Le Beau - 4 (5) Pieces, Op. 24 (Urtext Edition)

Luise Adolpha Le Beau (1850 – 1927) was a German composer. She studied with noted musicians Clara Schumann and Franz Lachner, but her primary instructor was Josef Gabriel Rheinberger. Like many other 19th-century female composers, Le Beau began her career in music as a pianist and later earned her living teaching, critiquing, and performing music.

Luise Adolpha Le Beau (1850 – 1927) was a German composer. She studied with noted musicians Clara Schumann and Franz Lachner, but her primary instructor was Josef Gabriel Rheinberger. Like many other 19th-century female composers, Le Beau began her career in music as a pianist and later earned her living teaching, critiquing, and performing music.

Le Beau composed five pieces for cello with piano accompaniment, four of which would be published as Op. 24. The pieces were composed in the following order: Romanze, Wiegenlied, Mazurka, Gavotte, and Barcarole. The Romanze was completed on 29 January 1881 and the Barcarole on 4 May 1881. The titling seems to have occurred after the composition of the set because the numbers appear at 1, 3, 4, 2, and 5 in the autograph without any erasures. The title page has "Fünf" (five) erased and replaced with "Vier" (Four).

The autograph of the cello part contains fingerings that were eventually published by J. Rieter-Biedermann in 1882. However, some of the fingerings were crossed out and/or replaced, making the autograph look like it was used for post-publication performances. Our edition favors the new fingerings. The Barcarole was eventually published separately in June 1886 in Cologne by P.J. Tonger (mentioned in Neue Musik-Zeitung). This Barcarole is sometimes assigned the catalog number Op. 65a, No. 5 because it was reused in Op. 65a for violin and piano. We believe it should remain Op. 24, No. 5 when played on the cello. The Romanze is included on the ABRSM grade 8 syllabus.

Our edition is based exclusively on the autograph as it is more detailed and does not contain pitch, rhythm, slurring, and articulation errors that made their way into the publications. The original Barcarole is included in the appendix of our edition. We thank Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin for providing the sources.