Beethoven's Symphonies Arranged for the Chamber
Sociability, Reception, and Canon Formation

Reveals the importance of arrangements of Beethoven's works for nineteenth-century domestic music-making to the history of the classical symphony.

Nancy November (Author)

9781108831758, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 June 2021

300 pages
17.5 x 25 x 2 cm, 0.65 kg

'… innovative study … Recommended.' D. Arnold, Choice Connect

Early nineteenth-century composers, publishers and writers evolved influential ideals of Beethoven's symphonies as untouchable masterpieces. Meanwhile, many and various arrangements of symphonies, principally for amateur performers, supported diverse and 'hands-on' cultivation of the same works. Now mostly forgotten, these arrangements served a vital function in nineteenth-century musical life, extending works' meanings and reach, especially to women in the home. This book places domestic music-making back into the history of the classical symphony. It investigates a largely untapped wealth of early nineteenth-century arrangements of symphonies by Beethoven - for piano, string quartet, mixed quintet and other ensembles. The study focuses on three key agents in the nineteenth-century culture of musical arrangement: arrangers, publishers and performers. It investigates significant functions of those musical arrangements in the era: sociability, reception and canon formation. The volume also explores how conceptions of Beethoven's symphonies, and their arrangement, changed across the era with changing conception of musical works.

Introduction
1. 'A fruitful age of arrangements'
2. Arrangers and authority
3. Selling arrangements, constructing the canon
4. Beethoven and Steiner's plan
5. Musical arrangements and musical works
6. 'Completely absorbed by the piano'.

Subject Areas: Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups [AVH], Classical music [c 1750 to c 1830 AVGC4], Music reviews & criticism [AVC]