Collaboration

[Serge]

After a long absence, I return with a question that's been nagging me: did beethoven ever collaborate with other composers on a work of his or theirs? For that matter, has any other composer done that? Given today's predilection for big-name artists to collaborate on songs, I wonder if there's ever been a classical precedence.

[chopithoven]

Fortunately not.

[Peter]

Originally posted by Serge:
After a long absence, I return with a question that's been nagging me: did beethoven ever collaborate with other composers on a work of his or theirs? For that matter, has any other composer done that? Given today's predilection for big-name artists to collaborate on songs, I wonder if there's ever been a classical precedence.

Beethoven collaborated with Maelzel to produce Wellingtons Sieg (who though not writing the music, had a considerable hand in shaping the work, not least for having suggested it in the first place). The Diabelli variations were originally intended as a commission from as many as 50 composers, including Schubert and Liszt, perhaps the largest musical collaboration ever! There is also a Violin Sonata for which Brahms supplied the Scherzo (the best movement out of the lot!) as well as Mozart's Symphony no.37 which is mainly by Michael Haydn.

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'Man know thyself'

[Serge]

Originally posted by Peter:
There is also a Violin Sonata for which Brahms supplied the Scherzo (the best movement out of the lot!) as well as Mozart's Symphony no.37 which is mainly by Michael Haydn.

Whose violin sonata did Brahms contribute to, Peter? It had to be a contemporary of his, right?

[Peter]

Originally posted by Serge:
Whose violin sonata did Brahms contribute to, Peter? It had to be a contemporary of his, right?

The first movement was by Albert Dietrich, the intermezzo and finale by Schumann and the Scherzo by Brahms. The themes were based on Joachim's motto 'Frei Aber Einsam' (free but alone) and the work was known as the F.A.E sonata.

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'Man know thyself'

[Roehre]

After a long absence, I return with a question that's been nagging me: did beethoven ever collaborate with other composers on a work of his or theirs? For that matter, has any other composer done that? Given today's predilection for big-name artists to collaborate on songs, I wonder if there's ever been a classical precedence.

There is one work of Beethoven's which for some reason (most likely an unauthorised sort of editing) is a piece by Haydn as well: the so-called Grenadiersmarsch for mechanical clock Hess 107 (1798?).

Variation sets are the most logic works for collaboration, the Diabelli variations an excellent example.
Recent British examples of this kind are:

Mont Juic variations by Britten and Berkeley,

the Variations on an Elizabethan theme by Berkeley, Imogen Holst, Britten, Oldham, Searle, Tippett and Walton (1953 for the coronation of Queen Elisabeth),

the Variations on Sumer is icumen in by Bedford, Goehr, Holloway, Knussen, Colin Matthews, Saxton and Weir (1987), and

the Severn Bridge Variations by Arnold, Hoddinott, Daniel Jones, Maw, Tippett and Grace Williams (1987, for the opening of the suspension bridge across the Severn).

Schubert's fragment for an oratorio Lazarus was part of a collaboration with other composers, and IIRC an early Mozart opera or oratorio is a pistache as well.

A modern opera by a Dutch "collective" of 5 composers and 2 writers is Reconstructie, by Louis Andriessen, Hugo Claus, Reinbert de Leeuw, Misha Mengelberg, Harry Mulisch, Peter Schat and Jan van Vlijmen (1969)