BEETHOVEN

OCTET

Op. 103b


Beethoven's landmark Octet for Winds, Op. 103, composed at Bonn in 1792, was transcribed in 1795 by the composer and recast as the String Quintet, Op. 4.  The Octet, not published until 1834, was thereby given a higher opus designation.  The current edition by Josh Byrd is essentially a transcription of the String Quintet back to its original form, maintaining Beethoven's expansive revisions not extant in the original Octet.  

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