Beethoven : studies in the creative process

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Beethoven : studies in the creative process

Lewis Lockwood

Harvard University Press, 1992

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 248-275) and indexes

Description and Table of Contents

Description

It is well known that Mozart developed his works in his head and then simply transcribed them onto paper, while Beethoven laboured assiduously over sketches and drafts. Indeed Beethoven's extensive sketchbooks (which total over 8,000 pages) and the autograph manuscripts, covering several stages of development, reveal the composer systematically exploring and evolving his musical ideas. Through close investigation of individual works, Lewis Lockwood traces the creative process as it emerges in Beethoven's sketches and manuscripts. Four studies address the composition of the "Eroica" symphony from various viewpoints. The chamber works discussed include the Cello Sonata in A Major, Opus 69 (of which the entire autograph manuscripts of the first movement is published here in facsimile), the string quartet Opus 59 No. 1, and the Cavatina of the later quartet Opus 130. Lockwood's analysis enhances our understanding of Beethoven's musical strategies and stylistic developments as well as the compositional process itself. In a final chapter the author outlines the importance of Beethoven's autographs for the modern performer. Lewis Lockwood is also author of "Music in Renaissance Ferrara" which won the Kinkeldey (music) and Marraro (history) prizes.

Table of Contents

  • On Beethoven's sketches and autographs - some problems of definition and interpretation
  • the autograph of the first movement of the Sonata for Violoncello and Pianoforte, Opus 69
  • Beethoven's sketches for "Sehnsucht" (WoO 146)
  • "Eroica" perspectives - strategy and design in the first movement
  • the earliest sketches for the "Eroica" symphony
  • the compositional genesis of the "Eroica" finale
  • planning the unexpected - Beethoven's sketches for the horn entrance in the "Eroica" symphony, first movement
  • the problem of closure - some examples from the middle period chamber music
  • process versus limits - a view of the Quartet in F Major, Opus 59 No. 1
  • on the cavatina of Beethoven's String Quartet in B-flat Major, Opus 130
  • Beethoven's autograph manuscripts and the modern performer. Appendices: physical features of the autograph manuscript of Opus 69, first movement
  • Beethoven's correspondence on the text of Opus 69
  • use of additional staves in the autograph of Opus 69
  • provisional list of variants in the autograph of Opus 69.

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