# Musical Vienna, a question



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

I watched a DVD tonight of the Alban Berg Quartett doing Beethoven's Op. 59/2. What a bear it must be to play! And in a world without recordings, even to figure out!

Beethoven's Razumovsky Quartets were published in Vienna in 1808, the same year the Schuppanzigh founded the first professional string quartet, the "Razumovsky" Quartet (probably not a coincidence). Still, the three works were published, meaning that the publisher was looking forward to substantial sales of the sheet music.

Who would buy them? How many string quartets were around who were able to even attempt this kind of music? Does anybody know?


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Aristocrats initially. Amateur, professional, teaching ranks grew quickly in the 19th century, due to the availability of sheet music. Word of mouth was the big advertiser then.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

The only contemporary notice I can find is from the AMZ Leipzig, 1807: "In Vienna, Beethoven's latest, difficult, yet solid quartets please more and more. Their enthusiasts hope so see them etched soon..."


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## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

I think many would simply have wanted to _have_ the latest Beethoven string quartets, even if they couldn't play them.

But I'm sure not all string players were incompetent in those days too


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

Other than orchestral music, music at the time was principally a salon occupation. Family and friends would get together and play the latest music in parlors instead of watching football games. Two-piano or four-hand arrangements of symphonies and chamber works were popular. Many upper and middle class families could pull together four string players among members and acquaintances, and attempt the latest works -- even if not particularly successsfully. The era of only professional musicians being willing or able to attempt new music had not yet begun -- although Beethoven's middle quartets gave the culture a good shove in that direction.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

GGluek said:


> Other than orchestral music, music at the time was principally a salon occupation. Family and friends would get together and play the latest music in parlors instead of watching football games. Two-piano or four-hand arrangements of symphonies and chamber works were popular. Many upper and middle class families could pull together four string players among members and acquaintances, and attempt the latest works -- even if not particularly successsfully. The era of only professional musicians being willing or able to attempt new music had not yet begun -- although Beethoven's middle quartets gave the culture a good shove in that direction.


I can only add to this good post: those amateurs, amongst the upper-middle and middle class, were a goodly chunk of the population, at least in the larger cities. String quartets came / come in a folio, all the parts, no score (!) -- I'm sure some of the sport then was as it is now, in discovering, in a read-through, what the other parts were in relation to the one you were playing. Too, these 'at homes' were an evening of it, not a 'performance' -- the players likely to have a go at a movement, pause for some Bratwurst and Beer, then have a go at the next movement.

The OP brings up a very salient point of why there is so much chamber music from those composers -- at home music making was the larger purchaser market-place for the composer, a decent perhaps even 'steadier' source of income.

Just think for a moment on what many current 'average middle class' citizens have invested in a CD player and that average '100 CD's (are any TC members average in that regard?  -- add to that now the hundreds of MP3's, $0.99 a pop, and the context of a middle class family owning an upright piano, a stringed instrument, becomes more expected and 'average' than one may have first thought.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

PetrB said:


> I can only add to this good post: those amateurs, amongst the upper-middle and middle class, were a goodly chunk of the population, at least in the larger cities. String quartets came / come in a folio, all the parts, no score (!) -- I'm sure some of the sport then was as it is now, in discovering, in a read-through, what the other parts were in relation to the one you were playing. Too, these 'at homes' were an evening of it, not a 'performance' -- the players likely to have a go at a movement, pause for some Bratwurst and Beer, then have a go at the next movement.
> 
> The OP brings up a very salient point of why there is so much chamber music from those composers -- at home music making was the larger purchaser market-place for the composer, a decent perhaps even 'steadier' source of income.
> 
> Just think for a moment on what many current 'average middle class' citizens have invested in a CD player and that average '100 CD's (are any TC members average in that regard?  -- add to that now the hundreds of MP3's, $0.99 a pop, and the context of a middle class family owning an upright piano, a stringed instrument, becomes more expected and 'average' than one may have first thought.


Might add that the scores weren't cheap either -- although there were pirate publishers then as now. Some of the rich kept libraries of scores -- Van Swieten and the Archduke Rudolph being two I've seen mentioned -- and would lend them out to friends.

Beethoven's payment for some of his early chamber works included a certain number of printed scores, which he could sell or give away.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

You're forgetting or ignoring a large-ish "Burgher" class, who also made music in their homes, and those, too, were readily enough purchasing sheet music. [It was also expected, then and up through the late Edwardian era, that any well-bred young lady would passably play the piano / sing, do needlepoint and watercolors, etc.]


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

PetrB said:


> You're forgetting or ignoring a large-ish "Burgher" class, who also made music in their homes, and those, too, were readily enough purchasing sheet music.


Sorry if I gave that impression. In fact, I would assume those people were the bulk of the market. I'm sure they had to pick and choose which scores they bought, though, due to the expense.

I've always thought that class of people was really Beethoven's main audience in his own mind.


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