SKU: BA.BVK02312

ISBN 9783761823125. 23.7 x 16.5 cm inches. Preface: Seidel, Wilhelm.

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy as letter-writer: at the heart of 19th century European culture

As one of the most important letter-writers of the 19th century, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy maintained an extensive correspondence. With great style and eloquence he wrote letters to friends and family, letters from his travels and he also wrote to leading composers, musicians, artists as well as publishers. He corresponded with famous contemporaries such as Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner as well as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Carl Friedrich Zelter and Alexander von Humboldt.

The correspondence begins in 1816 and ends in 1847 with the composer’s death. These letters are invaluable documents shedding light not only on the genesis, publication and revision of his musical works, but also on a period when relations between Christians and Jews still had a chance to become harmonious, as Moses Mendelssohn, the imminent scholar and grandfather of the composer had advocated.

This edition will therefore be of great interest far beyond the circles of musicologists and music specialists. It will appeal to those who are interested in the history of culture and ideas and to those who perceive Mendelssohn and his family as representatives of a unique, diverse cultural epoch.

The complete correspondence shows that Mendelssohn not only went on to become one of the leading figures of German musical culture in the 1840s, but that he also maintained a network of musical contacts throughout Europe.

The edition of the complete letters
This scholarly-critical complete edition comprises 5,855 letters by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Previously only a small part of his correspondence had been published and made accessible to the public. The complete edition is based on Mendelssohn letters which have been compiled over decades by Rudolf Elvers as well as on international research carried out by an academic workgroup in Leipzig spearheaded by chief editors Helmut Loos and Wilhelm Seidel. They determined 500 additional letters hitherto unknown.

Versions of the letter texts have been compiled from a scholarly-critical analysis of the sources, their historical context has been discussed and comments on all points in need of explanation have been made.

This edition of the complete letters consists of 12 volumes and a CD-ROM. Each volume contains indices of mentioned individuals and institutions, compositions by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Fanny Hensel as well as a register of place names and currencies. In this way one obtains an all-encompassing view of this unique historical cosmos.

The Complete edition has been produced to the highest standards in terms of layout, cover and binding. It is an ideal collector’s item for bibliophiles, providing an excellent means for studying the composer and the period in which he lived.

The CD-ROM forms a valuable addition to the printed volumes. It offers the complete printed edition in the form of pdf. files, thereby making its approximately 9,500 pages digitally accessible and enabling letters and the corresponding commentary to be read in parallel. All terms can be located quickly and conveniently via a full text search.
(The 12 volumes as well as the CD-ROM can only be purchased complete).

- German text only


The Editors
Helmut Loos is Professor of Musicology at the University of Leipzig. He specialises in the music of the 19th and 20th centuries, in particular the reception of Beethoven, sacred music and links between Germany and Central and Eastern Europe.

Wilhelm Seidel was professor at the universities of Heidelberg, Marburg and Leipzig. His publications are devoted to the temporal structure of music, music aesthetics in the 18th and 19th centuries and music of the 16th to 20th centuries, currently on Mozart and Mendelssohn.

SKU: BR.SON-501

Awarded the German Music Edition Prize 2003

ISBN 9790004802236. 10 x 12.5 inches.

Editorial BoardThomas Phleps (Music), Georg Witte (Writings)Editorial MembersMusic: Oliver Dahin / Johannes C. Gall, Writings: Maren KosterEditorial CommitteeMusic: Hartmut Fladt, Werner Grunzweig, Elmar Juchem, Roland Kluttig, Giselher SchubertWritings: Albrecht Betz, Albrecht Riethmuller, Jurgen Schebera, Friederike WissmannThe editorial works are supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.Special volumes are made possible with the support of the following foundations:Klockner-Stiftung, Lotto-Stiftung, Hanns und Steffy Eisler StiftungThe goal of the Hanns Eisler Complete Edition (HEGA) is to present to the public all available compositions, writings and letters in an appropriately scholarly form. It takes a historico-critical approach and seeks to document the history of the works and writings by shedding light on their transformations, thus identifying the various versions as witnesses of evolving aesthetic and historical positions. Eislers complete oeuvre (only a limited number of his works had penetrated the publics awareness up until the 1990s) first became the object of an editorial undertaking when the Eisler - Gesammelte Werke (EGW) was founded by Nathan Notowicz. It was later placed under the direction of Manfred Grabs and Eberhardt Klemm, and began issuing its publications in 1968 through the intermediary of the Deutscher Verlag fur Musik in Leipzig. However, only four volumes of music and five volumes of writings were published. The Hanns Eisler Complete Edition pursues the work begun at that time, although it has had to fundamentally revise its editorial principles. In this respect, the Hanns Eisler Complete Edition can be considered as a completely new editorial undertaking. It became necessary to reconceive the organization of the volumes and series as well as the editorial guidelines in order to adapt the standards of historico-critical editing generally applicable today to the specific and sometimes singular circumstances of Eislers works.The Critical Commentaries pertaining to the main volumes follow the music section or, whenever they are too extensive, appear in a special volume.Series I: Choral MusicSeries II: Music for Voice and Instrumental Ensemble or OrchestraSeries III: Music for Voice and PianoSeries IV: Instrumental MusicSeries V: Incidental MusicSeries VI: Film MusicSeries VII: Sketches and FragmentsSeries VIII: Arrangements of works by other composersSeries IX: Writings, Letters and InterviewsSON 501 has been awarded the German Music Edition Prize 2003.SON 502 has been awarded the German Music Edition Prize 2007.

The major upheavals that transformed society and musical aesthetics during the first half of the 20th century also profoundly affected the life of Hanns Eisler, as well as his compositions and writings. The importance and scope of Eislers oeuvre are reason enough to make his works accessible to musical scholarship and practice in a comprehensive fashion. Price reduction for a subscription.

SKU: BR.SON-510

ISBN 9790004803356. 9 x 12 inches.

Editorial BoardThomas Phleps (Music), Georg Witte (Writings)Editorial MembersMusic: Oliver Dahin / Johannes C. Gall, Writings: Maren KosterEditorial CommitteeMusic: Hartmut Fladt, Werner Grunzweig, Elmar Juchem, Roland Kluttig, Giselher SchubertWritings: Albrecht Betz, Albrecht Riethmuller, Jurgen Schebera, Friederike WissmannThe editorial works are supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.Special volumes are made possible with the support of the following foundations:Klockner-Stiftung, Lotto-Stiftung, Hanns und Steffy Eisler StiftungThe goal of the Hanns Eisler Complete Edition (HEGA) is to present to the public all available compositions, writings and letters in an appropriately scholarly form. It takes a historico-critical approach and seeks to document the history of the works and writings by shedding light on their transformations, thus identifying the various versions as witnesses of evolving aesthetic and historical positions. Eislers complete oeuvre (only a limited number of his works had penetrated the publics awareness up until the 1990s) first became the object of an editorial undertaking when the Eisler - Gesammelte Werke (EGW) was founded by Nathan Notowicz. It was later placed under the direction of Manfred Grabs and Eberhardt Klemm, and began issuing its publications in 1968 through the intermediary of the Deutscher Verlag fur Musik in Leipzig. However, only four volumes of music and five volumes of writings were published. The Hanns Eisler Complete Edition pursues the work begun at that time, although it has had to fundamentally revise its editorial principles. In this respect, the Hanns Eisler Complete Edition can be considered as a completely new editorial undertaking. It became necessary to reconceive the organization of the volumes and series as well as the editorial guidelines in order to adapt the standards of historico-critical editing generally applicable today to the specific and sometimes singular circumstances of Eislers works.The Critical Commentaries pertaining to the main volumes follow the music section or, whenever they are too extensive, appear in a special volume.Series I: Choral MusicSeries II: Music for Voice and Instrumental Ensemble or OrchestraSeries III: Music for Voice and PianoSeries IV: Instrumental MusicSeries V: Incidental MusicSeries VI: Film MusicSeries VII: Sketches and FragmentsSeries VIII: Arrangements of works by other composersSeries IX: Writings, Letters and InterviewsSON 501 has been awarded the German Music Edition Prize 2003.SON 502 has been awarded the German Music Edition Prize 2007.

The major upheavals that transformed society and musical aesthetics during the first half of the 20th century also profoundly affected the life of Hanns Eisler, as well as his compositions and writings. The importance and scope of Eislers oeuvre are reason enough to make his works accessible to musical scholarship and practice in a comprehensive fashion. Price reduction for a subscription.