Would you like to listen to music in the Digital Archive or page through autographs? Browse through the collection or search for a specific work, edition, portrait or information? Then the following instructions for use will help you. The most important procedures, functions and symbols will be explained. You can print the text or just click on the links in the text. A window will open displaying the requested information. To return to the text, just close the window.
Keys to the collection
First check if your computer meets all TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS for using multi media features.
The main entries to the Digital Archive (blue highlighted part of the menu on the left) will take you to Beethoven's catalogue raisonné (WORKS BY LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN), to the sketch collection (SKETCHES BY BEETHOVEN), to works by other composers (WORKS BY OTHER COMPOSERS), to the letter collection (WRITTEN DOCUMENTS) or to the picture collection (PICTURES AND OBJECTS) and to the SEARCH. Using the main entries gives you the opportunity to make yourself familiar with the Digital Archive and to find answers to user specific questions: Did Beethoven also compose canons? How many string quartets did he write? What people did he correspond with most? Are there any original Beethoven busts and if yes, which? What did his contemporaries look like?
When you click on SEARCH you can choose between several search options. You can choose to Search for works or specific document types (Search for music manuscripts and prints, Search for letters, Search for pictures). Selection lists provide matches for composers, artists, text poets, publishers and other persons. You can also refine your search request by lists of work titles and keywords referring to letters and pictures. Year dates and keywords can be entered directly. For example: What works did Beethoven compose in 1805? (Search for works, year: 1805) What is the relationship between Beethoven and Amalie of Prussia? (Search for music manuscripts and prints, person a piece is dedicated to: Anna Amalia) - Which editions published by Boßler are stored in the Digital Archive? (Search for music manuscripts and prints, publishing house: Boßler) - Is it true that Beethoven had bad eyes? (Search for letters, topic: Eye) - Where do I find Boßler's silhouette portraits? (Search for pictures, original and reproduction artist: Boßler)
Feast for the eyes
All procedures done starting from the main entries will take you to a document of the collection. Depending on what action you chose or what question you asked, your request will result in a picture, a manuscript, a first edition, an object or a letter for you to view and enjoy.
All navigation elements necessary to enlarge the display on the page (magnifying glass) can be found in the right corner of the screen. You can also scroll through the entire document (arrow) and view all pages as well as the cover in colour and take a look at Beethoven's handwriting. If you want to know how the fourth movement begins, scroll to the table of contents (down arrow) and jump to the desired location. You can go to a certain page by typing the page number into the box.
Under Things worth knowing you can view information on why the composition is also called "Rasumowsky Quartet". You will also learn other things about the document that might be of interest to you.
By clicking on LIBRARY INDEXING a scientific description of the handwriting can be viewed. It also serves as a link to the online catalogue which contains more documents.
If you are looking for terms related to music science and art history and their explanations, you can open the GLOSSARY by clicking on the book symbol.
Users wishing to deal even more closely with the documents have the option of purchasing the digital image data. By selecting the Shopping cart symbol (upper right corner) you can order a print or a file with enhanced image quality.
And where can I find something to listen to?
The Note symbol on our example page indicates that you can also listen to the autograph. At your PC at home you are offered a small selection and can listen to parts of the composition. As a visitor of the "Studio for digital collections" at the Beethoven-Haus, however, you can surf through a whole AUTOGRAPH WITH SOUND while listening and reading.
If you searched for a letter instead of a music manuscript, the megaphone symbol indicates that you can listen to an AUDIO LETTER (in german). Audio letters are fully recited by an actor. Unlike sheet music and as Beethoven's handwriting is rather difficult to decipher, his letters have been transferred into Latin characters for easier reading (LETTER TEXT).
The pages on works are special. They were created with opus numbers or WoO numbers (work without opus number) for all Beethoven compositions and can be called up by the links WORKS BY LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN or Search for works. Each work page starts with listening samples of all movements or parts of a composition (megaphone symbol). In the case of the "Diabelli variations", for example, you can retrieve the theme and all 33 variations. Due to licence-related reasons listening samples on the Internet are limited to 90 seconds.
"Service point" work page
Apart from the listening samples and some information on the composition's origin, the work page contains a list of all documents of the Beethoven-Haus that are somehow related to this composition. For some works it is rather long, for others quite short because only a few sources are still available or not many were provided to the Beethoven-Haus. From the work page of the "Diabelli variations" you are taken to the sketches, a fragmented autograph and a copy with handwritten entries but also to the original edition, later editions and letters in which Beethoven describes the composition as well as to a picture of Antonie Brentano whom the work was dedicated to. If you want to learn about literature on a specific composition the work page contains an up-to-date list (LITERATURE) that you can sort by author, title or year and view in short or long version.
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