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Preface

It was Beethovenꞌs custom to work on two or three pieces at the same time. This was the case with the fifth and the sixth as well
as with the seventh and the eighth symphonies; it is consequently very difficult to determine the exact time of completion of some
of his works.
The public appreciated and still appreciates the eighth less than the seventh symphony, which immediately met with its sympathy,
which greatly displeased Beethoven, who in turn felt the eighth to be "far better".
Beethoven used to draft his symphonies in the summer time and to elaborate on them and to instrument them in town in winter
and in spring. This is what he did with the Seventh Symphony but the eighth is the exception to the rule.
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It appears from the Sketchbooks that it was begun immediately after number seven had been completed, and therefore the eighth
must have been completed in the extremely short period of four months.
According to Nottebohm , it was drafted mainly in the town of Teplitz: ꞌL. v. Beethoven, welcher zur Bade- und Brunnenkur erst in
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Töplitz, dann in Carlsbad sich aufhielt und nun in Eger ist, hat…wieder zwei neue Symphonien geschriebenꞌ, the Allgemeine
Musikalische Zeitung (XIV, 597) of September 2, 1812 reports.
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The first drafts for the symphony date from 1811-1812 but, as noted before, the main work was done in the summer up to October
1812 in Linz. The first performance was on February 27, 1814 during the Beethoven Academy in the large Redouten Hall in Vienna ,
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5
where the terzetto ꞌTremate empi tremateꞌ Opus 116, the Symphony No.7 in A major Opus 92, and the Wellington Sieg Opus 91
were performed as well.
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The first edition was published in 1817 by Steiner & Co. in Vienna, that is, directly as a score, which was not customary at the time;
new opuses usually appeared as single parts. It was published together with a number of modifications for the winds, as a string
quintet, as a piano trio, and versions for piano.

The symphony has been composed in the principal key F major, but it is not certain that this has always been Beethovenꞌs intention.
In his ꞌChronologisches Verzeichnis der Werke Ludwig van Beethoven's No.170ꞌ, Thayer quotes from the sketchbook a long
introduction of eleven bars, which starts in A major and leads up to an embryonic version of the present beginning of No.8 in D
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major. However, Nottebohm does not mention this in his quotations from the same sketchbook. He presents what follows as an
earlier form of the beginning, and it has certain similarities to the definitive form. No fewer than 26 pages are filled with trials in
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that sense before the conclusion is reached. The same goes for the end of the first part, where Beethoven initially had a different
idea; the end was considerably shorter and tied in with bar 332 with merely ten bars. 9+10
It is neither clear nor certain whether Beethoven initially intended to compose a new piano concerto with that theme; the more so
as no sketches of it exist. Yet, there are indications in the literature that it was not Beethovenꞌs immediate plan to write a new
symphony with that theme, rather a piano concerto.
It is remarkable that in his later sketch of the so-called piano concerto in D major from 1815 , Beethoven returns with an altered
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form of the main theme from the Eighth Symphony.
Apparently, Beethoven could not abandon the theme and used it in a modified form for his new concerto. It is interesting to compare
both themes: apart from the time, there are striking correspondences concerning melodic movement and harmonics.
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1 Zweite Beethoveniana, page 101
2 Beethoven, Gustav Nottebohm, page 118
3 Das Werk Beethovens, Thematisch-Bibliographisches Verzeichnis, Kinsky, page 262, G. Henle Verlag, München, 1955
4 Beethoven Briefe, Band 3, page 10 No. 697, G. Henle Verlag, München, 1996
5 Performed succesfully on December 8 and 12, 1813 and January 2, 1814
6 Nottebohm mentions the year 1816, Das Werk Beethovens, Thematisch-Bibliographisches Verzeichnis, Kinsky, page 263, G. Henle Verlag,
München, 1955
7 Zweite Beethoveniana, page 111
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9 Supplemente zur Gesamtausgabe, Werken für Orchester, Willy Hess, page 70, Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden, 1961
10 Beethoven, Willy Hess, Hess 1, page 293, Amadeus, Winterthur
11 Concerto No.6 in D major for Pianoforte and Orchestra Unv 6 Hess 15, reconstruction of the first movement by
Cees Nieuwenhuizen Opus 83, Upstream Music UM 0023, Alkmaar, The Netherlands, 2017
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