A Historic Discovery, in Beethoven's Own Hand

NY Times ^ | 10-13-05 | DANIEL J. WAKIN

[Pharmboy]

Shiho Fukada for The New York Times

The recently discovered manuscript for Beethoven's "Grosse Fuge."

Heather Carbo, a matter-of-fact librarian at an evangelical seminary outside Philadelphia, was cleaning out an archival cabinet one hot afternoon in July. It was a dirty and routine job. But there, on the bottom shelf, she stumbled across what may be one of the most important musicological finds in years.

It was a working manuscript score for a piano version of Beethoven's "Grosse Fuge," a monument of classical music. And it was in the composer's own hand, according to Sotheby's auction house. The 80-page manuscript in mainly brown ink - a furious scattering of notes across the page, with many changes and cross-outs, some so deep that the paper is punctured - dates from the final months of Beethoven's life.

The score had effectively disappeared from view for 115 years, apparently never examined by scholars. It goes on display today, just for the afternoon, at the school, the Palmer Theological Seminary in Wynnewood, Pa.

"It was just sitting on that shelf," Ms. Carbo said. "I was just in a state of shock."

Like Ms. Carbo, musicologists sounded stunned when read a description of the manuscript by Sotheby's, which will auction it on Dec. 1 in London. "Wow! Oh my God!" said Lewis Lockwood, a musicology professor at Harvard University and a Beethoven biographer. "This is big. This is very big."

Indeed it is.

Any manuscript showing a composer's self-editing gives invaluable insight into his working methods, and this is a particularly rich example. Such second thoughts are particularly revealing in the case of Beethoven, who, never satisfied, honed his ideas brutally - unlike, say, Mozart, who was typically able to spill out a large score in nearly finished form.

[Pharmboy]

Although my main man for the past 16 years has been Bach, for the first 20 years of my listening it was Ludvig van. I don't listen to his symphonies anymore (except for the first and ninth), but his piano music and his string quartets never seem to wear themselves out. This is a great find.

[Pharmboy]

Ping...

[Bahbah]

Oh do look here.

[Izzy Dunne]

Looks like old Ludwig was a paintball fan:

[Pharmboy]

I was JUST about to ping sitetest for the classical music ping list (of which I am a member) and you beat me to it...you're fast!

[nmh]

WOW!

That is exciting.

[WIladyconservative]

Rather a pig when it came to clean hands if the manuscript is to be believed . . . .

I can only imagine what the keyboard looked like . . .

[Pharmboy]

I imagine that is sealing wax, although it's a guess.

[Pharmboy]

Beethoven (it is said) was a slob. The reason he lived in so many apartments in Vienna was that he would mess one up badly and then move to another.

[mylife]

Heck, you both beat me to the ping!

[Bahbah]

Amazing speed given the hour and the single cup of coffee. This is just fascinating. Thanks for the post.

[billorites]

"I imagine that is sealing wax, although it's a guess. "

[cloud8]

Imagine finding that, and off it goes to the auction house...

[F14 Pilot]

BUMP FOR THE BEST MUSICIAN OF ALL AGES!

[Pharmboy]

Make sure you go to the Times' site and click on the multimedia section within the article.

[dawn53]

Thanks for the post. Really interesting!

[F14 Pilot]

i m watching!

[The Red Zone]

Sealing wax? - maybe he didn't like the result so he just glued the pages together?

[wolfcreek]

Looks like a print from the side of a bloody closed fist?

[vrwinger]

I saw that and figured Ludwig often enjoyed pizza while composing...