About this edition
Completed in 1800 and premiered in Vienna that April, Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 in C Major announces the arrival of a new symphonic voice with wit, audacity, and sly defiance — beginning, famously, with a dissonant dominant seventh chord in the "wrong" key, refusing to settle on its tonic until the slow introduction has wound its way home. While the work pays clear homage to Haydn and Mozart in its Classical proportions and orchestration, Beethoven's fingerprints are everywhere: the prominent wind writing, the propulsive third movement marked Menuetto but unmistakably a scherzo in spirit, and the playful chromatic ascent that opens the finale. It is the indispensable starting point for understanding the symphonic journey that would culminate in the Ninth.
This edition reproduces the score from Ludwig van Beethovens Werke, Serie 1, No. 1, the landmark complete edition issued by Breitkopf & Härtel of Leipzig beginning in 1862 (plate B.1). Prepared by a distinguished editorial board and published over the following two decades, the Breitkopf Gesamtausgabe was the first comprehensive critical edition of Beethoven's works and remained the standard scholarly reference for nearly a century. Its careful textual readings, clean engraving, and authoritative status make it a foundational document in Beethoven performance practice and a prized study score for conductors, scholars, and orchestral players.
About this edition:
- Full orchestral score (conductor's score), all four movements complete
- Page size: 8.5 x 11 inches — comfortable for study and rehearsal use
- Reproduced from a public domain historical edition
- Reproduction of the Breitkopf & Härtel Werke edition (Leipzig, 1862, plate B.1)
- Published by Purple 4R Publishing
This volume reproduces a public domain historical score, freely shared so that this cornerstone of the symphonic repertoire remains readily available to musicians, students, and scholars everywhere. We are delighted to bring it to your music stand.
