Die letzten fünf Sonaten von Beethoven ... op. 109
The Last Five Sonatas of Beethoven ... Op. 109
Documents associated with this entity:
The first volume of Schenker's "Erläuterungsausgabe," published in 1913 and comprising Beethoven's Piano Sonata in E major, Op. 109 in his edition based on Beethoven's autograph manuscript. The latter was at that time owned by the Wittgenstein family in Vienna (having been in the possession of the family of its publisher, Schlesinger, until purchased at auction in 1907 by Wittgenstein, subsequently acquired by the Library of Congress in Washington), together with unpublished notes by Gustav Nottebohm supplied by Eusebius Mandyczewski at the Archive of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. Schenker examined the manuscript at the Wittgenstein Palace on November 12, 19, and December 6, 1912. Schenker's text comprised his "Vorwort" (Foreword), "Vorbemerkung zur Einführung" (Preliminary Remark to the Introduction), "Einführung" (Introduction—Schenker also informally called this section "Analyse"), and "Literatur" (Secondary Literature). It is published by Universal Edition, Vienna.
Publication History
First Edition
The original edition was published in 1913, with publication number UE 3976.
Cover title-page: BEETHOVEN-SCHENKER | ERLÄUTERUNGS-AUSGABE | DER LETZTEN FÜNF SONATEN | SONATE E DUR | OP. 109.
Inner title-page: DIE LETZTEN | FÜNF SONATEN | VON | BEETHOVEN | — | KRITISCHE AUSGABE | MIT EINFÜHRUNG | UND ERLÄUTERUNG | VON | HEINRICH SCHENKER | — | PIANO SOLO
Chronology: Many years later, Jeanette recounts a story (in her Travel Diary to Chile, August 3, 1936) not recorded in Schenker’s diary, which may refer to the summer of 1912: “behind the forester’s lodge in Paneveggio, the Elucidatory Edition of Op. 109 was dictated from memory (!!) because the suitcase with the material had gone astray.” — Schenker's Foreword is dated September 1913. He had submitted his manuscript of the work on February 5, 1913; proof correcting of the letterpress and music engraving (with assistance from Aaron Mittelmann) ran variously from April or May to mid-August 1913. The edition went to press on August 26, 1913, and 503 copies were delivered from the printer to the publisher on September 24, 1913 (though in his diary Schenker records receipt of his first copy on September 20).
Second Edition
Chronology: Schenker was notified in January 1922 (OJ 3/3, p. 2411) that a new edition was due. His diary for February 4, 1922 records: "Corrections to Op. 109, mainly removal of foreign terms that should be replaced by German terms that have the same meaning and roughly the same number of characters" (OJ 3/3, p. 2413). The copies of the first edition in which these proposed changes (e. g. "Abänderungen" in place of "Modifikationen") were entered survive as OC Scores/26 and 27. Ultimately, the verbal changes were not made, but those to the musical text were. This edition went to press late in 1922, and 510 copies were delivered from the printer to the publisher on January 13, 1923.
New Edition
Edited by Oswald Jonas, and published in 1971, with publication number UE 26.303, this excises Schenker's polemical matter and commentary on the secondary literature, and replaces Schenker's edition with the 1945 revision by Erwin Ratz with the effect that the scores contradict some of the textual argument in Schenker's elucidations. .
Cover title-page: Beethoven | Die letzten Sonaten | SONATE E DUR OP. 109 | Erläuterungsausgabe | von HEINRICH SCHENKER
Inner title-page: Beethoven | Die letzten Sonaten | SONATE E DUR OP. 109 | Kritische Einführung und Erläuterung von | HEINRICH SCHENKER | herausgegeben von | Oswald Jonas
English Translation and Study
The recent English translation by John Rothgeb is likewise in four separate, small-format volumes and a website, of which this volume is:
Piano Sonata in E major, Op. 109, Beethoven's Last Piano Sonatas: An Edition with Elucidation, vol. I, transl., ed. and annotated by John Rothgeb (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015)
This edition follows the text of Schenker's original, thereby restoring all the material excised by Jonas in his 1971 edition. Significantly, it incorporates numerous annotations made by Schenker in his personal copies of the first edition (now in the Oster Collection, Scores/25‒28). Explanatory and citational footnotes by Rothgeb incorporate some of the observations made by Jonas. Schenker's surveys of the secondary literature appear not in the print volumes but on the website. The score of the sonata appears neither in the print volume nor on the website.
Source:
- Universal Edition Archive: Verlagsdruckbuch UE 3976
Contributors:
- Ian Bent and William Drabkin