Evening star., 1954-01-17
New Beethoven Works
Why, the Question Is, Hos Oblivion
Been Their Fate for 130 Years?
News Of Music
By Doy Thorpe

By Do
George Thomson. born in
1757, the Edinburgh publisher
of Robert Burns and secretary
to the Board of Trustees for
the Encouragement Of Arts and
Manufactures in Scotland, was
a musical dilettante and q
devotee Of the cultural i'm
provement of the peoples OF
the British ISleS-a Scotsman.
that is, but scarcely a patriot.
To the facilities afforded him
by his publishing connections.
he added his delight in music
and his addiction to what H. L.
Mencken might call "the. up
lift" and over a period OF
many years commissioned and
published several hundred
British songs harmonized and
arranged by leading European
musicians. Among those who
wrote for him were Haydn.
Beethoven, Kozeluh and Pleyel.
He paid well. and the tre-
mendous number Of settings
he published may be some in
dication of the willingness OF
even the greatest and best
established composers to work
for him.
AS early as 1906, it seems.
Thomson endeavored to inter-
est Beethoven in writing pop
ular pieces Of various kinds.
Beethoven at first was occu-
pied with other things, but
about 1915 he began setting
the poems that Thomson sent
him for solo voice or small
chorus, or a combination of.
the two, with the invariable
accompaniment of piano, vio-
lin and cello. In all he wrote
140. to Scottish, English.
Welsh and Irish poems by,
among many others. Burns,
Byron, Walter Scott and
Campbell. Between 1918 and
1920, that is, at the time Of
the height of his creative
powers, he selected II of the
tunes and wrote sets of varia-
tions on them for piano and
flute. These variations, to-
gether with five other sets on
Russian, Swiss and Austrian
tunes were published by
Thomson and also in Ger
many as Opus los and lot.
Newly Recorded
AS a phonograph recording
Of these pieces played by two
Washington musicians. Rich
ard Dirksen, piano, and Wall
lace Mann, flute, will make its
appearance next month, 1t
seems an appropriate moment
to tell the unusual and mys-
tifying story of two new works
of Beethoven.
For that they are new no
one can deny. Written more
than 100 years ago, published
Immediately and reprinted
several times, included in the
Complete Edition, and listed
in every catalog of Beethoven's
works, they are nevertheless
completely unknown. The
photography Of books and ar
ticles about Beethoven's music
contains many thousands of
items. AS a reasonably diligent
and observant amateur of
Beethoven, I have had an eye
out for performances of these
pieces and for discussion of
them for 18 years. since / first
knew Of them, yet / have
never heard them played in
public, or seen a single refer
ence to a contemporary or
historical performance. I have
found only a few casual ref
erences to them in books.
Others WeII-Known
How remarkable this situa-
ton is may be appreciated by
the fact that every other work
Of Beethoven's third period
usually considered as starting
with the A major sonata,
Opus 101-has been scruti-
nized, analyZed, and pulver-
lied by literally hundreds of
writer's for more than a CEN
tury. Every other work is q
part of the concert repertoire;
every other work has been
recorded, some as many as IL
or Is times.
During the past 18 years I
have queried a score of fIaut-
lists about the pieces. Not one
knew them, yet all were in
terested in early 18th century
works for flute and piano by
f1rst-rate composers-a field
in which a single work by
Schubert seemed to stand
alone. In the Is years of the
electrical phonograph record
apparently there has been only
one recording of four excerpts.
Lastly. in the Music Di-
vision Of the Library of Con-
gress. one of the greatest music
libraries In the world, and the
repository Of the largest col
lection of flutes in the world,