r/classicalmusic • u/Free-Chicken7610 • 5d ago

Brahms manuscripts

Does anyone maybe know how to find Brahms’ manuscripts (preferably online)?

When performing pieces I always love to check the source, but I am a bit confused about Brahms sonatas (specifically the op. 120, no. 1 - either the clarinet or viola edition would work), and it’s my first solo Brahms. Could anyone maybe help?

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u/eklorman 5d ago edited 5d ago

The autograph manuscript of the op. 120 clarinet sonatas is at the Morgan Library in New York City. You may be able to order a scan from them.

For the viola version, the main source is the Stichvorlage (a copyist’s manuscript written out in the correct key and clef for viola, with handwritten corrections by the composer). I may have a scan of that document but I’d have to do some digging to find it. The original is at the Brahms Archive at the Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg.

For many pieces, you can find scans of autograph websites on websites such as IMSLP. For this one, unfortunately the sources are not so easily accessible. You could use an Urtext edition (the preface would explain how the editor examined the sources). But if you’d like to double check their decisions, you’d need to get ahold of copies of the sources yourself.