The Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies
Description of collections
The Center's collection is being cataloged online on the Beethoven Bibliography Database, available through the San Jose State University Library's online catalog on the Internet. At present, about 75% of the Center's books, scores, and articles have been cataloged online.
Click on the highlighted text below to see more images of materials from the Center's collection.
The Center's collections include:
Original Beethoven manuscripts,
documents, and materials
The Center owns several original Beethoven manuscripts, including a sketch leaf entirely in Beethoven's hand, a letter in English to the publisher Robert Birchall and an accompanying receipt with his signature, several other letters in Beethoven's hand; a leaf from one of his household account books, and a lock of Beethoven's hair. A few of the original manuscripts are always on display during the Center's open hours. Other manuscripts of Beethoven's music are available in published facsimile editions, on microfilm, or in photocopies.
Other manuscripts
A small collection of manuscripts not in Beethoven's hand include a copyist's score of the String quartets, Opus 18, nos. 1-6 [1816]; a manuscript score for the Fifth Symphony, Opus 67, in several hands [between 1808-1822]; a set of manuscripts parts for an English performance of Christ on the Mount of Olives, Opus 85 [1814], and several others.
First editions of Beethoven's
music
The Center currently owns over 300 first editions of Beethoven's music, the largest collection in North America. An example of one of the rarest of these editions is the earliest printing (probably a proof copy) of the Fortepiano Sonatas, Opus 2, nos. 1-3 (Vienna: Artaria, 1796). The Center owns first editions of all of Beethoven's string quartets and most of the piano sonatas.
Other editions of his music published during his
lifetime and afterwards
The Center's extensive collection of scores includes over 2,200 early editions (from Beethoven's lifetime and later 19th-century editions) of individual works. Collected editions from the 19th and 20th centuries number about 300. Of a small score collection of music by Beethoven's contemporaries, Daniel Steibelt is particularly well-represented.
Books
The Center collects all types of books on Beethoven, in all languages, including biographies and scholarly monographs; collections of essays, conference papers, and Festschriften; master's theses and doctoral dissertations; fiction, drama, and poetry; children's books; and much more. Rare books include the 1783 issue of Cramer's Magazin der Musik that contains the first mention of Beethoven in print, and J.N. Maelzel's Notice sur le metronome that was printed in Paris in 1818 (to see scans of pages from these books, click here). The book collection currently numbers over 4,000 volumes published from 1800 to the present. Donations of Beethoven books are always welcome; duplicates may be sold to help support the Center.
The William S. Newman Collection
In 1987, the Center acquired the Beethoven library of renowned Beethoven scholar William S. Newman, musicologist and emeritus professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Newman collection is rich in sources for study of Beethoven's fortepiano sonatas, including photoreproductions of Beethoven's original autographs and first editions. Newman's library of Beethoven books, many heavily annotated and indexed by Newman, also came to the Center. For a fuller description of the Newman collection, see The Beethoven Newsletter 3, no. 2 (Summer 1988): 32-35.
Articles
The Center's files currently contain photocopies of more than 8,000 articles on Beethoven published in both music and non-music journals. These files continue to grow daily as we index them in the Beethoven Bibliography Database.
Microfilms and photocopies
Microfilms and photocopies of some of Beethoven's sketches and autographs owned by other libraries are available for study at the Center. The complete collection of Beethoven manuscripts located at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin is available on microfiche. To inquire if the Center's owns a microfilm of a particular manuscript, please contact the Curator.
Sound recordings
For those wishing for a more auditory experience, a growing library of recordings and videos is also available. The Center has a listening area for enjoying compact discs, LPs, and cassettes, including recordings of concerts sponsored by the Center. The Blakeley Collection, an extensive library of recordings donated by Barry Blakeley, is a comprehensive collection of Beethoven's symphonies and concertos issued on LP and CD.Video equipment for viewing tapes of performances, documentaries, and a few feature films is also available.
Visitors are also welcome to play modern replica of a fortepiano from Beethoven's time, which is used regularly for concerts sponsored by the Center. This instrument was built in 1985 by Janine and Paul Poletti, who modeled it after an instrument built ca. 1795 by Jean-Louis Dulcken of Munich. The Center's fortepiano has a range of five octaves and five notes (or only 66 keys as opposed to our modern piano's 88) and can accommodate Beethoven's early period fortepiano works (and some sonatas from the middle period).
In the spring of 2001, the Center acquired an original Viennese fortepiano from 1827 built by Mathias Jakesch. For more information, see our press release. Also on exhibit at the Center are a clavichord and harpsichord.
Art that portrays Beethoven,
Vienna, and his times
The Center's public exhibit area displays copies of the life and death masks, sculpture, reproductions of portraits, and much else. For self-guided tours, a printed booklet on the Center's exhibits is available.
Archives and ephemera
The Center's files include newspaper clippings, photographs, postcards, posters, and other merchandise or objects using Beethoven's image or his music in their design.
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© The Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies
San José State University