Ludwig van Beethoven, Notizen zu einer Gesamtausgabe seiner Werke, Autograph

Already at the beginning of the nineteenth century there were often attempts on the part of publishers to bring together single genres of Beethoven's works (e.g. all the piano compositions) into a complete edition. At the beginning of 1817 Beethoven negotiated with Simrock for the first time concerning an edition of his complete works, starting with the piano music. He describes the reason for doing so as follows, "In certain respects it would be a considerable undertaking, as there are so many editions of my works walking around in the world which are full of mistakes." Beethoven doggedly pursued this idea of a complete edition right up to his death, negotiating with several publishers to this end. Among his considerations regarding the complete edition Beethoven wrote down the following noteworthy sentence on the last page: "Unter unß gesagt so republikanisch wir denken, hat's auch sein Gutes um die oligarchische-Aristokratie" (To be honest, as republican as our thinking may be, there are also some benefits of oligarch aristocracy.). (J.R.) Complete transcription: Unger, facsimile, Bonn 1920.