Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) is recognized the world over as a composer of musical
masterpieces exhibiting heroic strength particularly in the face of his increasing deafness
from ca. 1798. By 1818 the Viennese composer had begun carrying blank booklets with him for
his acquaintances to jot their sides of conversations while he answered aloud. Often he
himself used the pocket-sized booklets to make shopping lists and other reminders including
occasional early sketches for his compositions. Today 139 of these booklets survive covering
the years 1818 up to the composer's death in 1827 and including such topics as music history
politics art literature theatre religion and education as perceived on a day-to-day basis
in post-Napoleonic Europe. An East German edition begun in the 1960s and essentially complete
by 2001 represents a diplomatic transcription of these documents. It is a masterpiece of pure
scholarship but is difficult to use for anyone who is not a specialist. Moreover Beethoven
scholarship has moved on significantly since the long-ranging genesis of the German edition.
These important booklets are here translated into English in their entirety for the first time.
The volumes in this series include an updated editorial apparatus with revised and expanded
notes and many new footnotes exclusive to this edition and brand new introductions which
together place many of the quickly changing conversational topics into context. Due to the
editor's many years of research in Vienna his acquaintance with its history and topography as
well as his familiarity with obscure documentary resources this edition represents an entirely
new venture in source studies - vitally informative for scholars not only in music but also in
a wide variety of disciplines. At the same time these often lively and compelling
conversations are now finally accessible for the English-speaking music lover or history buff
who might want to dip into them and hear what Beethoven and his friends were discussing at the
next table. THEODORE ALBRECHT is Professor of Musicology at Kent State University Ohio.
