CHASE

HELP US FIND EDITIONS

From time to time we try to find particular editions and draw a blank. Currently we are looking for the edition of Beethoven's violin sonatas edited by Jacob Dont (Wiener-Neustadt: Edouard Wedl, 1883) - this is not the same thing as Dont's arrangement of some of Beethoven's quartets for violin and piano.

As well as being listed in Hofmeister, it is also mentioned by J. Matthews, The Violin Music of Beethoven (London: The Strad Office, 1902), p. 44, where he says that violin part can be bought separately from the piano part.

The Hofmeister entry makes it clear that the violin parts for each sonata were published separately, without piano. This may partly explain the difficulty in finding them now.

Pazdirek (Manuel universel de la littérature musicale, 1906) lists several of these sonatas as being edited by Dont but published by Breitkopf. Grünberg (Führer durch die Literatur der Streichinstrumente, 1913) lists Dont's edition as published by Universal. There is no other reference to a Dont/Breitkopf edition, and Universal Edition have no record of any edition before that of Arnold Rosé.

So far no major library appears to have this (Prof. Brown's recent visit to Vienna and Wiener-Neustadt confirms this), so if you know of one, or can suggest a promising source, please contact us.

G.K.