The Piano Quartets WoO36 Nos.1-3
Further to recent exchanges on the above works, I've tried to find out the first publication date of the 'Mozart' violin sonatas alluded to in the piano quartets WoO36.
1. It seems the newly established Vienna publisher Artaria published a series of 6 'Mozart' violin sonatas in November 1781 - i.e. some 8 months after Mozart's own arrival in Vienna including the very works which are quoted from/alluded to in WoO36 quartets. Assuming the Artaria publication date of November 1781 is right these violin sonatas with keyboard are the first musical works published by Mozart in Vienna. (To me this makes them specially significant and I want to see if this question of WoO36 can be solved one way or the other).
Again, if correct, Beethoven (the alleged composer of the WoO36 quartets) would have been about 11 years old when these 'Mozart' violin sonatas were first published. A copy of this Artaria first edition has survived and it certainly includes the ones alluded to in WoO36 - I've prefixed these with a star as follows -
K376 (374d), *K296, K377, (374e), K378 (317d), *K379 (373a), *K380 (374f) in that order. (The piano parts of this Artaria first edition consists of 85 pages and the violin part is 28 pages. Artaria made very fine engraved title frames for this edition).
So far, so good. Nothing here that might seem to solve any problem. This is therefore a group of 6 violin sonatas with keyboard by Mozart being published in Vienna during a time when Beethoven was still 11 years old and which he, Beethoven, alludes to in WoO36 at some later date when he was a student at Bonn.
But there are two other bits of information that may be relevant here. Firstly, the WoO36 set is of course a set of 3 piano quartets. Not violin sonatas. Furthermore, Mozart himself is credited with writing the first of his two piano quartets in the very year when he and Beethoven first supposedly met - i.e. in 1787. (By that date, of course, Beethoven is 17). And therefore, shortly after Beethoven's arrival in Vienna there are these 6 sonatas by 'Mozart' but also 6 piano quartets - 3 of them being WoO36 and the other 3 being the two always attributed to Mozart plus one other, that until 1910 was also always attributed to Mozart, but now said to be by Beethoven himself. Mozart supposedly starts writing piano quartets at the very time that Beethoven supposedly meets him - at which time, supposedly, there are already in Bonn 3 piano quartets, these very quartets that are WoO36.
If a third party had written these piano quartets for Mozart in a series of 6 (3 of them being WoO36) it may be asked why Mozart would not have received all 6 of them. I don't know the answer to this. But it seems to me quite logical to suggest the person who wrote these piano quartets is the same person who wrote the 6 'Mozart' violin sonatas that Artaria published in 1781.
All of this seems to me consistent with the view that a third person composed these piano quartets of WoO36, but composed them first as a group of 6 - three of these retained at Bonn and the others becoming works attributed to Mozart during his lifetime up until 1910, at which time one of these three was then attributed to Beethoven. Attributed to Beethoven because, by that date, he had been assumed to be the composer of the three that are WoO36.
What's new about all this (?) you might ask. Well, there's another interesting fact. In 1801 (so I learned today) the Bonn publisher and member of the Bonn chapel Niklaus Simrock (the same Simrock who in later years tells us the original score of the 'Magic Flute' came to Bonn even before it was first performed in Vienna) published some works of Mozart. What works are these ? They are 3 duos for violin and piano. Here, once again, is a Bonn connection with 'Mozart' violin sonatas.
(I don't know the actual 'Mozart' violin sonatas that Simrock published that year. But 1801 happens to be a special year in the history of Bonn chapel. It's the year of Andrea Luchesi's death).
Progress on this issue is slow but I think it's wise not to automatically attribute the piano quartets of WoO36 to Beethoven. Just as the true composer of Mozart's chamber works in Vienna must also be given serious criticism.
Robert
[This message has been edited by robert newman (edited 04-30-2006).]
1. It seems the newly established Vienna publisher Artaria published a series of 6 'Mozart' violin sonatas in November 1781 - i.e. some 8 months after Mozart's own arrival in Vienna including the very works which are quoted from/alluded to in WoO36 quartets. Assuming the Artaria publication date of November 1781 is right these violin sonatas with keyboard are the first musical works published by Mozart in Vienna. (To me this makes them specially significant and I want to see if this question of WoO36 can be solved one way or the other).
Again, if correct, Beethoven (the alleged composer of the WoO36 quartets) would have been about 11 years old when these 'Mozart' violin sonatas were first published. A copy of this Artaria first edition has survived and it certainly includes the ones alluded to in WoO36 - I've prefixed these with a star as follows -
K376 (374d), *K296, K377, (374e), K378 (317d), *K379 (373a), *K380 (374f) in that order. (The piano parts of this Artaria first edition consists of 85 pages and the violin part is 28 pages. Artaria made very fine engraved title frames for this edition).
So far, so good. Nothing here that might seem to solve any problem. This is therefore a group of 6 violin sonatas with keyboard by Mozart being published in Vienna during a time when Beethoven was still 11 years old and which he, Beethoven, alludes to in WoO36 at some later date when he was a student at Bonn.
But there are two other bits of information that may be relevant here. Firstly, the WoO36 set is of course a set of 3 piano quartets. Not violin sonatas. Furthermore, Mozart himself is credited with writing the first of his two piano quartets in the very year when he and Beethoven first supposedly met - i.e. in 1787. (By that date, of course, Beethoven is 17). And therefore, shortly after Beethoven's arrival in Vienna there are these 6 sonatas by 'Mozart' but also 6 piano quartets - 3 of them being WoO36 and the other 3 being the two always attributed to Mozart plus one other, that until 1910 was also always attributed to Mozart, but now said to be by Beethoven himself. Mozart supposedly starts writing piano quartets at the very time that Beethoven supposedly meets him - at which time, supposedly, there are already in Bonn 3 piano quartets, these very quartets that are WoO36.
If a third party had written these piano quartets for Mozart in a series of 6 (3 of them being WoO36) it may be asked why Mozart would not have received all 6 of them. I don't know the answer to this. But it seems to me quite logical to suggest the person who wrote these piano quartets is the same person who wrote the 6 'Mozart' violin sonatas that Artaria published in 1781.
All of this seems to me consistent with the view that a third person composed these piano quartets of WoO36, but composed them first as a group of 6 - three of these retained at Bonn and the others becoming works attributed to Mozart during his lifetime up until 1910, at which time one of these three was then attributed to Beethoven. Attributed to Beethoven because, by that date, he had been assumed to be the composer of the three that are WoO36.
What's new about all this (?) you might ask. Well, there's another interesting fact. In 1801 (so I learned today) the Bonn publisher and member of the Bonn chapel Niklaus Simrock (the same Simrock who in later years tells us the original score of the 'Magic Flute' came to Bonn even before it was first performed in Vienna) published some works of Mozart. What works are these ? They are 3 duos for violin and piano. Here, once again, is a Bonn connection with 'Mozart' violin sonatas.
(I don't know the actual 'Mozart' violin sonatas that Simrock published that year. But 1801 happens to be a special year in the history of Bonn chapel. It's the year of Andrea Luchesi's death).
Progress on this issue is slow but I think it's wise not to automatically attribute the piano quartets of WoO36 to Beethoven. Just as the true composer of Mozart's chamber works in Vienna must also be given serious criticism.
Robert
[This message has been edited by robert newman (edited 04-30-2006).]
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