Erinnerungen aus meinem Leben - Carl Czerny

[Lady Maria]

Dear all,

May I introduce the man to those who are not already acquainted with him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Czerny

As you can see, Czerny wrote Recollections from My Life in 1842. The German manuscript is currently in the possession of the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society of Friends of Music in Vienna). Now those "Friends of Music" would be well advised to be persistent as true to Austrian form, that particular "society" (library) seems to be open 3 days a week and closed at 4pm.
I suppose copies could be available in other select libraries. I could not find either the original or any translation on gutenberg.org.
Why it should not be made PD after all this time is beyond me.

Czerny was Beethoven's pupil for a while (c. 1801-1803) and knew him all his life till his (Beethoven's) death in 1827. He gave us interesting insights, such as that LvB used to keep cotton steeped in some yellowish liquid in his ears. Or that he never completely lost his hearing - even to the last he could still hear certain sounds.
In addition to the above, Czerny was a talented musician who remained a childless bachelor throughout his life. An intriguing man, who knew his limitations, shunned the stage and was a gifted teacher on top of being a prolific composer.

For all these reasons, it would - I think - be a lovely addition to the LV catalogue if we could manage to get hold of a German or English e-version of the text.

I would be grateful if someone could point me in the right direction. Whom could we contact at gutenberg.org to ask that it be made available on line? Or should we start by a phone call to the Viennese society? Has anybody at LV some kind of greater responsibility or an address book they can turn to in such cases?

Best,
Maria

[mightyfelix]

I'm not finding that particular work, though I found some other publications of his at both =mediatype%3A%22texts%22&and[]=lending___status%3A%22is_readable%22]archive and hathitrust. Mostly sheet music or instruction on how to play this or that instrument.

I even checked at WorldCat, to see where else it could be found, but didn't have much success: https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=carl+czerny+Erinnerungen+aus+meinem+Leben&qt=results_page It looks like there are several holdings, but most of them were published in the 1960s or later. I wonder how many copies he published at the time? Or was it really "published" at all, in the sense in which the understand it.

You say that these Friends of Music have the German manuscript, but if it was published in a traditional sense, it's hard to believe that there aren't a few copies still floating around. If, on the other hand, it was only distributed to a small circle of friends and family, for instance, then it might not be possible to find. And if we're having such trouble finding it in German, then I don't see any hope of finding a translation into English that would be old enough for us to use.

[Availle]

Maybe it's under "Charles" or "Karl"?

The German wikisource doesn't have it (neither do our usual haunts for German books), but the English one has "Letters to a Young Lady on Playing the Pianoforte" (scans included) which might be worthwhile. Apparently translated by a Mr. A. Hamilton:
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Letters_to_a_Young_Lady_(Czerny)

[Lady Maria]

Thank you both for your interest and research.

I have dug up a translation in English which is available only to those who are registered in a particular library/university (fee-paying, access reserved).
The publication apparently dates from 1956: https://www.jstor.org/stable/740427?seq=1
Would that qualify for PD? I fear not under US law.
It seems you can either purchase the article or just read the one-page-long sneak preview.

As for the correspondence course, I am rather more reserved... these letters were for private consumption, and without the accompanying musical score they would lose their point. I will let somebody else take up the project if they feel so inclined.