‘Four Unknown Waltzes by Beethoven? The Beginnings of Sheet Music Publishing in Spanish Periodicals (1805-1834)’

Abstract

In the early nineteenth century Spain sheet music publishing became popular among newspapers and periodicals printers, so that scores collections are announced in their pages. Tittles like Diario de Damas o escuela en sonatinas (Madrid, 1805), Periódico de Música (Barcelona, 1817), or La lira de Apolo (Madrid, 1818-1834) appeared as music periodicals, including mainly score collections. The "album phenomena" is related to the household music consumption in a growing bourgeoisie whom a cultural activity as social distinction is required. In consequence, lots of music scores were demanded to ornament the social meetings in salons of almost every town in Spain. Although some of these publications have been studied in aspects like their physical characteristics, trading, diffusion, or contents, the repertoire still remains slightly studied, so that we really don´t know which music sounded in these salons, and composers are completely unknown, although some of them were well-known actually. Among them, four unknown waltzes by Beethoven were announced, being the first Spanish edition of a Beethoven's work. Therefore, we aim to study the repertoire of these periodicals paying attention to music genres, forms, styles, topics and, about all, composers, just to know the music that sounded in Spanish salons in the early nineteenth century.