Ludwig van Beethoven – Transcriptions from Daniel Gottlob Türk
List of transcriptions and studies that Beethoven made of the works of Daniel Gottlob Türk (1750–1813)
The musical examples on this page are curated by Graziano Denini.
Daniel Gottlob Türk (Claußnitz 1750 – Halle 1813), German organist, essayist, and music professor. He studied organ with his father and later with Johann Adam Hiller (father of German comic opera, known as Singspiel), who, recognizing the young student’s talent and aptitude, recommended him to the University of Halle, where he first became (in 1779) musical director and then, in 1809, professor of music theory and acoustics. He also took lessons in Dresden from Gottfried August Homilius, who had himself been a student of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Thus, Türk was among those who had the opportunity and privilege of learning, through someone who had studied directly with Bach, the performance techniques of Bach, assimilating and making them his own.
When he became a student at the University of Leipzig in the early 1770s, keyboard virtuoso Johann Wilhelm Hässler introduced him to the treatise Versuch über die wahre Art das Klavier zu spielen (Essay on the True Art of Playing Keyboard Instruments) by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and to his harpsichord sonatas.
Soon after, under the supervision of his mentor and friend Johann Adam Hiller, Türk began composing his first two collections of sonatas. Over time, he went on to write forty-eight sonatas.
Türk is an artist of the eighteenth century: his way of conceiving music and its performance belongs to the sensibility and expression of the previous century. (Biography taken from )
To the side: the first edition of Kurze Anweisung zum Generalbaßspielen, Halle und Leipzig 1791. (Short Instructions for Playing Thorough Bass, Halle and Leipzig 1791).
The copy made by Beethoven contains excerpts from chapters 1–9. A-Wgm, A 75 V, 1–3 and VI, 2. D-B, Mus. ms. autogr. Beethoven Artaria 153. Date: 1818/19 (Clemens Brenneis opac.rism.info), facsimile: SBB / online. – Full description and transcription: Julia Ronge / NGA XIII / 2.
Below are some pages from Artaria 153 and three musical examples taken from the same sketchbook.
