I trust that you have already recovered the draft for 500 gulden which you sent me. Please let me have a reply about this –– My health has not yet become sound and vigorous, but it has improved –– In my next letter you will receive the texts of opera and the oratorio [Opus 72 and 85]. –– Would it not be possible to have a German text written for the Mass, without, however, omitting the Latin text –– Later I shall send you separately the organ part of the Mass, provided you have not already engraved this work. I should like the organ part to peer differently from the way that part has hitherto appeared in copies of the Mass. But if you have already engraved my Mass, well then, we must let things be for this once. ––
Here are some new works:
A fantasia for pianoforte solo [Opus 77].
A fantasia, also for pianoforte with full orchestra and choruses [Opus 80]. NB. precisely the one
about which you have written.
Three sonatas for pianoforte solo. NB. the third of these sonatas consists of three movements,
Abschied, Abwesenheit, Das Wiedersehen, and should be published as a separate work.
Variations for pianoforte solo [Opus 76].
Twelve songs with pianoforte accompaniment, some with German, some with Italian words,
nearly all of them durchkomponiert. [Anderson footnote: “The twelve songs are (a) the
six songs of Op. 75 … (b) WoO 137…, and (c) Op. 82]
Concerto for pianoforte with full orchestra [fifth pianoforte concerto, Opus 73]
Quartet for two violins, viola and violoncello [Opus 74] ––
As I am hoping to be able to send the same works perhaps to London, you would be entitled to dispatch [sic] them everywhere, except to England. But for the above reason the publication should not take place before September 1st of this year, 1810 –– I don’t think that I am making excessive demands if I ask for a fee of 1450 gulden to be paid in a assimilated coinage in the same way as the fees for the oratorio, the opera and the Mass we’re paid to me. You could pay me the sum in two installments, i.e. The first half you could make payable to me when you have received the first half of the works, and similarly the other half after receiving the second half of the works.
In the case of the oratorio please ask someone to look up whether in the score I sent you, the three trombones, the kettledrums and the trumpets are to be found in the numbers quoted here ––
Alto in the aria No. 2 ‘O Heil euch’ with chorus, where they all three
Tenor trombones should come in Allegro Molto in Alla Breve time.
Bass
____________________________________________________________________________________
Trumpets come in at once in C Allegro Molto of No 2 and are in Eb –
Kettledrums But the kettledrums do not come in until the 48th bar of C Allegro Molto
and are in A
____________________________________________________________________________________
Alto in the recitative No. 3 ‘Verkündet Seraph’
Tenor trombones
Bass
____________________________________________________________________________________
Kettledrum in C in the chorus in C ‘Wir haben ihn geschen’ –
____________________________________________________________________________________
Trumpets in D in the chorus in D ‘Hier ist er der Verbannte’
Kettledrums–– –– –– –– –– –– –– –– –– –– ––
____________________________________________________________________________________
Alto Last chorus in C ‘Welten singen’
Tenor trombones
Bass
Trumpets
Kettledrums
Should it be the case that in any of these numbers the parts indicated are missing, then I will have them written out in a small hand and send them to you ––
The Gasang in der Ferne [WoO 137], which my brother sent you recently, is, as no doubt you will have noticed, written by a dilettante who were gently requested me to set his palm to music [C. L. Reissig]. But he has also taken the liberty of having the a[ria] engraved. So I thought that I would immediately give you a proof of my friendly feelings by informing you of this. I hope that as soon you received it you gave it to be engraved. When it is ready you may send it here and anywhere else. If you make great haste, then the aria will arrive here before it can be published in Vienna. I know for certain that Artaria is going to engrave it –– I composed the aria purely out of kindness and I hand it over to you also from the same motive –– But I would like you to send me something in return, namely, the following book: ‘Bechsteins Naturgeschichte der Vögel in zwei grossen Bänden mit farbigen Kupfern’ with which I want to give a good friend of mine a great pleasure –– I have not made any use of the scores which you have allowed me to take an which are to be found at Traeg’s and the Industrie K[omtor]. Please inform them about this or send me something in writing which I can show them –– I have received your bill of exchange and never already cashed it. I am sorry if perhaps I have done something wrong, but I know nothing about such matters. –– My health is not yet quite restored. We are being supplied with bad food for which we have to pay incredibly high prices –– The arrangements connected with my appointment are not yet working quite smoothly and so far I have not received a farthing from Kinsky –– I fear, and indeed I almost told, that I shall have to go abroad, perhaps too for the sake of my health. It will probably be a long time before I am in a better state of health than I am now. But in any case I shall never recover the good health are used to enjoy ––
Wholly your most devoted friend
Beethoven