North American Beethoven Studies

Beethoven's Compositional Process, ed. by William Kinderman. 1991. ISBN 0-8032-1222-4.

A collection of essays by leading scholars on Beethoven's orchestral works, including the following:

Geoffrey Block. "Organic Relations in Beethoven's Early Piano Concerti and the 'Spirit of Mozart.'"

William Caplin. "Structural Expansion in Beethoven's Symphonic Forms."

Barry Cooper. "The Sketches for Beethoven's Egmont Overture: A Reassessment."

William Drabkin. "The Agnus dei of Beethoven's Missa solemnis: The Growth of its Form."

William Drabkin. "Beethoven's Understanding of 'Sonata Form': The Evidence of the Sketchbooks"

William Kinderman. "Beethoven's Compositional Models for the Choral Finale of the Ninth Symphony."

William Kinderman. "Compositional Phases and Analysis."

William Kinderman. "On the Relation of Beethoven's Sketches to Analysis: Problems and General Principles."

Richard Kramer. "The Sketch Itself."

Lewis Lockwood. "The Beethoven Sketchbooks and the General State of Sketch Research."

Lewis Lockwood. "The Compositional Genesis of the Eroica Finale."

William Meredith. "Forming the New from the Old: Beethoven's Use of Variation in the Fifth Symphony."

Letters to Beethoven and Other Correspondence, trans. and ed. by Theodore Albrecht. 1996. 3 v. ISBN 0-8032-1033-7 (v. 1: 1772-1812); 0-8032-1039-6 (v. 2: 1813-1823); 0-8032-1040-X (v. 3: 1824-1828.)

As a companion to the English translations of Beethoven's letters, this important collection of correspondence to Beethoven enriches our knowledge of his relationships and activities. It encompasses letters from close friends and acquaintances, family members, publishers, patrons, and many more. In addition to 275 letters written to Beethoven, the collection includes sixty-four letters written by others (notably his brothers and nephew, Ferdinand Ries, and Anton Schindler) on Beethoven's behalf, and several family and other documents. These volumes also supplement Emily Anderson's edition of Beethoven letters by including seventy new letters or letter drafts discovered after her collection was published in 1961. The documents are arranged chronologically and the translations are copiously annotated with Albrecht's explanatory comments. Volume three includes a lengthy bibliography and indexes of incipits, correspondents, works, and general subjects.

The Contemporary German Reception of Beethoven. Wayne Senner, gen. ed. and trans., Robin Wallace, musicological editor and trans., and William Meredith, musicological editor. 4 vols. Vol. 1: published Fall 1999. $75; Vol. 2: published Fall 2001. Vol. 3: projected ?

The first translation into English of all German-language reviews of Beethoven's music in the periodical literature from the 1790s through 1830.

Bathia Churgin. Transcendent Mastery: Studies in the Music of Beethoven. 2008. xvii, 413 pp. ISBN 978-1-57647-122-7. $58.

The purpose of the four long chapters in this volume is to consider widely and deeply four of Beethoven’s most excellent works. Each work represents a different genre and each comes from a different period of Beethoven’s stylistic development. Thus, the Piano Sonata, Op. 10, No. 3 (1797-98). represents the early period; the Violin Concerto, Op. 61 (1806), and Violin Sonata, Op. 96 (1812), the middle period (though with several later traits) and the String Quartet, Op. 132 (1825), the late period. As a result, the reader becomes acquainted with the special character of each genre as well as the overall development of Beethoven’s style—including a large range of structural types and unique forms. Each work is given a comprehensive analysis rarely applied to single compositions of Beethoven.

Owen Jander. Beethoven's Orpheus Concerto. The Fourth Piano Concerto in its Cultural Context. ISBN 978-1576471326. $54.

Dear Max/Lieber Malcolm: The Rudolf/Frager Correspondence. 258 pp. ISBN 978-1576471845.
$54

Paul Ellison. The Key to Beethoven: Connecting Tonality and Meaning in His Music. Forthcoming (June 2013). ISBN 978-1576472026. $60