Kaspar Karl van Beethoven, Brief an Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig, Wien, 5. Dezember 1802, Autograph

Karl van Beethoven writes to the publisher Härtel in Leipzig regarding his brother's business matters. The central topic is the dispute concerning publication of the Quintet op. 29, Artaria's pirate copy and the reactions of Beethoven and Härtel in their correspondence.

A little background information: Beethoven had dedicated his String Quintet op. 29 to Count Moritz von Fries and given him the exclusive rights to it for six months. After this time had expired it had been agreed that the composer could do with it as he wished and sell it.

However, without Beethoven's knowledge Fries' manuscript ended up with Artaria, who had an engraving made. Yet at the same time, Beethoven had sold the Quintet to Breitkopf & Härtel, who wanted to produce a lawful edition. The problem is obvious: the work is to be published by two parties simultaneously and only one of them is the lawful owner. Beethoven negotiated with Artaria, who gave way and in the end agreed to wait for publication of the Leipzig original edition before publishing his own edition two weeks later.

Karl van Beethoven writes to Härtel in response to a letter from Härtel to his brother Ludwig, which had been written before the deal had been struck with Artaria. At this time Härtel did not know - his representative in Vienna, Griesinger, only reported what was going on shortly afterwards - that Beethoven was completely innocent in the matter of the pirate copy. Härtel had rather rudely complained about Artaria's machinations, for which he also made Beethoven responsible. Karl sides with his brother and defends him (as did Griesinger a few days later, who told Härtel the whole story).

First of all Karl explains what happens when his brother sells a work: the dedicatee (who had paid for the dedication) is given exclusive rights to the work for six months or a whole year, but is not allowed to pass it on. Once this time is up the rights revert to the composer. This was also the case with Count Fries. The manuscript had only been handed over due to Artaria's cunning (Fries himself knew nothing of the deal, a musician in his employ had given it to the Viennese publisher).

Karl assures Härtel satisfaction; Fries is also doing his utmost. He encloses the "Revers" which Artaria has signed (no longer surviving) for Härtel's information so that he will see the conflict has been resolved and that he will come into his own. (The so-called "Revers" was Artaria's agreement to only publish his pirate copy two weeks after the original edition had appeared.)

Karl complains several times about Härtel's gruff tone towards his brother, which is not worthy to be used towards an artist. Ludwig had been extremely annoyed about this.

Apart from rudeness, which calls for an apology, his brother is innocent because it is he, Karl, who deals with all his business affairs.