A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Nägeli, Johann Georg
NAGELI, Johann Georg, an eminent music publisher, and also a composer and litterateur, born at Zürich in 1768. He started his music business in his native town in 1792, and quickly issued editions of Handel, Bach (48 Preludes and Fugues, Art of Fugue) and other classics, large oblong folio, in a style of great clearness and beauty for the time. In 1803 he started the 'Repertoire des clavecinistes,' a periodical publication in which new works by Clementi, Cramer, Beethoven and others appeared. For Beethoven he published the three grand solo sonatas now known as op. 31, but which appeared without opus number, the first and 2nd in 1803 in Pt. 5 of the Repertoire, the 3rd in 1804 in Pt. 11. It is in connection with the 1st of the three that the circumstance occurred which will prevent Nägeli from being forgotten as long as Beethoven's sonatas are studied. He actually interpolated 4 bars into the 1st movement of that sonata, between the 28th and 27th bars from the end:—
![<< \new Staff { \time 2/4 \override Score.Rest #'style = #'classical \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \key g \major \relative a'' { a8 r c r | d, r r4 \[ | r r8. <g, d>16 ~ | <b g d>2 | g'8 r b r d, r r4 | \] r r8. <a fis d>16( q4. } }
\new Staff { \key g \major \relative a' { a8 r^"29" c r | d, r^"28" r4 | R2 \clef bass <b g d>2 \clef treble g'8 r b r d, r r4 | R2^"27" | <b' fis' a>2^"26" } } >>](http://upload.wikimedia.org/score/4/t/4t1ladk83u239w1vo8pmvh9gbr4bmu4/4t1ladk8.png)
Beethoven however must have pardoned this crime; for several of his later letters to Nägeli are couched in terms of affection, and he did his utmost to induce the Archduke Rodolph to subscribe to a volume of Nägeli's poems in 1824.
Nägeli's compositions were chiefly vocal—choruses for Church and School use, etc., popular enough in their day. He founded an association for the encouragement of music and acted as its President. He was a great adherent of the Pestalozzian system of education, and wrote in support of it. But these and his other active labours for his beloved art, his disputes with Thibaut and with Hottinger, were brought to an end by his death at Zürich Dec. 26, 1836, and are all now forgotten. An exception may be made for an air which was long highly popular in England under the name of 'Life let us cherish,' and which is even now sometimes heard. The Finale in Woelfl's sonata 'Non plus ultra' is a set of variations on that air. [App. p.727 "Mention should be made of the 'Lied vom Rhein,' given on p. 16 of Scherer's collection."][ G. ]