Carl Maria von Weber: A dedication copy of his Mass in E-flat major has resurfaced

Andrea Hartmann

Tuesday, July 14, 2026

A nice discovery was made as part of a smaller cataloguing project at the German RISM Office in Dresden. Although the reorganization of RISM will bring the work of the RISM Office in Dresden to an end, the phase-out funding granted for the year 2026 will help ensure the preservation of research data that has so far been available only in analog form. To this end, digitized conventional title cards in the form of short titles are being entered into the RISM database. During this work, a title card was discovered for a manuscript in the Augustinerkirche in Gotha (RISM siglum: D-GOa), which suggested that a previously lost dedication copy of Carl Maria von Weber’s Mass in E-flat major for Prince Friedrich of Gotha (later Duke Frederick IV of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, 1774–1825) is described therein. See the bibliographic record of the manuscript in the RISM Catalog and in RISM Online. Joachim Veit (Carl Maria von Weber-Gesamtausgabe) reports on the examination and classification of the manuscript in the critical edition’s blog.

Category: Rediscovered