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3 - Beethoven’s Unfinished Symphonies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2020

Keith Chapin
Affiliation:
Cardiff University
David Wyn Jones
Affiliation:
Cardiff University
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Summary

In 1875 the pioneering early authority on Beethoven’s sketches, Gustav Nottebohm, claimed that had the composer completed as many symphonies as were begun in the sketchbooks, then his total output of such works would have exceeded fifty. This essay is the first to scrutinize that claim. A comprehensive study of Beethoven’s sketches from his youth to the last years of his life reveals Nottebohm’s claim to be remarkably accurate. As well as detailed study of the musical evidence the essay presents a thematic catalogue of unfinished – or barely begun – symphonies.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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