# First and Last Compositions by Composers



## MozartEarlySymphonies (Nov 29, 2013)

Just for curiosity, can you list all of the first and last compositions of composers that you know of?

For me, I don't really know that many. I do know Mozart's First composition was Andante in C K.1A and his last was his Requiem and Beethoven's first was the Dressler Variations WoO 63 and his last was the new finale to his 13th String Quartet. Bach's first was BWV 766 and last was BWV 668. 

Can you please think of some others and correct me if I was wrong with what I said?


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Do you mean first and last *published* works? Published at the time it was written, or maybe after the composer's lifetime?


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## MozartEarlySymphonies (Nov 29, 2013)

Either one will be okay for me. First and last published work or first and last work a composer wrote.


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## mikey (Nov 26, 2013)

Researching this is harder than I thought!

Wagner - Piano Sonata in dmin; Parsifal


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Bartok:

Walczer (piano) Sz.1, 1880
Vioa Concerto (sketches) Sz.120, 1945


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Shostakovich:

Scherzo in F-sharp minor for orchestra, Op. 1 (1919)
Sonata for viola and piano, Op. 147 (1975)

No works without opus number earlier or later that I can find.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Mahler's first composition was a (now lost) "Polka with Introductory Funeral March" for piano.

...

If I didn't know it was true, I would have thought it an ingenious satire.

Anyway, his earliest surviving work is the Piano Quartet movement in A minor. Part of a second movement survives, but not enough to bother performing it.

His last work is the Tenth Symphony in F-sharp major, for which he sketched Five movements and finished an orchestral draft of the first.


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## mikey (Nov 26, 2013)

Mahlerian said:


> M
> Anyway, his earliest surviving work is the Piano Quartet movement in A minor. Part of a second movement survives, but not enough to bother performing it.


Unless you count the Schnittke Piano Quartet


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Anyway, I'm not entirely sure which of Schoenberg's early compositions was the earliest, but perhaps it was the "Romance in D minor for two violins and viola" (written sometime after 1882, when he was 8 years old, but before the 1890s). The odd instrumentation was determined solely by what was at hand.

His last composition was the Modern Psalm, op. 50c, which remains an intriguing but incomplete fragment for reciter, chorus, and orchestra.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Hindemith's first acknowledged work was, I think, 7 Lieder for soprano or tenor with Piano from 1908/9 (I've no idea on whose text they were based, though).

His actual op. 1 was an Andante and Scherzo for Piano, Clarinet & Horn (1914), which is now presumed lost.

Final completed composition - the Mass for Mixed Choir from late 1963 but at about that same time he also composed the short and presumably informal Canon for 4 Voices (for Hans Scharoun's 70th Birthday, which occurred in November). A Credo for Voice and Instruments was begun in the same year but remained a fragment - I don't know whether Hindemith abandoned it or died before managing to complete the work.


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

The differences between dates of composition and publication actually make this a difficult task for some composers, especially for first compositions. I think the following is correct ...

For *Mendelssohn*:

First work: String Symphony No. 1 in C (1821)
First published work: Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 1 (1822)
Last work: String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80 (1847)

For *Tchaikovsky*:

First work: "Anastasie-Valse" for piano (1854)
First published work: Two pieces for piano, Op. 1 (1867)
Last work: Symphony No. 6 in B minor, "Pathetique", Op. 74 (1893)


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## mikey (Nov 26, 2013)

There's a few pieces dated 1820 for Mendelssohn (According to wikipedia...) 
Violin Sonata in F major (1820)
Trio for Piano, Violin and Viola in C minor (1820)
19 miscellaneous pieces (plus several fragments) for organ (1820–1845)


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## starry (Jun 2, 2009)

I suppose most composers are likely to have sketches as their final work, though how such pieces would have turned out when finished is conjecture, indeed even if the composer would have wanted to finish them is unknown.

And first works will often be either lost or thrown away.

So the best way is probably to choose works the composer wanted published first and the last one they agreed to be published before their death.


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## Skilmarilion (Apr 6, 2013)

mikey said:


> There's a few pieces dated 1820 for Mendelssohn (According to wikipedia...)
> Violin Sonata in F major (1820)
> Trio for Piano, Violin and Viola in C minor (1820)
> 19 miscellaneous pieces (plus several fragments) for organ (1820-1845)


I had a feeling there may be works of his before 1821.

IMSLP is actually quite a good resource for this kind of stuff, I've just discovered.

http://imslp.org/wiki/List_of_works_by_Felix_Mendelssohn


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## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Rachmaninov: 
- First published = Piano Concerto 1 in f
- Last = Symphonic Dances

Prokofiev:
- First major work :lol:= An "opera" called The Giant that he and his cousins preformed at his uncle's house for their family
- First published =Piano Sonata No. 1
- Last = A revised version of Symphony No. 2

Chopin:
- First published = Rondo in C (ugh let's pretend that didn't happen)
- Last (excluding the Posth)= Cello Sonata


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

MozartEarlySymphonies said:


> Just for curiosity, can you list all of the first and last compositions of composers that you know of?
> 
> For me, I don't really know that many. I do know Mozart's First composition was Andante in C K.1A and his last was his Requiem and Beethoven's first was the Dressler Variations WoO 63 and his last was the new finale to his 13th String Quartet. Bach's first was BWV 766 and last was BWV 668.
> 
> Can you please think of some others and correct me if I was wrong with what I said?


I don't think historians believe that BWV 668 was Bach's last work any more.


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