Vaterländischer Künstlerverein

Vaterländischer Künstlerverein was a collaborative musical publication or anthology, incorporating 83 variations for piano on a theme by Anton Diabelli, written by 51 composers living in or associated with Austria.

[4] Ludwig van Beethoven exceeded his brief by writing no less than 33 variations, and entered into negotiations with Diabelli to have his set published separately from the others.

Beethoven's first biographer, Anton Schindler, wrote that the project was first devised in the winter of 1822–23, but this is an error, as Czerny's manuscript is dated 7 May 1819[5] and Franz Schubert's variation is known to have been written in March 1821.

[1] Czerny's was the earliest variation to be written and, as he also wrote the coda, it is likely that Diabelli involved him in the project from the very beginning.

Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart and Gottfried Rieger wrote two variations each, but only one from each of them was originally published.

[1] Ludwig van Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, his last major piano work, is part of the keyboard music canon and is by far the better known volume.