[Smt-talk] Haydn, 12 Easy Pieces

[Ellon Carpenter]

Dear Steven and everyone,

I've wondered the same myself.

I have the exact same set from an old German collection of piano classics called Die Welt der Töne umfassend die Meisterschöpfungen von mehr als drei Jahrhunderten für Lernende und Fachmusiker und zur Unterhaltung, edited and collected by "Prof. E. Humperdinck" (1854-1921) and "Direktor Max Battke" (1863-1916).  The "12 kleine Stücke" are in vol. 5, pp. 3-15, along with 9 Haydn piano sonatas (pp. 16-109).  There is no copyright date in any of the 12 or so various volumes that I have; there were at least up to 30 volumes, according to Worldcat.  Volume 1 is "Alte Meister," and vol. 30 is original compositions for 4 hands (I don't have this one so I don't know its contents).  In between are works by Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, etc.  Worldcat says copyright 1900-1909? [sic].  My copies came from my grandmother (b. 1893), whose parents both came from Germany in the 1880s. The set was published by Music-Bücherei Weissenturn, Berlin, with the engraving and printing from Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig.

This particular collection has always amused me because prominently displayed on the front cover of each volume under the publisher’s name are pictures of five composers: Beethoven, Wagner, Brahms, R. Strauss, and . . . . E. Humperdinck!

All best,

Ellon Carpenter
Arizona State University
Ellon.Carpenter at ASU.Edu

________________________________
From: smt-talk-bounces at lists.societymusictheory.org [smt-talk-bounces at lists.societymusictheory.org] on behalf of Steven Reale [smreale at ysu.edu]
Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2012 11:54 AM
To: smt-talk at lists.societymusictheory.org
Subject: [Smt-talk] Haydn, 12 Easy Pieces

Dear collective wisdom:

Does anyone have any knowledge or insight into the genesis of the short piano arrangements of Haydn excerpts collected and titled "12 Easy Pieces" by the Russian publishing house Muzgiz? The imslp page for the pieces is here: http://imslp.org/wiki/12_Easy_Pieces_(Haydn,_Joseph)

In particular, I'd be interested to know who made these arrangements and for what purposes (I assume they were pedagogical).

All best,

Steven Reale

--
Assistant Professor of Music
Dana School of Music
Youngstown State University
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