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Complete Cataloging of the Works of Ludwig van Beethoven:

A Historical Perspective

Georg Kinsky








Willy Hess

We consider it useful to present and summarize the main catalogs that allow us to classify the works of Ludwig van Beethoven. For a detailed overview — enriched with valuable illustrations — of the Bibliography dedicated to these and other historical catalogs, we refer you to the article by Luigi Domenico Bellofatto.

The idea of producing a complete edition of Beethoven’s works originated with the composer himself, who cared deeply about having his work published accurately and without errors. Even in the final years of his life, the Master of Bonn was devoted to the project of publishing an authorized complete edition of his works. As a result, there exists a large collection of copies created with Beethoven’s support, known as the “Rudolf Collection,” which is now preserved in the archive of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna.

  • 1862

    The Gesamtausgabe

    The first complete reference edition, Ludwig van Beethovens Werke: vollständige kritisch durchgesehene überall berechtigte Ausgabe (Works of Ludwig van Beethoven: complete, critically revised, fully authorized edition), was published by Breitkopf & Härtel between 1862 and 1865, with a supplement added in 1888. Despite its enormous historical impact, the Gesamtausgabe soon revealed its limitations in terms of inaccuracies and omissions, so much so that a revision was already being called for by 1911. A comprehensive article on the Gesamtausgabe was written by Luigi Domenico Bellofatto.

  • 1951

    The Kinsky-Halm catalog

    There are 138 works by Beethoven withopus numbers, but the pieces that he himself or contemporary publishers deemed unworthy of inclusion in the general catalogue are even more numerous: 228 have been recorded. These latter works are identified by aWoO number (Werke ohne Opuszahl, works without opus number), an acronym found in the so-called Kinsky-Halm catalogue, published by G. Henle Verlag in 1951 under the title Das Werk Beethovens/Thematisch-Bibliographisches Verzeichnis seiner sämtlichen vollendeten Kompositionen (Beethoven’s Works/Thematic-Bibliographic Catalogue of His Completed Compositions). Initially compiled by musicologist Georg Kinsky (1882–1951), the catalogue was revised and completed in 1955 by his colleague Hans Halm (1898–1965).

  • 1957

    The HessIl catalog

    The Swiss scholar Willy Hess (1906–1997) published his catalogue Verzeichnis der nicht in der Gesamtausgabe veröffentlichten Werke Ludwig van Beethovens. Zusammengestellt für die Ergänzung der Beethoven-Gesamtausgabe (List of Ludwig van Beethoven’s works not published in the complete edition. Compiled to supplement the Beethoven Gesamtausgabe) with Breitkopf & Härtel. Many of the 335 pieces listed in the Hess catalogue—including variants, fragments, and sketches—correspond to entries in the Kinsky-Halm catalogue (WoO). From 1959 to 1971, Hess continued to expand his catalogue with several supplements, which include a list of 66 Hess Anhang (appendices) concerning doubtful and falsely attributed works. This insightful article in French by Miriam Allemand helps to shed light on Willy Hess’s work and personality.

  • 1968

    The BiamontiIl catalog

    The scholar Giovanni Biamonti published what remains, to this day, an unmatched model of Beethovenian cataloging: the Catalogo cronologico e tematico delle opere di Beethoven: comprese quelle inedite e gli abbozzi non utilizzati (Chronological and Thematic Catalogue of Beethoven’s Works: including unpublished pieces and unused sketches) (I.L.T.E. Turin, 1968). The complete edition came as a boxed set containing three volumes: the thematic catalogue, Le lettere di Beethoven (Beethoven’s Letters) edited by Emily Anderson, and I quaderni di conversazione di Beethoven (Beethoven’s Conversation Books) edited by Georg Schünemann.

    Following in the footsteps of the earlier Kinsky-Halm and Hess catalogues, Biamonti presents the entirety of Beethoven’s works—published and unpublished—down to individual musical notes, as well as fragments and sketches of unfinished compositions found in letters and various documents. The only exclusions are sketches related to published works. Based on these criteria, the catalogue includes 849 works, arranged by date—from 1782 (WoO 63, Dressler Variations) to March 1827 (Biamonti 849, Beethoven’s final written measure). Each entry is accompanied by its creation date, editions, and cross-references to other catalogues.

  • 2000＞

    The 2000s

    Nearly fifty years after the first edition, American musicologist James F. Green—whom we are honored to count among our collaborators—published an updated version of the Hess catalogue: The New Hess Catalog of Beethoven’s Works (ISBN 978-0964057036, Vance Brook Publishing, 2003), the Italian edition titled Il nuovo catalogo Hess delle opere di Beethoven (ISBN 978-8887203509, Zecchini Editore, 2006), edited by our late friend Roberto Diem Tigani.

    The monumental thematic catalogue Ludwig van Beethoven: Thematisch-Bibliographisches Werkverzeichnis—edited by Kurt Dorfmüller, Norbert Gertsch, Julia Ronge in collaboration with Gertraut Haberkamp and the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn (ISBN 978-3873281530, Henle Verlag, 2014)—is a thoroughly revised and significantly expanded edition of the Kinsky-Halm catalogue, thus retaining the WoO classification of works. At the end of the catalogue, an appendix lists 18 doubtful, apocryphal, or otherwise unauthenticated compositions, also referred to as Anhang.

Hans Halm








Giovanni Biamonti

Referring to the most recent Beethoven catalog from 2014, the “Unvollendete Werke” (Unfinished Works) section currently lists 23 fragmentary compositions, although this number is expected to grow as research continues. Although most of these works already had catalog identifiers (Hess, Biamonti), their classification now follows the guidelines set by the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn.

Separate lists also include copies Beethoven made of other composers’ works, as well as spurious compositions once considered original or published under his name. Even those pieces that have proven to be blatant forgeries, apocryphal works, or paraphrases—and sketches not included in earlier catalogs—are not excluded. This section is further complemented by the so-called Louis Van Beethoven’s Studies in Thorough-bass, Counterpoint and the Art of Scientific Composition, formally titled Ludwig van Beethoven’s Studien im Generalbasse, Contrapuncte und in der Compositions-Lehre, compiled and published by Ignaz Ritter von Seyfried based on Beethoven’s handwritten notes.

Long mistakenly believed to be Beethoven’s own work, this treatise was instead written by his esteemed friend Seyfried, who released it in 1832, adding an appendix with noteworthy insights into the great composer’s life.

Opus

Works with opus number (1-138)

WoO (Werke ohne Opuszahl)

Works without opus number (1-228b)

WoO Anhang

Appendix of doubtful works (1-18)

Hess

Hess Werke Verzeichnis (1-335)

Hess Anhang

Hess Appendix of Spurious or Dubious Works (1-66)

Biamonti

Biamonti catalog (1-849)

Beethoven’s Copies and Notes

Studies and copies made by Beethoven on works by other musicians

Unvollendete Werke

Fragmentary works (Unv. 1-23)

Sketchbooks

Sketches and fragments from Beethoven’s sketchbooks

Around Beethoven

Spurious and apocryphal works, paraphrases, transcriptions, reductions, orchestrations and variations on works by Beethoven

Beethoven’s Studies

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Studien im Generalbass, Contrapunkt und in der Compositions-lehre

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