Ludwig van Beethoven, Brief an Artaria & Comp., Wien, 1. Juni 1805, Autograph

Beethoven tells the publisher Artaria that he has reached an agreement with Count Fries in the dispute over the rights to the Quintet op. 29. Count Fries is prepared to give Artaria his entitlement to the work's rights. A written agreement is to be drawn up in the next few days. Beethoven ends the letter with a note that Artaria can thank him for this.

There was a lengthy legal dispute over the publication of the Quintet op. 29. Its true roots lay in the weak copyright laws for music. Op. 29 was dedicated to Count Fries and he was given sole rights to it for six months. Once this period was over the composer was allowed to sell the work. The publisher Artaria had asked Fries for a copy of the manuscript and permission to engrave the quintet. He was permitted to do both. Beethoven knew nothing of this and sold the work to the Leipzig publisher Breitkopf & Härtel at the same time: a conflict was bound to happen.

Following Fries' intervention both editions were to appear, and Beethoven said he was prepared to proofread them both. However, when Artaria's edition appeared - as agreed two weeks after the Leipzig edition - Beethoven published the claim that Artaria's edition was full of mistakes. Another dispute ensued which was even taken to court. After much back and forth (and Beethoven's refusal to take back his claim) this conflict was also resolved thanks to Fries' intervention and a settlement was reached. Beethoven was to compose another quintet for Fries, which would then be solely published by Artaria. In the end Artaria drew the short straw as Beethoven did not compose another quintet for Fries.