Silvius Leopold Weiss - Weiss Literature

Weiss Literature

The rarity of the sources is apt to discourage any amateur willing to acquire further information.

We are happy to be able to present Michel Cardin's texts on the London manuscript (at the moment English only). They give his insights in the music of the London manuscripts and different aspects of Weiss's lute music: 'London unveiled'

The only work, that is available online to my knowledge, is Tim Crawford’s "The Moscow Weiss Manuscript".

We could add David Charlton’s biographic page, which is a good synthesis of Weiss’ life. David Charlton mentions in his bibliography Douglas A.Smith’s "The Late Sonatas of Silvius Leopold Weiss" (PhD dissertation (May 1977).

The booklets contained in the CDs are particularly interesting. As if the lack of documents had incited the authors to be clearer, more detailled - which is rather infrequent, you will agree with me. It is to be noted that Claude Chauvel lets his passion take over - to our full enjoyment - and that Michel Cardin proves to be extremely precise concerning the pieces he records.

Still, I need your help.

Many of the following works or articles are no longer available but one never knows, with a bit of luck... The most recent research you will find in the Journals of the LSA, that are currently published by Douglas Alton Smith and Frank Legl.

Auteur	Titre	Editeur	Année d'édition	Observations
Ernst Gottlieb Baron	Historical research - theory and practice of the lute	à Nüremberg	1727	I could not find a new edition of this book but I would be interested to know where to get it
Raymond Burley	Anthology of selected pieces, S Weiss	Mainz ; Schott, Londres	1993	English and German preface. Transcription for the guitar
Ruggero Chiesa	Intavolatura di liuto, S.L.Weiss. trascrizione in notazione moderna di Ruggero Chiesa dall'originale del British Museum	Eidizioni Suvini Zerboni, Milano	1967 Réédité en 1985	Italian, English, French and German preface. 28 suites and 41 varied pieces from the British Museum
Timothy Crawford	The Moscow "Weiss" manuscript : M.I. Glinka State Central Museum of Musical Culture, MS 282/8 : formerly at the P.I. Tchaikowsky State Conservatory, MS 297 Monuments of the lutenist art, vol.1	Editions Orphee, Colombus, Ohio	1995	Transcription and arrangement in modern notation as well as AR's transcription for the guitar. To have an overview. To order.
Joseph Klima	Silvius Leopold Weiss, 1686-1750. Kompositionen für die Laute.	The lute archives in Vienna Marienzersdorf on Vienna	1975	List of sources and themes as a complement to Hans Neemann work "The Weiss luth players family" included in "Archiv für Musikforschung" (Archives for musical research)
Wilton Elman Mason	The Lute Music of Silvius Leopold Weiss		1949	PhD dissertation, Chapel Hill, N.C.
Hans Neemann	Die Lautenhandschriften von Silvius Leopold Weiss in der Bibliothek Werner Wolffheim, Berlin		1927-1928	Included in the "Review for the knowledge of music" ("Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft")
Hans Neemann	Die Lautenistenfamilie Weiss		1939	included in "Archiv für Musikforschung" (Archives for musical research)
Ulrike Neu	Harmonik und Affektgestaltung in den Lautenkompositionen von Silvius Leopold Weiß		1995	Doctoral thesis, Frankfurt (Main)
Karl Prusik	Kompositionen des Lautenisten Sil. Leop. Weiß		1924	Doctoral thesis, Vienne
Wolfgang Reich	34 Suiten fur Laute solo, S.L.Weiss	Zentralantiquariat der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, Leipzig	1977	Facsimile of Dresden Mus.2841-V-1 and a critical commentary by Wolfgang Reich
Douglas Alton Smith	The late sonatas of Silvius Leopold Weiss	Doctoral thesis	1977	The doctoral thesis of D.A. Smith
Douglas Alton Smith (ed)	Journal of the LSA Vol. XXXI, 1998	Lute Society of America	2003	Articles by Frank Legl and Douglas Alton Smith on the biography of Silvius Leopold Weiss
Douglas Alton Smith (ed)	Journal of the LSA Vol. XXXII, 1999	Lute Society of America	2004	Articles by Vaclav Kapsa, Claire Madl, Douglas Alton Smith, Francesca Vacca and Jerzy Zak on different aspects of Weiss's biography (Prague: The Hartigs, Anthoni of Adlersfeld; Dresden, Rome)
Douglas Alton Smith (ed)	Journal of the LSA Vol. XXXIII, 2000	Lute Society of America	2004	Articles by Jiri Cepelak and Robert Lundberg on the Lutes of Weiss
Hans Volkmann	Silvius Leopold Weiss, Der letzte große Lautenist		1906/1907	Included in the journal "Die Musik"
Silvius Leopold Weiss	Sämtliche Werke Vol. 1-4: The London manuscript Vol. 5-6: The Dresden manuscript	Peters, Frankfurt & London Bärenreiter Verlag	1983-1990 (ed. D.A. Smith) 2003 (ed. Tim Crawford)	Complete works for lute in tablature (facsimile) and transcription (planned 10 Vol.)