Change, whether cultural or biological, rarely occurs through complete overhaul of the old in
favor of the new, but rather through the reinterpretation of the old to adapt to the new. Organisms
adapt to changing environments by preserving core structures even as new traits
emerge—ensuring survival without discarding the past advantages. Here, we argue for an
analogous process occurring through musical editorship.
From his early works, Beethoven's understanding of sonata form stood out as more dramatically
oriented than that of his predecessors. In works such as the Sonata Op. 13 or the Quartet Op.
18/1, Beethoven sets up the double return of the principal key and theme as the telos of the
movement until that point, building up to it with a dramatic crescendo, and often emphasizing it
by enhancing dynamics or orchestration.
In this study, we show how editors from the earliest years of the nineteenth century imposed
Beethoven's understanding of sonata form upon the works of earlier composers, in particular
Haydn and Mozart. We focus on the treatment of the moment of recapitulation, showing how
editors added dynamic build-up towards the double return, and added dynamical emphasis of the
double return, at times overwriting the composers' original dynamics. We examine a variety of
editions published throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth century, from Breitkopf's 1800
edition of Haydn's sonatas, to the 1937 Peters Edition of those works, showing how they
emphasize the moment of return through added dynamics in a manner characteristic of
Beethoven, rather than of Haydn. As another source of evidence, we examine Grieg's
arrangements for two pianos of Mozart's keyboard sonatas, showing how Grieg consistently
thickens the texture in the main theme of the recapitulation in comparison to the exposition.
Finally, we compare the degree of editorial intervention in Haydn and Mozart with that in
Beethoven's works. We show that Beethoven's dynamics remain relatively untouched, although
in rare occasions, even Beethoven is “Beethovenized”. The adaptation-through-editing of Mozart
and Haydn to suit Beethoven's emerging stylistic aesthetic thus provides a valuable glimpse into
the ways that enable preservation of a canon in the face of stylistic change.