Beethoven's Symphonies Arranged for the Chamber

Early nineteenth-century composers publishers and writers evolved influential ideals of Beethoven''s symphonies as untouchable masterpieces. Meanwhile many and various arrangements of symphonies principally for amateur performers supported diverse and ''hands-on'' cultivation of the same works. Now mostly forgotten these arrangements served a vital function in nineteenth-century musical life extending works'' meanings and reach especially to women in the home. This book places domestic music-making back into the history of the classical symphony. It investigates a largely untapped wealth of early nineteenth-century arrangements of symphonies by Beethoven - for piano string quartet mixed quintet and other ensembles. The study focuses on three key agents in the nineteenth-century culture of musical arrangement: arrangers publishers and performers. It investigates significant functions of those musical arrangements in the era: sociability reception and canon formation. The volume also explores how conceptions of Beethoven''s symphonies and their arrangement changed across the era with changing conception of musical works.