Manuscripts Between Sketch and Fair Copy
Mario Aschauer | Text, Context, and Creative Process in Diabelli’s Vaterländischer Künstlerverein
Roberto Scoccimarro | Beethoven’s Sketches for the Last Movement of the Sonata Op. 106. Thoughts on the Creative Process
Claudio Bacciagaluppi | Hans Georg Nägeli as Publisher and Bookseller of Piano Music
Instruments and keyboard practices
Michael Ladenburger | Beethoven’s Early Approach to Different Types of Keyboard Instruments in Bonn and Its Lifelong Aftermath
Tilman Skowroneck | Beethoven and the Split Damper Pedal
Robert Adelson | Beethoven’s Érard Piano: A Gift After All