| Abstrakt: |
Although German musicology has usually viewed itself as a focused discipline concerned with the study of the music as such, rather than as a critical discipline with a focus on historical context, the work of musicologist Arnold Schmitz (1885–1933) was primarily concerned with historical evidence. Schmitz was the first Beethoven scholar to cultivate in a comprehensive manner the field of reception history, which was relatively unknown until the publication of his Das romantische Beethovenbild. In four stand-alone publications on Beethoven between 1923 and 1927, Schmitz examined the composer's character without concealing weaknesses, contradictions, and negative behavior; he explored the principle of contrasting derivation as a basic element of Beethoven's compositional style and produced analysis, transcription, and facsimile of unknown sketches and drafts. While Schmitz has received some recognition from German musicologists, the historical approach exemplarily represented by Schmitz is still largely underappreciated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
