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THE B E E T H O V E N SKETCHBOOKS
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» major, Opus 130. The Grasnick collection was catalogued in such a way that the sketchbooks came at the beginning, with a few isolated sketchleaves and two miscellanies interspersed among the scores. The following lots qualify as sketches in the narrowest sense:35 Grasnick 1 2 3 4 5 6 20a 20b 21 24 32
sketchbook of 1798-1799 sketchbook of 1799 sketchbook of 1808 pocket sketchbook of 1824 pocket sketchbook of 1821 2 leaves of sketches for WoO 135 miscellany of sketches (11 leaves) miscellany of sketches (24 leaves) 2 leaves from the SAUER sketchbook 2 leaves from AUTOGRAPH 19E 5 leaves of sketches and studies
Grasnick appears to have bought most of his Beethoven manuscripts, including the sketches, in Vienna. The sketchbook GRASNICK 2, the score of Opus 130 VI, and a large number of copied letters came from the collection of Aloys Fuchs, part of which Grasnick acquired from Fuchs's widow in 1853.36 Grasnick had met Fuchs during a visit to Vienna in the last months of 1849, and it was apparently Fuchs w h o put him in touch with several other private Viennese sources. We know that Grasnick also did business with Artaria at that time, for the copy in Beethoven's hand of a Handel fugue that is now Grasnick 13 carries an authentication by Artaria dated 29 October 1849. It was probably then, too, that Grasnick purchased the miscellanies Grasnick 20a and 20b; both were still in the Artaria collection as late as 1844, when the Gräffer-Fischhof catalogue was compiled, and covers from the first Artaria clas-
^ D S B , Kat. ms. 119; see Schaal, op. cit., pp. 8 0 - 8 2 . 35 The collection also includes some studies and fragments. " F u c h s died on 20 March 1853. T h e sale of much of the collection to Grasnick occurred sometime before the following January; see Schaal, op. cit., pp. 78ff.
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sification, inscribed Notirungen/S/39il and Notirungen/U/20 respectively, still enclose the two bundles. The largest number of Grasnick's purchases were not from Artaria, however, but from the family of Tobias Haslinger, 37 presumably during that same visit of 1849. A few autographs of completed works (including Opus 26) have previously been traced f r o m Grasnick to Haslinger, for the latter had acquired them at the Nachlass auction in November 1827. But the extent to which the Grasnick sketchbooks also derive f r o m Haslinger's Nachlass purchases has come to light only recently. The evidence, discovered by Sieghard Brandenburg, is contained in a list of Beethoven manuscripts by owner that Aloys Fuchs began to compile sometime between 1849 and 1853.38 In the sole case of the entries devoted to Grasnick's collection, he noted conveniently in the margin from whom Grasnick had bought the manuscripts and how much he had paid. The relevant entries are shown in the chart on page 36. Fuchs's descriptions are not as specific as we should like them to be, a deficiency that may have resulted from Grasnick's own confusion about the nature of some of the pieces. But it is not difficult to suggest the likely identities of the sketchbooks in the list. The two bundles of entry 7, for which no source is given, are the Artaria miscellanies. 39 Entry 17, a book with sketches for the Choral Fantasy, is GRASNICK 3. And entry 12, the only sketchbook specifically described as being in oblong (i.e., standard) format, must therefore be GRASNICK I, since GRASNICK 2 was still in Fuchs's own collection at that time. Finally, there seems no reason to doubt that the two books listed together as entry 19 are the pocket sketchbooks GRASNICK 4 and GRASNICK 5; Fuchs makes no mention of formaf here, but the reference to sketches in pencil would apply only to these books. Of the four genuine sketchbooks— GRASNICK I, 3, 4, and 5—only GRASNICK I was already thought to be from Haslinger's collection, and that association was made very recently (see the full discussion of GRASNICK I on pp. 77-83). Fuchs's list thus tells us a good deal about both Grasnick and Haslinger: these purchases represent four-fifths of the genuine sketchbooks owned by Grasnick and perhaps as many as half of the sketch lots bought by Haslinger at the Nachlass auction. All the Grasnick sketchbooks have suffered some damage, but there is no evidence that Grasnick himself was responsible for any of it. On the contrary, at least three volumes—GRASNICK 2 and the miscellanies Grasnick 20a and 20b—conform today to descriptions provided (by Fuchs and Artaria) prior to their acquisition by Grasnick. And in the case of GRASNICK I , the removal of a complete gathering (8 leaves) from the beginning of the book was almost certainly the work of Haslinger, for a recently identified fragment of one of those leaves has an inscription naming Haslinger as its source. The damage to GRASNICK 3, 4, and 5 could have occurred at any time; in view of Haslinger's treatment of GRASNICK I, suspicion naturally points to him rather than to Grasnick. Some leaves may have been lost before 1827.
"Haslinger died in 1842 and direction of the firm passed to his son Carl. ^ D S B , Mus. ms. Kat. theor. 510. 39 T h e first of the t w o bundles now has 24 leaves, the number indicated in the Gräffer-Fischhof catalogue of 1844 (19 + 2 fragments + 3 blank). Fuchs may be in error here.
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There is also little evidence, beyond his apparent correspondence with Fuchs, that Grasnick took much interest in the contents of his sketchbooks. Indeed, if the poor descriptions in Fuchs's list were based on information received from Grasnick, he could not have been very familiar with any of the manuscripts. The collection seems to have remained unknown to Nottebohm, Thayer, and Nohl until after its acquisition by the Berlin Royal Library in 1879.
Aloys Fuchs: Nachweisung über einige Autographe von Ludw. van Beethoven (DSB, Mus. ms. Kat. theor. 510) 6. Fuge v Händl in Partitur v Beethovens Handschrift 7. 1 Heft mit 18 Skizzenblättern 1 detto . . 11 detto
, D v Beethoven
Grasnick in Berlin detto
8. 1 Canon v Beethoven
detto
9. Finale aus "Fidelio" Partitur von Beethovens Hand 10. Skizzenblütter u Briefe v Beethoven
Grasnick v Holz detto Von Hn. C. Holz um 60 fr. CM1
11. die Klavier-Sonate in As v Beethovens Handschrift 12. Ein Skizzenbuch von Beethovens Hand—quer Folio 13. Kleine Klavierstücke von Beethoven
bei Grasnick in Berlin
Autograph
14. Mehrere Lieder und Gesänge v detto
Von Haslinger um 50 fr CMh
detto
15. Eine Fuge v Seb. Bach v Beethovens Schrift 16. ein Khor von Beethoven
Origl. Partitur
17. Skizzenbuch von Beethovens Hand
Gr. Folio
enth. Klav. Fantasie mit Khor und Orchstr
18. Recitativ und Arie v Beethoven in eigenh. Partitur 19. 2 Skizzenbücher mit Bleistift-Notirungen von Beethovens Hand 20. Mehrere kleine Stücke und einzelne Blätter von Beethovens eigener Handschrift 21. 14 Stk eigenhändige Briefe v Beethoven 22. Clavier-Sonate in As Op.
mit d. Trauer Marsch 0
"In left margin next to entries 9 and 10. b In left margin next to entries 11 t h r o u g h 15. ' E n t r y 22 duplicates entry 11.
bei Haslinger v Grasnick gekauft um 40 fr
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T H E BEER-MENDELSSOHN C O L L E C T I O N Perhaps the richest o f all the private nineteenth-century collections o f Beethoven manuscripts was the one presented to the Berlin Royal Library in 1908 by Ernst v o n Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1846-1909). It had been left to him by his father, Paul Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (1812-1874), brother o f the composer, and the library recorded it officially as the "Paul und Ernst von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy'sche Stift u n g , " adopting the Mendelssohn name in the call numbers. 4 0 This collection, like Grasnick's, was rich in autograph scores; but whereas Grasnick had acquired a large number o f minor works, the Mendelssohn collection included autographs o f the Fourth, Fifth, and Seventh Symphonies, the String Quartets O p u s 59 N o . 1, O p u s 74, and O p u s 132 (together with fragments of O p p . 127, 130, and 131), the Q u i n t e t O p u s 29, the Septet, the " A r c h d u k e " Trio, and several sections ofFidelio. Also in the collection at the time o f its presentation were three sketchbooks and a miscellany: MENDELSSOHN I
a pocket sketchbook f r o m 1815 (now in K r a k o w )
Mendelssohn 2
a miscellany of pocket sketchleaves (now in K r a k o w )
MENDELSSOHN 6
a sketchbook from 1814 (now in K r a k o w )
S P K MENDELSSOHN 15
a sketchbook from 1804-1805, probably t w o b o o k s bound as one
In one important respect Paul Mendelssohn's collection differed f r o m those assembled by Landsberg and Grasnick. Whereas the latter were acquired in large part directly f r o m Viennese dealers w h o had been present at the Nachlass auction, nearly all o f the Mendelssohn manuscripts were owned first by another Berlin collector, Heinrich Beer (1794-1842). We know this because they are still b o u n d today in b r o w n leather covers stamped with Beer's name. In fact, only one important autograph score in the Mendelssohn collection, that o f O p u s 29, can be said with certainty to have bypassed Beer, though the provenance o f a few others is not fully known. 4 1 T h e situation with the sketchbooks is somewhat less certain. B o t h o f the standardformat books, MENDELSSOHN 6 and MENDELSSOHN 15, are bound in Beer covers, but the pocket sketchbook MENDELSSOHN I and the miscellany Mendelssohn 2 are not. Moreover, there is an inconsistency in the nineteenth-century references to MENDELSSOHN 1: Thayer (1865) and N o t t e b o h m (1879) place it with the Mendelssohn family, while N o h l (1867 and 1877) ascribes it to Hofkapellmeister (Julius) Rietz in D r e s den. 4 2 This may be another o f Nohl's errors. It is even possible that MENDELSSOHN I and Mendelssohn 2 did come with the others from Beer; since the pocket sketch40 Schünemann's remark in the preface to the facsimile o f O p u s 67 that that autograph was part o f the Felix Mendelssohn Nachlass, acquired in 1878, is erroneous. 41 T h e history o f the O p u s 29 autograph is confused. In the Artaria catalogue o f 1844 it was listed, then crossed out, then apparently reinstated by a " g i l t . " Fuchs, in the list o f Beethoven manuscripts by owner already mentioned, assigns O p u s 29 to Landsberg. It is not known from w h o m the Mendelssohns acquired it. 4 2 Thayer/ Verzeichniss, p. 128; Nottebohm, "Ein Skizzenheft aus dem Jahre 1815," MW 10 (1879), 4 4 9 - 5 1 ; Nohl II, 574, and Nohl III, 5 0 - 5 1 .
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book has a stiff front cover from Beethoven's own time and the miscellany includes leaves o f various sizes and formats, it would not be surprising if Beer had decided to leave them unbound. The circumstances under which the Beer collection became the Mendelssohn collection are obscure. Heinrich Beer, like Paul Mendelssohn, was the brother o f a composer—in this case, Giacomo Meyerbeer. By all accounts he was an eccentric, given to impulsive expenditures o f his family's wealth. And if, as Rudolf Elvers has persuasively argued, it was Beer who made a gift o f the Seventh Symphony autograph to Felix Mendelssohn, he was apparently not reluctant to deplete the collection he had assembled.43 On the other hand, it hardly seems possible that he would have presented his entire collection to the Mendelssohns; rather, we must suppose that Paul Mendelssohn purchased it at some point. This may well have occurred sometime after Heinrich Beer's death in October 1842, for there is evidence that Meyerbeer attempted to interest the Berlin Royal Library in some (unidentified) Beethoven manuscripts the following year.44 And as late as December 1845, the Viennese composer Conrad Loffler sought to sell Meyerbeer himself some Beethoven autographs—two fragments from Fidelio and a sketchbook—noting that the fragments would complement those already owned by Meyerbeer: I d o this o n l y o u t o f u n b o u n d e d respect for y o u r great musical genius and in the h o p e that these treasures will remain in secure hands, especially as y o u already o w n a l a r g e n u m b e r o f B e e t h o v e n autographs, and m o r e particularly f r o m " F i d e l i o . " 4 5
It appears, then, that some part (perhaps all), o f Heinrich Beer's collection was in his brother's hands for a time in the 1840s and that it was probably Meyerbeer who ultimately arranged the sale to the Mendelssohn family, for his own benefit or that o f Heinrich's widow. Most of Heinrich Beer's Beethoven manuscripts can be traced further, to the Viennese dealers Artaria and Haslinger, who owned them from the time o f the Nachlass auction or before. The only documentation of Beer's purchases, however, is the inscription "Artaria und Comp. Wien. 14. Juny 1834," together with Artaria's seal, on the first page of four manuscripts related to Fidelio: the sketchbook MENDELSSOHN 15 and three fragments from the score. (These were presumably the autographs mentioned by Loffler.) Since we know from the Beer (Meyerbeer) family correspondence that Heinrich Beer was in fact in Vienna for several months during the spring o f 1834, it seems safe to assume that he made at least some o f his acquisitions at that time. 46 The absence o f similar inscriptions on other manuscripts is at best neutral evidence. It is not certain that Beer ever owned the Fifth Symphony autograph (which also came from the Artaria collection) or the pocket sketches o f MENDELSSOHN 1 and Mendelssohn 2 (whose origins are unknown), and the loss o f one leaf at the beginning of the sketchbook MENDELSSOHN 6 means that an Artaria inu R. Elvers, "Felix Mendelssohns Beethoven-Autographe," in Bericht über den Internationalen Musikwissenschaftlichen Kongress: Bonn 1970 (Kassel, 1971), pp. 3 8 0 - 8 2 . 44Giacomo Meyerbeer: Briefwechsel und Tagebücher, ed. H. and G.Becker, vol. III (Berlin, 1975), pp. 7 5 7 - 5 8 . 45 Ibid., pp. 6 4 0 - 4 1 . 46 Giacomo Meyerbeer -.Briefwechsel und Tagebücher, ed. H. and G. Becker, vol. II (Berlin, 1970), pp. 364ff.
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scription there could have been lost. More likely, however, the pocket sketches and MENDELSSOHN 6 had a different source; the pattern of Beer's other purchases points to Haslinger, who bought eight lots of sketches at the Nachlass auction. And the most likely time of Haslinger's sales to Beer (which included Opus 20, Opus 60, and Opus 92) must also be 1834, although there is no documentary evidence of them. 47 None of the Mendelssohn sketchbooks has remained in its original state. Leaves are missing from all three (excluding the miscellany), and in the case of MENDELSSOHN 15 the damage is quite extensive. If many leaves had been removed by Beer or the Mendelssohns, we should expect to find a few preserved in other collections. But in fact only 2 of the missing leaves have been found, a bifolium from the first gathering of MENDELSSOHN 15 which was already in an Artaria miscellany at the time that Beer bought the sketchbook. There is therefore no reason to suggest that he or the Mendelssohn family removed leaves from any of the three books. Some uncertainty does remain, however, concerning the relationship of the Paul Mendelssohn collection to several Beethoven sketchbooks that have been traced to other members of the Mendelssohn family. It has long been known that Felix Mendelssohn owned the WITTGENSTEIN sketchbook for a time, receiving it from Aloys Fuchs in 1830 and giving it in turn to Ignaz Moscheles in 1832. And it now appears that he owned the M o s c o w pocket sketchbook as well, since that book is bound in exactly the same way as another Beethoven manuscript that Felix Mendelssohn gave away in 1841 (see p. 419). In this case there is a potential link to the Paul Mendelssohn collection: 2 leaves missing from the M o s c o w sketchbook have been found in the miscellany Mendelssohn 2. But there is no direct evidence that the 2 leaves were transferred from the sketchbook to the miscellany by either of the Mendelssohns. A similar mystery surrounds a small group of Beethoven manuscripts, including two pocket sketchbooks, that were given to the Beethovenhaus in 1899 by Robert Mendelssohn, a distant cousin of Ernst von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in another branch of the family. It is not clear whether this group of manuscripts ever belonged to the larger Mendelssohn collection. The two pocket sketchbooks are now BH 107 and either BH 108 or BH 109—there is some confusion on this point (see p. 369).48 Neither of them can be traced to Heinrich Beer. But the possibility that Robert Mendelssohn obtained the books independently seems to be contradicted by Nohl's description of them (BH 109 and BH 107) as "ein P. Mendelssohnsches Skizzenbuch" and "das P. Mendelssohnsche Skizzenheft." 49 Despite Nohl's general unreliability and the fact that the references appeared in print in 1877, three years after Paul's death, we must proceed on the assumption that Nohl had seen these pocket sketchbooks together with the rest of the collection, which he described in some detail. It appears, therefore, that in parting with these several manuscripts Robert Mendelssohn was depleting the family collection, or at least his share of it.
"According to Thayer (Verzeichniss, p. 191), Beer bought the autograph of Opus 59 No. 3 from Karl Holz in 1829. The source of this information is not given, but it may indicate that Beer was in Vienna in that year as well as 1834. 48 The pocket bifolium BH 111 (SBH 669) was also included. Robert Mendelssohn had donated two Beethoven letters to the Beethovenhaus in 1893 (BH 7 and BH 26 = SBH 212 and 427), but these appear to have been auctioned from another collection earlier that same year. 49 Nohl III, 207, 209. These books were never described by Nottebohm.
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THE SCHINDLER COLLECTION
The best-known of all the private individuals who owned Beethoven sketchbooks in the nineteenth century is Anton Schindler (1795-1864), the sometime companion of the composer's last years and his first important biographer. Schindler's was the only large collection that owed nothing to the Viennese dealers, for it consisted solely of manuscripts that were not included in the Nachlass auction. Among these were several important scores—the Quartet in E minor, Opus 59 No. 2, the Ninth Symphony (minus sections of the Finale), various fragments in autograph and corrected copy from the early versions of Fidelio—as well as many folksong settings. Schindler claimed to have received them directly from Beethoven during the last illness as tokens of friendship and rewards for services rendered. The same claim presumably applied to two large-format sketchbooks and at least eleven pocket sketchbooks, although Beethoven's obvious long-standing attachment to his sketches and the fact that the pocket books were all from the last eighteen months of his life (including one that remained partially filled at his death) should raise our suspicion that Schindler simply walked off with them. Another important part of the collection—all of the so-called conversation books and an unknown number of other documents—was passed on to Schindler as a prospective biographer f r o m Stephan von Breuning, Beethoven's friend and the first guardian (after Beethoven) of his nephew Karl; at least this was Schindler's own account of how he got them. 50 Like those of Landsberg, Grasnick, Mendelssohn, and Artaria, Schindler's collection came to rest in Berlin. A substantial portion of it, including the autograph scores, the conversation books, and the sketchbooks, was first offered to the Royal Library in 1843 and was finally acquired in 1846 in exchange for a lifetime annuity. 51 The remainder was offered to the same library by Schindler in 1861 but was not accepted at that time; it was ultimately purchased from the manufacturer August Nowotny in 1880, long after Schindler's death. Although the names of the other important collectors were retained in the call numbers assigned by the library, manuscripts from the Schindler collection remained anonymous, identified only by the g e n e r a l r u b r i c Mus. ms. autograph Beethoven
( c o m m o n l y abbreviated to
Autograph,
Autogr., or just Aut.). The two large-format sketchbooks share a single number, A U T O G R A P H I I, and must therefore be distinguished as A U T O G R A P H I I / I and A U T O GRAPH 11/2. Six of the ten pocket sketchbooks which remained in the collection that came to Berlin also share a single number, AUTOGRAPH 9 ; in this case two of the books were apparently grouped together at first, so the six bundles are now n u m bered 1, 1A, 2, 3, 4, and 5. The other four pocket sketchbooks share two numbers, A U T O G R A P H 8 and A U T O G R A P H 1 0 , each with two bundles. Schindler's treatment of the Beethoven manuscripts in his collection has become a subject of increasing scholarly concern. He freely admitted to the destruction of an unknown number of conversation books, either because they contained nothing he
" S c h i n d l e r 1860, pp. x v i i - x x i ; Schindler-MacArdle, pp. 3 1 - 3 3 . 51 See K a r l - H e i n z Köhler, " D i e M u s i k a b t e i l u n g , " in Deutsche Staatsbibliothek 1961), p p . 2 4 1 - 7 4 , esp. p p . 2 4 6 - 4 7 .
1661-1961
(Leipzig,
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thought to be of interest or, in some cases, because their content was potentially damaging to Beethoven's reputation. We now know that he also forged some entries in the books that he preserved 52 and, with motives that were less self-serving, inked over pencilled entries in both the conversation books and the sketchbooks. Did Schindler also tamper with the physical integrity of the sketchbooks? There is some evidence that he did. When he presented a pocket sketchbook to Ignaz Moscheles in September 1827, the first gathering appears to have remained behind in the collection. 53 And 3 leaves with inscriptions in Schindler's hand are part of a larger group of 6, scattered in various collections, that make up a complete gathering from the sketchbook AUTOGRAPH N / 2 . 5 4 Schindler also inscribed several loose leaves of score sketches for the late quartets when he parted with them. 55 In view of evidence of this sort, we must suspect that at least some of the damage to the sketchbooks which remains unaccounted for was also his responsibility.
Schindler, Landsberg, Grasnick, Mendelssohn—these were the private individuals whose collections of Beethoven manuscripts included substantial numbers of sketchbooks. There were other, smaller collections. For a period of a few years Aloys Fuchs owned two sketchbooks (WITTGENSTEIN and GRASNICK 2 ) , as did Gustav Petter later in the century (PETTER and AUTOGRAPH 19E). And there were men whose names today have become associated with single volumes—Sauer, Kessler, Wielhorsky, Dessauer, Scheide, Wittgenstein, Engelmann, and de Roda. The proliferation of names reflects the gradual geographic dispersal of the sketchbooks during the course of the nineteenth century. For a time, in the 1850s, the distribution of sketchbooks among (mostly) private owners reached an extreme. All of the books that Tobias Haslinger had bought at the Nachlass auction had apparently left that firm, and the huge Artaria collection had been reduced from eighteen (or more) large-format sketchbooks to five. Then something quite remarkable happened. By a fortunate combination of chance and calculation, a reverse process set in. As the sketchbooks began to find their way inevitably to public libraries and archives, the various private collections were gradually recombined. And the principal beneficiary of the process was the Royal Library in Berlin. During the course of the preceding discussion we have had occasion to mention this library frequently. In the last century it was known as the Königliche Bibliothek. After World War I it became the Preussische Staatsbibliothek. Today its collections are divided between the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek (DSB) in East Berlin and the Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz (SPK) in West Berlin. This last, regret52 See D a g m a r Beck and Grita Herre, "Einige Zweifel an der Überlieferung der K o n v e r s a t i o n s h e f t e , " in Bericht über den Internationalen Beethoven-Kongress: 20. bis 25. März 1977 in Bertin (Leipzig, 1978), pp. 257—69; i d e m , " A n t o n Schindlers fingierte Eintragungen in den Konversationsheften," in Zu Beethoven: Aufsätze und Annotationen, ed. H a r r y Goldschmidt (Berlin, 1979), pp. 1 1 - 8 9 . 53 T h e s k e t c h b o o k is BONN BSK 22 (see the discussion on pp. 4 3 5 - 4 0 ) . 54 See the discussion o n pp. 3 0 0 - 3 0 2 . 55 A m o n g these were the present B o n n M h 103, M h 100, and M h 101.
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BACKGROUND
table division resulted from the dispersal of manuscripts to outlying towns for safety during the last war; manuscripts stored in East Germany were returned to East Berlin, while those in West Germany remained for a while in Marburg and Tübingen before being returned to West Berlin. The gradual reorganization of the Berlin library—or, better, libraries—after the war was masked to some extent by the temporary use of a new name, Öffentliche Wissenschaftliche Bibliothek, to describe the old library and its scattered collection; this confusing term survives in the KinskyHalm catalogue of 1955. And in 1977 it was revealed that a large group of manuscripts that had not been recovered at the end of World War II were safely preserved in Poland—at the Bibliotekajagiellonska, Krakow. The final disposition of this part of the Berlin collection is still pending. Brief consideration of the history of the Berlin library is necessary here because of its central role in the history of the Beethoven sketchbooks. 56 Berlin was already a center of interest in old music at the end of the eighteenth century, owing in large part to the activities of groups like the Singakademie, which revived the choral works of Bach, Handel, and others. The well-publicized results of this activity were events such as the Mendelssohn-led performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion in 1829. Simultaneously there was a surge of interest in the collecting of older music in manuscript. Georg Poelchau was the first of the important collectors, concentrating above all on the works of Bach. Subsequent generations included such men as Heinrich Beer, Landsberg, and Grasnick, whose tastes extended to the Classical masters as well. In this atmosphere, better-known musicians such as Zelter, Mendelssohn, and Meyerbeer lent their support to efforts aimed at building a central collection of manuscript music in the Royal Library. Poelchau had offered his own library as a basis for such a collection as early as 1823, but the money was not appropriated at that time. In 1841, five years after his death and in the face of a competitive bid f r o m the Brussels Conservatory, funds to acquire the collection were finally found. 57 Under the leadership of Siegfried Wilhelm Dehn (1842—1858), Franz Espagne (1858-1878), Alfred Kopfermann (1878-1900), and Wilhelm Altmann (1900ff.), the newly formed music division of the Royal Library pursued an active acquisitions policy which contrasted sharply with that of major libraries of other capitals (e.g., Vienna). Thus it was not by accident that in the course of sixty years the library succeeded in acquiring, among others, the Beethoven collections of Schindler (1846 and 1880), Fischhof (1859), Landsberg (1861), Grasnick (1879), Artaria (1901), and Mendelssohn (1908). By 1908 no fewer than nineteen of the large-format sketchbooks were in Berlin. Without similar leadership and financial support, other libraries were left passively behind; a minor exception might be made for the British M u seum, which acquired three sketchbooks (two in large format and one in pocket format) and two miscellanies during the last quarter of the century. The situation in Vienna itself was summed up sadly by the poet Grillparzer, writing to a friend about the disposition of the Fuchs collection in 1853: ' ' M u c h of the following information is taken from Kôhler, op. cit. 57 At the time it first rejected the Poelchau collection, the library did acquire the smaller (and less expensive) collection of Johann Friedrich Naue, director of music at the university in Halle.
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As I was also a personal friend of the deceased Fuchs and ever a fervent patriot, you can well imagine how important it is to me to keep his music collection in Austria and to provide his widow with some compensation for the sacrifices that her husband's devotion to art required her to make. But the way of doing so presents difficulties. The Musikverein has no money. Because of its scarcely sufficient endowment, the Hofbibliothek regards its collection of music and engravings more as a burden than an asset. And I know of no private party who would part with a few thousand gulden—even if it would resurrect the late Mozart himself. 58
As we have seen, it was the Berliner F. A. Grasnick who finally came away with most of the Fuchs collection. In 1865, when another large Viennese manuscript collection was offered to the Berlin library, a Prussian diplomat in Vienna wrote back: Few objections [Skrupel] will be raised here to the acceptance of the gift, since in view of the wealth of the K. K. Hofbibliothek in old scores and autographs they place no particular importance on new acquisitions and in recent times continually reject offers of them. 59
N o doubt the Viennese had been lulled by the extent of their native riches. By the end of the century, however, only two large-format sketchbooks (KESSLER and D E S SAUER) and two pocket sketchbooks (A 4 5 and A 44) remained in Vienna, gifts to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde there. The gravitation of Beethoven manuscripts to public collections, in particular to the one in Berlin, meant that the private supply of sketchbooks gradually dwindled. As a result, when another institution with an aggressive acquisitions policy did finally emerge in this century—namely, the Beethovenhaus in Bonn—there was much less to pursue. Four large-format sketchbooks have thus far made their way to Bonn, three of them as a gift of the century's most avid private collector, H. C. Bodmer. But only one more (SCHEIDE) remains in private hands. The Wanderjahre of the sketchbooks are over. And just as their earliest history is above all a history of the Artaria collection, the story of their subsequent adventures leads inevitably to Berlin.
^Quoted in Schaal, op. cit., p. 84. "Quoted in Köhler, op. cit., p. 249.
Chapter II
TECHNIQUES FOR RECONSTRUCTING THE SKETCHBOOKS
I t is only in very recent times that Beethoven's sketchbooks have been subjected to close bibliographical scrutiny. For most o f the last hundred years their physical c o n dition was accepted uncritically. N o doubt the problems created by Beethoven's difficult handwriting laid heavy claims on the available time, so that careful study o f each b o o k as a physical unit tended to be neglected. And the sumptuous bindings that collectors and libraries often provided for the sketchbooks in their possession may have induced a false sense o f security among students o f those sources, besides c o n cealing some o f the grosser evidence o f damage. As in so many other ways, Gustav Nottebohm was an exception here. H e had gained a wide familiarity with nearly all the surviving books, and his concern in following the sequence o f the sketches made him especially sensitive to places at which they had been disturbed. T h e two sketchbooks that he described in extended monographs (KESSLER and LANDSBERG 6) were selected by him, as he makes clear, because they had survived with little or no damage. M o r e than once he warned his readers o f the dangers in working with incomplete or interrupted sketches, and when surveying his material he frequently pointed out the damage a sketchbook had undergone. It is apparent that these admonitions o f Nottebohm's were In the seventy years that followed his death in 1882 there was to survey the sketches as a whole or to examine individual M a n y scholars, indeed, did not even study the manuscripts content simply to work from Nottebohm's transcriptions.
not in general heeded. little inclination either sources in any detail. at first hand but were
In the 1950s the Beethovenhaus started to publish its own transcriptions o f sketchbooks. It would have been a natural occasion for the problematical nature o f the sources to be assessed. B u t that does not seem to have happened; instead, the decision was made to present the sketchbooks more or less as they have c o m e down to us, however damaged their condition. When the edition o f GRASNICK 3 — t h e first standard-format book in the series—appeared in 1957, it did include a transcription o f one additional leaf that had clearly been part o f the b o o k but had been separated f r o m it for m o r e than a century. B u t the next volume, a transcription o f the PASTORAL SYMPHONY SKETCHBOOK, would have required a massive reconstruction, which the Beethovenhaus decided not to attempt. 44
Reconstructing the
45
Sketchbooks
It was the publication o f the PASTORAL SYMPHONY SKETCHBOOK edition in 1 9 6 1 that drew the attention o f the scholarly world to the inadequacy o f exact transcriptions o f defective sources. Almost a century earlier, Nottebohm had commented on the damaged condition o f this sketchbook and had described the removal o f some 30 leaves as "vandalism." The location o f most o f those leaves was known to the Beethovenhaus, and the publication o f its edition without them therefore represented a deliberate policy decision. Technical difficulties may have played some part here, but the fact is that those who tried to use the edition to investigate the composition o f the symphony soon found it inadequate—as Nottebohm could have predicted. In a review, Lewis Lockwood pointed out some o f the deficiencies o f the edition. 1 Discussing the slow-movement sketches at about the same time, Joseph Kerman was forced to supplement the edition with some of the missing leaves. 2 And in a more recent article on the first movement, Philip Gossett found it necessary to discard the edition and start again from the beginning. 3 The problems presented by the PASTORAL SYMPHONY SKETCHBOOK in its present defective state led not merely to dissatisfaction with the Bonn edition but also to a more general concern with the state o f all the sketchbooks. In effect, as Nottebohm's interest in the musical content o f the sketches was revived, his warnings about problems in the sources acquired new relevance. A rereading o f his descriptions and a close examination o f the manuscripts themselves made it clear that most o f the sketchbooks had undergone changes since Beethoven used them. It was not immediately obvious what to do about the defects; in fact, it was easy to be fatalistic about the possibilities o f remedying them. But as more o f the books were described and descriptions were compared, criteria began to emerge by which the extent o f the damage could be determined and the tentative process o f reconstruction could begin. The goal is a simple one: to reconstruct the condition o f each sketchbook at the time that it was used by Beethoven. Since the process o f destruction was in some cases a gradual one, any clues to their condition at any time between then and now are potentially useful. No precise descriptions survive from Beethoven's day, and, as we have seen, the catalogue o f the Nachlass auction indicates neither the size nor the contents o f the individual lots. Later nineteenth-century accounts o f the sketchbooks are o f two types: there are the catalogues o f the various collections already discussed, which generally record the number o f leaves in each book and provide just enough information about its contents to permit identification; and there are the more elaborate descriptions in the publications o f Thayer, Nohl, Nottebohm, and others from the 1860s and later. O f these scholars the most important was Nottebohm, not merely because he was critical o f the condition in which he found the books but because he was also alert to the need for reconstruction. Nottebohm's criteria have to be inferred to a great extent; the only account o f them—fortunately, a fairly detailed one—is to be found in a discussion, published in 1 8 7 9 , o f the PETTER sketchbook. The passage in question
' M Q 53 (1967), 128-36. Kerman / Sketchbooks. '"Beethoven's Sixth Symphony: Sketches for the First Movement," JAMS 2
27 (1974), 2 4 8 - 8 4 .
46
BACKGROUND
was part of a polemic directed against an account o f the same sketchbook by Thayer in the third v o l u m e (1879) of his biography. It was not reprinted with the rest o f the article in Zweite Beethoveniana and has therefore escaped attention. Since it forms a convenient point of departure for our o w n discussion, w e quote it in full here: I became acquainted with the sketchbook we are discussing in the year 1862, when it was owned by the late Gustav Petter of Vienna. When I visited him on a later occasion Petter was kind enough to let me take the sketchbook home, and so I had the opportunity of examining it closely. Petter happened to mention the name of its previous owner, and observed that he had found the sketchbook there in a condition of neglect: leaves had been removed, it had not been properly bound, and he had later acquired it and had had it bound. Had I not already become suspicious as a result of some of the things I saw in looking through the sketchbook, Petter's remarks would have sufficed to make me proceed cautiously. I was not content merely with making excerpts from the book—I also compared the paper of the individual leaves, I compared the staves, and I studied the leaves at the fold, at the place at which they were gathered together by the binder, in order to establish which leaves were connected at the fold and which were not. Such a scrutiny, combined with a comparison of the sketches from the point of view of the connections between them, was essential for determining the original sequence of leaves (precisely or approximately), for disclosing possible gaps, and for detecting any leaves that had been wrongly introduced, whether through oversight or from any other circumstance. Only in this way could confidence be gained in treating the sketches. I reached the conclusion that with the exception of a single leaf, which was visibly different from all the others, all the leaves in the sketchbook belonged together; their overall order was correct, but leaves must have been removed. 4 From this and other passages it is clear that N o t t e b o h m was concerned above all with three things: the continuity of musical content; the uniformity o f the paper, including the staves ruled on it; and the physical integrity of the manuscript as a whole. The last of these is the least obvious and at the same time the most fundamental. In order to understand the sketchbooks as physical documents it is necessary for us to begin by reviewing the way that music paper was normally used by Beethoven and the other Viennese composers of his day. Once a few basic principles have been grasped, the remaining techniques of reconstruction will all fall into place as refinements. dsn»
With f e w exceptions (mostly large orchestral scores) thé usual format o f Beethoven's music manuscripts was oblong, a shape today mainly reserved for organ and pianoduet music. Each leaf measured about 230 X 320 m m , and would normally be found not by itself but attached to a conjunct leaf, the pair forming a bifolium. T h e bifolium was thus the basic unit of paper out of which scores were formed. But the bifolium was not the unit in which paper was made; it comprised only half o f a sheet, which measured roughly 460 X 640 m m . The process by which sheets o f paper were manufactured will be considered in greater detail below; for the m o -
*MW 10 (1879), 193-94.
Reconstructing
the
Sketchbooks
47
FIGURE I
staves
staves
staves
staves
complete unfolded sheet
horizontal fold
horizontal fold
vertical fold
2 gathered bifolia after cutting
m e n t it is important merely to have a clear understanding of the relations between sheets, bifolia, and single leaves. 5 Figure 1 (above) should make these relations clearer. T h e first illustration shows the complete sheet, not yet folded but already ruled with staves on both sides. T h e folding occurred in two steps: the sheet was folded first horizontally and then vertically, and the paper was cut along the horizontal fold. This, it will be seen, produced 2 bifolia, one "gathered" inside the other. (A pair of gathered bifolia f r o m the same sheet is referred to in what follows as a gathered sheet.) In ordinary use such bifolia might be separated or remain gathered. It was also possible to separate the conjunct 5 T h e t e r m s folio and bifolio are c o m m o n l y used equivalents for o u r leaf 2nd bifolium. T h e usual G e r m a n terms are Blatt (leaf), Doppelblatt (bifolium), and Bogen (sheet). Like the English sheet, the G e r m a n Bogen is sometimes used w i t h other meanings; nineteenth-century writers such as N o t t e b o h m frequently used Bogen to m e a n bifolium.
48
BACKGROUND
leaves o f a bifolium by cutting along the vertical fold. O r a gathering could be augmented by the addition o f further bifolia to it; this, as we shall see, was a common procedure. 6 T h e sketchbooks that Beethoven used at his desk were assembled in a variety o f ways from bifolia (and occasionally single leaves) in standard oblong format, with each leaf equal to one-fourth o f a sheet; we shall refer to this type as standard-format, large-format, or simply desk sketchbooks. The pocket sketchbooks that he took along when he left the house were assembled from similar paper, but folded and cut at least once more so that the resulting leaves were half as large as a standard-format leaf (that is, one-eighth o f a sheet). The manner in which this was done is considered in a later chapter devoted specifically to the pocket sketchbooks (see pp. 321fF.). For present purposes we confine our attention to the desk sketchbooks. These fall into several types, distinguishable by the way they were constructed or, in bibliographical terms, "made up." 1. Sketchbooks with a regular structure and professional stitching. Books o f this type were made up from a succession o f gatherings consisting o f the bifolia from one, two, or three sheets (i.e., 2 to 6 bifolia). With minor exceptions, the chosen unit o f construction remains constant within each book, although the total number o f gatherings varies. The stitching is done directly along the central fold o f each gathering, as in any professionally bound book. That the number o f leaves in sketchbooks o f this type seems always to have been either 48 or 96 (in one case, 2 X 96) is certainly no coincidence: these were standard retail sizes for packets o f music paper. Beethoven used professionally assembled sketchbooks only in the decade from 1798 to 1808, when they account for nine o f the thirteen surviving books. 2. Sketchbooks with a regular structure and nonprofessional stitching. Books o f this type give the impression o f having been assembled by Beethoven himself or perhaps by someone assisting him, such as a copyist. They are characterized by the regularity o f their gathering structure (and the general uniformity o f their paper) and might be mistaken for professionally made books except for the nature o f the stitching. T w o methods o f construction may be distinguished. A. Books in which each gathering comprises 2 bifolia from a single sheet. Here the total number o f gatherings is arbitrary and does not add up to any standard number o f leaves. The stitching is not directly along the fold o f each gathering, as in the professionally sewn books o f type 1, but, rather, in holes poked through the inner margins (between the ends o f the staves and the fold) o f all the leaves. T h e number o f the holes, their spacing, and the material used for the binding vary from one book to another. This manner o f construction is found in five sketchbooks used between 1812 and 1826. 7 B. Books in which all the bifolia are brought together in a single large gathering. While this resulted in the bifolia at the center protruding somewhat beyond those nearer the outside, the loss in appearance was compensated by a gain in the ease o f
In autograph scores it was not common to gather more than 2 bifolia. ' T w o (ENGELMANN and LANDSBERG 8 / I ) may be halves of the same sketchbook.
6
Reconstructing the
Sketchbooks
49
construction. A single gathering could be stitched together with much less trouble than a series of gatherings; indeed, one sturdy stitch through either half of the book might suffice (see DESSAUER, for example). Beethoven used ten single-gathering sketchbooks in the period from 1809 to 1822. Some of them have several stitches placed directly along the central fold of the gathering, in the manner of the professionally sewn books—evidence that someone had probably helped him with their assembly. As with the books of type 2A, the total number of sheets used, and therefore the total number of leaves in the book, does not seem to have been dictated by any prescribed quantity of paper. 8 3. Sketchbooks
with both irregular structure and nonprofessional stitching.
F r o m time to
time Beethoven created a crude but usable book by stringing together a variety of single leaves, bifolia, and gathered sheets. The papers that he took for this purpose were usually quite heterogeneous, most of them apparently leftovers f r o m other projects. As we shall see, there is evidence that many such leaves had already been partially used before Beethoven gathered them into a book. The entire bundle would have been held together by a series of stitches passed through holes punched through the inner margins of all the leaves. At least nine such books were assembled by Beethoven (or at his request) at various times between 1800 and 1825, probably when no stack of uniform paper was immediately at hand. Because of the clumsiness of the stitching and the lack of an organized structure, these homemade bundles seem to have come apart more readily than the others; several, indeed, have been completely dismembered. These general distinctions in the make-up of the various types of sketchbook provide some valuable hints as to the possibilities of reconstruction and the likely limits to it. The first and last of our categories represent the extremes. In books of type 1, both structure and overall size can be predicted, so that it is relatively easy to discover the number of missing leaves and the places at which they were removed. O n the other hand, the absence of any predictable structure or size in books of type 3 sets severe limits to the possibilities of reconstruction; here losses cannot usually be inferred from interruptions in the gathering structure (although it is sometimes possible to identify fugitive leaves by other techniques shortly to be described). It is the sketchbooks of types 2 A and 2B that are perhaps the most likely to prove deceptive. Because their internal structure is for the most part regular, we can usually detect the loss of single leaves or single bifolia. But the total number of leaves is not predictable, so pairs of bifolia may have slipped away without a trace, especially f r o m the outside of a single large gathering. Moreover, since the paper for these books appears to have come from batches already in Beethoven's possession or f r o m a copyist's shop, rather than in complete packets from a retailer, we must in principle allow for the possibility of an occasional irregularity in the structure—an unpaired bifolium, for example—and for the inclusion of leaves that had been partially used before the book was assembled. 8 Some caution is necessary here. At least one book of type 2A (PETTER) does appear to have had 96 leaves, and there was nothing to prevent assembly of a book at h o m e f r o m a complete packet of paper. In principle, however, books of type 2 made use of whatever quantity of paper was available.
50
BACKGROUND
O n the basis of the f e w principles described thus far, the m o s t i m p o r t a n t physical features of a sketchbook can be discovered in a simple preliminary examination. H o w m a n y leaves are there, and w h a t are their overall dimensions? D o e s the paper appear to be u n i f o r m t h r o u g h o u t , as indicated by its color and quality, and b y the n u m b e r of staves ruled o n it? If the gathering structure is visible, h o w m a n y leaves are there in each gathering, and h o w m a n y gatherings are there in the b o o k ? A r e there any stubs to suggest w h e r e leaves have been lost? What is the nature o f the present binding, and is there any evidence of the way the b o o k was b o u n d in the past? T h e answers to these simple questions will often provide a fairly clear picture of the w a y in w h i c h a sketchbook was originally made up. We should, for example, be able to tell w h e t h e r a b o o k consists of a series of regular gatherings of u n i f o r m paper, or o f a single large gathering, or of heterogeneous papers r a n d o m l y arranged. T h e pairing of leaves in bifolia and the pairing of bifolia f r o m the same sheet in sketchb o o k s w i t h a regular structure w e r e understood by N o t t e b o h m and f o r m e d the basis for his detailed analyses. 9 His descriptions are especially valuable to us because m a n y o f the sketchbooks have been rebound since that time, obscuring their structure. A n over-tight m o d e r n binding m a y conceal the make-up; in s o m e cases the bifolia m a y even have been cut and their leaves r e m o u n t e d in such a w a y as to falsify the original gathering structure (see, for example, LANDSBERG I I ) . As answers to the most basic questions about a sketchbook are f o u n d , other questions of a less obvious nature will take their place. If the original structure has in fact been obscured, or perhaps even falsified, by the binding, are there other w a y s to d e t e r m i n e it? Again, w h e r e irregularities appear in an otherwise regular structure, suggesting that s o m e leaves have been lost or that extra leaves are present, can the lost leaves be described or the extraneous leaves be identified? A n d is it possible to detect or t o surmise the loss of entire gatherings? Affirmative answers to all these questions are indeed possible, but they can only be arrived at by the application o f m o r e sophisticated m e t h o d s of analysis than those outlined so far. In the r e m a i n d e r of this chapter w e shall take u p a series of further criteria. S o m e require simply that w e look m o r e closely at aspects of sketchbook m a k e - u p already described; others involve evidence created during the actual process of sketching. Let us begin w i t h the f o r m e r . Watermarks. B y far the m o s t i m p o r t a n t additional insights derive f r o m a close s t u d y of the paper itself and of one particular aspect of it, its w a t e r m a r k s . T h e part played b y w a t e r m a r k s in recent scholarship extends far b e y o n d w o r k o n Beethoven's sketchbooks. 1 0 T o understand the principles involved and the techniques derived
' T h e r e is no evidence that Nottebohm predicted any missing gatherings on the basis of the overall size of a sketchbook. 10 It must be admitted that Beethoven scholarship has lagged somewhat behind Bach scholarship in its use of watermarks. As early as 1873, in the first volume of his Johanit Sebastian Bach, Philipp Spitta began citing (and printing) watermarks as evidence for the chronology of Bach autograph sources. N o t t e b o h m must have k n o w n of this, and one presumes he could have matched papers by comparing watermarks, but nowhere does he cite them in his own articles. Only recently have Beethoven scholars begun to catch up with their Bach counterparts, w h o in the 1950s undertook a thorough reexamination of Spitta's results as part of their preparations for the Neue Bach-Ausgabe.
Reconstructing
the
Sketchbooks
51
from them, it is necessary to examine in some detail the process by which paper was made at that time, for that process conferred on the paper certain physical characteristics that are of great importance in distinguishing one leaf from another." Sheets of paper were made by two men working as a team but with distinct roles; they were called the vatman and the coucher. They used a pair of sieve-like rectangular structures called molds; the molds from which Beethoven's paper was made must have measured roughly 4 0 - 5 0 cm by 60-70 cm—the size already mentioned. The vatman began by dipping one of the molds into a vat filled with liquid paper pulp. He then shook it and held it level above the vat, allowing the excess water to drain through the mold's mesh; a more or less even film of pulp settled on the wire surface of the mold. The mold was then handed to the coucher, who turned it over and pressed it down onto a layer of felt; when he lifted the mold, the pulp remained on the felt. As the coucher returned the empty mold to his partner, he received the other one. Thus the two molds were used in alternation, each mold making every second sheet. A sheet of paper made in this way has two distinct surfaces: the mold side, which originally lay against the wires of the mold and therefore bears the impression of those wires, and the felt side, which was pressed down onto the mat of felt and is smoother. O f course the wires produced something more than an impression on the paper—they also produced a localized thinning of the paper, visible when the paper is held to the light. This is a watermark. The wires of the mold itself were of two kinds (see Plate 8): the laid wires, which were thin and set close together (perhaps a millimeter apart) and which ran lengthways, and the chain wires, which were thicker and ran at right angles to the laid wires; these were about twenty or thirty millimeters apart. For purposes of description, the term watermark is sometimes withheld from the thinning produced by these structural wires (which can be called a mold mark) and reserved for the thinning produced by an ornamental wire or complex of wires sewn onto the laid wires and chain wires. The ornamental wires had the purpose of making a distinctive mark in the paper that might identify its maker, its size, its quality, or some combination of these, and they were usually disposed in the mold in such a way that when a sheet was folded and cut some element of the watermark could be found on each of the four resulting leaves. Thus when a leaf is examined only a fragment of the watermark of the entire sheet will be seen. Whenever possible such a fragment should be related to the rest of the watermark and described as part of the whole. For descriptive purposes the term quadrant may be used to indicate the relationship of a single leaf (or its watermark) to the entire sheet (or its sheetwatermark) . It has already been explained that in any batch of paper every second sheet will have been made from a different mold, since the two molds were used in alternation. It was the normal practice for each of the two molds to be fitted with watermark wires of a similar pattern, with the result that a similar watermark was produced in the paper made by each mold. In some cases, no doubt, the watermarks were in-
11 A g o o d i n t r o d u c t i o n to the subject of paper-making by hand is E. G. Loeber, Paper Mould and Mouldmaker ( A m s t e r d a m : T h e Paper Publications Society, 1982).
52
BACKGROUND
tended to be identical—see, for example, the illustrations of paper-types 17 and 38 in Appendix A. But since the wire shapes were formed manually and were then handsewn into the floor of each mold, complete identity was never achieved; slight discrepancies in the size or shape of the watermark wires, or in their positioning in relation to the chain-wires, are always to be found, and these enable the watermarks from the two molds to be distinguished. There were also two ways of varying the deployment of the watermark wires. In a few papers, the watermark elements in the two left-hand quadrants and those in the two right-hand quadrants simply exchange places from one mold to the other; thus, for example, in our paper-types 23 and 24 (see Appendix A) the anchor and the letters IAV, which appear in the left quadrants of mold A, are shifted to the right quadrants in mold B (the other quadrants have no elements). Much more common, however, was the practice of completely reversing the wires in one of the two molds so that the two watermarks that resulted were more or less mirror-images of each other. This is illustrated by numerous papertypes in Appendix A (e.g., types 1—4 and 6 - 9 ) . In a very few instances, some of the elements are reversed and some simply exchange sides (see paper-type 10, in which the position of the moon is reversed while the crossbow and letters simply shift to the other side without reversal). Adoption of an acceptable and unambiguous system of conventions for describing watermarks is essential if they are to be described and compared with precision. The conventions that are adopted in this volume have the merit of being closely related to the way in which watermarks were produced. First of all there is the question of the side of the paper from which the watermark is to be viewed. With a little practice it is usually possible to distinguish the two surfaces of a piece of mold-made paper: the rougher mold side, which originally lay against the wires of the mold, and the smoother felt side. Our first convention is that watermarks should be described or traced as they appear when viewed from the mold side of the paper.
In the papers with which we are concerned this convention is a little less than completely arbitrary, if letters of the alphabet and numerals are any guide. For some of the watermarks that include names or initials or figures have been designed so that they read correctly only when viewed from the mold side of the paper; this is true of the forms of the watermark produced by each of the two molds. 12 In a great many other watermarks, however, we find the situation already described: when the two forms are examined from the mold side of the paper, we discover that one is the mirror-image of the other. This effect was obviously intentional; possibly it was a way of identifying and distinguishing the forms produced by the two molds. Certainly it helps us to distinguish the two forms. In such cases, any letters or figures will read "correctly" in only one of the two forms; they will be reversed in the other. It is convenient to distinguish the two forms of the watermark as (the products of) mold A and mold B. The decision as to which of the two forms to call mold A is of
12 We include here those watermarks in which elements exchange sides w i t h o u t being reversed (as in paper-type 23). It should be pointed out, however, that there are also a few papers in which the watermarks read backwards in both molds w h e n viewed f r o m the m o l d side (none of these appears in A p pendix A).
Reconstructing the
Sketchbooks
53
course arbitrary; the convention adopted here is that where the letters read correctly in one form and backwards in the other, the former shall be called mold A. ( T h e choice r e m a i n s
arbitrary if both molds read the same way.) A further convention is needed for labelling the four quadrants of the sheet and its w a t e r m a r k . The quadrants of mold A should be numbered from 1 to 4 in a clockwise direction, beginning with the bottom left quadrant. T h e s a m e n u m b e r i n g will b e u s e d f o r
mold B if the elements are deployed in the same way. But in those cases where the elements of the left and right quadrants in mold A exchange sides in mold B—either straightforwardly or (more commonly) so as to produce the mirror-image—a modification of the rule is needed. In these cases the quadrants of mold B are numbered counterclockwise from 1 to 4, beginning with the bottom right quadrant; this assigns the same number to quadrants that have the same fragment of the sheet watermark. 1 3 (Look again at the numbering of the quadrants in paper-types 17, 10, and 9 in Appendix A.) Finally, the lower-case letter a or b should be added to the quadrant number to indicate the mold. Accordingly, an individual leaf (and its watermark) is described in relation to its sheet, and sheet-watermark, as being one of eight possible quadrants, coded as follows: la, lb, 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b, 4a, 4b. Having understood the way in which paper was made, we are in a position to describe the leaves of a sketchbook with some precision. Each leaf can now be identified with a particular paper-type, that is, as containing one quadrant of one of the molds of the sheet-watermark. The uniformity of paper, or lack of it, within a sketchbook can be established definitively by noting the watermarks of all the leaves; in a book of uniform paper, every leaf will be one quadrant of one of the two molds. For the purposes of reconstruction, a more important fact is that the way in which the bifolia are gathered will be reflected in the sequence of watermarks found on the individual leaves. When a sheet of paper is folded and cut, resulting in the creation of a pair of gathered bifolia, the watermark quadrants on successive leaves fall of necessity into one of the following four sequences: 1 2 3 4 or its reverse 4 3 2 1 2 1 4 3 or its reverse 3 4 1 2 The vertically adjacent quadrants (1 and 2, 3 and 4) remain adjacent in each case. If a sketchbook appears to have been constructed from a succession of gathered sheets (from single-sheet gatherings), we should expect to find in it a sequence of watermark quadrants grouped according to some combination of the above four patterns. The same principle applies, of course, if the unit of construction is a gathering of two or three sheets. The 2 bifolia from each sheet will remain adjacent, and the watermark quadrants of the 4 leaves will occur in one of the four possible sequences, though of course the bifolia of the outer sheet or sheets will be separated by the sheet or sheets in the middle. Thus in a two-sheet gathering from G R A S N I C K I we find the following watermark sequence (bifolia are indicated by brackets): 13 If t h e letters o f a w a t e r m a r k read b a c k w a r d s in both m o l d s w h e n v i e w e d f r o m t h e m o l d side o f t h e paper, w e suggest numbering both molds counterclockwise f r o m the lower right quadrant. This occurs o n l y rarely (but see t h e n u m b e r i n g o f p a p e r - t y p e s I-A a n d I-I in J o h n s o n / d i s s , p p . 83, 123).
54
BACKGROUND
Leaf
Quadrant
1 2
2b
3
6
3a 4a la 2a
7 8
4b 3b
lb
In the case of sketchbooks consisting of a single large gathering, a much greater number of sheets is involved; but here again we shall expect to find the 2 bifolia f r o m each sheet next to each other. By working from the central fold toward the beginning and end of the book, we can confirm this pairing; once again the vertically adjacent quadrants from the same sheet (1 and 2, 3 and 4) will be found to be adjacent in the book. In these ways the gathering structure of a sketchbook may be confirmed—or, if necessary, established—by the sequence of watermark quadrants. This represents a considerable gain in sophistication over the methods of Nottebohm, w h o made no use of watermarks. For it follows that where the structure of a book has been disturbed, there will be a corresponding disturbance in the watermark sequence. This fact is of great importance in evaluating the damage to a sketchbook. It allows us not only to discover where leaves have been lost but also to provide a fairly detailed description of them. In the example given above, for instance, if the leaves numbered 2 and 3 were missing, the gathering structure would indicate that they had the watermark quadrants l b and 3a respectively. Such a piece of information is of considerable practical value. A large number of the leaves that were removed from Beethoven's sketchbooks still survive in public and private collections throughout the world, and it is now a fairly simple matter to identify possible candidates for the known gaps in sketchbooks by matching the watermarks in this way. Other suspected candidates can be disqualified by the same criteria. The variety of ways in which the study of watermarks can contribute to the reconstruction of sketchbooks justifies the priority accorded the subject here. Gathering structure and watermarks were the primary bases for the article on reconstruction published by two of the authors in 1972,14 and much of the latter part of the present volume exemplifies the same methods. The several remaining criteria to be discussed in this chapter have less to do with the preliminary analysis of a book's structure than with the subsequent process of identifying missing leaves and restoring them (in concept) to their original locations. M
Johnson-Tyson.
Reconstructing
the
55
Sketchbooks
Rastrology (staff-ruling). Almost all the paper on which Beethoven sketched came from sheets that had been ruled with staves on both sides before being folded and cut for practical use. In the great majority of cases this ruling was done mechanically. Direct information about the machines is hard to come by. Reference books f r o m the time do little more than confirm their existence, as in the following entry in Schilling's Encyclopädie: Rastrai, von dem lat. rastrum . . . , das bekannte aus Messingblech zu fünf kleinen Federn oder Spitzen zusammengebogene Instrument, womit man die Liniensysteme zur Notenschrift aufs Papier zieht. . . . Man hat auch Maschinen, in welchen 4 bis 8 und noch mehr Rastrale in entsprechender Ordnung an einander gereiht sind, und womit dann ganze Bogen auf einmal liniirt werden können. Solche Maschinen, welche keinen anderen Vortheil als den der Zeitersparniss haben, heissen Linirmaschinen.' 5
Who owned such machines? We know that it was possible to buy pre-ruled paper at the shops of the principal music publishers. Here, for example, is an entry in a Verzeichnisz Musikalischer Schriften issued by Breitkopf: Linirte Noten=Papiere, von verschiedener Art und Güte, fiir alle Instrumente, in die Länge und in die Queere linirt, ä Buch 7, 8 u: 12 gl. 16
Artaria catalogues also advertised ruled paper. At least some of these shops may therefore have had staff-ruling machines on the premises. But it appears that there were also small businesses that specialized in lining paper for various uses, including music paper. A guide to Vienna published in 1826 refers to: C. G.Jasper's k.k. priv. Linir= und Rastrir=Anstalt Die Anstalt befindet sich auf der Wieden, Hauptstrasse Nr. 10, im ersten Stock vorne heraus, und besteht aus mehreren Maschinen für Handlungsbücher, Musiknoten und Schreibschulpapier. Das Liniament übertrifft an Präcision und Schönheit Alles, was bisher irgendwo, England und Frankreich kaum ausgenommen, der Art gefordert worden. 17
We have left these references untranslated in order to introduce terms such as Rastral (the device for ruling a single staff) and liniiren (the act of ruling the staves), which recur frequently in this literature. The Latin term rastrum ("rake") has been adopted in English usage, and the study of staff-ruling has recently come to be called rastrology.
Even without these confirming references, the use of staff-ruling machines could have been inferred from the recurrent regularities and irregularities that we observe 15 Gustav Schilling, ed., Encyclopädie der gesammten musikalischen Wissenschaß, vol. 5 (Stuttgart, 1837; reprinted b y G. O l m s , 1974), p. 643. See also under Liniiren in vol. 4, p. 404. A similar general description is f o u n d in the entry for Notenpapier in Ignaz Jeitteles, Aesthetisches Lexikon, vol. 2 (Vienna, 1839), p. 131. "(Leipzig, 1785), p. 11; there is a copy of this catalogue in Vienna, G d M . 17 Johann Pezzl's Beschreibung von Wien, Siebente Ausgabe, verbessert u n d v e r m e h r t v o n Franz Ziska (Vienna, 1826), pp. 2 6 6 - 6 7 . (This reference was provided by Sieghard B r a n d e n b u r g . ) Jasper's business is also listed u n d e r Rastrir= Maschine in Franz Heinrich Böckh, ed., Wiens lebende Schriftsteller, Künstler, und Dilettanten im Kunstfache (Vienna, 1822), p. 413.
56
BACKGROUND
in the manuscripts themselves. Because large batches of paper were ruled together, moreover, patterns of staff-ruling can often be combined with watermarks as a means of further classifying Beethoven's papers.18 It is not safe to assume that all paper with a particular watermark will have been ruled at the same time and will therefore share a common staff-ruling pattern. Nor is a particular staff-ruling pattern always restricted to paper with a single watermark. What we do find is that (except in the heterogeneous homemade books of our type 3) the relatively small number of sheets gathered together to make a sketchbook usually have the same rastrological features. Obviously, papers that were ruled together by the same machine will have the same number of staves on each page. By far the most common number is 16, but the machines available to the shops that Beethoven frequented also ruled 8, 10, 12, and 14 staves at a time. Odd numbers were apparently less useful, although, as we shall see, there is some 18-stave paper that was ruled with two strokes of a 9-stave rastrum—perhaps an indication that for this type of machine 16 staves was an upper limit. In order to distinguish among papers with the same number of staves but ruled at different times, we must note carefully the spacing of the staves. Normally the staves will be more or less equidistant, except in those papers where the arrangement is in pairs to facilitate notation of music for solo piano (mostly paper with 8 or 10 staves). In either case, since the pen-points were fixed in the machine, sheets that were ruled together have very nearly identical spacing. But this pattern does vary in slight ways from one batch to another, perhaps because some small shifting occurred when the machine was cleaned or the nibs replaced. The most satisfactory way of identifying papers ruled at the same time is to note the relative positions of all the staves by marking their top and bottom lines on tracing paper and then to superimpose the resulting outline on other leaves suspected to be of the same type. 19 A less laborious method, still satisfactory for most purposes, is simply to measure the total span (abbreviated TS) of all the staves, from the top line of the top staff to the bottom line of the bottom staff; this is conventionally expressed in millimeters. From time to time other distinctive features of the staff-ruling have been noted. O n e that can be particularly useful when we are forced to work with photographs is a recurring irregularity in the profile created by the left or right ends of the staves. We may find, for example, that in some papers a particular line in one of the staves projects unusually far to one side or the other. It seems clear enough that papers that share a common irregularity of this sort were ruled by the same machine. Not all staff-ruling patterns include them, however, and many cases must bejudged ambiguous at best, with a characteristic profile evident on some bur not all pages. U p to now this aspect of rastrology has not been put to much use in the reconstruction of Beethoven's sketchbooks, although it has been helpful in identifying leaves that belonged to SAUER and the PASTORAL SYMPHONY SKETCHBOOK. Beethoven's papers were not all ruled with a single stroke of a mechanical device. When more than 16 staves were required, the desired number might be ruled me18 It has been especially useful in distinguishing among the loose sketchleaves f r o m the early period; see the discussion on pp. 51 Iff. 19 Since the staves could have been ruled either left-to-right or right-to-left, the pattern on one leaf is sometimes reproduced upside-down on another.
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57
chanically in two strokes per page; we have mentioned already that some 18-stave paper was ruled in this way, and there is some 20-stave paper from about 1814 that appears to have been machine-ruled 5 (or possibly 10) staves at a time. O n other occasions, when machine-ruling was unavailable or when the sheets of paper were of an odd size or shape, it was possible to rule single staves by hand, using a pen with five nibs. Hand-ruling usually resulted in staves that were not quite straight and not consistent in their vertical spacing. There are a few papers in which pairs of staves can be shown to be parallel, with a varying distance between successive pairs; these should probably also be considered hand-ruled, the staves having been drawn two at a time with a 2-stave device. Needless to say, measurement of the total span is only relevant when all the staves were ruled together. In those papers with a large number of staves ruled in two or more strokes, the TS will apply only to each stroke of the rastrum; thus, for example, in the 18-stave paper already mentioned, the TS of the top 9 staves will be the same as that of the bottom 9 staves, though the space between staves 9 and 10 will tend to vary slightly. Likewise, noting the span of a single staff may help in identifying papers ruled by hand with the same 1-stave device. There is one other exception to the usual method of staff-ruling. Occasionally we find papers on which the staves appear to have been printed or stamped on the surface. The staff-lines are the slate-black color of printer's ink. And for reasons not yet explained, the staves are often not parallel; the total span may be different at the two ends, and on the two sides of the leaf as well. Of all the sketchbooks, only GRASNICK 3 is constructed entirely from paper of this kind. 20 The relevance of rastrology to reconstruction will become clearer if we refer again to the three types of sketchbook discussed above. Beethoven seems to have shown a preference for sketching on 16-stave paper, and with only two exceptions all the sketchbooks of the first two types—those made up of small but regular gatherings and those consisting of a single large gathering—have paper with 16 staves. The two exceptions are LANDSBERG 6, which includes several gatherings of 18-stave paper, and the SAUER sketchbook, which appears to have consisted of uniform 12stave paper throughout. And with the single exception of GRASNICK 3, noted above, all the sketchbooks of these two categories had machine-ruled paper. Thus a check on the number of staves and a measurement of their total span, together with an inspection of the watermark and of the sketch-contents, forms a necessary test for any leaf that is a candidate for a place in a sketchbook of either type. But none of this applies to leaves from sketchbooks of the third type. Here we find papers with the most heterogeneous staff-rulings, as indeed might be expected if Beethoven were assembling a sketchbook from his stock of leftover papers. LANDSBERG 7, for instance, includes paper with 8, 10, 12, and 16 staves. Thus rastrology can play little or no part in determining whether or not a leaf belongs to a particular sketchbook of this type.
^Beethoven appears to have used stamped paper occasionally in the years 1808-1810 and again occasionally after 1815. Individual leaves turn up in some of the homemade sketchbooks.
58
BACKGROUND
A few o f the leaves that turn up in the heterogeneous homemade books are distinguished by one other characteristic that may be mentioned here, though strictly speaking it is not an aspect o f the rastrology. When preparing to write out an orchestral score, Beethoven often divided pages into three or four large bars in advance by drawing barlines vertically across all the staves. Occasionally paper ruled in this way remained unused or was discarded from an orchestral score in progress, to be salvaged subsequently for sketching. In such cases the orchestral barlines serve to remind us o f Beethoven's original intentions for the leaves in question. We find some leaves with this ruling in the two homemade sketchbooks from the years 1807 and 1808. Profiles. In our earlier discussion of the relationship of sketchleaves to manufactured sheets o f paper it was pointed out that the latter were folded horizontally and then vertically to produce 4 leaves in a gathering of 2 bifolia. Prior to their use the bifolia had to be cut or torn along the original horizontal fold, now at the top o f each leaf. This cutting or tearing left each leaf with a more or less ragged upper profile, complemented exactly by that o f the previously attached leaf (see Plates 9—10 and 1 7 - 1 8 ) . A bifolium could also be cut or torn along the original vertical fold, with the result that the 2 conjugate leaves would have complementary profiles along their inner edges. The matching o f these profiles can be helpful in the process o f reconstruction. Let us consider the latter case first. In sketchbooks of our first two types, those constructed from gathered bifolia, the removal of one leaf could be expected to leave a stub. The presence o f stubs in a book of either type 1 or type 2, then, is prima facie evidence o f the loss of leaves (and of the places where they have been removed). So it might seem a simple matter to review possible candidates for the lost leaves by seeing whether their inner edges matched the profiles o f the stubs; a perfect match would surely confirm the identification. In a number o f sketchbooks it has proved possible to restore separated leaves in this way (see Plates 1 2 — 1 3 , from LANDSBERG 8 / I ) . But in other cases there are difficulties. If, after a leaf has been torn out, its conjugate leaf (the other half o f the original bifolium) is also removed, no stub is likely to remain in the book. 21 Even if the conjugate leaf has remained in place, an attempt may have been made in the course o f rebinding the book to remove all traces of the stub, simply for cosmetic reasons; today, for instance, the heavily depleted PASTORAL SYMPHONY SKETCHBOOK displays very few stubs. Occasionally we find that the stub has been trimmed, or pasted down (perhaps on top of further stubs, thus concealing them). And the inner edges o f the torn-out leaves may themselves have been trimmed by their owners. In such cases the inner profile of a leaf will no longer match its stub in the book—though there may be other evidence (such as ink-blots, discussed below) with which to demonstrate the original location of the leaf.
21 If the 2 leaves were removed after the book was tightly sewn, however, the stubs o f both may remain, to either side o f the fold o f the original bifolium.
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There are other instances in which a leaf is not only cut or torn from a book but is then subdivided into smaller pieces, which may be given to a variety of collectors: this seems to have happened to leaves from GRASNICK I , PETTER, and S C H E I D E . Here the matching of profiles may be more complex; as with the solving ofjigsaw puzzles (which this technique resembles), success depends to a great extent on having all the pieces. Less immediately obvious, but perhaps equally useful, is the help in reconstructing sketchbooks of types 1 and 2 that can be gained by matching the upper edges of adjacent leaves. For if such upper profiles complement one another, the 2 adjacent leaves must have come from the same sheet (in which case their 2 conjugate leaves should also have matching upper profiles). This is valuable evidence that the 2 bifolia are still in their original positions within the sketchbook, and that no leaves have been lost between them. Such evidence is particularly helpful in working out the original structure of a book such as LANDSBERG I I , in which the gathering-structure was changed when the book was rebound sometime within the last fifty years. U n fortunately, in many sketchbooks the upper edges of the leaves have been trimmed by binders, removing the original profiles. The technique of matching profiles has only very limited application to sketchbooks of type 3, the heterogeneous ones. Since Beethoven sometimes included single leaves and unpaired bifolia when he assembled these books, the matching of a loose leaf with another leaf or a stub in the book through either of its profiles can only suggest that the loose leaf was also originally in the book; confirmation would have to come from the other techniques outlined below. Stitch-holes. In distinguishing the various ways in which sketchbooks were assembled, we made an important distinction between those that were professionally sewn (type 1) and those that were stitched together in an improvised way by Beethoven himself, or by someone helping him (types 2 and 3). Although most books have been rebound one or more times since Beethoven used them, the evidence of earlier bindings frequently survives in the form of stitch-holes, and these provide us with a convenient means of evaluating both the integrity of a book in its present state and the claims of loose leaves to be included in it. Sketchbooks of our type 1, made up in a series of small regular gatherings, must in their original condition have displayed stitching along the central folds of all the gatherings. This can still be confirmed in a book such as WIELHORSKY, which appears to have retained its first binding, though in most other cases some doubt remains whether it is the original stitching that we see, or a replacement furnished at a later date when the binding was restored. In a bifolium that has come from such a sketchbook we may expect to find a row of stitch-holes directly along the central fold. This is the case, for instance, with a bifolium lost by the sketchbook M E N D E L S S O H N 1 5 . T w o single leaves that were removed from WIELHORSKY also have traces of the holes. But a single leaf will not have stitch-holes if it does not include the midline fold of the original bifolium. The single-gathering sketchbooks of type 2B seem to have been held together originally by a variety of stitching. S o m e — S C H E I D E and M E N D E L S S O H N 6, for ex-
60
BACKGROUND
ample—were probably fastened by a series of stitches along the fold. But the DESSAUER sketchbook was secured by a single stitch passed through the margin of half its leaves. Either means could have been accomplished in a few minutes by a retailer or a copyist, or by Beethoven himself. A single-gathering sketchbook might even have remained together with no stitching at all, and we shall describe several pocket sketchbooks in which this did occur. All the single-gathering books in large format show signs of having been stitched at some time, although in some cases a modern binding has effectively disguised (or destroyed) the nature of the original stitching. Thus, for example, in books such as L A N D S B E R G I I , A R T A R I A 1 9 5 , and A R T A R I A 2 0 1 , the original bifolia have all been cut and the leaves mounted individually or recombined into false gatherings, so that any holes that might have existed along the original fold have been lost. Where holes are still visible, it is important that we approach them cautiously. They may represent more than one layer of stitching, and one or more layers may have been made since Beethoven's use of the sketchbook. Any single leaves or bifolia that have left a book will display holes made prior to the book's use, of course, but not necessarily those that were made later. This can be a troublesome point: in the case of the W I T T G E N S T E I N sketchbook some early holes are still visible, but 2 bifolia that appear to belong to the book do not have them. A happier case is that of the S C H E I D E sketchbook, where it has been possible to restore a lost bifolium to the very outside of the gathering on the basis of its stitch-holes (and other, less conclusive, evidence). It is in the reconstruction of the sketchbooks of types 2A and 3, however, that stitch-holes acquire the greatest importance. In type 3, where neither the paper nor the gathering structure of a book is uniform, they are the one physical characteristic common to all the leaves. In both these types the succession of small gatherings required a different manner of stitching from that used for the single-gathering books. Holes had to be made through the inner margins of all the leaves, a few gatherings at a time, with a bodkin or needle before the string could be inserted. Something of the difference in the size and placement of these holes can be seen in several of the plates: three small holes in the S K E T C H B O O K OF 1 8 1 0 - 1 8 1 1 (Plates 9-10); the large, ragged pair in P E T T E R (Plate 11); and the three clusters found in leaves from A U T O G R A P H 1 9 E (Plates 4—5). The results of this method are not always as unambiguous as we should like. Slight changes in the spacing of the holes from one segment of a book to the next were inevitable, and their limits are hard to predict. Thus, for example, when the position of one hole shifts abruptly by as much as a centimeter between gatherings, as sometimes occurs, the integrity of the juncture should perhaps be left in doubt unless there is other evidence to confirm it. And when the abrupt change in an otherwise similar pattern of holes occurs between two manuscripts now separated but possibly related (as with E N G E L M A N N and L A N D S B E R G 8 / 1 ) , there is obviously some risk in suggesting that they be combined. On another level, any sequence of leaves in a sketchbook may show a very gradual increase or decrease in the spacing between holes—evidence that the bodkin was pressed through the bundle obliquely. There is also occasional evidence of a misguided puncture followed immediately by a second attempt, with the result that the actual number of holes varies from one leaf to another (other explanations for this phenomenon are conceivable).
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All these variables make it difficult to summarize the stitch-hole pattern of certain h o m e m a d e books. Since no one set of measurements is valid for all the gatherings, an adequate description must include separate measurements for each gathering. 2 2 T h e presence of extra holes on some leaves may then complicate the s u m m a r y bey o n d the point of usefulness. We have attempted to provide at least a m i n i m u m of information about the spacing of stitch-holes in most of the h o m e m a d e books. O c casionally w e have supplied rather elaborate measurements in order to support an important point in the reconstruction (see ENGELMANN and GRASNICK 4). B u t in a f e w instances w e have omitted measurements altogether. T h e need for caution in our analysis of stitch-hole patterns is greater here than in the single-gathering sketchbooks. In addition to the ambiguities created by variations in both the n u m b e r of holes and their spacing, it is clear that Beethoven s o m e times stitched leaves together after he had sketched on them. When this occurred, the result was a miscellany, with no claims to the physical continuity of a p r e - b o u n d b o o k . Thus, for example, most of the loose leaves f r o m the early years were stitched together at some time into one or more bundles, apparently for safekeeping. A n d while there is little danger of mistaking those leaves for a sketchbook today, a n u m b e r of other cases are more ambiguous. In at least t w o instances—with the O p u s 59 quartets in 1806 and again with Die Ruinen von Athen in 1811—Beethoven seems to have stitched together a largely homogeneous group of leaves after using them, w i t h the result that both groups exhibit some of the characteristics of g e n u ine sketchbooks (e.g., coherence of content and similarity of paper) but cannot be treated as books in other respects. There may even be cases in which a sketchbook of the heterogeneous type (our type 3) grew gradually, with leaves added while the b o o k was in use. In short, the presence of stitch-holes in a matching pattern cannot in itself be taken as p r o o f that a group of leaves were bound prior to their use. If a b o o k was indeed stitched together before it was used, we should expect to find the evidence of its holes supported by that of ink-blots, musical continuities, and other aspects of the sketch process, shortly to be described. Nevertheless, the distinguishing physical characteristic of a heterogeneous h o m e m a d e book is precisely the number, shape, and spacing of the stitch-holes rather than the uniformity of paper, rastrology, or gathering structure. Although the presence of stitch-holes in a leaf m a y mislead us, their absence is good evidence that the leaf did not belong to any book of this type. All the criteria discussed thus far—gathering structure, watermarks, rastrology, profiles, and stitch-holes—involve physical characteristics present in the sketchbooks prior to their use by Beethoven. We turn n o w to a consideration of those features that can be traced to the sketch process itself.
22 There is no conventional way of making these measurements. In this book we have sometimes indicated the distance f r o m each hole to the next (top to bottom) and sometimes the distance of each hole f r o m the top of the leaf.
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BACKGROUND
Ink-blots. T h e pages of Beethoven's sketchbooks are liberally bespattered w i t h blots and s m u d g e s . T h e connoisseur learns to distinguish various types. First, and m o s t i m p o r t a n t , are the ink-blots that c o m e f r o m the w r i t i n g i t s e l f — t h e results of B e e t h o v e n t u r n i n g a page or closing the b o o k while the ink of the notes or w o r d s he h a d j u s t w r i t t e n w a s still w e t . Besides usually s m u d g i n g the notes o r w o r d s t h e m selves, this w a s likely to p r o d u c e a corresponding blot or series of blots, k n o w n as an offset, o n the opposite page. Second, there are the blots of ink that fell o n the page as a result of the composer's clumsy handling of his quill pen. T h e s e ink-blots, b e i n g larger and " w e t t e r " than m o s t of the written material, m i g h t be expected to have p r o d u c e d even m o r e conspicuous offsets. B u t that does n o t seem to have h a p p e n e d m u c h , and it m a y be that their very size w a r n e d Beethoven n o t to close the b o o k o r t u r n the page till they had dried. Whenever w e find an offset that clearly m i r r o r s s o m e t h i n g w r i t t e n by Beethoven, w e can be certain that the pages in question faced each o t h e r at the t i m e that Beethoven m a d e the entry; 2 3 and the s a m e is t r u e in the case of those offsets that can be matched w i t h ink-blots spattered f r o m a quill, p r o vided that the d r o p s w e r e m a d e by Beethoven himself (as is likely in the vast m a j o r ity of cases) and n o t b y s o m e later o w n e r of the b o o k . Ink-blots w i t h m a t c h i n g o f f sets can be seen in Plates 6 - 7 and 1 2 - 1 3 . A third t y p e m i g h t be called a " d r y " offset, a m a r k p r o d u c e d on the o p p o s i t e page b y a heavily inked passage long after the original ink has dried. Since d r y offsets, w h i c h are really smears of dried p i g m e n t , can be p r o d u c e d at any time, t h e y c a n n o t be taken as evidence that the t w o pages w e r e j u x t a p o s e d in Beethoven's day. U s u a l l y it w a s o n l y the darkest blots of ink that p r o d u c e d a discernible d r y offset; b u t a l m o s t a n y t h i n g w r i t t e n w i t h Beethoven's Rotel, or red crayon, r u b b e d off to s o m e e x t e n t o n t h e opposite page and produced a pinkish tinge there. As in the case of d r y offsets f r o m ink, such d r y crayon smears cannot be taken as p r o o f that the adjacent pages s t o o d in the same relation in Beethoven's time; but conversely, w h e n a pink smear is f o u n d opposite a page that contains n o t h i n g written in Rotel, the suspicion m u s t arise that a leaf bearing w r i t i n g in red crayon has been r e m o v e d at that p o i n t . W h e n e v e r possible, the m a t c h i n g of blots w i t h their offsets should be d o n e in the s k e t c h b o o k itself. S o m e t h i n g can be achieved w i t h full-scale p h o t o g r a p h s or w i t h p h o t o c o p i e s , b u t the r e p r o d u c t i o n processes involved w i t h t h e m are apt t o p r o d u c e blemishes all t o o easy to confuse w i t h i n k - m a r k i n g s in the original m a n u s c r i p t . O n e can also be deceived b y " s h o w - t h r o u g h " : darkly inked writing, blots, o r offsets o n the o t h e r side o f a leaf m a y be mistaken in a p h o t o g r a p h for m a r k s o n the side o n e is s t u d y i n g — a confusion that is unlikely to occur w h e n one is e x a m i n i n g the actual s k e t c h b o o k . Similar risks are involved in w o r k i n g w i t h microfilms; a l t h o u g h a v o l u m e like the present one could scarcely have been written w i t h o u t the help that films h a v e afforded, their greatest use is in supplementing, rather than in replacing, c o n tact w i t h the original manuscripts, even if it is only the ink-blots that are u n d e r consideration. 23 For a good illustration, see plates V - V I in Alan Tyson, " T h e 1803 Version of Beethoven's Christus am Oelberge," MQ 56 (1970), 5 5 1 - 8 4 [ = pp. 7 2 - 7 3 in The Creative World of Beethoven, ed. P. H . Lang ( N e w York, 1971)].
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In an examination of the sketchbook itself, it is surprising how many blots and offsets can in fact be matched. And each such link is a guarantee that the two pages concerned faced each other when Beethoven used the book—a vital piece of information for the work of reconstruction. Moreover, it is possible to build on it: if the positions of 2 leaves are unchanged since Beethoven's day, the relative positions of their 2 conjugate leaves cannot have been altered either. In some single-gathering sketchbooks that are liberally blotted, such as D E S S A U E R and M E N D E L S S O H N 6, we can establish by this method alone that almost all the leaves are still in their original positions. The matching of ink-blots and offsets can occasionally be used to detect interpolated leaves. In M E N D E L S S O H N 1 5 , for instance, blots connect page 182 with page 187, showing that pages 183—86 do not belong in their present position (they may not be part of the sketchbook at all). Misplaced leaves can also be assigned their correct positions by blots. In M E N D E L S S O H N 1 5 , again, blots show that pages 23—26 belong before page 1; and in PETTER, folio 43 must originally have stood between folios 68 and 69. When leaves lost from a book turn up elsewhere, their original positions within the book can often be determined by blots and offsets, as proved to be the case with the large number of leaves taken from the P A S T O R A L S Y M P H O N Y S K E T C H B O O K (see Plates 6 - 7 ) . It is important to realize, finally, that the absence of offsets cannot be used as proof that 2 pages were not originally opposite each other. We must be guided by the evidence: in numerous cases it is known that leaves are in their original order, yet messy pages, full of blots and smudges, have produced no offsets on the pages opposite. In such instances Beethoven may have smudged the writing with his sleeve, or he may have left the book open on his desk until all the ink was dry. Where the evidence of ink-blots has been incorporated into the present volume, an asterisk (*) is used in the structural diagram of a sketchbook to indicate a clear ink-blot connection between the facing pages of 2 leaves. Sketch-continuity. The reason for reconstructing Beethoven's sketchbooks is to present their contents complete and in their original sequence. It might therefore be supposed that the order of the sketches is of some significance, and we are bound to wonder whether the matter could be approached from the other direction: can the contents of the sketches help us to determine their order? The answer must be a guarded affirmative. In the course of his studies on intact sketchbooks, Nottebohm noted that in general the sketches for the separate movements of a work are to be found in the same order in the sketchbooks as in the completed work, and he guessed, moreover, that the local sequence of sketches also corresponded to a large extent to the order of the pages. Subsequent work on the sketchbooks has tended to confirm these conclusions; in the P A S T O R A L S Y M P H O N Y S K E T C H B O O K , for instance, we find nearly all the sketches for the symphony's first movement on folios 2 - 9 , most of those for the second movement on folios 9—25, for the third movement on folios 26-28, for the fourth on folios 29-40, and for the fifth on folios 40-48. (This much is a fact; the further inference that the first move-
64
BACKGROUND
ment was largely sketched before the second, the second before the third, and so on, is plausible enough, although it is just possible that Beethoven, planning ahead, occasionally set aside certain pages of the book for particular movements.) A practical consequence is that if a loose sketchleaf contained work on the second movement of the symphony, we would see first if we could find a place for it somewhere between folios 9 and 25. But if we failed to find one, we should continue to search for a place at other points in the book. Nottebohm's generalization, though helpful, is not always reliable, and exceptions are easy to find in most of the sketchbooks. In some cases, sketches play a role similar to that of ink-blots in establishing links between adjacent pages, and by doing so they show that the pages in question are still in their original positions. The clearest examples are where a sketch is continued directly from one page to another; the melodic line goes on its way unbroken (see Plates 12-13, for example). Such sketches are always easiest to identify where the work of sketching is well advanced, so that the melodic line approximates to the final version, or where an underlay of words (as in sketches for a song or a recitative) reinforces the continuity. Caution must be urged here, however. It is in the nature of Beethoven's sketches to reiterate melodic phrases in slightly varied versions, and one cannot always be sure which variant is the one that is continued on a following page. Moreover, it appears that he did turn ahead or back from time to time: ahead, to enter an unrelated idea at the top of an empty page, or back, to take up an old thought or simply to use leftover space. As a result of this practice, a sketch begun on one page was sometimes forced to vault an already filled page that followed, and to find its continuation later in the book. Another aspect of Beethoven's sketching may be helpful here; indeed, it involves a practice adopted precisely for the purpose of linking connected sketches that were physically some distance apart. This is his use of pairs of signs: crosses, double crosses, crossed circles, numbers (such as N° 1000), and the divided word Vide (i.e., "look!"; written as Vi— and =de). One of these signs, placed at the point where a sketch was broken off or needed revision, was intended to draw the eye to its complementary sign, entered on the page where the thought was continued (see Plates 9—10, for example). The potential usefulness of these complementary signs is obvious. It must be stressed, however, that here again Beethoven's actual practice can be ambiguous and even misleading. He was not reluctant to use the same pair of signs (especially Vi= =de) several times on a single page, and he frequently omitted one or the other of a pair. More important, the signs may not always be confined to the same or facing page; some appear to leap several pages ahead or back. It should be clear, then, that establishment of sketch-continuity is of less direct help than the matching of blots with their offsets in determining the original sequence of sketchleaves. Whereas the blotting can only have occurred between facing pages of a book, musical continuities might be pursued almost anywhere. The latter are therefore most helpful as confirmation rather than proof of a suspected juxtaposition. Where the evidence of sketch-continuity has been incorporated in the present volume, a cross (+) is used in the structural diagram of a sketchbook to indicate a proposed link between two pages.
Reconstructing the
Sketchbooks
65
Writing instruments. This final section might well be regarded as a subdivision of its predecessor, since it too is an aspect of continuity in the sketches, but one concerned with the writing media rather than with the contents of what is written. In the standard-format sketchbooks, the ones Beethoven used on his desk at home, most of the entries are in ink. Like his contemporaries, he normally used quill pens which—because he had great difficulty in cutting them himself—were often supplied to him ready for use by friends such as Nikolaus Zmeskall. There are wide variations in the thickness of the pen nibs, and in the amount of ink they deposited on the paper; as a result there are great fluctuations in the size and neatness of Beethoven's handwriting. Since Beethoven used his pocket sketchbooks largely for sketching on his country walks, the entires in them are for the most part in pencil. But it was a not unusual practice of his to ink over the more important sketches on his return home. Other entries in ink, which do not appear to have pencilled forerunners, must also have been inserted when Beethoven was at his desk; so far as we know, he never took to the open air carrying an inkwell. We also occasionally find entries in red crayon (Rotel) in both the pocket sketchbooks and those in standard format. If Beethoven ever used the crayon systematically, it was probably for revising sketches already entered in ink or pencil, or for drawing attention to particular entries. Variations both in the character of the handwriting and in the instrument used can be of some help in the work of reconstruction. When we examine a book written largely in ink, we can often group successive pages according to the relative fineness or bluntness of the nibs that Beethoven used. A good example is GRASNICK 2, in which pages 31—40 are sketched in a broad, somewhat clumsy hand that is easily distinguished f r o m the finer hand of the preceding and following pages. In this case there are 2 leaves missing between page 30 and page 31; should they be found, the sequence indicated by their watermark quadrants may well be confirmed by evidence showing where the broad nib was substituted for the narrow one. Sometimes a standard-format sketchbook has a run of pages with entries in pencil only; this also points to continuity in sketching, especially if the character of the writing is more or less uniform. Even more persuasive, perhaps, is a combination of ink and pencil entries: a series of sketches in ink which are then improved, corrected, or embellished by further entries in pencil. The presence on adjacent pages of what is in effect the result of t w o layers of work—a double continuity—is particularly convincing evidence that the leaves belong together. A final word may be reserved for the ink itself. This had to be mixed frequently, and (on the evidence of the sketchbooks) it varied greatly in color. Black and dark b r o w n are probably the commonest shades; sometimes it has a bluish or greenish tinge, sometimes it is redder or even orange. Only the grosser aspects of this range are normally visible in photographs and microfilms. Looking at the manuscripts themselves, one often gains a vivid impression of Beethoven actively at work. Several pages may follow one another filled with ink of a uniform color, to be followed by pages in a quite different but equally distinctive shade. O r a page may be filled with entries in two or three different colors, evidence
66
BACKGROUND
of separate layers of work. Since we do not know whether Beethoven ever used more than one inkwell at the same time, we cannot be sure that a difference in ink always represents a difference in time—though that is surely probable. But where 2 leaves have sketches in an ink that is identical in color, it seems likely that they have been used at about the same time, and perhaps belong together. The color of the ink can therefore be added to the sharpness of the pen point (and distinguished f r o m pencil and crayon) in our assessment of continuity within the sketchbooks. T h e points made previously about films and photographs are important ones, and it may be helpful to enlarge upon them briefly here, by way of conclusion. Although a great deal of work on the sketchbooks is of necessity done f r o m microfilms or facsimiles, it will be apparent f r o m the foregoing discussion that this is not a very good way to detect or solve the most basic problems of reconstruction. Photographs cannot be used for watermark study, of course, and although it is sometimes possible to w o r k out some of the gathering structure (where the stitching, folds, and stubs have been photographed), there is always a considerable risk of deception involved. Beyond these t w o fundamental aspects of the reconstruction process, however, m u c h can be done with photographs. Musical continuities can be discovered, and ink-blots can often be matched. Even profiles and stitch-holes are sometimes visible. A n d certain aspects of rastrology, in particular the occasional replication of profiles formed by the ends of staves, can be compared quite conveniently in photographs. 2 4 In short, although a satisfactory reconstruction cannot generally be achieved w i t h out firsthand preliminary scrutiny of the relevant manuscripts, a good deal of the subsequent process of refinement—the identification and placement of missing leaves—can be worked out from photographs. This is one reason w h y the various criteria are all potentially valuable, even where they may appear to duplicate one another.
HOW TO READ THE STRUCTURAL CHARTS
Each discussion of a desk or pocket sketchbook in the following survey includes a detailed schematic representation of the structure of the book. With a few exceptions to accommodate special cases, these charts are organized in one of t w o ways, reflecting the basic difference between multiple-gathering and single-gathering sketchbooks. Multiple-gathering sketchbooks. Each chart is arranged as a series of columns, to be read f r o m top to bottom. The minimum number of columns is two, one giving the folio or page numbers of each leaf and the other giving its watermark quadrant and mold. Additional columns are supplied where necessary in some of the charts to note such things as the sheet number or gathering number (a Roman numeral), the 24 T h e replication of these profiles seems to have been first pointed out specifically as a tool for m a t c h ing paper-types f r o m photographs; cf. O w e n Jander, "Staff-Liner Identification, a Technique for the Age of M i c r o f i l m , " J A M S 20 (1967), 112-16.
Reconstructing the
Sketchbooks
67
paper-type (as identified in the list in Appendix A), the number of staves, their total span, the spacing of stitch-holes, and the sketch contents. These extra columns are a convenient way of presenting all the information relevant to the analysis of the heterogeneous homemade sketchbooks; charts of the professionally made books, which are relatively homogeneous, can usually be much simpler. Letters in the sequence of folio or page numbers indicate where leaves have been removed. If candidates for these missing leaves have been identified, they are indicated either directly on the chart or below it. Brackets are used to indicate where 2 leaves make (or once made) a bifolium. See also the symbols listed below. Single-gathering sketchbooks. These charts are laid out on a U-shaped plan; the pair of columns showing folio or page numbers and watermark quadrants begins at the top left and ends at the top right, with the bibliographical center of the book at the bottom. The 2 conjunct leaves of each bifolium are horizontally adjacent, and the leaves of each original sheet are contained by horizontal lines extending completely across the chart. An extra column numbering the individual sheets is sometimes added at the left. And where more than one paper-type is to be found in a book, the type of each sheet is given in a center column. As in the multiple-gathering sketchbooks, letters indicate where leaves have been removed. The following three symbols are used in some of the charts to provide further information relevant to the analysis of a book's structure: *
indicates a connection produced by an ink-blot and its offset on the facing page.
+
indicates either the direct continuation of a sketch from one page to the next or a continuity marked by one of Beethoven's familiar connective devices (Vi= =de, etc.).
§
indicates that two leaves have complementary upper profiles and are therefore f r o m the same original sheet.
Since the first two of these symbols indicate continuity from one leaf to the next, they are especially important where some doubt exists concerning the integrity of a sketchbook's present structure. It has not proved necessary to include them, other than occasionally, in the charts for sketchbooks with a largely intact gathering structure.
CHRONOLOGICAL CHART
72
THE
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m t/5 m in c Q Q o m « (No. 6); pp. 2 3 - 2 4 for the finale of the Quartet in F (No. 1); pp. 25 and 26 for the Minuet and Trio o f the Quartet in B t (No. 6); pp. 2 7 - 3 0 for the finale of the Quartet in G (No. 2); pp. 3 1 - 3 6 for the finale of the Quartet in F (No. 1); p. 37 for the Scherzo of the same work; p. 38 for the Sonata in B|>, Opus 22 . . . ; p. 39 for the finale of the Quartet in G (No. 2); p. 40 for the variations (VI Var. très faciles über ein Originalthema); pp. 42—44 for the Adagio o f the Sonata in Bl>, Op. 22; p. 45 for the Horn Sonata which was played at Punto's concert on April 18, 1800; pp. 4 6 - 4 9 for the finale of the Sonata in B|> ; pp. 50ff. for the Violin Sonata in A minor, Op. 23, together with sketches for Op. 24. (Thayer II, 114-15) Here the 4 extraneous leaves from 1804 (the present folios 3 2 - 3 5 ) appear near the beginning, as folios 3—6, and are followed by the present folios 1 2 - 3 1 in a different sequence. In addition, 2 leaves described at the very beginning (with sketches for Opus 80) and 2 more at the end (apparently with sketches for Opus 23 and Opus 24, but see below) are no longer present in AUTOGRAPH IÇE. O t t o Jahn's unpublished notes on the Petter manuscripts confirm this sequence, omitting only Opus 24; after describing 6 leaves—the present folios 3 2 - 3 5 , preceded by 2 others with sketches for Opus 8 0 — a t the beginning o f the bundle, Jahn continues as follows: 4 Le dernier morceau d'un concert. —Quartetts Op. 18, finale in B—finale F—Menuett B—finale G—finale F—Scherzo F — B Sonate op. 22—finale Quartett G—Bagatelles Andante—Adagio B Sonate op. 22—Hornsonate—finale B Sonate—Sonate op. 23. This earlier state o f the manuscript is documented by yet another pagination which can still be deciphered on most o f the leaves in AUTOGRAPH 19E, though it is n o w very faint. T h e relationship between the sequence o f leaves described by Thayer and Jahn and the present sequence can be seen in the make-up chart o f the reconstructed sketchbook, which follows this discussion. Thus either Petter or Wagener removed 4 leaves from the bundle between 1865, the date o f an earlier Thayer description in the Chronologisches Verzeichniss, and 1874,
•"The second o f the two descriptions in thejahn Nachtass in the DSB. The text was provided to us by Richard Kramer.
92
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
when it came to Berlin. But this was not the first loss. An undated document drawn up by Aloys Fuchs, headed simply "Vermerkung über einige Beethovensche Autographe," includes the following reference to the book when it was still in the possession of Karl Holz: 5 ein Skizzenbuch aus früher Zeit mit Entwürfen zu den 6 Quart: Op. 1 8 / 3 6 Blätter/ C m o l Klav. Conzert etc. etc.
If we assume that Holz did not own the 4 leaves from 1804 (folios 32-35), it appears that 16 leaves have been separated from the bundle since Fuchs saw it and that 12 of these were gone before Thayer saw it in Petter's collection. Another document in Fuchs's hand, written sometime after 1849, suggests that Holz may have sold some of the leaves; it contains the following entry under his name: 6 7. Mehrere Hefte Skizzen u. Notirungen nach Verschiedenheit des Inhalts
C. M . v o n 5 - 1 0 fr pr B o g e n
In reconstructing this sketchbook, then, we must proceed on the assumption that neither its present size nor the present arrangement of its leaves is correct. At some point the original stitching came loose or was discarded, allowing the leaves to be freely shuffled. And since the time of its use by Beethoven at least 16 leaves, perhaps more, were removed. Fortunately, there are various criteria by which we can identify prospective candidates for these missing leaves. We know their approximate date (summer 1800) and therefore their likely content, we can expect them to have stitchholes in the same pattern as the present folios 12—31 of AUTOGRAPH 19E, and we can look for identifications in the hand of Anton GräfFer in their margins (see Plates 4 and 5). And while a variety of paper-types will be represented, the leaves should be of types used by Beethoven in the years up to and including 1800; any later papers will have to be viewed with considerable suspicion. We also have references to the specific contents of some of the missing leaves in the descriptions provided by Thayer, Jahn, and Fuchs. None of the leaves in A U T O GRAPH 19E today has sketches for Opus 37, which seems to be indicated by Fuchs's " C mol Klav. Conzert" and which does date from 1800; although neither Thayer nor Jahn mentions Opus 37 explicitly, Jahn's "dernier morceau d'un concert" might be a reference to the same sketches. The Choral Fantasy, Opus 80, on the other hand, was an occasional work of 1808. We must assume that the 2 leaves with Opus 80 sketches that Thayer and Jahn placed at the very beginning of the bundle, like the present folios 32—35 which followed them, did not belong to the original sketchbook. Thayer's indication, unsupported by Jahn, that the last 2 leaves of the bundle contained sketches for the Violin Sonatas Opus 23 and Opus 24 now appears to have been an error. Sieghard Brandenburg and Richard Kramer have traced the confusion back to circumstances surrounding the revision of the Chronologisches Verzeichniss. A pre-publication copy of this catalogue, with Thayer's own handwritten corrections, treats Opus 23 and Opus 24 together in a single entry that includes a cross-reference 5 DSB, Mus. ms. theor. Kat. 510. This document and the one cited next were brought to our attention by Sieghard Brandenburg. 'Also DSB, Mus. ms. theor. Kat. 510.
Autograph 19e
93
to "Skizzen unter den Quartett-Skizzen O p . 18." 7 A full description of the contents of Petter's sketchbook was originally to have been provided in the entry for O p u s 18, and this description did not mention O p u s 24 explicitly. When he decided to separate O p u s 23 and O p u s 24 in the final version of the catalogue, Thayer retained his original reference to Petter's sketchbook in the entries for both sonatas, perhaps f o r getting that it had applied only to O p u s 23. Apparently this error was then taken over into the description of the sketchbook in the biography as well (see above). According to Brandenburg and Kramer, the original account in the early version of the Verzeichniss extends only as far as page 52, though it does refer to a b o o k of 56 pages. While the identification of O p u s 23 sketches on Thayer's pages 50—52 seems safe, therefore (these are still in AUTOGRAPH 19E), it may be dangerous to extend the reference either to O p u s 24 or to the 2 missing leaves that once followed page 52. T h u s far 14 leaves have been found that satisfy the criteria outlined above for inclusion in AUTOGRAPH 19E. Although in widely scattered collections, all these leaves contain sketches for w o r k s already represented in AUTOGRAPH 19E, and all but one include Graffer's pencilled identifications in their margins. T h e single exception is a leaf in the library of Manhattan College that was apparently separated f r o m the sketchbook by Beethoven himself. 8 Three others of these additional leaves call for special c o m m e n t . O n e is in private hands and could not be examined; it was b r o u g h t to our attention by Sieghard Brandenburg, w h o found photographs of both sides in the H o b o k e n Photogrammarchiv of the Nationalbibliothek in Vienna (PhA 230). T h e leaf contains an inscription by Graffer, the appropriate stitch-holes, and a revision of the end of O p u s 15 III. T h e photograph labelled la is actually of the verso, and the one labelled lb is of the recto. T h e other 2 leaves that call for c o m m e n t are a pair, formerly in the collection of the Toscanini-Horowitz family, with sketches for O p u s 23 and possibly O p u s 24 as well (a sketch in F major labelled "Sonata 3 " " ) . 9 If we were to trust Thayer's accounts of the sketchbook, these 2 leaves m i g h t be the ones that came at the very end (as pages 53-56). This would create a p r o b l e m of a different sort, however, since these leaves have 16 staves, while the manuscript that Thayer described was arranged in such a way that the 16-stave papers came at the beginning, followed in turn by papers with 10 and 12 staves. M o r e likely, the Toscanini leaves were gone before Holz sold the book to Petter. T h e y also contain a f e w entries for O p u s 15, a w o r k included by Jahn in a m e m o r a n d u m made w h e n the manuscript still belonged to Holz (see p. 90), but missing f r o m his later survey of its contents (conceivably, Fuchs's reference to a " C mol Klav. C o n z e r t " was a misrepresentation of these O p u s 15 entries). When the 34 k n o w n leaves are examined for ink-blot connections and musical continuities, an arrangement emerges that is different f r o m Thayer's and also f r o m
' T h i s copy is in the Beethovenhaus, Bonn. It was brought to Kramer's attention (and thus indirectly to ours) by Sieghard Brandenburg. 8 T h e provenance of this leaf extends back to Carl Czerny, w h o claimed to have received it directly f r o m Beethoven. ' T h e s e two leaves were auctioned by Sotheby's in London on 26 May 1983 and are now in a private collection in the Netherlands. Facsimiles of l v and 2r are included in the catalogue for that auction.
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major, Opus 26, finale. T h e sonata was published in March Sketches for the first three movements are scattered through LANDSBERG 7, but only preliminary sketches for the finale are found in that book. 1802.
Piano Sonata in E\> major, Opus 21 No. i. T h e two sonatas O p u s 27 were p u b lished in March 1802. A few preliminary sketches for N o . 1 appear in LANDSBERG 7 , in the midst of work on Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus. Seven Bagatelles for piano, Opus 33. This collection was published in May 1803. T h e date "1782" on the autograph is no doubt a miswritten "1802." There are early sketches for N o . 7 near the end of LANDSBERG 7 , for N o . 6 in KESSLER, and for N o . 1 in WIELHORSKY. A sketch for N o . 5 appears on one of the SAUER leaves (leaf no. 3 in our list). N o sketches are k n o w n for Nos. 2 - 4 . Second Symphony, Opus 36, Larghetto and Scherzo. Sketches for the first movement occur early in LANDSBERG 7 , but Beethoven set the symphony aside when he received the commission for Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus in the winter of 1800-1801. Sketches for the finale are found in the KESSLER sketchbook, which was used in the winter of 1801-1802. There is virtually nothing in either sketchbook for the t w o inner movements. T h e s y m p h o n y was not performed until the spring of 1803. Romance in G major for violin and orchestra, Opus 40. This romance, together with the one in F major, O p u s 50, was offered to Breitkopf & Härtel in October 1802. To j u d g e f r o m the handwriting and the watermark, the autograph (Bonn B M h 9 = SBH 533) could not have been written out before 1800, but there are no sketches for the work in any of the sketchbooks of 1800-1802. Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus, Opus 43. The first performance of the ballet was on 28 March 1801. There are sketches in LANDSBERG 7 for every number except N o . 11, the 8-bar introduction to N o . 12. T h e sketches extend to the very last page of the book, however, and if Beethoven moved directly f r o m LANDSBERG 7 to SAUER, the first pages of the latter book could have contained his last sketches for the ballet. Six Songs on Poems by Geliert, Opus 48. A copy of these songs in the hand of Beethoven's principal copyist, Schlemmer, is dated 8 March 1802. 7 A few sketches on the text of N o . 3 are found in GRASNICK I and thus date f r o m 1 7 9 8 . There are no k n o w n sketches for the other five songs, but a working autograph exists for both N o . 5 and N o . 6 on paper similar to, but not identical with, that of the SAUER sketchbook (Bonn M h 31 and M h 30 = SBH 535 and 536). 8
7 The copy is in the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna; see Joseph Schmidt-Görg, "Zur Entstehungszeit von Beethovens Gellert-Liedern," BJ 5 (1966), 87-91. 8 Mold A of this paper has the letters EGA under a starfish with six (rather than seven) prongs; in mold B the elements are reversed and the letters are backwards. Compare our type 6, the paper of S A U E R .
118
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
Variations for piano trio on "Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu," Opus 121a. Although this work was not published until 1824 and the surviving autograph dates f r o m about 1816-1817, there is one piece of evidence to suggest that Beethoven may have c o m posed it as early as 1801. A w o r k answering the same description—"Variationen fur Klavier Violin et Violoncello mit Introduzzion und grosem letzten Stück" [sic]—was offered to Breitkopf & Härtel on Beethoven's behalf by his brother Carl in a letter of 27 August 1803 (see T D R II, 6 1 9 - 2 0 ) . It has been assumed that Carl was referring here to an earlier set of variations (Opus 44), but the description fits O p u s 121a better. 9 N o sketches for O p u s 121a are k n o w n . It makes excellent sense to assign all of these works to the period between the end of L A N D S B E R G 7 and the beginning of K E S S L E R , or, roughly, between March and D e cember 1801. Some or all of t h e m could therefore have been worked out in portions of the S A U E R sketchbook which have not survived, along with the first t w o movements of the " M o o n l i g h t " Sonata and the finale of the C - m a j o r quintet. T h e autographs of both the quintet and the D - m a j o r sonata, O p u s 28, were inscribed "1801" by Beethoven. T h e distribution of contents on the k n o w n leaves f r o m the S A U E R sketchbook is indicated directly on the chart that begins on page 120.
LITERATURE
" T h e Fitzwilliam M u s e u m , C a m b r i d g e , " The Musical Times 44 (1 March 1903), 159—63 and suppl. plate (facsimile of leaf 3, recto). T h e o d o r von Frimmel, " N e u e Beethovenstudien," Deutsche Kunst- und Musik-Zeitung (Vienna, 1 January 1891), 2 - 3 ; includes a partial transcription of leaf 10. , Beethoven-Jahrbuch I (1908), 1 1 2 - 1 3 and 185-86, with facsimiles of leaf 20. , "Verzeichniss der Beethovenschriften in der Sammlung von E d w a r d Speyer in Shenley bei L o n d o n , " Beethoven-Jahrbuch II (1909), 3 0 5 - 3 0 7 . , Beethoven-Handbuch, vol. II (Leipzig, 1926), p. 48 (on O p u s 29) and pp. 1 9 9 200 (on O p u s 27 and O p u s 28). Heinrich Schenker, ed., Musikalische Seltenheiten, vol. I (Vienna, 1921), facsimiles of leaf 1 (pp. 3 4 - 3 5 ) , leaf 3 (pp. 3 6 - 3 7 ) , and leaf 5 (pp. 3 8 - 3 9 ) . Donald F. Tovey, "Autographs f r o m the Collection of M r . Edward Speyer," ML 8 (1927), 2 5 3 - 6 1 (esp. 2 5 8 - 6 0 ) and plates V I - V I I (facsimiles of leaf 1). Max Unger, Eine Schweizer Beethovensammlung (Zürich, 1939), pp. 1 6 6 - 6 7 and plate 15 (facsimile of leaf 1, verso). Wilhelm Virneisel, "Aus Beethovens Skizzenbuch zum Streichquintett op. 29," Zeitschrift für Musik 113 (1952), 142-46; includes partial facsimiles of leaf 22 and a partial transcription of leaf 17.
' O p u s 44 has n o i n t r o d u c t i o n , and its coda is smaller than that o f O p u s 121a. See the discussion b y Alan T y s o n in The Musical Times 111 (1970), 1001.
119
Sauer J. A. Stargardt.
Katalog 554. 13. Auktion
1961: Autographensammlung
Dr. Robert
Am-
man . . . 16. Nov. 1961, p. 12, item 13 and plate X V (facsimile of leaf 14, verso). Beethoven-Ausstellung
der Stadt Wien. 26. Mai bis 30. August 1910. Katalog. Includes a
facsimile of leaf 9, recto. Walter Szmolyan, "Beethoven-Funde in Mödling," Osterreichische Musikzeitschrift 26 (1971), 9 - 1 6 (esp. 12-13), with facsimiles of leaf 10. Kramer/diss, pp. 34-42, 166-73. Bathia Churgin, "Beethoven's Sketches for His String Quintet, Op. 29," in Studies in Musical Sources and Style: Essays in Honor of Jan LaRue,
ed. E d w a r d H . R o e s n e r
and Eugene K. Wolf (Madison, Wisconsin, forthcoming).
120
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
SAUER
leaves with Sketches for Opus 27 No. 2, Finale Location
Sauer
cover
Watermark
1. B o n n M h 6 6 ( S B H 6 1 1 )
yes
lb
2. Modena, Biblioteca Estense (not in SV)
no
3b
3. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, SV 314
no
4b?
4. Harold Hutcheson, Sandwich, Mass., SV 333
no
3b?
?
?
6. Bonn Mh 68 (SBH 612)
yes
4a
7. Bonn BSk 10 (SBH 613)
yes
2a
8. Berlin, DSB Autograph 31
yes
la
9. Vienna, Stadtbibliothek, M H 4169 (SV 394)
no
3a
10. Moldenhauer Archives, Spokane, Wash. (not in SV)
no
2a?
11. Stockholm, SMf, SV 380
no
4a?
12. Geneva-Cologny, Biblioteca Bodmeriana, SV 325
no
4a
+
5. Formerly Fritz Hunziker, Bern, Switzerland, SV 309
SAUER
leaves with Sketches for Opus 28
121
Sauer
SAUER
leaves with Sketches for O p u s 27 N o . 2, Finale
Contents
References (see "Literature",)
1. R: early sketch for the closing theme; t w o sketches in B M i n o r V: early draft of the exposition
formerly Speyer and Bodmer: Frimmel, BJ II, 305-306. Schenker, 3 4 - 3 5 (facs.) Tovey, ML, 2 5 8 - 6 0 (facs.) Unger, 1 6 6 - 6 7 (facs.)
2. R: sketches for the exposition, group II V: draft of the exposition (cont. to 3r) 3. R: draft of the exposition (cont. f r o m 2v) V: conclusion of the exposition draft; sketch for O p u s 33 N o . 5
MT 1903 (facs.) Schenker, 3 6 - 3 7 (facs.)
4. R: sketches for the development and coda V: coda sketches (cont. f r o m recto) 5. R: sketches for the exposition, group II, and for the end of the recapitulation and the coda V: draft of the development, with revisions SAUER
formerly Wilhelm Kux: Schenker, 3 8 - 3 9 (facs.)
leaves with Sketches for O p u s 28
6. R: early sketches for I, exposition and development V: brief sketches in D Major, G Minor, and F Minor; sketch for I, transition and group II ( m m . 40ff.), beginning with " = d e " 7. R: draft of I, exposition, m m . 89ff. V: early ideas for II and IV; unidentified sketch in D Major, 3 / 8
possibly the Müller leaf cited in Frimmel, Handbuch II, 200.
8. R: draft of Scherzo and Trio; sketch for IV V: draft of I, exposition 9. R: sketch for II; draft of I, development and recapitulation (cont. to verso) V: draft of I (cont. f r o m recto) 10. R: draft of II, m m . 39ff. V: draft of II (cont. f r o m recto)
formerly Arlet: Frimmel, 1891, 2 - 3 . Szmolyan, ÖMZ, 1 2 - 1 3 (facs.)
11. R: draft of III, m m . 45ff. V: sketches for IV 12. R: sketches for IV V: e m p t y
possibly the Müller leaf cited in Frimmel, Handbuch II, 200.
122
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
SAUER
leaves with Sketches for Opus 29
Location
Sauer cover
Watermark
13. Vienna A 33
no
4a
14. Dr. Myron Prinzmetal, Beverly Hills, California (not in SV)
no
15. Vienna A32
yes
la
16. Berlin, DSB Grasnick 21, folio 1
yes
4b
17. Berlin, DSB Grasnick 21, folio 2
yes
2b
18. Stanford University, SV 370
no
4b
19. Bologna, Accademia Filarmonica (not in SV)
no
lb
20. Oslo University (not in SV)
yes
3a
21. Vienna, Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 16447, folios 1 9 - 2 0 (not in SV)
yes
2a
+
22. Berlin, DSB Autograph 61a
'Leaf 22 belongs somewhere earlier in the overall sequence.
3a
Sauer SAUER
123
leaves with Sketches for Opus 29
Contents
References (see "Literature",)
13. R: sketches for a piano fantasy in C Minor V: draft of I, exposition, with revisions
Kramer, 166-73
14. R: sketches for I, exposition V: sketches for I, exposition; possible sketches for the fantasy on 13r
formerly Boerner and Kalbeck(?): Frimmel, BJ I, 112-13. Frimmel, Handbuch II, 48. Virneisel, ZJM, 144. Stargardt, 1961 (facs.)
15. R: sketches for I, exposition and recapitulation V: sketches for I, exposition, development, and recapitulation (draft of development cont. to 16r) 16. R: draft of I, development (cont. from 15v) V: sketches for I, development, recapitulation, and coda 17. R: draft of I, recapitulation and coda (begins in same bar as the first sketch on 16v) V: conclusion of draft from recto 18. R: sketches for I, development V: sketches for I, development (cont. from recto) and recapitulation 19. R: brief sketches for II; draft of I, recapitulation and coda V: conclusion of draft from recto 20. R: sketches for II V: sketches for II (first cont. from recto)
formerly Heuberger: Frimmel, BJ I, 185-86 (facs.)
21. R: early sketches for III; sketches for I and II V: sketch for II, coda 22. R: early sketches for IV
V: sketch for I, recapitulation (mm. 219-60)
Virneisel, ZJM, 143 (facs.)
KESSLER
LOCATION: Vienna, G d M (A 34) PRESENT SIZE: 9 6 l e a v e s
DATE: ca. D e c e m b e r 1801 to ca. J u l y 1802 EDITION: Beethovenhaus, B o n n (1978), ed. Sieghard B r a n d e n b u r g ; facsimile, ibid. (1976)
T h e KESSLER sketchbook is today in the Gesellschaft der M u s i k f r e u n d e , Vienna, where it is catalogued a m o n g the Beethoven autographs as A 34. It m a y have been lot 35 o f the Nachlass auction catalogue; according to the buyer lists, 1 that w a s the only lot o f sketches b o u g h t b y "Stein j u n . , " and an inscription inside the sketchb o o k ' s front cover b y the c o m p o s e r and pianist J o s e p h Christoph Kessler (1800— 1872), after w h o m the b o o k is usually known, indicates that it was given to Kessler o n 24 N o v e m b e r 1828 by " H e r r Carl Stein Claveirmacher [sic] in W i e n , " i.e., C a r l A n d r e a s Stein (1797-1863), the last active member o f the f a m o u s family o f p i a n o builders. T h e sketchbook w a s still in Kessler's possession when N o t t e b o h m p u b lished his m o n o g r a p h on it in 1865 (see "Literature"); but after Kessler's death it passed to C o u n t Albert A m a d e i , and subsequently to his mother, the C o u n t e s s A n n a A m a d e i . She presented the b o o k to the Gesellschaft der M u s i k f r e u n d e in 1899. KESSLER is one o f the few sketchbooks to have c o m e d o w n to us intact; no leaves have been r e m o v e d . This was stressed b y N o t t e b o h m when he w r o t e a b o u t the b o o k in 1865, and his account needs no correction today. It w a s the first time that he had described a sketchbook in print, and there is, therefore, s o m e interest in the term i n o l o g y he employed. After recording that it was a v o l u m e (Heft) o f 192 pages, each with 16 staves and o b l o n g in format, he noted (p. 3): The volume, unlike several of the others, is not formed from bifolia [Bogen] that have been strung together. Instead, it has been properly bound like a book from a bookbinder [echt buchbindertndssig gebunden]; it has been trimmed and has a stiff cardboard
1 Lot 35 was described simply as "Notirbuch," and the purchase price was 2 florins and 44 kreuzer. T h e attribution to "Steiner j u n . " in Fuchs's copy of the catalogue was apparently a mistake.
124
Kessler
125
cover. It was already bound in this way before being used and written in. This circumstance, apparently trivial in itself, is of particular importance insofar as the sketchbook has been preserved intact, not merely in the condition in which it left the binder but in the condition in which Beethoven laid it aside. All the gatherings [Lagett] are complete; there is no sign of a missing or torn-out leaf. This no doubt rare manifestation of completeness allows one to obtain an uninterrupted view of Beethoven's way of working (so far as this is ever possible with sketchbooks) and to study the sketches without fear that they have suffered any external disruption.
Nottebohm did not describe the gathering-structure of the 96 leaves, though doubtless he inspected it. There are in fact eleven two-sheet gatherings (8 leaves each) with a single-sheet gathering (4 leaves) at both the beginning and the end of the book—a sophisticated arrangement which, together with the careful sewing (and the trimming and stiff covers), shows that the making of this sketchbook was a professional job.
DATE OF THE SKETCHBOOK
While it is clear enough that the time during which Beethoven used the sketchbook extends roughly from the winter of 1801-1802 to the summer of 1802, there are difficulties in setting more precise limits. Nottebohm argued that the sketchbook was used between about October 1801 and about May 1802. Recent research suggests that both dates may be a little too early, but only by a month or two. In support of the former date, Nottebohm drew attention to the fact that "in the first quarter of the sketchbook there are groups of various dances of a kind that was especially popular in Vienna at the turn of the century" (p. 4). These dances were played at the balls held between November and the beginning of Lent. (In 1802, Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, fell on 3 March.) So the sketchbook need not in fact have been started as early as October 1801; these entries could have been made at any time between October 1801 and February 1802. The dances are on several of the first 23 leaves. They are followed (folios 24—43) by sketches for two orchestral works, the terzetto "Tremate, empi, tremate," Opus 116, and a concertante for violin, cello, and piano that remained unfinished (though a score of the first movement was started). Earlier in the book, too, before the last of the dances, there are other sketches for possible orchestral pieces and for the finale of the Second Symphony, a composition on which he had been working for some time. From a letter of 22 April 1802 from Beethoven's brother Carl to Breitkopf & Härtel (TDR II, 611-612) we learn that Beethoven had recently suffered a disappointment: an opportunity for him to give a concert (Akademie) in the Hoftheater had been withdrawn by its director, Baron von Braun, and the theater had been assigned instead to other artists. It is plausible to connect the sketches for orchestral works in this part of KESSLER with the planned Akademie. Although its proposed date is not known, it was probably planned for a day in Holy Week (11-17 April 1802) or (less likely) in the preceding two weeks. An earlier letter from Carl to Breitkopf & Härtel of 28 March (TDR II, 610-611) leaves the impression that at that date the Akademie was still expected to take place; its cancellation must therefore have been at very
126
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
short notice. The point in KESSLER at which the sketches for the orchestral works already mentioned break off—folio 43—can possibly be linked in this way to a date in or near the first two weeks o f April 1802. Although these are tenuous arguments, they suggest that KESSLER may have been begun rather later than October 1801: perhaps in December 1801, perhaps in January 1802. Nottebohm conjectured that the last entries in KESSLER were written no later than May 1802. His argument is as follows. The entries in KESSLER are entirely in ink, and were therefore not written in the open air and on walks (N 1865, p. 4). Thus it is likely that the sketchbook was used in Vienna and not in Heiligenstadt, the country resort where he spent the summer months of 1802. The time o f Beethoven's departure from Vienna can be roughly determined from a sentence in the "Heiligenstadt Testament" o f 6—10 October 1802, in which he stated that he had been in the country for half a year ("dieses halb Jahr"). This suggests he was already there by May (p. 43). But Nottebohm's argument is a weak one, and in later essays on sketchbooks he went on to describe many instances o f Beethoven filling a desk sketchbook with entries in ink while living in the country. Instead, the date o f the end of KESSLER has to be calculated from the complex chronology o f the Violin Sonatas Opus 30 and the Piano Sonatas Opus 31, the compositions to which most of the book's second half is devoted. Sieghard Brandenburg has recently thrown some light on the genesis o f both sets in his edition o f KESSLER. He has drawn attention to a passage in Carl's letter of 22 April 1802 to Breitkopf & Härtel: "At the present time we have three sonatas for pianoforte and violin, and if you are interested, we shall send them to you." Hitherto this passage has been mistranscribed; the words "und Violin, und" after "Klavier" were omitted, 2 and the sentence was accordingly assumed to refer not to Opus 30 but to Opus 31. It seems unlikely that the Opus 30 violin sonatas had really been completed by 22 April, but they may have been ready before the end of May. For on 1 June 1802 Carl again wrote to Breitkopf & Härtel offering new works (TDR II, 612-13); the violin sonatas are no longer mentioned, so they may have been disposed o f to another publisher, the Bureau des Arts et d'Industrie, which brought them out in May and June 1803. Sketches for Opus 30 extend from folio 43 to folio 81 in KESSLER. Another letter yields clues to the genesis o f the Opus 31 piano sonatas, which were written in response to an invitation from Hans Georg Nägeli o f Zurich to send contributions for his Répertoire des Clavecinistes. This is a letter-draft dated 18 July 1802 from Nägeli to his business partner, Johann Kaspar Horner. Nägeli's letter, which concerned a misunderstanding about the honorarium, is cited in detail by Brandenburg. It implies that there had been at least two earlier letters from Zurich to Beethoven (or his brother) in Vienna, the first no doubt soliciting a contribution and the second suggesting a fee. A calculation of postal times suggests that the original invitation may have reached Vienna at the end o f May. If Beethoven set to work on the sonatas at once, the sketches in KESSLER—which are mainly for the first two movements o f the G-major sonata—may have been entered in June. If, on the other hand, he waited for the misunderstanding to be cleared up first, the last entries in 2
An annotation by the letter's recipient made it appear that the three words had been crossed out.
127
Kessler
KESSLER
Folio -
1
-
2
- 3 4 5
6 I—
7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15
:
16
17 18 19 20 21
Quadrant lb 2b 3b 4b 2a la 2a la 4a 3a 4a 3a 3a 4a 2a la 4a 3a la 2a
27 28
4a 3a 3b 4b lb 2b 2a la
29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36
2a la 4a 3a 2a la 4a 3a
22 23 24 25
:
26
:
Folio
[
37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44
3b 4b 4a 3a 2a la lb 2b
45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52
3b 4b 2a la 4a 3a lb 2b
53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
2a la 3b 4b lb 2b 4a 3a
61 62
4b 3b lb 2b 3b 4b 2b lb
63 64 65 66 67
68
Folio
Quadrant
All t h e p a p e r is t y p e 9. T h e T S o f t h e 16 staves is 190 m m .
69 70 71 72 c
73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80
[81 82 83 84
Quadrant 2a la 4a 3a 2a la 4a 3a la 2a 3b 4b lb 2b 3a 4a
87 88 89 90 91 92
4a 3a lb 2b 3b 4b 2a la
I— 9 3 - 94 - 95 96
2a la 4a 3a
85
86
[
128
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
may have been made somewhat later—in July or even August 1 8 0 2 . It is unlikely that he would have embarked on a set of three piano sonatas without the inducement of a commission. For a fuller discussion of the chronology of KESSLER, see pp. 13—17 of Brandenburg's edition. 3 KESSLER
The chief contents of
KESSLER
are as follows:
Song, "Opferlied," cf. WoO 126
fols. 3 v - 7 v
Scena and Aria, "No, non turbarti," WoO 92a
fols. 7v-15r
Contratänze for orchestra, WoO 14 Nos. 2, 9, 10
fols. 9r, lOr
Bagatelle for piano, Opus 33 No. 6
fol. 14v
Second Symphony, Opus 36, finale
fols. 15r, 17r-22r
Ländlerische Tänze for 2 violins and bass, W o O 15
fols. 22v—23r
Terzetto for soprano, tenor, and bass with orchestra, "Tremate, empi, tremate," Opus 116
fols. 24v—37r
Three Violin Sonatas, Opus 30, including Opus 47 III (the original finale to Opus 30 No. 1)
fols. 37v—38r, 4 3 r - 8 1 r
Concertante for violin, cello, piano, and orchestra (unfinished)
fols. 38v-39r, 40v-43r, 71 r
Bagatelle for piano, Opus 119 No. 5
fol. 59r
Piano Sonata in D minor, Opus 31 No. 2
fol. 65v
Variations for piano in E(. major, Opus 35
fols. 82v-88v, 8 9 r - v
Variations for piano in F major, Opus 34
fols. 88v, 90v
Piano Sonata in G major, Opus 31 No. 1
fols. 88r, 91v-96v
The contents of KESSLER are catalogued in more detail in Brandenburg's edition: page by page on pp. 18—27, and arranged by works on pp. 28-39.
LITERATURE
G. Nottebohm, Ein Skizzenbuch von Beethoven (Leipzig, 1865). Abbreviated in the text as N 1865. Kramer/diss. Richard Kramer, "An Unfinished Concertante of 1802," in BS 2, pp. 33—65. 3 In his commentary (pp. iii-v) to the facsimile, published two years earlier, Brandenburg came to a slightly different conclusion about the date at which the sketchbook was filled.
129
Kessler S i e g h a r d B r a n d e n b u r g , ed., Ludwig
van Beethoven:
Kesslersches Skizzenbuch,
two
vols., transcription (Bonn, 1978) and facsimile (Bonn, 1976). The facsimile is also published separately for the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Vienna, by Emil Katzbichler (Munich and Salzburg, 1976). Barry Cooper, "The Origins of Beethoven's D-minor Sonata Op. 31 No. 2," ML 62 (1981), 261-80. Lewis Lockwood, "Beethoven's Earliest Sketches for the Eroica Symphony," MQ 67 (1981), 457-78. Christopher Reynolds, "Beethoven's Sketches for the Variations in E(., Op. 35," in BS 3, pp. 47-84. , "Ends and Means in the Second Finale to Beethoven's Op. 30, no. 1," in Beethoven Essays. Studies in Honor of Elliot Forbes, ed. Lewis L o c k w o o d a n d Phyllis
Benjamin (Cambridge, Mass., 1984), pp. 127-45.
WlELHORSKY
LOCATION: MOSCOW, C M M C PRESENT SIZE: DATE: EDITION:
(F. 1 5 5 , N o . 1)
87 leaves fall 1802 to May 1803 M O S C O W (1962), ed. N . L. Fishman, 3 vols.: facsimile, transcription, and commentary
T h e W I E L H O R S K Y sketchbook, which is today in the Central (Glinka) M u s e u m for Music Culture in Moscow, owes its name to the man to whose library it belonged when it was first described in print by Wilhelm von Lenz (1860). This was C o u n t Mikhail Yurevich Wielhorsky (1787-1856). H o w he had acquired the sketchbook is not k n o w n . H e had met Beethoven when on a visit to Vienna in 1808, but it is unlikely that the sketchbook came into his possession before Beethoven's death. T h e Countess Calliste Rzewuska, one of whose aunts had married C o u n t Ferdinand Waldstein, was probably an intermediate owner of the book (1832), and it probably did not come into Wielhorsky's hands till after 1852. For Lenz, w h o already knew Wielhorsky well in the 1830s and was allowed to work in his library at St. Petersburg, makes n o mention of the sketchbook in his 1852 book (Beethoven et ses trois styles, St. Petersburg). According to N . L. Fishman (1962), the possibility cannot even be excluded that the family acquired the sketchbook in the period between Wielhorsky's death in 1856 and Lenz's 1860 account. In 1871, when Ludwig Nohl visited St. Petersburg and examined the book, it was in the possession of Wielhorsky's daughter, the wife of Senator Venevitinov; it subsequently passed to her son Mikhail Alekseevich Venevitinov. In 1900 the composer Sergey Ivanovich Taneev, with Venevitinov's approval, tried to persuade the publisher Belaieff to issue an edition of it; the attempt was unsuccessful. Venevitinov died in 1901. By 1927 the sketchbook was in one of the Moscow State Archives; in 1939 it was transferred to the Moscow Conservatory Library, and in 1943 to the State Central Museum for Music Culture, n o w k n o w n as the "Glinka" Museum. Its publication in 1962 in a three-volume edition consisting of facsimile, transcription, and commentary—from which much of the above information is derived—has resulted in its contents at last becoming well known.
130
Wielhorsky
131
Wilhelm von Lenz's short account of 1860 was soon superseded by the much fuller and more accurate survey of Ludwig Nohl, which appeared in 1872. (Nohl had traveled to St. Petersburg in 1871 in the hope of acquiring the sketchbook for a German library.) Thayer's brief remarks on the book, also published in 1872, were based on Lenz's statements, which he tried in places to correct. Nottebohm never saw the sketchbook and therefore published no account of it, although in 1876 he sought permission from the Wielhorsky family to have it sent to Berlin for three weeks; this request was not granted. Thus for our knowledge of the sketchbook's condition a hundred years ago we are largely dependent on Nohl. Today the sketchbook has 174 pages (87 leaves)—the same number that Nohl recorded, though Lenz had given the number of pages as 172. It was Nohl who paginated the book (odd-numbered pages, or rectos, only); the sole defect that he observed within the book was the loss of the upper half of pages 19/20. (The top seven staves have in fact been removed.) Nohl also noted that the sketchbook had a light grey-blue wrapper at the beginning but not at the end, and that after the last leaf there was evidence that 5 leaves had been lost. A recent examination of the sketchbook by Sieghard Brandenburg (to whom we are indebted for many details of the information presented here) not only confirms the accuracy o f most of Nohl's account but shows WIELHORSKY to be a typical example of a professionally made book. The 87 leaves represent (with one leaf missing) 22 single-sheet gatherings, and we could expect it originally to have had 96 leaves in 24 gatherings. The stitches that secure each gathering are passed through six holes, separated by about 28, 35, 25, 62, and 30 m m (from top to bottom). 1 These holes lie directly along the folds or a little to the left of them. The sewing, which is obviously the original one, is brought together in five knots at the back, where glue has been added and the grey-blue wrapper described by Nohl has been attached. This wrapper, as Nohl noted, is missing at the end of the book, but at the front it carries a white ornamental label with the pencilled number " 6 4 " in a later hand, as well as the word "Carton"; Nohl explains this as a reference to its location in Count Wielhorsky's library. The number " 6 4 " is also written on the back page (page 174), an indication that the several missing leaves which followed must have been gone before Wielhorsky acquired the sketchbook. Inspection of the make-up shows that the sequence of 22 gatherings is intact, with the exception of the twelfth gathering, where the first leaf has been removed, leaving a stub between pages 112 and 113. But after the last page (page 174) there are four stubs (not five, as Nohl indicated), glued to the spine and to the preceding gathering; the stubs are themselves gathered, and show that a twenty-third gathering has been lost at this point. There are three paper-types in the book. The first (our type 4) is found only in the first gathering (pages 1-8). The second (type 9) forms gatherings II-VII (pages 9 - 5 6 ) , and the third (type 10) forms gatherings V I I I - X X I I (pages 57-174). The last two types have similar watermarks and were presumably made by the same firm. All three types have the same rastrology (16 staves with a T S of 190 mm). ' There is some variation in spacing within the book, and in the middle part the two inner holes are absent from some gatherings.
132
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
Eight leaves have been traced which were clearly once part o f
WIELHORSKY:
Bonn Mh 69 (SBH 635). Single leaf, paper-type 10, quadrant lb. Contents: Opus 85 Nos. 2, 3. Bonn Mh 70 (SBH 636). Single leaf, paper-type 10, quadrant la. Contents: Opus 85 Nos. 3, 4. Modena, Biblioteca Estense. Two leaves, paper-type 10, quadrants 3a, 2a. Contents: Opus 85 Nos. 3, 5, 6. Bonn Mh 71 (SBH 637). Four leaves (gathered sheet), paper-type 9, quadrants 4a, 3a, 2a, la. Contents: Opus 85 Nos. 1, 3, 5, 6; piano pieces; "Der Wachtelschlag," WoO 129 (three notes only); cadenza for Opus 37 I. Bonn Mh 70 is inscribed "Beethovens Original Manusscript [sic] schenkt mir Calliste Rzewuska am 29 februar 1832," and a similar (but undated) inscription on Mh 69 indicates that she was a countess. It will be seen that all these leaves have sketches for Opus 85, and all are on one o f the two main paper-types found in the book. Furthermore, the exact positions that four o f them once occupied in the book can be determined by matching the leaves with the stubs that remain; the results are confirmed by ink-blots and the sequence o f watermark quadrants: (a) The leaf missing between pages 112 and 113 is Bonn Mh 69. (b) The stub directly following the last page of the book, page 174, cannot at present be matched. (c) But the pair o f stubs immediately after this belong to the 2 leaves (originally a bifolium) in Modena. (d) And the final stub is that of Bonn Mh 70. The 4 leaves o f Mh 71 present at first sight more o f a problem. That they were once part of W I E L H O R S K Y cannot be doubted; the pattern of stitch-holes along the central folds is identical with that of the book. The puzzle is to discover where they came from. For there are no further stubs at the end o f the book after those already discussed and allocated, and although the sketch-contents o f this gathered sheet correspond to those of W I E L H O R S K Y ' S final pages, its paper-type is that o f the early part o f the book (pages 9 - 5 6 ) . The only possible place for the leaves, it becomes clear, is at the end o f the book, after the reconstructed gathering XXIII; the earlier gatherings remain firmly in place, and are in most cases linked to their neighbors by ink-blots or continuity o f contents. These 4 leaves are unlikely to have left stubs behind; instead, they seem to have been extracted by cutting the stitching. Since no corresponding sewing threads remain in the book at that place, those must also have been removed.
Wielhorsky
133
T h e seemingly anomalous paper-type is also less problematical if we recall that the paper-type o f the first gathering in WIELHORSKY is also " a n o m a l o u s . " It m a y be that those gatherings were added by the binder only after the other gatherings had been sewn; in the sketchbook immediately preceding W I E L H O R S K Y , the K E S S L E R sketchbook, the first and last gatherings are even o f a different size f r o m all the others. It follows, then, that o f the 9 leaves needed for a complete reconstruction o f WIELHORSKY, 8 have been found. The only leaf still untraced is the one that i m m e diately followed page 174, the last page o f the book in its present state.
DATE OF THE S K E T C H B O O K T h e earliest sketches in WIELHORSKY cannot be dated with precision, but m u s t belong to the second half o f 1802. T w o works begun at the end o f KESSLER, the Variations for piano O p u s 34 and O p u s 35, are sketched further at the beginning o f WIELHORSKY. B u t it is likely that an interval of time separates the end o f one sketchb o o k f r o m the beginning o f the other. There are almost no sketches in K E S S L E R for the finale o f the Piano Sonata O p u s 31 N o . 1, and only a few for the Sonata O p u s 31 N o . 2. Since WIELHORSKY begins with sketches for O p u s 31 N o . 3, it m u s t be ass u m e d that the first two sonatas were completed in another place. For the date o f the last sketches in KESSLER—possibly as early as J u n e or as late as about August 1802— see pp. 126 and 128. T h e start o f WIELHORSKY must accordingly have been a month or two later than that. Beethoven offered the two sets o f piano variations to Breitkopf & Härtel for the first time on 18 October 1802. Since they are described in his letter as consisting o f eight and o f thirty variations (instead o f six and o f fifteen variations with a fugue), neither set had reached its final form by that date. But the autographs o f both sets are dated " 1 8 0 2 . " And the autograph o f the O p u s 33 bagatelles (Opus 33 N o . 1 is sketched on page 44 o f WIELHORSKY) is dated " 1 7 8 2 " — a l m o s t certainly a miswriting by Beethoven for the year " 1 8 0 2 . " 2 Thus it looks as if W I E L H O R S K Y was begun in the fall o f 1802—whether the late or early fall is less clear. It is a pity that no clue is apparently afforded by the cadenza on page 15. 3 T h e last sketches in the book are fixed more precisely by the date o f two concerts. O n 5 April 1803, Beethoven gave an Akademie at the Theater-an-der-Wien at which the oratorio Christus am Oelberge, O p u s 85, and the Third Piano Concerto, O p u s 37, were performed for the first time. Sketches for the oratorio fill the second half o f the b o o k , and a sketch for a cadenza to the concerto's first movement is found on one o f the loose leaves now in B o n n (Mh 71). T h e " K r e u t z e r " Sonata, O p u s 47, was first performed on 24 M a y 1803; sketches for its first two movements (the finale had been 2 Several other instances o f Beethoven miswriting a number or date are cited in BS 1, p. 15, footnote 13. 3 T h e cadenza may have been written for a pupil such as Ries (there are s o m e simple études on this page, too)—perhaps for Mozart's A-major Concerto, K. 414 I. These entries suggest that Beethoven was already back in Vienna.
134
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
written earlier) are found at the end of W I E L H O R S K Y . Since both the oratorio and the sonata are known to have been composed very rapidly, and only a short time before they were performed, it is likely that the second half of the sketchbook was used in the early months of 1803 and that the latest entries date from May 1803. The chief contents of
WIELHORSKY
are as follows:
Piano Sonata in E|> major, Opus 31 No. 3
pp. 1 - 1 1
Variations for piano in E(> major, Opus 35
pp. 12-14, 2 2 - 4 3
Cadenza (for a piano concerto in A?)
p. 15
Variations for piano in F major, Opus 34
pp. 1 6 - 2 2
Bagatelle for piano, Opus 119 No. 3
p. 24
Bagatelle for piano, Opus 33 No. 1
p. 44
Third Symphony (Eroica), Opus 55, early ideas
pp. 4 4 - 4 5
Terzetto for soprano, tenor, and bass with orchestra, "Tremate, empi, tremate," Opus 116
pp. 4 6 - 4 7
Duetto for soprano, tenor, and orchestra, "Nei giorni tuoi felici," W o O 93
pp. 4 6 - 8 5
Duetto, "Languisco e m o r o , " Hess 229
pp. 8 8 - 8 9
Christus am Oelberge, O p u s 85
pp. 90-97, 102-105, 107-58, 160-66, 174
Violin Sonata in A minor ("Kreutzer"), Opus 47
pp.166-73
Pages 98-101, 106, and 159 are empty.
LITERATURE
W i l h e l m v o n Lenz, Kritischer Katalog sämmtlicher
Werke Ludwig
van Beethovens
mit
Analysen derselben, III (Hamburg, 1860), pp. 221-22. Thayer II, 391-93. Ludwig Nohl, " Z u r Biographie Beethovens. 2. Ein Skizzenbuch von 1802—3," Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 68 (1872), 117-18 (dated "St. Petersburg im Jan. 1872"); reprinted in Nohl's Beethoven, Liszt, Wagner (Vienna, 1874), pp. 95—101. Boris Schwarz, "Beethoveniana in Soviet Russia," MQ 47 (1961), 4—21; see esp. pp. 4 - 9 . N . L. Fishman, Kniga eskizov Beethoven za 1802-1803gody (Moscow, 1962), 3 vols.: transcription, facsimile, and commentary. , "Beiträge zur Beethoveniana," Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft, 9 (1967), 317— 24; see esp. pp. 320—23. , "Das Skizzenbuch Beethovens aus den Jahren 1802—1803 aus dem Familienarchiv Wielhorsky und die ersten Skizzen zur 'Eroica,'" in Bericht über den internationalen musikwissenschaftlichen
Kongress: Bonn 1970 (Kassel, 1971), pp. 104—107.
135
Wielhorsky
, "Das Moskauer Skizzenbuch Beethovens aus dem Archiv von M. J. Wielhorsky," in Beiträge zur Beethoven-Bibliographie, ed. Kurt Dorfmüller (Munich, 1978), pp. 61-67. Alan Tyson, "The 1803 Version of Beethovens Christus am Oelberge," MQ 56 (1970), 551—84; reprinted in P. H. Lang, ed., The Creative World of Beethoven (New York, 1971), pp. 49-82. This article includes a facsimile of Bonn Mh 69, recto. Lewis Lockwood, "Beethoven's Earliest Sketches for the Eroica Symphony," MQ 67 (1981), 457-78. Christopher Reynolds, "Beethoven's Sketches for the Variations in El., Op. 35," in BS 3, pp. 47-84.
WIELHORSKY
Sheet
I
Paper-type/ Quadrant
Pages
|— r L 1—
1/2
4
4b
Sheet
VII
|— 49/50 | - 51/52 L 53/54 L - 55/56
3b 2b lb
3/4
* 5/6 * 7/8 * *
II
|— 9/10 r- 11/12 L 13/14 1— 15/16
Paper-type/ Quadrant
Pages
9
4a 3a 2a la
VIII
[— 57/58 ¡- 59/60 L 61/62 L - 63/64
*
9
3b 4b lb 2b
10
2a la 4a 3a
+
+
III
|— 17/18 I- 19/20 L 21/22 23/24
9
2a la 4a 3a
IX
i— 65/66 r- 67/68 L 69/70 71/72
10
lb 2b 3b 4b
IV
r— 25/26 r- 27/28 L 29/30 31/32
9
lb 2b 3b 4b
X
i— 73/74 p 75/76 L 77/78 L - 79/80
10
4a 3a 2a la
V
|— 33/34 ,- 35/36 L 37/38 39/40
9
3b 4b lb 2b
XI
i— 81/82 r- 83/84 L 85/86 87/88
10
4a 3a 2a la
VI
i— 41/42 r- 43/44 L 45/46 L - 47/48
9
2a la 4a 3a
XII
r— 89/90 r- 91/92 L 93/94 L 95/96
10
4a 3a 2a la
*
*
+
+
136
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
WlELHORSKY
Paper-type/ Quadrant
(cotlt.)
Sheet
Paper-type/ Quadrant
Pages
Sheet
Pages
XIII
:
97/98 99/100 01/102 03/104
10
4a 3a 2a la
XX
r— |L —
:
05/106 07/108 09/110 11/112
10
2b lb 4b 3b
XXI
— 159/160 | - 161/162 * L 163/164 * — 165/166 *
:
A 13/114 15/116 17/118
(lb) 2b 3b 4b
XXII
— |L —
:
19/120 21/122 23/124 25/126
10
2a la 4a 3a
XXIII
27/128 29/130 31/132 33/134
10
2a la 4a 3a
XXIV
:
35/136 37/138 39/140 41/142
10
4a 3a 2a la
:
43/144 45/146 47/148 49/150
10
4a 3a 2a la
Leaf A = Bonn Mh 69 (SBH 635) B = untraced C = Modena, Biblioteca Estense (not in SV) D = Modena, Biblioteca Estense (not in SV) E = Bonn Mh 70 (SBH 636)
+ 151/152 153/154 155/156 157/158
10
2a la 4a 3a
10
4b 3b 2b lb
10
3b 4b lb 2b
(10)
(4a) (3a) (2a) (la)
(9)
(4a) (3a) (2a) (la)
*
10
:
167/168 169/170 171/172 173/174 B C D E
I— F r G L H L- I
All three paper-types have 16 staves with a TS of 190 m m .
*
*
Bonn Mh 71 (SBH 637)
LANDSBERG 6
LOCATION: K r a k o w , B J
91 leaves DATE: ca. June 1803 to ca. April 1804
PRESENT SIZE:
EDITION: n o n e
6, the so-called Eroica sketchbook, was formerly in the Preussische Staatsbibliothek in Berlin but could not be traced at the end o f World War II. Long believed to be in Poland, it was located, after more than thirty years, in the Biblioteka Jagiellonska in Krakow, where it remains at the time of writing (1984). The sketchbook was evidently acquired at the Nachlass auction by the firm o f Artaria; it became Notirungsbuch E in Artaria's first classification. The date at which Ludwig Landsberg purchased the book is not known, but it must have been before the 1844 catalogue was compiled, since it is not listed there. It came to the Berlin Royal Library in 1862, together with the rest of Landsberg's collection. Nottebohm's 1880 monograph on LANDSBERG 6 has made it perhaps the most famous o f all the sketchbooks. He tells us that when he saw it the book had 182 pages (i.e., 91 leaves), some with 16 staves and some with 18 staves. It had been professionally sewn (buchbindermassig gebunden)-, it had been trimmed; it was bound with a stiff cardboard cover, and had already been bound in that way when Beethoven started to use it. He adds the essential data that apart from the loss o f 5 leaves the book was intact; a leaf had been lost before page 1, and 4 more between pages 2 and 3, but after page 3 nothing was missing. Accordingly the sketchbook originally consisted o f 96 leaves. Nottebohm does not explain how he knew that 5 leaves had been lost, but from his writings it is clear that he attached no particular significance to an overall size o f 96 leaves (see above, Chapter II, pp. 48 and 50). Perhaps at the time five stubs were visible. Today the sketchbook still has 91 leaves, arranged in the same order as in Nottebohm's account. But the volume was given an entirely new binding in 1934, and it is clear that a few o f the book's external features were altered at that time. It is fortunate, therefore, that a set of photographs made in August 1931 has survived; this LANDSBERG
137
138
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
shows all the leaves and the inside of the back cover (though no front cover or wrapping). Since it was made before the sketchbook was rebound, it indicates that at any rate the leaves with the music have remained unchanged. Bound in at the beginning of the book are 3 modern flyleaves. The first is blank; on the second the binder has mounted an old ornamental grey label with the letter " E , " while on the third is a rectangle (102 x 137 mm) of heavy grey paper with the inscription Notirungsbuch/E./90. It is clear that the latter has been cut from the cover that had been provided by Artaria at the time of the firm's first classification. The figure of "90" might lead one to expect that the book would contain no more than 90 used leaves, but in fact all 91 leaves have been used, and the discrepancy (if not a mere slip) is unexplained. The letter " E " on the label probably also derives f r o m Artaria (to judge from its shape), though the label itself may be older and may even have been on the boards that bound the sketchbook in Beethoven's time; it is not exactly the same color as the portion of the Artaria cover. After a blank modern flyleaf at the back of the book, the binder has mounted on the end-paper a small strip (ca. 37 X 113 mm) of grey-blue paper with a draft in Beethoven's handwriting for the title-page of the "Kreutzer" Sonata, Opus 47. The old photographs show the same inscription on the inside of the back cover, which at the time of filming was evidently intact. During the rebinding, therefore, the major portion of this cover must have been discarded and only the small inscribed parts on the front and back preserved. There are no signs today of any stubs before or after the first leaf of the sketchbook. But what may well have been stubs can be seen in the photographs at these places; if that is indeed what they were, they too were removed when the volume was rebound. From the photographs it appears that there was also a large stub of unruled paper after the last page of music and before the page with the "Kreutzer" inscription; of this, too, there is no trace today. The sketchbook contains 55 leaves of 16-stave paper (TS = 197 mm) and 36 leaves of 18-stave paper (TS = 2 X 88+ mm). The exact distribution of these two types of leaves was known from photographs, and since Nottebohm implied that the book had been professionally made it was possible to predict its structure. 1 It seemed likely that the book had originally consisted of twelve two-sheet gatherings—gatherings of 4 bifolia that had come from two sheets—and that only the first gathering had been damaged, having lost 5 of its 8 leaves. The recent accessibility of L A N D S BERG 6 has confirmed this prediction in all respects save one: the book is indeed in twelve gatherings, and (apart from the damaged first gathering) all but two of them consist of 4 bifolia, but the tenth gathering has 3 bifolia and the twelfth has 5. This irregularity in the book's make-up was clearly a feature of it before it was used by Beethoven; there is no evidence that any of the leaves were rearranged after he had finished sketching in it. The 16-stave paper (folios 1 - 5 3 and 58—59) is of a type that has not been found elsewhere among Beethoven's scores and sketches. It is possible, therefore, that it was provided by the bookbinder. But the 18-stave paper (folios 54—57 and 60—91)
'See BS J, pp. 8 6 - 8 7 .
Landsberg
6
139
can be matched elsewhere: Beethoven used 4 leaves of it in about 1798 for writing out the first part of a score of Mozart's Quartet in G major, K. 387 (Bonn N E 119, folios 1—4), and four further leaves at around the same time for sketching the Piano Sonata in E major, Opus 14 No. 1, and a revision of the Piano Concerto in Bl, major, Opus 19 (in the "Kafka" miscellany, London Add. MS 29801, folios 6 4 - 6 5 and 121—22). Possibly, then, it was Beethoven who supplied this paper to the binder. If he did so, it was no doubt in the form of loose bifolia, for whereas in the gatherings of 16-stave paper the inner 2 bifolia, and the outer 2 bifolia likewise, are always from the same sheet, this is not always the case with the gatherings of 18-stave paper. The first gathering in the book turns out to contain only 3 leaves, folios 1 - 3 . Its make-up entirely confirms Nottebohm's statement that a leaf is missing before folio 1, and 4 leaves between folios 1 and 2. This, then, was originally an 8-leaf gathering like almost all the others. None of the 5 lost leaves has been traced, but some of their contents can be predicted: they will include sketches for the piano variations on "Rule Britannia," WoO 79, a work sketched on folio 1 v and again on folios 2r and 3r.
DATE OF THE
SKETCHBOOK
The first entries in LANDSBERG 6 seem to have followed the sketches at the end of W I E L H O R S K Y without much of a chronological gap. Nottebohm had suggested O c tober 1802 and April 1804 as the outside limits between which the book was used (N 1880, p. 4). The latter date seems to be about right; the former is much too early. Nottebohm was never able to examine WIELHORSKY directly, and by dating the beginning of L A N D S B E R G 6 to October 1802 he seems to have been disinclined to accept the reports of WIELHORSKY'S contents published by Lenz and Nohl. Had he realized that it concluded with sketches for two works written in some haste for performances on 5 April and 24 May 1803 (Opus 85 and Opus 47), he would have seen that it was unlikely that LANDSBERG 6 was begun before about June 1803. T w o small pieces of 1803 which are not worked out in either sketchbook may have been written in the gap between them: the song "Der Wachtelschlag," W o O 129,2 and the piano variations on "God Save the King," WoO 78. (The six Geliert songs, Opus 48, till recently believed to have been written in May and June 1803, are now known to have been completed over a year earlier; the sketch for Geliert's "Vom Tode" on page 116 of the present sketchbook is for a setting different from, and later than, that of Opus 48 No. 3.) Otherwise LANDSBERG 6 seems to follow W I E L H O R S K Y more or less directly. It begins with sketches for the variations on "Rule Britannia," W o O 79; both this set and WoO 78 had been completed at any rate by 6 August 1803, since on that day Beethoven's pupil Ferdinand Ries wrote to Simrock in Bonn to inquire whether that firm was interested in publishing them. 3 Another small piece, the song "Das Glück der Freundschaft," Opus 88, which is sketched—or, as 2 As we have seen, the three-note motto of WoO 129 does appear (with the text "Fürchte Gott") on Bonn Mh 71, 4 leaves removed from the very end of WIELHORSKY. 3 The texts of this and two other letters cited below are found in Erich Müller, "Beethoven und Simrock," Simrock-Jahrbuch II (Berlin, 1929), 11-62; cf. pp. 23-24, 27.
140
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
Nottebohm suggests, is given a pre-publication revision (N 1880, p. 56)—on pages 62—63, between the sketches for the second and third movements of the Eroica S y m phony, came out on 12 October 1803, as w e learn from another letter of Ries to Simrock. Writing again to Simrock on 22 October, Ries reported that the Eroica was finished—"he recently played it to me"—and described it as a spectacular work. Among the last entries in LANDSBERG 6 are ones that relate to a revision of two numbers in the oratorio Christus am Oelberge, Opus 8 5 (pages 1 7 2 - 7 9 ) . Since the oratorio, which had first been performed on 5 April 1803, was given again on 27 March 1804, it is highly likely that the revisions were made in preparation for that concert—i.e., in March 1804. The only entries that come after these in the book are a few sketches for the first movement of the Triple Concerto, Opus 56 (pages 1 8 0 8 2 ) ; they provide no dating criteria. We may take it that LANDSBERG 6 was used from about June 1803 to about April 1804. Because of the celebrity of LANDSBERG 6 and of Nottebohm's discussion of it, five further points concerned with the chronology of these sketches may be reviewed briefly here. (a) It is obvious that the leaves of the sketchbook have been trimmed at both the top and the bottom (there is no "Deckel"-edge to the leaves at the bottom, and parts of the watermarks are missing at the top); perhaps as much as 12 m m was removed. It is less easy to be sure on what occasion or occasions the trimming took place. On some pages (e.g., pages 19, 82, 97, 119, 125) the tops of certain entries appear to have been removed. Since Nottebohm states that the book had been bound and trimmed before Beethoven used it, Rachel Wade has raised the possibility that entries had already been made by Beethoven on a few leaves before these were assembled to form a book (see "Literature"). She points out that the sketch for the finale of Opus 53 at the top of page 125 (cited in N 1880, p. 63), where the tip of the " R " in "Rondo" is missing, must be regarded as a very early one, and that "anything written high on a loose, unbound page . . . could easily have been chopped off during the binding process." But although some of the cropped entries may be early ones (e.g., those on pages 119 and 125), others do not seem to be early at all (e.g., that on page 82). Perhaps the best explanation of the apparently cropped entries is that they are not the result of trimming but simply of Beethoven's pen moving off the top of the page and back onto it again; for entries of similar appearance are to be found in books such as MENDELSSOHN 6 which are known (from the upper-edge profiles) not to have been trimmed at all. If this explanation is correct, the sketchbook was trimmed once before Beethoven used it, as Nottebohm said (a lot of the upper and lower margins must have been removed), but at no later time. The page numbers (perhaps added by Landsberg) are very close to the upper margins, but none is cropped. No trimming was carried out when the book was rebound in 1934, for the 1931 photographs correspond at the upper margins with the book's present condition. (b) In Kinsky-Halm, p. 107, the composition-date of the first two of the three marches for piano (four hands), Opus 45, is given as "1802"; only the third is dated "1803." The first two are sketched on pages 4 4 - 4 5 of LANDSBERG 6, the third on pages 4 6 - 4 7 and 57-58. According to Ries (Wegeler-Ries, p. 91), the Opus 45
Landsberg 6
141
marches w e r e w r i t t e n at the u r g i n g of C o u n t B r o w n e . An u n d a t e d n o t e f r o m B e e t h o v e n to Ries (Anderson 61), always assigned to the year 1802 because it refers to B e e t h o v e n being at Heiligenstadt, begins w i t h the w o r d s : " K i n d l y i n f o r m m e if it is t r u e that C o u n t B r o w n e has already given the t w o marches to be e n g r a v e d . I a m very anxious to k n o w this." But the assumption on the part of K i n s k y - H a l m that these are the first t w o marches of O p u s 45, w h i c h m u s t accordingly have been w r i t ten before O c t o b e r 1802 (when Beethoven returned to Vienna f r o m Heiligenstadt), cannot be reconciled w i t h the dating of this part of LANDSBERG 6. T h e letter m u s t allude to other marches; the three O p u s 45 marches, offered to B r e i t k o p f & H ä r t e l in S e p t e m b e r 1803 (Anderson 81) and published in Vienna in M a r c h 1804 (with a d e d i cation n o t to C o u n t B r o w n e but to the Princess Esterhäzy), w e r e n o d o u b t first sketched in the s u m m e r of 1803. N o t t e b o h m ( N 1880, p. 77, note 4) quotes a statement by Carl C z e r n y that the O p u s 45 marches w e r e written while Beethoven was living in the Petersplatz. T h a t appears to set their c o m p o s i t i o n between about N o v e m b e r 1802 and February 1803— a date impossible to reconcile either w i t h Beethoven's 1802 s o j o u r n at Heiligenstadt o r w i t h the date of the s u m m e r of 1803 suggested b y the sketches in LANDSBERG 6. (c) LANDSBERG 6 is unusual in containing several sketches in w h i c h w e can i d e n tify ideas developed in celebrated w o r k s that Beethoven completed years later; s o m e o f these sketches w e r e given wide currency as a result of N o t t e b o h m ' s m o n o g r a p h . W e can, f o r instance, recognize "concept sketches" for the start of the F o u r t h Piano C o n c e r t o , O p u s 58 (page 148; cf. N 1880, p. 69); for the Fifth S y m p h o n y , O p u s 67 (pages 1 5 5 - 5 7 , 158?; cf. N 1880, pp. 7 0 - 7 1 ) ; and for the Sixth S y m p h o n y , O p u s 68 (pages 64, 96, 118, 178; cf. N 1880, pp. 5 5 - 5 6 ) . B u t these sketches c o n t r i b u t e n o t h ing to the c h r o n o l o g y of the sketchbook and little e n o u g h to the c h r o n o l o g y of the w o r k s themselves; O p u s 58 was substantially written in 1805-1806, O p u s 67 in 1807, and O p u s 68 in 1808. (d) T h e date of the sketches in LANDSBERG 6 for Schikaneder's Vestas Feuer, and for the first five n u m b e r s of Leonore, has been greatly clarified by the publication in 1959" of Beethoven's letter to Rochlitz (Anderson 87a). This letter, dated 4 J a n u a r y 1804, described Beethoven's disenchantment w i t h Schikaneder's libretto and his a b a n d o n m e n t of it in favor of another one, Leonore: "I have quickly had an old French libretto adapted and a m n o w beginning to w o r k on it." It was w r i t t e n o n l y t w o m o n t h s after the letter to Alexander Macco in P r a g u e of 2 N o v e m b e r 1803 ( A n derson 85); this last, w h i c h was k n o w n to N o t t e b o h m , includes the sentence: "I a m only n o w beginning to w o r k at m y opera and . . . it is quite possible that this opera will n o t be p r o d u c e d till Easter." T h e reference m u s t be to Vestas Feuer, w h i c h is accordingly linked to the beginning of N o v e m b e r 1803, just as the earliest Leonore sketches are linked to the beginning of January 1804. (e) It has been noted that, whereas the earlier sketches for O p u s 5 3 in LANDSBERG 6 d o n o t g o above f 3 , the accepted upper limit of the piano at that time, there are o n page 131 t w o instances of g 3 and one of a|, 3 a m o n g sketches for the coda o f the first 4 H u b e r t Daschner, "Ein bisher unbekannter Brief Beethovens an Johann Friedrich Rochlitz," BJ 3 (1959), 3 2 - 3 3 .
142
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
movement; the sketches for the finale, too, include notes above f 3 . The records of the Paris piano-making firm of Erard show that on the eighteenth of Thermidor in Year XI of the Republic—i.e., on 6 August 1803—Sébastien Erard made a present of a piano to Beethoven. It is not known if that is the date at which Beethoven received the piano; if it was dispatched from Paris then, he is unlikely to have played on it before September. The highest note of this piano, which still survives, is c4; and attempts have been made to connect its arrival in Vienna with the appearance of notes above f 3 in the sketches. But as Barry Cooper points out (see "Literature"), there is not much to be gained from this approach, since there is good evidence from letters that Opus 53 must have been sketched in November and December 1803. Beethoven must have had the Erard piano before he started sketching the sonata. A very detailed, page by page and stave by stave inventory of the contents of L A N D S BERG 6 is provided by Wade (see "Literature"). The list that follows is confined to the main entries. Variations for piano on "Rule Britannia," WoO 79 Third Symphony (Eroica), Opus 55 first movement second movement third movement, scherzo third movement, trio fourth movement
pp. 2 - 3 , 5 pp. 4 - 5 , 7, 10-18, 20-23, 26-27, 3 0 - 4 1 pp. 6, 9, 19, 42-43, 48-56, 61, 92 pp. 10, 36, 42, 60-61, 64-67 pp. 27, 42, 60-61, 65, 68-69 pp. 3?, 70-85, 8 8 - 9 1
C. P. E. Bach, Zwei Litaneyen . . . , W. 204
p. 25
Marches probably planned for Opus 45
pp. 28-29, 45-47, 93
Three Marches for piano (four hands), Opus 45 No. 1 No. 2 No. 3
p. 44 pp. 4 4 - 4 5 pp. 46-47, 57-58
"Das Glück der Freundschaft," Opus 88
pp. 6 2 - 6 3
Sixth Symphony (Pastoral), (very early ideas)
pp. 64, 96, 118, 178
Vestas
Feuer,
Opus 68
Hess 115
Song, "Vom Tode" (Geliert; different setting f r o m Opus 48 No. 3)
pp. 96-116, 120 p. 116
Landsberg 6
143
Piano Sonata in C major ("Waldstein"), Opus 53, with the Andante, WoO 57, as second movement first movement
pp. 120, 1 2 2 - 2 4 , 1 2 6 - 3 2
second movement
pp. 121, 125, 127, 131?, 132-37
third movement
pp. 125?, 126, 134, 136, 137?, 138?, 1 3 9 - 4 5
Bagatelle for piano, WoO 56 Leonore
pp. 138, 1 4 5 - 4 7
No. 1 " O war' ich schon"
pp. 1 4 6 - 4 7 , 1 5 0 - 5 4
No. 2 "Jetzt, Schätzchen"
pp. 1 4 8 - 4 9 , 154, 1 5 6 - 5 7 ,
No. 3 "Ein Mann ist bald genommen"
pp. 155, 160—63
161, 1 6 8 - 7 1 No. 4 " M i r ist so wunderbar"
pp. 1 6 2 - 6 5
No. 5 "Hat man nicht auch Gold beineben"
pp. 166—67
Fifth Symphony, Opus 67 (early ideas)
pp. 1 5 5 - 5 7 , 158?
Christus am Oelberge, Opus 85, revisions to Nos. 1 and 2
pp. 1 7 2 - 7 9 , 180?
Concerto for piano, violin, and cello, Opus 56
pp. 1 8 0 - 8 2
Draft o f wording for title-page o f the Violin Sonata in A major ("Kreutzer"), Opus 47
inside o f back cover
Pages 8, 24, 94, and 95 are empty.
LITERATURE Ludwig Nohl, Beethoven, Liszt, Wagner (Vienna, 1874), pp. 7 9 - 8 0 . G. Nottebohm, Ein Skizzenbuch von Beethoven aus dem Jahre 1803 (Leipzig, 1880). Abbreviated in the text as N 1880. Heinrich Riemann, "Beethovens Skizzen zur 'Eroica,'" Allgemeine Musik-Zeitung 16 (1889), 2 8 4 - 8 5 , 3 0 5 - 3 0 6 , 3 2 3 - 2 4 , 3 4 3 - 4 4 . Barry Cooper, " T h e Evolution o f the First Movement of Beethovens 'Waldstein' Sonata," M L 58 (1977), 1 7 0 - 9 1 . Rachel Wade, "Beethovens Eroica Sketchbook," Fontes Artis Musicae 24 (1977), 2 5 4 - 8 9 ; includes facsimiles o f LANDSBERG 6, pp. 1 4 4 - 4 5 .
Lewis Lockwood, "Beethovens Earliest Sketches for the Eroica Symphony," MQ 67 (1981), 4 5 7 - 7 8 . , " ' E r o i c a ' Perspectives: Strategy and Design in the First Movement," in BS 3, pp. 8 5 - 1 0 5 .
144
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
LANDSBERG 6
Pages
Paper-type/ Quadrant
(15) 15
(4a) 3a
? ? ? ?
? ? ? ?
3/4 5/6
15 15
7/8 9/10 11/12 13/14 15/16 17/18 19/20 21/22
Pages
Paper-type/ Quadrant
15
2a la
55/56 57/58 59/60 61/62 63/64 65/66 67/68 69/70
4b 3b 3b 4b lb 2b 2b lb
15
4a 3a 3a 4a la 2a 2a la
71/72 73/74 75/76 77/78 79/80 81/82 83/84 85/86
15
2b lb 3a 4a la 2a 4b 3b
23/24 — 25/26 r— 27/28 r- 29/30 L 31/32 L - 33/34 — 35/36 — 37/38
15
2a la 2a la 4a 3a 4a 3a
87/88 89/90 i — 91/92 i- 93/94 L 95/96 L - 97/98 99/100 101/102
15
2b lb 4b 3b 2b lb 4b 3b
39/40 — 41/42 r— 43/44 r- 45/46 L 47/48 49/50 — 51/52 — 53/54
15
3a 4a la 2a 3a 4a la 2a
— — [— |-
15
3a 4a 2a 4b lb 3a la 2a
A
1/2 B C
D E
:
:
L
— —
103/104 105/106 107/108 109/110 111/112 113/114 115/116 117/118
16
15
Landsberg
145
6
LANDSBERG 6 (cont.)
Pages
Paper-type/ Quadrant
119/120 121/122 123/124 125/126 127/128 129/130 131/132 133/134
16
3b 4b 4a 3a 2a la lb 2b
135/136 i— 137/138 r- 139/140 L 141/142 143/144 145/146
16
3b 2a 4b lb 3a 2b
L
Pages
Paper-type/ Quadrant
147/148 149/150 151/152 153/154 155/156 157/158 159/160 161/162
16
3a 4a la 3a 2a 4a la 2a
163/164 165/166 167/168 169/170 171/172 173/174 175/176 — 177/178 — 179/180 — 181/182
16
2a 2a la 4a 3a 2a la 4a 3a 3a
— — r— rL
Paper-type 15 has 16 staves with a TS of 197 mm. Paper-type 16 has 18 staves, ruled 9 at a time with a TS of 2 X 88+ mm.
MENDELSSOHN
LOCATION: PRESENT SIZE: DATE: EDITION:
15
Berlin, SPK 173 leaves (including a few extraneous ones) summer 1804 to October 1805 none
In the years immediately after Beethoven's death the sketchbook MENDELSSOHN I 5 was in the Artaria Collection. On 14 June 1834, however, it was sold (together with other autographs of Beethoven and Haydn) to Heinrich Beer of Berlin. From Beer the sketchbook eventually passed to Paul Mendelssohn and, on his death in 1874, to his son Ernst von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy; on 26 June 1908 the latter presented it, together with the rest of the collection known as the "Paul und Ernst von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy'sche Stiftung," to the Royal Library in Berlin. MENDELSSOHN 15 is the largest of the surviving sketchbooks, at any rate in its present form. Most of it is devoted to sketches for Beethoven's longest work, his opera Leonore. It now has 173 leaves of uniform 16-stave paper. With a few exceptions (to be discussed) the make-up of the book is also regular: it consists of singlesheet gatherings (i.e., gatherings of 2 bifolia from the same sheet). The sketchbook still has the brown half-cloth binding of Heinrich Beer's library. His name is on the cover, with the words "L. v. B E E T H O V E N . / S K I Z Z E N B U C H zu FIDELIO."; the number "XVIII" is on the spine. 1 Unlike most sketchbooks, MENDELSSOHN I 5 was examined and discussed by several scholars in the last century. The first, rather brief, account was that of O t t o j a h n in 1863; he spoke of a "large collection of sketchleaves for the first Leonore . . . now bound together in a fat oblong folio volume." Nine years later MENDELSSOHN I 5 was described more fully than any other sketchbook by Thayer in an appendix to the second volume of his biography. But the most extensive discussion is in an essay by Nottebohm, published posthumously in Zweite Beethoveniana (1887). It is necessary to take Nottebohm's scrutiny of MENDELSSOHN 1 5 as our starting point. His descrip' T h i s number appears mistakenly as a shelf number for the sketchbook in Schmidt (SV 67) and in the Gerstenberg anthology (see "Literature"). The actual shelf numbers for the sketchbooks in the M e n delssohn collection were not entered on the manuscripts themselves.
146
Mendelssohn
15
147
tion is in some respects surprising, and it is important to decide whether this is the result of certain theories or preconceptions on his part, or whether (as in the case of several other sketchbooks that he described) he found M E N D E L S S O H N I 5 in a somewhat different condition from the one that it is in today. After noting the number of the sketchbook's pages as 346 (the same number that Thayer gave—though he wrote carelessly of "176" leaves), Nottebohm described the book's physical condition as follows (N II, 409-410): Originally it consisted of two—or, more precisely, of the second and third of four— sketchbooks connected by their content; the first of these, containing sketches for the first third of the opera, and the fourth of these, in which the work on the second finale (not completed here) and on the overture must have been continued, have been lost. When the book was bound some leaves were inserted in the wrong place, and leaves were incorporated that do not belong here. With the leaves correctly bound, and with the exclusion of those that do not belong, the sequence of pages should run: pp. 23-26; 1—22; 27-182; 187-198; 203—338. Some leaves are missing between page 26 and page 1. The leaves between page 182 and page 187, as well as those between page 198 and page 203, do not belong to the sketchbook. . . . The last four leaves too (pp. 339-46) form no part of the sketchbook proper. . . . The sketchbook proper, beginning with page 23, therefore, and ending with page 338, . . . largely belongs to the year 1804.
Today there is no obvious way in which the sketchbook could be said to fall into two (approximately equal?) sections. It is tightly bound as a single volume and, as we have noted, the binding dates from the time of Beer's ownership. Yet it is notable that not only Nottebohm but also Thayer described it as a pair of volumes. It is possible, therefore, that between the time that it was examined by Thayer and Notteb o h m — b y Thayer in 1870, by Nottebohm certainly no later than 1879 and perhaps some years earlier—and the present day, some piece of evidence, such as wrappers (or at least the remnant of a wrapper somewhere in the middle of the sketchbook), was removed. But it is also possible that Thayer and Nottebohm were simply impressed by the great size of M E N D E L S S O H N 15 and that Nottebohm's account, in part modeled on Thayer's (though at the same time amending it), took over the notion of the sketchbook's binary nature without questioning it. Neither scholar refers at any point in discussing the sketches to the point of transition from the one book to the other. Nottebohm is also silent about the evidence from which he concluded that certain leaves—pages 183-86, 199-202, and 339-46—form no part of the sketchbook, that pages 23—26 do not belong in their present position but should be placed before page 1, and that some leaves are missing between page 26 and page 1. We can see, nevertheless, that on most of these points he is correct, and that his account needs only slight correction. (a) Pages 23—26 certainly belong before page 1: this bifolium comes from the first surviving gathering of the book. But nothing has been lost between page 26 and page 1, as a connecting ink-blot shows. The other bifolium of the gathering can be located: it forms pages 43—46 of the miscellany Landsberg 12 (DSB), and goes between pages 24 and 25. (b) Pages 183-86, a bifolium containing sketches for the last three movements of the String Quartet Opus 59 No.. 1, certainly does not belong in its present position,
148
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
for ink-blots connect page 182 and page 187. Nottebohm may have noticed them, and he may have decided that sketches for the later movements of Opus 59 No. 1, the autograph of which was begun on 26 May 1806, could not be fitted into the time-span of the sketchbook. In this he was no doubt right. (c) Pages 199—202, a bifolium with sketches for the Triple Concerto, Opus 56, also do not seem to make much sense in their present position; they interrupt a set of sketches for the first movement of Opus 57. But here it is less easy to prove that they are misplaced; it is possible, therefore, that Nottebohm's claim rested on evidence visible to him but no longer in the book. (d) The last 4 leaves in the present book—pages 339-46—seem to be single leaves added to the book in no kind of structure. Nottebohm recognized that their content consisted in part of sketches that antedate the first (1805) performance of the opera, and in part of superimposed sketches made between the 1805 and 1806 productions. He was no doubt right in rejecting them as a part of the book. It should be added that all the leaves that Nottebohm identifies as interpolations are identical in watermark and staff-ruling with the rest of M E N D E L S S O H N 15. In all but one aspect the reconstruction of M E N D E L S S O H N 1 5 presents no problem, for the sketchbook has been well preserved. Of its 44 single-sheet gatherings, 34 are still intact; eight have lost one leaf, and two have lost 2 leaves. (A forty-fifth gathering probably began with pages 337/338, but this has lost its last 3 leaves.) T w o of the lost leaves can be identified as Landsberg 12, pages 43—46. None of the others has been traced. The reconstruction offered here follows Nottebohm in rejecting the bifolia pages 183—86 and 199-202 as interpolations; the last 4 leaves (pages 339—46) are also excluded. The correctness of the order in which the gatherings stand today—apart from pages 23-26, which belong at the beginning—is confirmed in general not only by the sequence of the musical content but also by ink-blot links. But the puzzle still remains whether M E N D E L S S O H N 15 was originally one sketchbook or two. Does it make any difference? The answer is that the assumption that M E N D E L S S O H N 15 was once two sketchbooks, each presumably of 96 leaves, has certain implications for the work of reconstruction. Theoretically, the break between the two books could have come after page 164, 168, 174, or 180. We can eliminate the first and last of these, however; there is a musical continuity from page 164 to page 165, and an ink-blot is visible along the outer edges of pages 179—82 and 187-98 (at the level of staves 12 and 13). O f the two remaining possibilities, a break after page 168 is much the more persuasive. Page 168 itself was left unused, and 3 leaves are missing at precisely this juncture—two after page 168 at the end of the "first" book, and one more before page 169 at the beginning of the "second." The consequences of this division can be seen from the diagram. This shows a Book I of twenty-two gatherings, with the consequential assumption that two gatherings once preceded the first gathering but are now lost. The last 2 leaves of Book I (A and B) have also been lost. Book II also consists of twenty-two gatherings, and probably the first leaf of the twenty-third as well. Thus 7 leaves (one and threequarter gatherings) have been lost at the end, and 8 others (C to J) before that. The theoretical division of M E N D E L S S O H N I 5 into two books results in a more exact lo-
Mendelssohn
15
149
calization of the missing gatherings. It is unfortunate, therefore, that it should still not be clear whether such a division is justified. Further details of Nottebohm's scrutiny of M E N D E L S S O H N 1 5 and other aspects of its reconstruction will be found in Alan Tyson's article in the Beethoven-Jahrbuch (see "Literature"). DATE OF THE
SKETCHBOOK
The assumption is made here that not more than a few leaves have been lost f r o m the beginning of M E N D E L S S O H N 1 5 , and that the sketchbook proper ends at about page 338. The date of the last sketches is easy enough to fix. Page 338 includes early sketches for the Leonore No. 2 Overture, written for the first production of the opera and played at the first performance on 20 November 1805. Since censorship difficulties had delayed that performance for over a month, it is likely that the overture was completed by the end of October 1805. We can take that month as the effective terminus ante quem for the final pages of the sketchbook. The sketches on the extra leaves which were bound in at the end and which form no part of the sketchbook proper include some proposed changes for the 1806 version of Leonore; these were no doubt noted down in the course of the winter of 1805/1806. The date at which the sketchbook was begun is less easy to determine with precision, since it is bound up with the chronology of Beethoven's work on his opera Leonore. The earliest sketches for Leonore are no doubt those for the first five n u m bers of Act I , on pages 146-71 of L A N D S B E R G 6; they date from the early months of 1804. The reasons for assigning them to January-March 1804 are to be found above, where the chronology of L A N D S B E R G 6 is discussed (p. 141). A somewhat later group of 10 leaves, all of the same paper-type, is now scattered: 4 are in Berlin (SPK, Autograph 19e, folios 32-35), three in Bonn (BSk 17 = SBH 622), one in Basel (Georg Floersheim, SV 307), and two in Vienna (GdM, A 39). These include sketches for the sixth (and last) number of the opera's first act, a sketch for an altered passage in the oratorio Christus am Oelberge, Opus 85, and sketches for two sonnets by Petrarch in the translation of A. F. K. Streckfuss. The oratorio was performed on 27 March 1804, and there are reasons for believing that the change implied by this sketch, unlike the revisions to Opus 85 at the end of L A N D S B E R G 6, was made after the concert. Streckfuss's Gedichte, from which the Petrarch translations were taken, were announced in the Wiener Zeitung by their publisher, Degen, on 24 May 1804. Provided that Beethoven did not see an advance copy of the book, and provided that the publisher's announcement was not unduly delayed, it seems that this group of sketches may be assigned to the months April-June 1804. From this it follows that M E N D E L S S O H N 1 5 , which passes over the first act of the opera—sketches for the first number on pages 89-91, 146—47, and 189 and for the fifth number on pages 92—93 and 95 represent revisions of earlier work—and which (apart from page 23, its first page) begins with the finale of the second act, can scarcely have been started before about June 1804. The actual date may be rather later: it was presumably between L A N D S B E R G 6 and M E N D E L S S O H N I 5 that he sketched the first four vocal numbers of the second act, on leaves that have not survived.
150
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
The chronology of the sketchbook cannot be left without a brief discussion of an entry on page 291: A m 2ten Juni—Finale imer simpler—alle Klawier-Musik ebenfalls—Gott weiss e s — w a r u m auf mich noch meine Klawier-Musik imer den schlechtesten Eindruck [macht,] besonders wenn sie schlecht gespielt wird. O n 2 June—finale always simpler—the same goes for all piano music. G o d k n o w s w h y m y piano music still always makes the poorest impression on me, especially w h e n it is badly played.
Was this written on 2 June 1804 or 2 June 1805? Nottebohm, who must have noted that Thayer (II, 278) opted by implication for the latter date, was determined to limit the contents of the sketchbook to the year 1804 and argued vigorously for the former in a long footnote (N II, 446). But his arguments are not strong. And an additional piece of confirmation of the chronology suggested here comes from a source unknown to Nottebohm: a letter from Countess Josephine Deym to her mother, dated 24 March 1805 and first published by La Mara (Marie Lipsius) in Beethoven und die Brunsviks (Leipzig, 1920), p. 59. The letter refers to the song "An die Hoffnung," Opus 32: D e r gute Beethoven hat mir ein hübsches Lied, das er auf einen Text aus der Urania "an die H o f f n u n g " für mich geschrieben, z u m Geschenk gemacht. Dear Beethoven has made m e a present o f a lovely song, "An die H o f f n u n g , " w h i c h he w r o t e for m e to words from [Tiedge's] Urania.
What is almost certainly the same song ("un air pour Pepi"—one ofjosephine's nicknames) is referred to in an undated letter (early January 1805?) from Charlotte von Brunsvik to her sister Therese, and in Therese's letters of 17 and 20 January 1805 to her brother Franz and to Charlotte; it may possibly have been a New Year's present from Beethoven to Josephine. 2 Sketches for Opus 32 are found on pages 151-57 of MENDELSSOHN 1 5 ; the evidence of the letters indicates that that part of the sketchbook was being used by Beethoven in about December 1804—a date consistent with a date of 2 June 1805 for page 291, but quite inconsistent with Nottebohm's attempt to restrict the sketchbook proper to the year 1804. The chief contents of follows:
MENDELSSOHN
15 (excluding the extraneous leaves) are as
Leonore (first version): O v e r t u r e Leonore N o . 2
p. 338
ACT i
pp. 89-91, 146-47, 189 pp. 9 2 - 9 3
No. 1 No. 5
" O wär' ich schon" "Hat man nicht auch Gold beineben"
2 Joseph S c h m i d t - G ö r g , Beethoven: dreizehn unbekannte Briefe an Josephine Gräfin Deym geb. v. Brunsvik ( B o n n , 1957), pp. 1 5 - 1 6 ; H a r r y Goldschmidt, Um die Unsterbliche Geliebte (Leipzig, 1977), p. 194 and n o t e 551.
Mendelssohn
ACT II
No. 9 No. 10 No. 11
"Jetzt, Alter" " U m in der Ehe" "Ach, brich noch nicht" and "Komm, Hoffnung" No. 12 Finale I
p. 61 pp. 23, 68 pp. 333-35, 337 pp. 24-26, pp. 4 3 - 4 6 of Landsberg 12, pp. 1—7, 27-85, 95, 144-45, 148-51
ACT m No. 13 "Gott! welch Dunkel hier!" and "In des Lebens Frühlingstagen" No. 14 " N u r hurtig fort" No. 15 No. 16 No. 17 No. 18
151
15
"Euch werde Lohn"
pp. 82, 86-89, 91, 93-94, 89-111, 158-61, 310-20 pp. 82-84, 87, 112-131, 162-67, 204, 320-21 pp. 85, 156-57, 170-79,
"Er sterbe!" " O namenlose Freude" Finale II
187-88, 204-206 pp. 84, 207-226, 2 9 6 - 9 7 pp. 227-42 pp. 180-82, 244-95, 298-309, 322-33, 336
Piano Sonata in F major, Opus 54
pp. 8-14, 18-21
Concerto for piano, violin, and cello, Opus 56
pp. 14-17, 96-97, 136-42, 214
"An die HofTnung," Opus 32
pp. 151-57
Piano Sonata in F minor, Opus 57 first movement
pp. 182, 187, 198, 203
The contents of M E N D E L S S O H N I 5 are catalogued in more detail in Hans-Günter Klein's catalogue of the SPK collection (see "Literature"). There are further sketches for Opus 56 on the extraneous leaves, pages 199—202 and 341-43, and sketches for the String Quartet Opus 59 No. 1, on the extraneous leaves, pages 183-86 and 346. LITERATURE
Otto Jahn, "Leonore oder Fidelio?" AMZ Beilage;
r e p r i n t e d in J a h n s Gesammelte
(1863), cols. 381-85, 397-401, and Aufsätze
über Musik
(Leipzig,
1866),
pp. 236-59. Thayer II, 278-81 and Appendix VIII, 393-400. G. Nottebohm, "Ein Skizzenbuch aus dem Jahre 1804," in N II, 409-459. Klein, pp. 231-77. Alan Tyson, "Das Leonoreskizzenbuch (Mendelssohn 15): Probleme der Rekonstruktion und der Chronologie," BJ9 (1977), 469-99; English version in Essays in Paper Analysis, ed. Stephen Spector (Washington, D.C., forthcoming). Philip Gossett, "The Arias of Marzelline: Beethoven as a Composer of Opera," BJ 10 (1983), 141-83. Gerstenberg, plate 134, is a facsimile of page 86 (wrongly identified as "Mendelssohn XVIII").
152
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
MENDELSSOHN 15 BOOK I Sheet
Pages
I
Quadrant
23/24 L 12, 43/44 L 12, 45/46 25/26
[ II
1/2
3/4 5/6 L— 7/8
Sheet
Pages
3b 4b lb 2b
VIII
:
53/54 55/56 57/58 59/60
2b lb 4b 3b
la 2a 3a 4a
IX
:
61/62 63/64 65/66 67/68
3b 4b lb 2b
:
69/70 71/72 73/74 75/76
4b 3b 2b lb
Quadrant
+ III
lb 2b 3b 4b
r— 9/10 |- 11/12 L 13/14 15/16
+ IV
r— rL L-
17/18 19/20 21/22 27/28
*+
la 2a 3a 4a
XI
2b lb 4b 3b
XII
:
77/78 79/80 81/82 83/84
3b 4b lb 2b
:
85/86 87/88 89/90 91/92
2b lb 4b 3b
*+
• 29/30 - 31/32 • 33/34 35/36
*+
VI
r— 37/38 1- 39/40 L 41/42 L— 43/44
4b 3b 2b lb
XIII
VII
r— 45/46 | - 47/48 L 49/50 51/52
lb 2b 3b 4b
XIV
:
93/94 95/96 97/98 99/100
3a 4a la 2a
1—
101/102
2a la 4a 3a
1- 103/104 L 105/106 - 107/108 *
Mendelssohn
153
15
MENDELSSOHN 15 (cont.) BOOK I
Sheet
Pages
Quadrant
109/110
XV
111/112
113/114 115/116 XVI
r— 117/118 1- 119/120 L
121/122
123/124
Sheet
Pages
Quadrant
lb 2b 3b 4b
XIX
141/142 143/144 145/146 147/148
2a la 4a 3a
2b lb 4b 3b
X X
1— 149/150 r 151/152 L 153/154 L— 155/156
3a 4a la 2a
r— 157/158 r- 159/160 L 161/162 163/164
2a la 4a 3a
*+ XVII
r— 125/126 r- 127/128 L 129/130 131/132
3b 4b lb 2b
XXI
XVIII
1— 133/134 i- 135/136 L 137/138 139/140
lb 2b 3b 4b
XXII
:
2b lb [4b] [3b]
165/166 167/168 A (stub) B (stub)
+
BOOK 2
Sheet I
Pages
:
C
169/170 171/172 - 173/174
Quadrant
[lb] 2b 3b 4b
Sheet III
Quadrant
Pages
rrL L—
2b lb 4b 3b
181/182 187/188 189/190 191/192 * +
II
1— 175/176 1- 177/178 L 179/180 - D (stub)
la 2a 3a [4a]
IV
— 193/194 r 195/196 L 197/198 — E
2b lb 4b [3b]
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
154
MENDELSSOHN 15 (cont.) BOOK 2
Sheet V
VI
Pages
Quadrant
r—
203/204 205/206
3b 4b lb 2b
XII
1-
lb 2b 3b 4b
XIII
lb 2b 3b 4b
XIV
L
207/208
L—
209/210
1—
211/212
r-
213/214
L
215/216 217/218
VII
r—
219/220
r-
221/222
L
223/224
—
VIII
r— R
225/226
227/228 F 229/230
L—
231/232
3b [4b] lb 2b
Sheet
Pages
Quadrant
257/258
3a 4a la 2a
259/260 261/262 263/264
lb 2b 3b 4b
265/266
[
267/268 269/270 271/272
:
la 2a 3a 4a
273/274 275/276 277/278 279/280
X V
1—
281/282
r-
283/284
L
285/286
!—
287/288
3a 4a la 2a *+
IX
r—
233/234
|-
235/236
L
237/238
L—
239/240
3b 4b lb 2b
XVI
1—
289/290
1-
291/292
L
293/294
-
295/296
3b 4b lb 2b
+ X
4b 3b 2b lb
XVII
:
249/250
IB
XVIII
251/252
L—
255/256
2b 3b 4b
I — 241/242
[
243/244 245/246 247/248
XI
r—
253/254
r— r
297/298 G 299/300 301/302
:
303/304 305/306 307/308
H (stub)
3b [4b] lb 2b 3b 4b lb [2b]
155
Mendelssohn 15 M E N D E L S S O H N 1 5 (COMÍ.) BOOK 2
Sheet XIX
Pages I— 309/310 - 311/312 - 313/314 315/316
Quadrant
Sheet
2b lb 4b 3b
XXII
Pages r— 331/332
r J
l-
+ XX
XXI
1— 317/318 1- 319/320 L 321/322 323/324
2b lb 4b 3b
|— I (stub) 325/326 327/328 329/330
[la] 2a 3a 4a
:
Quadrant
333/334 335/336
+
2b [lb] 4b 3b
XXIII
337/338
3b
Not part o f the sketchbook
339/340 341/342 343/344 345/346
lb 2b lb 4?
183/184 185/186
lb 4b
199/200 201/202
4b lb
Interpolated leaves
All the paper is type 17, ruled with 16 staves (TS = 190 mm).
M A S S IN C
SKETCHBOOK
Paris, B N (Ms 60, no. 2) 25 leaves DATE: ca. July to August 1807 EDITION: none
LOCATION:
PRESENT SIZE:
T h e sketches for the Mass in C, Opus 86, in the collection of the Paris Conservatoire de Musique that is today in the Bibliothèque Nationale have almost entirely escaped attention from Beethoven scholars. Nothing is known of their past history. Nottebohm never referred to them, they are not included in Josef Braunstein's 1927 list of the sketchbooks, and neither Julien Tiersot's brief account of the Beethoven collection in the Conservatoire de Musique of the same year nor Max Unger's much fuller 1935 survey refers to these sketches in more than the vaguest terms (see "Literature"). Unger's description is as follows: 1806/7
Drafts for most o f the movements of the C major Mass. 25 leaves, oblong folio, 43 pages, mostly written in ink.
The sketches are catalogued as "Ms 60, no. 2." ("Ms 60, no. 1," which has been bound up in the same volume, has no connection with the Mass in C, being a leaf with an abandoned version in score of the beginning of Opus 96 IV.) The Mass in C sketchleaves are of four different paper-types. The collection has no uniform structure; it is made up partly of separate bifolia and partly of gathered bifolia from single sheets, and it ends with a single leaf. Yet in several places the sketching is continuous from one paper-type to the next. This suggests that what has survived is at least part of a homemade sketchbook with intact sketch-sequences, not merely a miscellaneous collection of sketches for a single work bound up in no particular order. O f the four paper-types represented here, three have been ruled from top to bottom so as to form three large bars on each page. This characteristic feature of the paper prepared by Beethoven for writing out an orchestral score suggests that the present leaves were left over from the big orchestral works of 1806 and 1807. Type
156
Mass in C Sketchbook
157
22 is the paper used for the autograph of the Coriolan Overture, O p u s 62, written in the first m o n t h s of 1807; type 19 is found in the last three movements of the Fourth S y m p h o n y autograph, f r o m the fall of 1806; and type 12 is also found in the same three movements, as well as in the slow movement of the Violin Concerto, another autograph f r o m the fall of 1806. T h u s these papers were probably remnants. It is n o d o u b t significant that there is n o representative here of the paper-type that B e e t h o ven b o u g h t for writing out the completed score of the Mass in C in August or September 1807. This was paper with a watermark that included the name " K o t e n schlos," variants of which were to predominate a m o n g the major scores of the next t w o years (see our types 20 and 21). In spite of the variety of paper-types involved, many of the leaves can be s h o w n to be in the same order as when the sketches were first written d o w n . Ink-blots link the first bifolium to the second and the second to the third; the t w o gathered sheets that follow (folios 7 - 1 0 and 11-14) are likewise linked with each other and w i t h the next bifolium (folios 15—16). T h u s folios 1—6 and folios 7 - 1 6 are in their original sequences. Furthermore, each leaf has a pair of stitch-holes close to the inner margin. T h e distance between these pairs varies in the sketch-collection between 133 m m and 142 m m ; leaves that are n o w adjacent normally show a difference in this measurement of no more than a millimeter. There is, it is true, something of a j u m p between folio 14 (136 m m ) and folio 15 (142 mm), but these 2 leaves we k n o w to have been adjacent w h e n the sketch-collection was used. In general, too, the sketches follow the sequence of the m o v e m e n t s of the Mass: Kyrie = folios l r - 2 r ; Gloria = folios 2 r - 8 r ; Sanctus and Benedictus = folios 2v, 7r, 8r, lOv—16v; Agnus Dei and Dona nobis pacem = folios 2v, 7r, 1 8 r - 2 3 r , 24v, 25r.' Apart f r o m a few "concept sketches" (folios l l r , 17r) there are n o sketches for the Credo; but it is n o t e w o r t h y that folios 8 v - 1 0 r (i.e., the pages between the Gloria and the Sanctus sketches) are blank. It looks as though Beethoven left those pages blank in order to w o r k there on the Credo at a later date; but in the event he m u s t have completed the Mass on other papers. T h e only other k n o w n sketches for the Mass in C are on 2 single leaves in Berlin: (a) D S B Landsberg 12, pages 47/48. This leaf, ruled in three, is a reject f r o m the autograph score of the Fourth Symphony scherzo. It contains sketches for the C r e d o , Osanna, and Agnus Dei, as well as some ideas (again, "concept sketches") for m o s t of the movements of the Sixth Symphony, O p u s 68. T h e leaf was k n o w n to N o t t e b o h m , w h o reproduces most of these sketches in MW 8 (1877), 315 (reprinted in N II, 369-70). (b) SPK Landsberg 10, pages 33/34. This leaf, again ruled in three, was used for a draft in score of the end of the Dona nobis pacem. T h e verso was also used for s o m e sketches for the Leonore N o . 1 Overture, O p u s 138. There is n o reason to suppose that either leaf ever belonged to the collection under discussion.
1 O n folio 3v Beethoven copied s o m e of the voice parts f r o m t w o sections of the Gloria of Haydn's Schopjungsmesse ( H o b . X X I I : 13): the beginning of the m o v e m e n t , m m . 3 - 1 2 , and the start of the f u g u e o n " I n gloria D e i patris," m m . 2 4 2 - 5 3 .
158
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
M A S S IN C
Folio
SKETCHBOOK
Paper-type
Quadrant
22
4b lb
133-34 133-34
19
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134-35 134-35
22
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135 135
12
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15 16
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142 142
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19
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142 142
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141 141
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1
140
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Paper-type 22 is ruled with 16 staves; TS = 190 mm. Paper-type 19 is ruled with 12 staves; TS = 185 mm. Paper-type 12 is ruled with 12 staves; TS = 186 mm. Folio 25 is ruled with 12 staves; TS = 183.5 mm. Folios 8v, 9r, 9v, and lOr are empty, but a stain at the top connects the three leaves.
Mass in C
Sketchbook
159
DATE OF THE SKETCHBOOK The Mass was first performed at Eisenstadt on 13 September 1807. Beethoven, who felt diffident over the comparison that was likely to be made between his work and the masses o f the still-living Haydn, is known to have had some difficulty in fulfilling the commission in time; he confessed as much in a letter to Prince Esterhazy o f 26 July 1807 (Anderson 150). Thus it seems likely that the sketchbook was used in about July and August 1807. It contains no sketches for any work apart from Opus 86.
LITERATURE J o s e f Braunstein, Beethovens Leonore-Ouvertüren: eine historisch-stilkritische Untersuchung (Leipzig, 1927), pp. 1 5 9 - 6 0 . Julien Tiersot, "Manuscrits de Beethoven," Revue de Musicologie 8 (1927), 6 5 - 7 6 . M a x Unger, " D i e Beethovenhandschriften der Pariser Konservatoriumsbibliothek," NBJ 6 (1935), 8 7 - 1 2 3 ; see esp. pp. 104-105. Alan Tyson, "Beethoven's Home-Made Sketchbook o f 1 8 0 7 - 0 8 , " BJ 10 (1983), 185-200. Schmidt-Görg/Schmidt, p. 191, includes a facsimile o f Paris Ms 60/2, folio 12r.
S K E T C H B O O K OF 1 8 0 7 - 1 8 0 8
LOCATION: leaves in various locations 44 leaves k n o w n DATE: ca. September 1807 to ca. February 1808
PRESENT SIZE:
EDITION: n o n e
A p a r t f r o m the M A S S IN C SKETCHBOOK, which contains sketches for that w o r k only, there is n o extant sketch-collection for the year 1807 or for the first m o n t h s of 1808. T h e sketches for the other compositions on which Beethoven was engaged after the middle of 1807, though quite extensive, are n o w widely scattered. T h o s e w o r k s include the Fifth Symphony, O p u s 67, the Cello Sonata in A major, O p u s 69, the four settings of Goethe's p o e m "Sehnsucht," W o O 134, and the so-called "First" Leonore Overture, O p u s 138. T h e last of these seems to have been completed in 1807, but Beethoven apparently continued to work on the other three until the first m o n t h s of 1808. T h e question therefore arises whether the majority of these sketches once belonged to a h o m e m a d e sketchbook that was subsequently dismembered. T h e evidence for this is strong. M a n y of the surviving sketchleaves for the w o r k s listed above have a conspicuous pair of ragged stitch-holes near the left-hand margins of w h a t were evidently the rectos. 1 Moreover, the distance between these holes shows a consistent pattern: it measures 149-150 m m in what appear to be the earliest sketches; in s o m e w h a t later ones it is 152 m m , and in the latest ones it ranges f r o m about 155 to 158 m m . This surely indicates that the stitch-holes are contemporary with, or else preceded, the sketches. In a few instances, too, it is possible to demonstrate sketchcontinuity or ink-blot connections between leaves (usually of different paper-types); this confirms that those leaves at least were at one time adjacent to one another. T h e paper-types are heterogeneous, suggesting that Beethoven had ransacked his cupboards for unused leaves and bifolia. Some of this paper (to j u d g e by other examples used by him) had been with him for a long time. It includes paper w i t h 8 ' T h e s e holes (which qualify for the description of "stab-holes") show u p clearly in the facsimile of Vienna A 59, folio 3r, in Schmidt-Gôrg/Schmidt, p. 214.
160
Sketchbook of
1807-1808
161
staves, some evenly spaced and some arranged in pairs for piano music, and also paper with 10, 12, and 16 staves. Some of it is ruled into three large bars and m u s t have been discarded f r o m orchestral scores. 2 There are t w o gathered sheets, b u t bifolia and single leaves predominate. These last were probably already single w h e n they were gathered up into the sketchbook; one (No. 8) is actually b o u n d in backw a r d , with the original verso as recto. A few other leaves (Nos. 12 and 15) w e r e b o u n d in upside-down, so that the watermark is at the b o t t o m instead of at the t o p — another sign that the sketchbook was assembled clumsily or hastily. U p to now, 44 leaves have been identified that exhibit prominent stitch-holes w i t h a separation within the range of 149-158 m m ; they can be considered as 24 separate units. All appear to date f r o m the second half of 1807 or the first m o n t h s of 1808. O n e leaf with sketches for the Fifth S y m p h o n y cannot be located today; it was in Lyons in the 1950s, and the stitch-holes can be seen in photographs. There is little point in speculating h o w m a n y leaves that were once part of this h o m e m a d e sketchb o o k have been lost, nor is it possible to determine at what point the b o o k came apart. T h e Artaria collection is a c o m m o n source for at least fourteen of the leaves (nos. 9, 13, 15, 16, and 17), but the fact that these leaves are confined to miscellanies in the collection probably indicates that they were already loose w h e n Artaria acquired them.
DATE OF T H E S K E T C H B O O K
T h e r e is n o sign here of the large-scale orchestral w o r k s performed in D e c e m b e r 1806 (the Violin Concerto, O p u s 61) and in March 1807 (the Fourth S y m p h o n y , O p u s 60, the Fourth Piano Concerto, O p u s 58, and the Coriolan O v e r t u r e , O p u s 62); these m a y have been sketched in a lost sketchbook. T h e earliest sketches appear to be those for the Leonore N o . 1 Overture and for the second and third m o v e m e n t s of the Fifth Symphony. Neither group, unfortunately, can be dated with precision, t h o u g h the presence of sketches for both compositions on the same leaves indicates that w o r k on t h e m was to some extent concurrent. Some help can be gained f r o m the presence among the sketchleaves of t w o w i t h a f o r m of the watermark "Kotenschlos." Paper made at this Bohemian mill is not f o u n d in any of Beethoven's scores before the s u m m e r of 1807, t h o u g h for the next t w o years after that it was to predominate. Beethoven's chief task in the s u m m e r of 1807 was the composition of the Mass in C; the w o r k was completed w i t h s o m e difficulty and performed at Eisenstadt on 13 September. T h e fragmentary autograph of the M a s s — u n l i k e the sketches for it, in the MASS IN C SKETCHBOOK (p. 156)—is on "Kotenschlos" paper; n o d o u b t Beethoven had purchased a substantial quantity of new paper in order to write out this important score. We may, if we like, date his initial purchase of "Kotenschlos" paper to about August 1807. T h e t w o leaves already referred t o — n o s . 10 and 11 in the chart on page 162— show the "Kotenschlos" watermark in the earliest state of our type 20; it is this state 2 See the facsimile of Vienna A 37 verso in Schmidt-Gorg/Schmidt, p. 40. (The stitch-holes are also visible here, in the right-hand margin.)
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
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THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
that is f o u n d also in the autograph of the Mass. N u m b e r 11, moreover, is ruled into three large bars, and must therefore have originally been prepared for use in an orchestral score before being discarded and used for sketching. In view of Beethoven's difficulty in completing the Mass in time, it seems probable that these leaves would not have been b o u n d u p in the h o m e m a d e sketchbook (of which they appear to contain some of the earlier sketches) until after the Mass had been performed on 13 September. In the second half of September Beethoven would have felt free to resume w o r k on purely instrumental pieces, and especially on the Fifth Symphony. T h u s it is unlikely that this h o m e m a d e sketchbook was assembled, and sketching begun in it, before the middle of September 1807. T h e date at which Beethoven ceased to use (or had filled up) the sketchbook can also be determined by the presence of some sketches and the absence of others. T h e Leonore O v e r t u r e N o . 1, it appears, was finished in the fall of 1807. B u t w o r k o n the Fifth S y m p h o n y occupied him through the winter, and was finally completed b y about February or March 1808. A letter f r o m Beethoven to C o u n t von O p p e r s d o r f f (Anderson 166), announcing that the symphony had been ready for a long time and had been copied, is undated; but in it he refers to a painful finger infection that can be dated to February or March 1808. Moreover, Beethoven seems to have finished the sketchbook before he had finished the symphony; there are, at any rate, n o sketches here for any part of the finale except its opening bars. N o r do we find here any sketches for the Sixth Symphony; Beethoven appears to have started that w o r k in the spring of 1 8 0 8 , using a n e w book (the PASTORAL S Y M PHONY SKETCHBOOK; see p. 1 6 6 ) . T h e last sketches in the homemade sketchbook appear to be those for the four settings of Goethe's "Sehnsucht," W o O 134, and for the A - m a j o r cello sonata, O p u s 69. T h e former were completed by February 1808 at the latest, since their autograph bears the official censor's imprimatur of 3 M a r c h 1808. T h e exact date at which the cello sonata was completed cannot n o w be determined, although N o t t e b o h m (N I, 70) claimed he had evidence that it was probably finished b y January; at all events it was ready early in the year. T h u s the weight of evidence points to around February 1808 as the time at w h i c h the sketchbook was discontinued. O n l y one leaf—no. 22 in the chart on page 163— appears at first sight to be rather later, since it includes sketches for the t h e m e of the finale of the G - m a j o r violin sonata, O p u s 96 (composed in December 1812), here written d o w n in A major; for Goethe's song "Kennst du das Land," O p u s 75 N o . 1 (dated "1809" by Beethoven in an inscription on an Abschrift); and for an idea used in the Choral Fantasy, O p u s 80 (composed in December 1808). But a moment's reflection suggests that the A - m a j o r theme must originally have been intended for the finale of the Cello Sonata in A major, O p u s 69 (it could have nothing to do with O p u s 96), and that the sketch therefore comes f r o m the winter of 1807—1808. Moreover, b o t h "Sehnsucht" and "Kennst du das Land" come f r o m Goethe's Wilhelm Meister, and in that winter Beethoven might well have turned his attention f r o m one p o e m to the other. O n l y the O p u s 80 idea is a little puzzling; if it was not entered in the sketchbook merely as a motive at the beginning of 1808 and taken u p almost a year later, it could be a late jotting in the already discarded sketchbook. T h e dates within which the sketchbook appears to have been used m a y therefore be fixed as ca. September 1807 to ca. February 1808.
Sketchbook of
1807-1808
165
LITERATURE Alan Tyson, "The Problem of Beethoven's 'First' Leonore Overture," JAMS 28 (1975), 292-334. , "Beethoven's Home-Made Sketchbook of 1807-08," BJ10 (1983), 185-200; includes facsimiles o f Landsberg 12, page 4, and Bonn Mh 75, folio 3v. Bekker, p. 66 of plates, includes facsimiles of Landsberg 10, pages 68 and 76. Schmidt-Gòrg/Schmidt, pp. 40 and 214, include facsimiles of Vienna A 37 verso and Vienna A 59, folio 3r.
PASTORAL SYMPHONY SKETCHBOOK
LOCATION: London, B L (Add. MS 31766) 59 leaves DATE: near beginning o f 1808 to about September 1808 EDITION: Beethovenhaus, Bonn (1961), ed. Dagmar Weise
PRESENT SIZE:
T h e history o f the PASTORAL SYMPHONY SKETCHBOOK can be traced with something like completeness. It appears to have been lot no. 1 in the Nachlass auction catalogue. That lot was acquired—perhaps in order to start the bidding—by Anton GrafFer, the auctioneer and a member of the firm of Artaria and Co. In 1842, as an inscription on the cover o f the book indicates, GrafFer gave it to Ferdinand Simon Gassner o f Karlsruhe. After Gassner's death in 1851 the book remained for a time with his family, but by 1876 it had passed into the hands of the Karlsruhe bookseller Adolf Horchler, where it aroused the interest o fJohannes Brahms. Brahms at one time hoped to acquire it, but on 23 April 1879 it was auctioned (together with many o f Gassner's papers) by the London firm of Puttick & Simpson and was purchased by Julian Marshall. The next year, after having had the sketchbook sumptuously rebound in vellum, Marshall sold it, together with other manuscripts, to the British Museum; it was catalogued there as Additional Manuscript 31766. Today the sketchbook has 59 leaves. That it once had had many more was observed by Nottebohm in a short essay on the sketchbook published in the Musikalisches Wochenblatt in 1878; he noted the fact that "about a third of the original total" o f leaves had been cut out, and characterized their excision as "vandalism." But he seems not to have realized that he had already described several o f the missing leaves in an essay on sketches for the Pastoral Symphony that he had published in the same periodical the year before. There are in fact 28 such leaves in the miscellany Landsberg 10 (Berlin, SPK), and Josef Braunstein was the first to suggest that they belonged to the PASTORAL SYMPHONY SKETCHBOOK, a theory that Dagmar Weise later confirmed by watermark evidence. A modern foliation of the 59 leaves remaining in the sketchbook runs from 2 to 60, with the front cover as folio 1. An older foliation in the hand o f Anton GrafFer numbers these leaves from 1 to 61, with the 2 leaves originally numbered " 4 2 " and
166
Pastoral Symphony
Sketchbook
167
" 4 3 " n o w missing f r o m the book (they came between the present folios 42 and 43). T h e leaf n u m b e r e d "43" has been found (Bonn M h 74), as has another with Graffer's n u m b e r " 6 2 " (Bonn BSk 23) which followed the present folio 60. At the time of Graffer's foliation, then, at least 3 more leaves were still in the book. T h e 28 leaves that are n o w in Landsberg 10, as well as one leaf formerly in Landsberg 10 that Landsberg is k n o w n to have given away, had already been removed. Possibly Graffer cut t h e m out at Landsberg's own request, when the latter made his large purchase of sketchbooks f r o m Artaria (see pp. 31-33). Since evidence leading to a reconstruction of the PASTORAL S Y M P H O N Y S K E T C H BOOK has n o w been presented in great detail by Alan Tyson (in BS 1), it is not necessary to do m o r e here than summarize it and bring it u p to date. 1 It is clear that the b o o k consisted originally of 96 leaves of the same paper, 2 in t w e n t y - f o u r single-sheet gatherings. In addition to the 59 leaves in London and the 28 in Berlin (in Landsberg 10), 3 leaves are n o w in the Beethovenhaus (one acquired in 1978), and w h a t is almost certainly a fourth is in the Stadtbibliothek, Vienna. So only 5 leaves remain unaccounted for, including the one that Ludwig Landsberg gave away in 1852 to the wife of the French ambassador in R o m e (this had been pages 115/116 in Landsberg 10). Fortunately it is possible in almost every case to assign separated leaves to their original position, on the evidence of sketch-continuity, watermarks, ink-blots (which are especially numerous), or a combination of these (see Plates 6 - 7 ) . T h e edition of the sketchbook published in 1961 does not include the leaves removed f r o m the b o o k and transcribes only the 59 London leaves.
DATE OF THE SKETCHBOOK Apart f r o m Beethoven's inscription "1808" at the top of the first page, the only clues to dating are those derived f r o m the sketch content. Almost all of the first 47 leaves n o w in the book contain sketches for the Sixth Symphony, the sinfonia pastorale-, the remaining 12 of its leaves are devoted mainly to the Piano Trio, O p u s 70 N o . 1. In a f e w scattered places there are also brief sketches for its companion, the Trio, O p u s 70 N o . 2. According to J. F. Reichardt [ Vertraute Briefe . . . (Amsterdam, 1810), I, pp. 209, 285], both trios had been performed at the Countess Erdödy's house in Vienna by December 1808. Furthermore, in his letter to Breitkopf & Härtel of 7 J a n u ary 1809 (Anderson 192) Beethoven wrote: "Surely you have received the trios. You know, of course, that one of them was already completed before your departure [Härtel had visited Vienna in September 1808]. But I wanted to wait and send it w i t h the second one. T h e latter was finished too a couple of m o n t h s a g o . " It is likely, therefore, that the sketchbook in which the first trio was more or less completed but the second barely started was filled no later than September 1808.
1 0 n e point in that earlier discussion needs rectification. The two molds of the watermark (our type 20) are shown there as reading in the same way (Plates IV-VII); in fact, the mold-B watermark is the m i r r o r image of that of mold A, as shown in Appendix A to the present book. 2 O u r type 20. In the rastrology of this paper, the middle line of the second staff is shorter than the other four at its right-hand end, a feature that is visible in photographs.
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s r " major, Opus 73 first movement
pp. 3, 16—17
second movement
pp. 3, 4, 109,* 110*
third movement
pp. 7, 8, 1 3 - 3 9
Song, "Ostreich über Alles" (Collin)
p. 19
"Jubelgesang"
p. 41
Piano Sonata in E|> major ("Les Adieux"), O p u s 81a first movement
pp. 4 2 - 4 5
second movement
p. 86
third movement
p. 86
Overture in C major ("Zur Namensfeier"), O p u s 115 (early version in 3/4 time)
pp. 58-61, 6 3 - 6 4
"Liebesklage," O p u s 82 No. 2
pp. 66-69, 7 4 - 7 5
String Quartet in E[> major, Opus 74 first movement
pp. 70-73, 7 8 - 8 1
second movement third movement
pp. 70, 76, 8 2 - 8 3 , 85, 87, 91, 100-101 pp. 70, 76, 81, 8 3 - 8 5 , 8 9 - 9 3 , 95
fourth movement
pp. 70-71, 76, 9 0 - 9 1 , 9 3 - 9 7
Piano Sonata in G major, Opus 79 first movement
pp. 75, 97
"Freudvoll und leidvoll," cf. Opus 84 No. 4 (early version in F major rather than A major and for t w o voices with piano accompaniment)
pp. 8 8 - 8 9
Piano introduction to the Choral Fantasy, O p u s 80
pp. 5, 6, 9 8 - 9 9
Variations for piano, Opus 76
pp. 100, 102-103, 105
Landsberg
5
193
"An den fernen Geliebten," Opus 75 No. 5
pp. 106-107
"Der Zufriedene," Opus 75 No. 6
pp. 107
Fantasy for piano, Opus 77
pp. 1, 2
Song, "Edone" (Klopstock)
(p. 112)
Page 108 was not used.
LANDSBERG 5
(pages
13-108)
Sheet
Pages
Quadrant
Quadrant
Pages
I
13/14 15/16
lb 2b
4b 3b
107/108 105/106
II
17/18 19/20
2a la
3a 4a
103/104 101/102
III
21/22 23/24
4a 3a
la 2a
99/100 97/98
IV
25/26 27/28
3b 4b
2b lb
95/96 93/94
V
29/30 31/32
4a 3a
la 2a
91/92 89/90
VI
33/34 35/36
3b 4b
2b lb
87/88 85/86
VII
37/38 39/40
4a 3a
la 2a
83/84 81/82
VIII
41/42 43/44
lb 2b
4b 3b
79/80 77/78
IX
45/46 47/48
2a la
3a 4a
75/76 73/74
X
49/50 51/52
lb 2b
4b 3b
71/72 69/70
XI
53/54 55/56
3b 4b
2b lb
67/68 65/66
XII
57/58 59/60
4a 3a
la 2a
63/64 61/62
All the paper is type 21, ruled with 16 staves (TS = 195.5-196 mm).
194
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS LITERATURE
G. Nottebohm, "Skizzen zum Quartett Op. 74," MW 6 (1875), 2 2 1 - 2 2 ; reprinted with some revisions in N II, 9 1 - 9 5 . , "Skizzen zur Sonate Op. 81a," MW 6 (1875), 223; reprinted with small changes in N II, 96-100. , "Die Ouverture Op. 115," MW 7 (1876), 1 - 3 ; reprinted with small changes in N II, 1 4 - 2 0 . , "Skizzen aus dem Jahre 1809," in N II, 255-75; adapted from material published previously in MW1 (1876), 513-17, 5 2 9 - 3 0 , 5 4 5 - 4 6 , and 10 (1879), 397-99. Wilhelm Kienzl, "Neu aufgefundene Skizzen von Beethoven," Allgemeine MusikZeitung 22 (1895), 3 1 9 - 2 4 ; briefly summarized in The Musical Times 36 (1895), 451. J. S. Shedlock, "Beethoven Sketches Hitherto Unpublished," The Musical Times 50 (1909), 7 1 2 - 1 4 . , tr., Beethoven's Letters, ed. A. C. Kalischer, Vol. I (London, 1909); p. 225 is a facsimile o f a leaf ( W 2 , p. 1 ) that probably came from LANDSBERG 5 . Brandenburg/Kafka, esp. pp. 107-108.
LANDSBERG I I
Krakow, BJ 50 leaves DATE: winter 1809/1810 to fall 1810 EDITION: none
LOCATION:
PRESENT SIZE:
T h e sketchbook LANDSBERG I I , which came to the Berlin Royal Library in 1862, was among the manuscripts that could not be traced at the end of World War II. Today (1984) it is located in the Bibliotekajagiellonska in Krakow. It was described in some detail by Nottebohm in 1876 (see "Literature"), and since the sketchbook has evidently undergone a number of changes in its physical condition since that time, it will be best to begin with Nottebohm's description: It consists o f 24 bifolia in a single gathering that is partly held together b y a thread, a n d o f 2 l o o s e leaves; and it c o m p r i s e s a total o f 100 p a g e s o f 16-stave paper [in N II: " 1 0 0 p a g e s o f o b l o n g p a p e r " ] . M o s t o f the entries are in ink, but s o m e are in pencil. T h e b u n d l e [Heft] is p r o b a b l y not as c o m p l e t e as it once was; leaves that had originally been attached to the l o o s e leaves m a y have been lost [in N II this clause runs s i m p l y : " l e a v e s m a y h a v e been l o s t " ] . T h e r e is n o d o u b t , h o w e v e r , that the leaves b e f o r e us are in the o r d e r in w h i c h they w e r e written on, so that our chronological c o n c l u s i o n s can b e i m p u g n e d w i t h regard to their completeness but not in other respects.
It is fortunate that Nottebohm's description is so specific, for a rebinding of the volume, probably in the 1930s, has obscured many of the details. (A small printed label from that time, attached to the end-paper, reads: "Gebunden in der Buchbinderei/ der PreuB. Staatsbibliothek/Berlin.") The gathering structure has been completely changed; instead of a single large gathering there is a series of small gatherings, artificial bifolia being formed out of leaves that are adjacent or close to one another. The 2 loose leaves noted by Nottebohm have evidently been assigned places and bound in, so they cannot now be identified for certain. And, most bizarre of all, pages 71/72 have been bound in upside-down. All this would be much more disturbing if there were not good grounds for believing that all the leaves, and therefore the contents of the sketches, are still in the order in which they stood in Landsberg's and Nottebohm's day. In the first place, the 195
196
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
book has the same overall number of leaves as it had at the time of Artaria's first classification. For the original Artaria wrapper has fortunately been preserved and bound in: it is inscribed Notirungsbuch/D/50. (The letter D is also found in the book on page 79, a point to which we shall return.) It is true that the words "98 Seiten Blätter" are also to be found on the cover, in Ludwig Landsberg's hand, but this misleading entry, which implies a volume of 49 leaves (assuming that Landsberg's original entry of "98 Seiten" was what he intended), seems to have been the result of an error by Landsberg in paginating the book. For he wrote "1" on folio l r and "3" on folio 2r, but then "4" (instead of "5") on folio 3r (2v is not blank); from there on he added the next even number to the next recto. Thus the recto of folio 50 became "98"; folio 50v, which is blank, received no page-number. This probably explains Landsberg's figure of "98." A later hand, using a greenish ink, repaginated the rectos with odd numbers so that folio 50r became "99" (and the blank folio 50v was n u m bered "100"); the same hand wrote on the cover "100 Seiten." In spite of its vagaries, then, Landsberg's pagination shows that the leaves are in the order they were in during his lifetime. And the pagination of his greenish-ink reviser is the one used by Nottebohm in his essay on LANDSBERG I I . But it will be clear that the structure of the book described by Nottebohm can be confirmed only by indirect means, since the rebinding has falsified the original. Nevertheless, if the order of the leaves has not been changed, it may still be possible to make out Nottebohm's "24 bifolia in a single gathering" and his "2 loose leaves." In fact a careful scrutiny establishes most, but not all, of what was described by Nottebohm. All 5 0 leaves in LANDSBERG I I belong to one of two related paper-types (our types 37 and 39) and are ruled 16 staves to a page, with a TS of 195 m m . When the sequence of their watermark quadrants is laid out, as in the make-up chart below, the leaves in the first half of the book can be seen to correspond generally to plausible conjugate leaves in the second half. Moreover, the leaves in one half and their conjugates in the other are grouped for the most part into pairs of bifolia in which all four quadrants of a sheet are represented. In all but a few cases, this pairing is confirmed by matching upper profiles. It seems, however, that even the most optimistic attempts at pairing leaves can produce only 23 bifolia, one fewer than the number indicated by Nottebohm, and that instead of his 2 loose leaves there must be 4. From the make-up chart it can be seen that 4 leaves in the second half of the sketchbook—folios 40—41 (pages 79—82) and folios 47-48 (pages 93—96)—have no conjugate leaves in the first half, suggesting the loss of 2 leaves after page 4 and another 2 after page 14. (No candidates for these missing leaves have been firmly identified so far. All 4 belonged to a section of the book devoted to Egmont and are therefore likely to have contained sketches for that work.) There is one reason for suspecting that folios 40 and 41 were the 2 leaves that Nottebohm described as being "loose," and that folios 47 and 48, although unpaired, were attached to the rest of the book by the thread he mentioned (of which there is no trace today) and thus escaped his notice. Page 79 (folio 40r) has Artaria's letter D in its upper right-hand corner, indicating that at the time of the first Artaria classification folio 40 was at the front of the book. Its relocation, and that of folio 41, was
Landsberg
it
197
probably by Landsberg and had at any rate occurred by the time of Landsberg's pagination. There was little difficulty in placing folio 41, for sketches for Opus 97 III in both ink and Rotel on folio 41 v (page 82) are linked directly to sketches on folio 42r (page 83). (There is also an ink-blot connection between these facing pages, if he was looking for such things.) And folio 40 would have taken its place in front of folio 41, on the evidence of some traces of sealing wax which have rubbed off page 81 onto page 80. Another possibility is that at the time of Artaria's classification the last 11 leaves in the sketchbook had been folded around to the front, so that folio 40 had become the first leaf and thus received the letter D. This is something that seems to have occurred in at least one other single-gathering book (SCHEIDE).1 Landsberg would then have had only to return those 11 leaves, as a group, to their original position at the back of the book, a task requiring no close observation of their contents. If this is indeed what happened, then folios 40 and 41, as single leaves, must still have been attached to the rest of the book, even if only by a thread; folios 47 and 48 must have been the 2 "loose" leaves. One more irregularity in the structure of LANDSBERG I I is worth observing, though it does not affect Nottebohm's description. If the sketchbook had been made up in a completely regular way, we should expect to find the 2 bifolia from each sheet adjacent to each other in the gatherings. In LANDSBERG I I , however, 3 of the bifolia are unpaired; they are pages 1/2 and 99/100 (folios 1 and 50), pp. 27/28 and 65/66 (folios 14 and 33), and pp. 33/34 and 59/60 (folios 17 and 30). It is possible that one bifolium could have been lost next to any of the 3, although the sequence of sketches at these places does not strongly suggest it. Small structural irregularities of the same sort are found in other single-gathering sketchbooks (cf. MENDELSSOHN 6), and they do not necessarily indicate that leaves have been removed. We have therefore not postulated any lost bifolia to complement the 3 single ones in LANDSBERG I I .
DATE OF THE
SKETCHBOOK
Nottebohm estimated that LANDSBERG I I had been in use "from January [1810] at the earliest to September 1810 at the latest" (N II, 276). He described the first 29 pages of the sketchbook as being devoted to all the numbers that Beethoven wrote for Egmont except Nos. 4, 5, and the overture. Goethe's play was revived at the Hofburgtheater on 24 May 1810, but without Beethoven's music; this was added for the first time at a performance on 15 or 18 June. The whole of the music ("ten numbers, overture, entr'acte music, and so forth") was offered by Beethoven to Breitkopf & Härtel on 6June 1810 (Anderson 261). Thus most of the first third of the sketchbook is likely to have been used by May 1810 at the latest. But the date of the earliest sketches in it is harder to determine, since the time at which Beethoven began to work on Egmont is not known; "winter of 1809/1810" seems a justifiable approximation.
1 Other books also show evidence of having had their last leaves turned back to the front, sometimes by Beethoven himself; see, for example, ARTARIA 201 and LANDSBERG 9.
198
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
Nottebohm's account of the Egmont sketches needs slight correction. There are sketches here for No. 5; and on page 32 there is a substantial sketch for an orchestral piece in F minor, which may represent an early idea for the overture. Loose leaves with sketches for the overture survive elsewhere, 2 although it is not clear whether they preceded LANDSBERG I I or were contemporary with it. Nottebohm also refers (N II, 278) to leaves in another place in which overture sketches are followed by sketches for the first three movements of the "Archduke" Trio, Opus 97, a work sketched in the second half of LANDSBERG I I . But those leaves have not been identified. Nottebohm is correct, however, in claiming that there are no sketches in L A N D S BERG I I for No. 4 of the Egmont music, Clärchen's song "Freudvoll und leidvoll" (in A major). This may have been the first piece to be written. There are sketches for another setting of it at the end of the preceding sketchbook, LANDSBERG 5; but that setting is in F major, is partly for two voices, and has an accompaniment not for orchestra but for piano. Thus its connection with the rest of the Egmont music is by no means clear. The date of the last sketches in LANDSBERG 11 is even harder to determine with certainty, although "fall of 1810" may be acceptable. Hitherto it has been believed that reliance could be placed on the dates that Beethoven wrote on two autograph scores. That of the String Quartet in F minor, Opus 95, is inscribed "1810 im M o nath october" and "geschrieben in Monath october," and sketches for all four movements of the work are found on pages 30—47 of LANDSBERG I I . The autograph of the "Archduke" Trio, Opus 97, has "Trio am 3 t e n März 1811" at the beginning and "geendigt am 26 t e n März [with "April" crossed out] 1811" at the end, and there are sketches for all four movements of it too in the second half of LANDSBERG I I . But Nottebohm emphasized that the sketches for the trio's last three movements were to some extent preliminary ones, so that the dates on its autograph were no obstacle to his proposed date of "September 1810" for the end of LANDSBERG I I . Today there is good evidence (based on their paper-types) that most if not all the pages in the autograph scores of Opus 95 and Opus 97, and also of the Violin Sonata Opus 96, were written out three or four years later than the dates that Beethoven inscribed on them. The score of Opus 96 was probably written out in 1815, and the date that it bears, "im Februar 1812 oder 13," seems to correspond neither to the time of its first composition nor to that of a later revision. 3 Nor does it seem to be the case that Opus 95 was completed by October 1810; Beethoven appears to have continued to work on the quartet in 1811 (see the following sketchbook). But it is likely that all the Opus 9 5 sketches in LANDSBERG I I are from 1 8 1 0 , so that the dating of the sketchbook is not necessarily affected by Beethoven's faulty retrospective dating of the autograph score. Even if the surviving autograph of Opus 97 was written out some years later, its completion date of "26 March 1811" is more plausible than the ones that Beethoven wrote on the autographs of Opus 95 and Opus 96. (It is even possible that its first 2 2 For example, Vienna A 42 and A 43 (4 leaves each); Hanover, Kestner Museum, SV 328 (2 leaves); D S B Grasnick 20a, folio 4. 3 See Sieghard Brandenburg, "Bemerkungen zu Beethovens Op. 96," BJ9 (1977), 11-25.
199
Landsberg 11
leaves, the first o f which is inscribed " 3 March 1811," are survivors from an autograph written at that time.) As has already been explained, these dates are no obstacle to limiting the trio sketches in LANDSBERG I I to the year 1810. Further (and later?) sketches for the work will be found in the following sketchbook.
LANDSBERG
II
Pages
Quadrant
Paper-type
Quadrant
Pages
1/2
la
39
4a
99/100
3/4 A
lb (2b)
39
4b 3b
97/98 95/96
B 5/6
(2b) lb
39
3b 4b
93/94 91/92
*
7/8 9/10
2b lb
37
3b 4b
89/90 87/88
*
11/12 13/14
la 2a
39
4a 3a
85/86 83/84
C D
(2b) (lb)
37
3b 4b
81/82 * 79/80
15/16 17/18 §
4a 3a
37
la 2a
77/78 75/76
19/20 21/22 §
lb 2b
39
4b 3b
73/74 71/72
23/24 25/26
3a 4a
37
2a la
69/70 67/68
27/28
lb
37
4b
65/66
29/30 31/32 §
2b lb
37
3b 4b
63/64 61/62
33/34
3b
37
2b
59/60
35/36 37/38 §
3a 4a
39
2a la
57/58 55/56
39/40 41/42
4a 3a
37
la 2a
53/54 51/52
43/44 45/46 §
4b 3b
37
lb 2b
49/50 47/48
§
*
All the paper is ruled with 16 staves (TS = 1 9 5 mm).
+
* *
* * * *
* *
* + *
*
+
200
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
Beethoven appears to have interrupted work on the trio to sketch " M i t einem gemalten Band" on the last few leaves of LANDSBERG I I ; this was the third of three songs on Goethe texts, Opus 83, the first t w o of which had preceded O p u s 97 in the sketchbook. 4 A letter to Breitkopf & Härtel of 23 September 1810 promising i m m e diate delivery of the songs (Anderson 276) may have led N o t t e b o h m to choose September as his date for the end of LANDSBERG I I . But as late as 11 N o v e m b e r Härtel was apparently still awaiting them, 5 and Opus 83 did not in fact appear until the following fall. Thus it may not be safe to assume that LANDSBERG I I had been filled before October or even November 1810. The chief contents of
LANDSBERG I I
are:
Incidental Music to Goethe's Egmont, Opus 84 (first performed on 15 or 18 June 1810)
pp. 1 - 2 9
String Quartet in F minor, Opus 95
pp. 3 0 - 4 7
" W o n n e der W e h m u t " and "Sehnsucht," O p u s 83 Nos. 1 and 2
pp. 4 8 - 5 8
Piano Trio in Bt major, Opus 97
pp. 5 9 - 9 3
" M i t einem gemalten Band," Opus 83 No. 3
pp. 94ff.
Page 100 was not used.
LITERATURE
G. N o t t e b o h m , "Ein Skizzenheft aus dem Jahre 1810," MW1 (1876), 4 1 - 4 3 , 5 3 - 5 5 ; reprinted with some changes in N II, 276-87.
4 A s early as 28 M a y 1810 Bettina B r e n t a n o reported hearing Beethoven play a setting of O p u s 83 N o . 1 ( N II, 2 8 1 ) — b e f o r e the first p e r f o r m a n c e of the Egmont music. 5 W i l h e l m Hitzig, " D i e Briefe G o t t f r i e d C h r i s t o p h Härtels an B e e t h o v e n , " Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft 9 (1927), 338.
S K E T C H B O O K OF 1 8 1 0 - 1 8 1 1
LOCATION: leaves in various locations at least 39 leaves DATE: late 1810 to the summer of 1811
PRESENT SIZE:
EDITION: n o n e
T h e period f r o m the fall of 1810 to the summer of 1811 was a relatively u n p r o d u c tive time for Beethoven. H e continued to work on two projects begun in LANDSBERG I I : the Piano Trio in B|> major, O p u s 97, and the String Quartet in F minor, O p u s 95. T h e trio was probably finished by March 1811, and some version of the quartet m a y also have been completed, although the date on the a u t o g r a p h — O c t o b e r 1810—is not trustworthy (the autograph was written out much later). T h e c h r o nology of both these works is considered in more detail in the discussion of L A N D S BERG I I (see pp. 198-99). Beethoven's other main activity at this time was the task of seeing t h r o u g h the press a large number of compositions that he had written earlier; this involved him in an extensive correspondence with Breitkopf & Härtel of Leipzig. Meanwhile, his health remained poor. In June 1811 his physician, Dr. Giovanni M a l fatti, ordered h i m to spend t w o months at the Bohemian spa of Teplitz in order to take the waters. In fact Beethoven spent the period f r o m 4 August to 18 September there. It was as he was getting into his carriage to leave Vienna for Teplitz at the very end of July, as Beethoven reported in a letter to Breitkopf & Härtel of 9 O c t o b e r 1811 (Anderson 325), that he received a parcel f r o m O f e n (Buda). This was a request to compose something for the opening of the new theater at Pest. "After spending three weeks at Teplitz I felt fairly well, and although m y doctor had forbidden m e to w o r k , I sat d o w n to do something for those moustachios w h o are genuinely f o n d of me. O n 13 September I sent off m y parcel to them in the belief that the performance was to take place on 1 October." T h e opening of the Pest theater was in the end postponed until 9 February 1812. T h e commission f r o m Ofen, which Beethoven fulfilled so quickly at Teplitz between about 25 August and 13 September 1811, was for musical settings of t w o festival pieces by August von Kotzebue: a Vorspiel entitled König Stephan (also k n o w n as Ungarns erster Wohltäter) and a Nachspiel, Die Ruinen von Athen. These were ultimately published as Beethoven's O p u s 117 and O p u s 113 respectively.
201
202
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
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211
b u t n o signs of the stitch-holes. It once belonged to Georg Poelchau (1773-1836), w h o gave it a w a y on 30 M a y 1833. T h e absence of the holes, c o m b i n e d w i t h the fact that b y 1833 (if n o t earlier) the leaf was already separate f r o m the rest of the b o o k , gives rise to the suspicion that the binding associated w i t h the stitch-holes w a s carried o u t at s o m e time after Beethoven's d e a t h — t h o u g h still before the s k e t c h b o o k was acquired b y Gustav Petter, since leaves given a w a y by Petter (e.g., B o n n M h 85 and B H 122 = S B H 643-644) have the holes. (Since the holes are n o t t o r n , those leaves m u s t have been disbound w h e n Petter gave t h e m away; thus the holes c a n n o t have been the result of Petter's action in rebinding the b o o k , to w h i c h N o t t e b o h m refers in his account. 2 ) If the stitch-holes were added after Beethoven's death, did they replace an earlier s e w i n g along the fold, as w e m i g h t expect to find in a s k e t c h b o o k m a d e u p of r e g u lar single-sheet gatherings (such as WIELHORSKY or MENDELSSOHN 15)? T h e evidence of a b i f o l i u m n o w in B o n n ( B H 120 = S B H 641) is pertinent here. T h e r e is n o t the smallest d o u b t that this bifolium belonged to the b o o k ; its correct position is b e t w e e n folios 29 and 30, and it f o r m s the inner bifolium of a sheet. Each of the 2 leaves has the t w o stitch-holes s o m e 10 m m f r o m the central fold (they are m u c h smaller than those of m o s t leaves in the b o o k today, and have p r o b a b l y retained their original size), b u t there is a complete absence of any stitch-holes along the central fold. T h i s is impressive evidence, then, that the gatherings w e r e n o t s e w n . (The present stitching of the b o o k runs along the folds, but is of comparatively recent origin and cannot be called in as evidence of the state of affairs in Beethoven's lifetime o r s h o r t l y after it.) Unless o n e decides that the PETTER sketchbook was merely in loose sheets in B e e t hoven's lifetime b u t b y s o m e miracle retained its leaves in the correct sequence, the m a t t e r of the b o o k ' s original binding can be resolved only by rejecting the i m p l i c a tions of part of the above evidence. T h e reconstruction offered here accepts that the o n l y b i n d i n g the sketchbook had in Beethoven's day was one that used the pair o f large stitch-holes. A careful examination of the areas a r o u n d these holes leads to the conclusion that they w e r e already there w h e n the leaves w e r e used for sketching. T h e conclusion that the stitch-holes belonged to the sketchbook's original b i n d i n g has various consequences, of w h i c h three can be m e n t i o n e d here: 1 . T h e n o t i o n that PETTER is a professionally m a d e s k e t c h b o o k m u s t be a b a n -
d o n e d . T h i s also means giving u p any attempt at predicting its original size; it w a s as big as Beethoven chose to m a k e it, and could equally well have h a d f e w e r o r m o r e than 96 leaves. 2. Poelchau's leaf, t h o u g h closely associated w i t h the b o o k b y its w a t e r m a r k and sketch-contents, was never part of it (unless b y s o m e freak of b i n d i n g it escaped receiving the holes). 3. M o s t i m p o r t a n t of all, it follows that folios 1 - 9 , w i t h the s a m e holes as the rest of PETTER, m u s t be considered an integral part of the b o o k . 2 It is conceivable, of course, that Petter made the holes and secured the book with a ribbon, which he then untied to avoid tearing the leaves he removed.
212
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS FOLIOS
1-9
These 9 leaves, as has already been said, are on paper with a different watermark from the rest, one with the name "Kiesling," and the letters J J (the number "11"?) in a lower corner (see type 37). Today they are all single leaves, separately mounted and bound in. But the sequence of watermark quadrants, ink-blot connections, and musical continuity all indicate that folios 1 - 8 are in their original sequence and represent 2 single-sheet gatherings. Thus, the gathering structure of this part of PETTER is the same as that of the rest. It is only the problematic folio 9 that can be shown to have been displaced. In fact, it has not been moved far; an ink-blot shows that it originally preceded folio 1. Presumably it was the last leaf of a gathered sheet, and its preceding 3 leaves have been lost. Such leaves, if they were to be found, would be identifiable in the first place by their characteristic pair of holes (ca. 160 mm apart, ca. 10 mm from the inner margin); and the identification would be clinched by the watermark and sketchcontents. Only one leaf known at present is a plausible candidate. D S B Grasnick 20a, folio 1, has been closely trimmed along its inner margin and so displays no holes, but the watermark seems identical, and the sketch-content includes Opus 113 No. 5 and WoO 140 (on the dating of these works, see below). It is not impossible, then, that folio 1 of Grasnick 20a belongs at the beginning of PETTER—either from the same sheet as folio 9 or from a further sheet of which it is the sole survivor. It is quite likely that other leaves have been lost after folio 8 and before folio 10. These leaves could have either the Kiesling or the IAV watermark. There is one surviving leaf which it is logical to assign to this part of the book, for it contains sketches both for Opus 113 Nos. 4 and 5 and for Opus 92 I. This is Bonn B H 105 (SBH 640). It has the IAV watermark, but the margins are trimmed and it has no holes. We cannot be certain, therefore, that it was ever part of PETTER. DATE OF THE
SKETCHBOOK
The contents of the PETTER sketchbook, and the dates at which the sketches were entered, also make some contribution to the problems of the book's structure just discussed. The principal works sketched in PETTER are the Seventh and Eighth Symphonies. Sketches for the Seventh Symphony are found on folios 2—8 and 10—35—that is, on leaves with the Kiesling as well as the IAV watermark; and sketches for the Eighth Symphony follow immediately, on folios 35-71. The sketches for both these symphonies follow in general the order of the four movements, and since the sketches for Opus 92 on folios 2—8 consist mainly of very early ones for the first movement (including the Introduction), this fact appears to confirm the correctness of the relative positions of the Kiesling and IAV leaves within the book. Today the overall chronology of these sketches for Opus 92 and Opus 93 is not really in doubt, although it was still a matter for sharp controversy in the time of Thayer and Nottebohm. The autograph score of the Seventh Symphony is dated "1812. 13ten April" (most of the last word has been cut off, but it is clearly "April" and not "May"), and that of the Eighth is dated "Linz, im Monath october 1812."
Petter
213
There is general agreement that the Eighth Symphony was wholly written in 1812 and that the larger part of the work on the Seventh also dates from that year, though it may have been begun toward the end of 1811. Thus the chronology of the great majority of the sketchbook's leaves—folios 2 - 8 and 10-71 out of a total of 74— presents no serious problem, and Nottebohm accordingly offered " f r o m the end of 1811 to the beginning of 1813" as the outer limits within which the sketchbook was used (N II, 288). But among the few remaining leaves there is more than one that gives rise to chronological problems, or was believed in the past to do so. The following leaves claim special attention: (a) Folio 9
Recto: sketches for Opus 113 Nos. 4 and 5 Verso: an entry that runs "overture Macbeths fällt gleich in den Chor der Hexen ein"
(b) Folios 72-73
sketches for Opus 96, all movements
(c) Folio 74
Recto: sketches for Opus 113 No. 5 Verso: sketches for WoO 140 (first version)
(a) For Nottebohm the chronological difficulties posed by folio 9 were so great that he rejected the leaf as part of the sketchbook. The inscription on the verso obviously concerns Beethoven's plan of writing an opera on the subject of Macbeth, to a libretto by H. J. von Collin. This plan appears to have been conceived in 1808. The Wiener Hof-Theater-Taschenbuch for the year 1809 prints Collin's text for the first act. N o doubt it was written in 1808. That is the date, too, of a sketch identified by Beethoven as for "Macbeth" which is on a leaf from the PASTORAL SYMPHONY S K E T C H BOOK that is now bound up in a Berlin miscellany (SPK Landsberg 10, p. 133). The same leaf contains sketches for the "ghostly" slow movement of the Piano Trio Opus 70 No. 1. Collin died on 28 July 1811, leaving the opera libretto complete only up to the middle of the second act. Nottebohm took this as evidence that folio 9 could not have been used for the entry after July 1811 and was impossible therefore to reconcile with the PETTER sketchbook chronology. But the end of July 1811 was also the time that Beethoven left Vienna for Teplitz. He did not return to Vienna till the middle of September, and may therefore have been unaware of Collin's death for some weeks. And it would have been in precisely those weeks that he used the recto of folio 9 for sketching No. 4 (Turkish March) and No. 5 ("Musik hinter der Scene") of Die Ruinen von Athen, Opus 113. (For these sketches, see N II, 144-45, and for the chronology of Opus 113, written along with Opus 117 at Teplitz between about 25 August and 13 September 1811, see p. 201.) It has already been argued that folio 9 should be placed before folio 1 and is therefore the earliest surviving leaf still in the sketchbook. So PETTER was probably begun at Teplitz in September 1811 and followed directly after the collection of sketchleaves f r o m the summer of 1811 that is described on pp. 530-34. (The paper-type of the first 9 leaves of PETTER is identical with that found in the sketch collection.) The evidence of a leaf, probably once part of PETTER, already referred to is relevant here:
214
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
Bonn B H 105, on IAV paper, has sketches not only for Opus 113 Nos. 4 and 5 but also for Opus 92 I. This may possibly be taken as evidence that the Seventh Symphony was begun at Teplitz as early as September 1811. It seems clear that the IAV paper was acquired by Beethoven in Vienna by July 1811.3 Nottebohm noted that PETTER must have accompanied Beethoven on his journey to the Bohemian spas in the summer of 1812 (N II, 288), but it looks as though the book had already been at Teplitz the previous summer. (b) The latest sketches in PETTER are no doubt those for the Violin Sonata in G major, Opus 96, on folios 72-73. In all likelihood they date from December 1812 and were made in preparation for the concert given by Pierre Rode on 29 December. The sketches in PETTER are scanty, and largely confined to the last three movements. It is probable, therefore, that the first movement had been worked on earlier, and in another place; the sketches for it have not survived. But even the sketches for the last three movements in PETTER are somewhat rudimentary. A complete gathering of 4 leaves may therefore have fallen out between folio 72 and folio 73. (c) It is, however, the last leaf of PETTER that gives rise to the severest chronological difficulties. O n the recto are the words "sanfte Musik in B"—surely a reference to early sketches for No. 5 of Opus 113, the "Musik hinter der Scene"; the sketches on this recto are almost identical to others on DSB Grasnick 20a, folio l v — a n d on the verso sketches for the song "An die Geliebte," WoO 140, a work also sketched on both sides of Grasnick 20a, folio 1. Why should this innocent love-song have given rise to such problems? Two autographs survive of it, transmitting two slightly different versions of the song, the "first" and "second" versions. Both these autographs are dated by Beethoven " D e cember 1 8 1 1 . " The trouble is that that date is too early for the last page of P E T T E R , since the penultimate leaf has sketches for Opus 96 that (as we have seen) were written in December 1812. Nottebohm s solution was to claim that these were sketches for the second version. Accepting that the first version was completed in December 1811, he saw in these sketches a later revision. It is true that the autograph of the second version, in spite of its "1811" date, has a watermark which suggests that it dates f r o m 1814 or 1815. But for which version were the PETTER sketches? Nottebohm's claims were decisively rejected by Max Unger in 1933: the sketches in PETTER clearly precede the first version. Moreover, they are closely parallel to the sketches on Grasnick 20a, folio 1, which (as we have already seen) there is reason to place at the beginning of PETTER.
Thus we have a final leaf in PETTER with sketches for two works of the fall of 1811, preceded by sketches for a work written in December 1812. The most likely explanation is that sometime in the fall of 1811 the last leaf of PETTER was folded around the front of the sketchbook and so was used at that date. It is also not impossible that Beethoven decided to use the last leaf of PETTER early on, before almost any of the preceding leaves had been used. 3 The same paper was used by one of Beethoven's Viennese copyists for some orchestral parts to the Terzetto "Tremate, empi, tremati," Opus 116 (Bonn BH 87 = SBH 735).
Petter
215
Accordingly the dates at which PETTER was used may be given as between September 1811 and December 1812. A more detailed discussion o f several o f the structural and chronological points referred to above can be found in Sieghard Brandenburg's 1979 article on the PETTER sketchbook. The chief contents o f PETTER, including leaves that once belonged to it, are as follows: Die Ruinen von Athen, Opus 113 No. 4 Turkish March
fols. 9r, 74r; (Bonn B H 105)
No. 5 "Musik hinter der Scene"
fols. 9r, 74r; Grasnick 20a, fol. 1; (Bonn B H 105)
Seventh Symphony, Opus 92 first movement
second movement
third movement fourth movement
Opera, Macbeth
fols. 2v, 4 r - 8 v , 1 0 r - l l v , 12v-13v, 15v-26r, 29r; Bonn B H 123; (Bonn B H 105) fols. 5 r - v , l l v - 1 2 v , 22v, 26v-31r, 35r; Bonn B H 123, B H 120, Mh 85, NE 110; New York, James J. Fuld, SV 353 fols. 13v-14v, 30r, 31v; Bologna, Accademia Filarmonica (not in SV) fols. 5r, 14v-15v, 31r, 32r-35r; Bonn NE 128 + Leningrad, SV 335 fol. 9v
Eighth Symphony, Opus 93 first movement
second movement third movement fourth movement
fols. 35r-41v, 42v, 44r-v, 45v-49r, 50r, 51v; Bonn B H 122, N E 126; Stockholm, SMf, SV 379 fols. 44v, 46r, 49r-54r, 55v fols. 44v, 46r, 51r, 53r-v, 54v-56r, 69r, 71v fols. 41v, 43r—v, 54r, 56r-68v, 69r-71v; Bonn Mh 86
Schiller's "An die Freude" (as an overture? cf. Opus 115).
fols. 42r, 43r
Postillion from Karlsbad
fol. 44r
Violin Sonata in G major, Opus 96, all four movements
fols. 72v-73v
"An die Geliebte," WoO 140 (first version)
fol. 74r-v; Grasnick 20a, fol. 1
216
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
Tentative Reconstruction of Sheet
I
Folio
|— I r! LL—
II
Paper-type
PETTER
Quadrant
A B C 9
37
(2a) = DSB Grasnick 20a, fol. 1 (la) (4a) 3a
1 2 3 + 4
37
3b 4b lb 2b
37
lb 2b 3b 4b
III C ? 8
Other leaves probably missing here (Bonn BH 105?) IV
I— 10
23
3b 4b lb 2b
23
4a 3a 2a la
23
la 2a 3a 4a
23
2b (lb)= Bonn BH 123 (SBH 642) 4b 3b
23
2b lb 4b 3b
1 r 1 12 - 13 L
V
- 14 - 15 -
16
17 VI
I— 18 1 9
rL 20 21 VII
I—
22
r- D L - 23 L— 24 VIII
I— 25 26 r L 27 28
Petter
217
Tentative Reconstruction of PETTER (cotti.) Sheet
IX
XI
Folio
Paper-type
Quadrant
29 - E - F 30
23
la (2a) = Bonn BH 120, fol. 1 (SBH 641) (3a) = Bonn BH 120, fol. 2 4a
r— G r- H L - I 31
23
(la) = N. Y., James J. Fuld, SV 353 (lower 8 staves) (2a) = Bonn N E 110 (SV 363) (3a) = Bonn Mh 85 (SBH 643) 4a
r- J
(23)
(1 a) = Bologna, Accademia Filarmonica (not in SV) (2a) (3a) (4a) = Bonn N E 128 (upper 9Vz staves) + Leningrad, SV 335 (lower 6V2 staves) 2b lb 4b 3b
c !
M
XII
I— 32 33 r L 34 35
23
XIII
l— N
23
(la) 2a 3a 4a
: 37
! r 36 38 XIV
I— -
39 40 41 42
23
la 2a 3a 4a
XV
I— 44 r- 45 L - O 46
23
2b lb (4b) = Stockholm, SMf, SV 379 (upper 9 staves) 3b
P
23
(2b) = Bonn BH 122 (SBH 644) lb 4b (3b) = Bonn N E 126 (upper 9 + staves)
r— 49 r- 50 L 51 >— 52
23
XVI
-
- 47 - 48 XVII
4b 3b 2b lb
218
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
Tentative Reconstruction o f PETTER (cont.) Sheet
Folio
Paper-type
R S T 53
23
XVIII
-
XIX
" 54 " 55 - 56 - 57
XX
2b lb 4b 3b
23
4b 3b 2b lb
23
2b lb 4b 3b
23
4b 3b 2b lb
69 70 71 72
23
2b lb 4b 3b
|— 73 r U V 74
23
2b (lb) (4b) 3b
s
- 58 - 59
- 62
- 63 - 64 - 65 XXII
- 66
- 67 - 68
+ - 43 * + XXIII
XXIV
(2a) = Bonn B H 119 (SBH 702)? (la) (4a) 3a
23
s
- 60 - 61
XXI
Quadrant
-
See also: Bonn B H 105 (SBH 640); type 23, quadrant lb; no holes (but trimmed); sketches for Opus 113 Nos. 4 and 5; Opus 92 I. Bonn Mh 86 (SBH 645); type 23, quadrant 3a; no holes (wide margins); sketches for Opus 93 IV. Both paper-types in 1 9 4 . 5 - 1 9 5 mm.
PETTER
have the same rastrology: 16 staves with a T S o f
The leaves o f sheets X I and XVIII could be in another order.
Petter
219
LITERATURE
G. Nottebohm, "Die Ouverture in C - d u r O p . 115," AMZ 4 (1869), 281-83; reprinted in N I, 37-44. , "Die Sonate O p . 96," AMZ 5 (1870), 83-85; reprinted in N I, 2 6 - 3 0 . , "Skizzen zur 7. und 8. Symphonie," MW6 (1875), 245-49, 257-61. , "Skizzen zu den 'Ruinen von Athen' und zu 'König Stephan,'" MW6 (1875), 353-55. , "Aufzeichnungen zu einer Oper 'Macbeth,'" MW 10 (1879), 113-14. , "Ein Skizzenbuch aus dem Jahre 1812," MW 10 (1879), 193-95, 205-206, 213-14, 229-30. The last four of these essays were reprinted (with some alterations and reallocation of material) in N II, pp. 101-118, 138-45, 225-27, 288-92. Thayer III, 87-90. Max Unger, "Eine Schweizer Beethoven-Sammlung," NBJ 5 (1933), 42, 4 5 - 4 6 . , Eine Schweizer Beethovensammlung (Zurich, 1939), pp. 164—65. Sieghard Brandenburg, "Bemerkungen zu Beethovens op. 96," BJ 9 (1977), 11-25. , "Ein Skizzenbuch Beethovens aus dem Jahre 1812. Zur Chronologie des Petterschen Skizzenbuches," in Zu Beethoven: Aufsätze und Annotationen, ed. Harry Goldschmidt (Berlin, 1979), pp. 117-48; this article includes facsimiles of PETTER folios 74v and 74r (plates 1 and 4) and of DSB Grasnick 20a, folio l r - v (plates 3 and 2). Abraham Klimowitzki, "Autograph und Schaffensprozess. Zur Erkenntnis der K o m positionstechnik Beethovens," in Zu Beethoven: Aufsätze und Annotationen, ed. Harry Goldschmidt (Berlin, 1979), pp. 149-66; see esp. pp. 157-63 and plates 9—10 (= both sides of the Leningrad fragment). K a t h r y n j o h n , "Das Allegretto-Thema in op. 93, auf seine Skizzen befragt," in Zu Beethoven 2: Aufsätze und Dokumente, ed. Harry Goldschmidt (Berlin, 1984), pp. 172-84; includes a facsimile of PETTER, folio 52v.
L A N D S B E R G 9 , PP. 1 7 - 6 8
LOCATION: B e r l i n ,
DSB
PRESENT SIZE: 26 leaves (plus 10 extraneous leaves) DATE: ca. February to March 1814 EDITION: n o n e
T h e sketch-miscellany Landsberg 9 came to the Berlin Royal Library w i t h the rest of L u d w i g Landsberg's collection in 1862. Today it has 36 leaves, one of w h i c h is totally blank. It can be identified with Notirungsbuch Q of the first Artaria classification, and Artaria's cover, inscribed Notirungsbuch/Q/38, is b o u n d in at the front. O n this cover Landsberg has made some further annotations: "37 Blätter" and "revidirt den 30 März 1851/36 Blätter fehlt 1/gestohlen von D r Fritsch." At the time of A r taria's first classification, therefore, the miscellany had n o more than 38 leaves (excluding totally blank ones). Since it still has 35 used leaves (plus the blank one), it looks as t h o u g h only 3 have been removed since, including the one "stolen" b y D r . Fritsch. Perhaps one of the 3 was its first leaf, with Artaria's letter Q on it, for there is n o n e lettered thus in the book today. We are concerned here not with the miscellany as a whole but only w i t h the larger part of it, pages 17-68, which contains sketches that date f r o m 1814. T h e first 8 leaves of Landsberg 9 are filled with sketches for the fugue of O p u s 106, dating f r o m 1818; the last 2 leaves have sketches for the first movement of O p u s 67, written certainly n o later than 1806 and probably one or t w o years earlier. T h e 26 leaves f r o m 1814 are on a variety of paper-types, and all are single leaves or bifolia. What marks the collection as a h o m e m a d e sketchbook is the association of three features: (a) T h e unity of subject-matter and date. All these sketches are for the revision of the opera Leonore/Fidelio in the early months of 1814, and must therefore have been written between February and May of that year at the outside. (b) T h e presence of ink-blot connections between several pairs of leaves, including leaves of different paper-types. This proves that at least those leaves are still in the same relation to each other as they were when used by Beethoven. (c) T h e existence of a consistent pattern of stitch-holes along the inner margins of each of the leaves of the collection. This pattern is not found on the other leaves of
220
Landsberg 9
221
Landsberg 9, which suggests that only pages 17-68 form a true collection that dates f r o m Beethoven's time. As with other homemade sketchbooks, there is no means of gauging whether the collection has lost many leaves and was once much larger. At least one other leaf has survived that seems to have belonged to it: Bonn M h 88 (SBH 623). This leaf is of the commonest paper-type in LANDSBERG 9, contains sketches for Fidelio, and has the same stitch-hole pattern as the rest of the collection. It is not possible to determine whether it is the leaf that (according to Landsberg's annotation) Dr. Fritsch had "stolen." At one time it was owned by Friedrich von Amerling of Vienna; an inscription on it shows that he gave it away on 27 December 1851. The spacing of the stitch-holes, three in number, suggests that the collection was once arranged differently. It appears to have started with pages 41—68; page 41 is somewhat grubby and could well have formed the first page of the collection. This group of leaves seems to have been followed by the remaining leaves, pages 17—40; page 40, on this view the last page of the collection, is also grubby. It is probable that the Bonn leaf M h 88 originally stood between these t w o groups of leaves, i.e., after page 68 but before page 17. In this connection it is noteworthy that page 68, the recto and verso of M h 88, and page 17—but no other pages—all have sketches for the F major section of Florestan's aria.
D A T E OF T H E S K E T C H B O O K
It was the popular success of the performances of Wellingtons Sieg and the Seventh S y m p h o n y on 8 and 12 December 1813 and 2 January 1814 that gave rise to the plan of reviving Beethoven's opera Leonore/Fidelio. Beethoven gave his consent on condition that he was allowed to revise it, and with the help of the Hoftheater's poet and stage-manager Georg Friedrich Treitschke, who was to make substantial changes in the libretto, he began to rewrite parts of the opera. The exact chronology of the revisions is uncertain. Beethoven's letter to Franz Brunsvik of 13 February 1814 (Anderson 462) suggests that by that date he had already set to work. An interruption was then caused by the preparations for his concert of 27 February, but shortly afterward, in an undated letter to Treitschke that may be f r o m early March (Anderson 479: there assigned to April 1814), he observed: "Before m y concert I had just made a few sketches here and there, both in the first and in the second acts; and only a few days ago I was able to begin to work them out." We also find an entry in Beethoven's Tagebuch for 1812-1818: "Die Oper Fidelio 1814 statt Marz bis 15ten May neu geschrieben und verbessert." 1 (In N II, 296, footnote, the word before " M a r z " is wrongly given as " v o m . " ) It is possible, therefore, that the original plan had been for a performance in March. But in any event the new version of the opera was given its first performance on 23 May; the new overture, which had not been ready, was first played on 26 May.
'See Maynard Solomon, "Beethoven's Tagebuch of 1812—1818," in BS 3, p. 224.
222
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
A Reconstruction of Separation of Stitch-holes (top to bottom in mm) 1-2 2-3 1-3
Pages
LANDSBERG 9
Paper-type/ Quadrant
Staves
TS
(mm)
41/42 43/44
81 81
80 80
161 161
32/la 4a
14
193
45/46 47/48
81 81
80 80
161 161
32/la 4a
14
193
49/50 *
81
80
161
31/2a?
10
5 X 30
51/52 *
81
80
161
not illustrated (3 moons)
12
186.5 +
*
53/54*
81
80
161
31/2a
10
5 x 31.5
55/56
82
80
162
not illustrated (shield with stars)
10
188 +
82
81
163
31/3a
10
5 x 25? (167-68)
59/60'
82
81
163
31/2b
10
5 x 30
61/62' 63/64 a
82 82
81 81
163 163
31 / l a 4a
10
5 x 30
65/66 67/68
84 84
83 83
167 167
not illustrated (IC de R IM-HOF)
8
174.5
M h 88b
85
83
168
31/3b
10
5 x 30
17/18
85
83
168
21/2b
12
184
19/20
85
83
168
not illustrated (letters FM)
8
181.5
21/22'
87
82
169
not illustrated (BV under fleur)
12
186.5 +
87
82
169
12
185
25/26 27/28
86 87
80 80
166 167
not illustrated (VF monogram) 31/2a 3a
10
5 x 31.5
29/30
88
80
168
31/2b
10
5 x 30
88
80
168
31/2
10
5 x 31.5
57/58 *
23/24 *
31/32 b
33/34 *
87
80
167
31/2a
10
5 x 31.5
35/36
89
80
169
31/3b?
10
5 x 30
37/38
89
81
170
31/3
10
5 x 30
39/40 *
90
80
170
31/4
10
5 x 30
N.B. Pages 51/52 and 21/22 are quadrants 4 (or 3) and 1 of same paper-type. "Bound in upside down, with watermark at the bottom. b B o u n d in backwards, with normal verso as recto.
Landsberg 9
223
T h e sketches in LANDSBERG 9 , which have been almost completely overlooked in the literature, seem to be among the earliest made in the course of the revision. So it is plausible to ascribe them to February 1814; a few may date f r o m March. N o d o u b t they precede the m o r e systematic sketches for Fidelio in the DESSAUER sketchbook.
LITERATURE
L u d w i g Nohl, Beethoven, Liszt,
Wagner (Vienna, 1874), p. 80.
DESSAUER
LOCATION: V i e n n a , G d M (A 40)
82 leaves DATE: ca. March to ca. September 1814
PRESENT SIZE:
EDITION: n o n e
T h e so-called DESSAUER sketchbook is today in the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, w h e r e it is catalogued as A 40. It was a gift f r o m the Bohemian composer Josef D e s sauer (1798—1876), w h o had owned it since the Nachlass auction of 5 N o v e m b e r 1827. Dessauer's purchases at that auction consisted of lots 3 and 8 f r o m a m o n g the " N o t i r u n g e n und Notirbiicher," lot 144 (Abschrijt of the Eroica Symphony, O p u s 55), and lot 148 (Abschrijt of the Choral Fantasy, O p u s 80). To j u d g e by the descriptions in Aloys Fuchs's copy of the Nachlass catalogue, it is likely that the present sketchbook was included in lot 3; both lots 3 and 8 may have contained mixed groups of sketchleaves, since Dessauer later owned several loose leaves in addition to the sketchbook. In the centennial year 1870 he presented most of his Beethoven manuscripts to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. T h e y included the Eroica Abschrijt (now catalogued as A 20) and the following sketchleaves or pairs of leaves: SV 264 (A 35), SV 269 (A 39), SV 295 (A 65), SV 296 (A 66), SV 297 (A 67), and SV 302 (A 72). It is almost certain, then, that the present sketchbook also came to the Gesellschaft in 1870. In 1871 Dessauer was made an honorary m e m b e r of the society. T h e first account of the sketchbook comes f r o m N o t t e b o h m ; it appeared in the Musikalisches Wochenblatt'm 1877 (see "Literature"). N o t t e b o h m described the sketchb o o k as having 164 pages (i.e., 82 leaves) of 16-stave paper, the same n u m b e r that it has today. H e made no c o m m e n t on the gathering structure, and did not suggest that any leaves had been lost. T h e book n o w consists of 41 bifolia in a single gathering. A stiff black cardboard cover was provided by the library, probably early in this century, and the sketchbook is attached to it by three sturdy stitches placed directly in the central fold of the gathering (they are visible at the bibliographical center, pages 82—83). Originally the book was held together by one or m o r e stitches passed t h r o u g h the first 41 leaves only; this earlier stitching is represented b y a cluster of f o u r holes in the margin between staves 9 and 10, about 2—12 m m f r o m the fold. 224
Dessauer
225
The paper itself is uniform throughout. The watermark is unusual in that there are not two molds but four, all of which are well represented in the sketchbook (see paper-type 25 in Appendix A). It is a watermark that is found in only a very few other Beethoven autographs, all of which date from the year 1814. They include a score of the last bar of the recitative and the whole of Florestan's aria f r o m the 1814 Fidelio (Berlin, DSB, Autograph 4: 22 leaves), a few leaves from the messy autograph of Der glorreiche Augenblick, Opus 136 (Berlin, DSB, Autograph 17), and a small number of sketchleaves: pages 23/24 of the miscellany Landsberg 12 (Berlin, DSB), pages 57—60 of the miscellany Vienna A 36, and the two halves of a divided leaf, now at Stanford University (SV 372) and the Newberry Library in Chicago. Careful investigation of the structure of the book, together with its contents (including musical continuities and ink-blot connections), reveals that the present sequence of 41 bifolia is intact. They are the product of 21 sheets, each of which contributes two consecutive bifolia (only the innermost bifolium is unpaired). Ink-blots and sketch-continuity show that no leaves have been lost from within the sequence of bifolia; if any have disappeared, it can only have been at the very middle of the book or at the beginning and the end (i.e., in the middle of the gathering or around the outside of it). These two possibilities can be considered in turn: (a) Middle of book, pages 82-83. Although both pages are heavily inked, there are no ink-blot connections between them. But this piece of negative evidence may not be of much significance; more important is the fact that the content of the two pages is not the same. Page 82 is the last of 51 (pages 32-82) used for revising the second finale of Fidelio; page 83 is the first of eight filled with sketches for the last part of Florestan's aria and the melodrama that follows it. It seems likely, then, that one bifolium at any rate has been lost at this point; its watermarks (to complete the sheet) would be those of quadrants 3b and 2b. There is no evidence that more than one bifolium is missing here. (b) Beginning and end of book, before page 1 and after page 164. Nottebohm pointed out that the sketches for the revision of the first finale of Fidelio, with which the sketchbook begins, do not include its first 50 bars or so; "the missing passage had no doubt been drafted earlier on other leaves" (N II, 301). It is possible, therefore, that some leaves (containing the missing passage) could have been lost from the beginning of the book. But the sketches on the earliest pages of DESSAUER are somewhat desultory and tentative; page 1 is thinly filled and pages 2 - 3 are blank. This does not suggest work actively underway. The sketches at the end of the book are for no fewer than three works: the Overture Opus 115, the "Chor auf die verbündeten Fürsten," WoO 95, and (a preliminary idea only) the cantata Der glorreiche Augenblick, Opus 136, a work that also fills the first two-thirds of the following sketchbook, M E N D E L S S O H N 6. The balance of evidence suggests that leaves have not been lost at the beginning and end of DESSAUER. Although the 9 known sketchleaves with the same watermark as DESSAUER all contain sketches for works that are also sketched in DESSAUER, it does not seem that any of them was ever part of the book. But the evidence is strong that the Landsberg 12 leaves in Berlin (3 bifolia) and the A 36 leaves in Vienna (a bifolium) once formed a gathering of 4 bifolia (2 gathered sheets). Beethoven seems to have used this gathering for sketching in the same period in which he was working in DESSAUER, for both
226
T H E . DESK S K E T C H B O O K S
the Landsberg 12 leaves and the A 36 leaves have sketches for the second finale o f Fidelio (sketched in D E S S A U E R on pages 3 2 - 8 2 ) and for the second movement o f the Piano Sonata in E minor, Opus 90 (sketched, it seems, only in a preliminary form in D E S S A U E R on pages 132—33). The complete gathering o f the 4 bifolia may be constructed as follows: Quadrant 2d
Source Landsbere
Contents pp. 23/24
Fidelio, Act II finale
pp. 25/26
a
a
I — la
pp. 27/28
a
it
r- 2a
pp. 57/58
Fidelio, Act II finale (p. 57); Opus 90 II (p. 58)
- 3a
pp. 59/60
Opus 90 II
4a
pp. 29/30
- 4d
pp. 31/32
- 3d
pp. 33/34
- Id
//
(p. 32 blank) Fidelio, Act II finale (p. 33 blank)
The possibility that these 4 bifolia could originally have been in the middle o f between pages 82 and 83, and separated from them only by the lost bifolium already referred to, does not really stand up under scrutiny. First, the Fidelio sketches on page 82 o f D E S S A U E R and the pages immediately before it concern the very end o f the opera, whereas those on the present bifolia deal with passages early in the second finale. Second, the sketches for Opus 90 in DESSAUER—the firstmovement sketches on pages 1 2 8 - 3 1 and 137, and the early ideas for the second movement on pages 132—33—fall in the second half o f the book; it would be hard to place advanced sketches for the second movement, such as are found in the present bifolia, in an earlier part o f the book. Moreover, as Nottebohm pointed out (N II, 368), Beethoven's identification o f the sketches that begin on A 36, p. 58, as "l'ultimo pezzo" implies that by that time the first movement had been completed or at least started. It looks, then, as though the pages of this gathering o f 4 bifolia were not all filled up at the same time; in fact, the Fidelio sketches in it are almost entirely in ink, whereas the Opus 90 sketches are nearly all in pencil. DESSAUER,
T h e leaf divided between Stanford and the Newberry Library includes a sketch for the middle section o f the Elegy, Opus 118, that is closer to the final version o f the passage than anything in D E S S A U E R (where the same piece is sketched on pages 1 3 3 - 3 6 and 1 4 2 - 4 4 ) . Since Beethoven was still working in D E S S A U E R after Opus 118 had been completed, this leaf must have been used by him simultaneously with the sketchbook, in the same way as the 4 bifolia discussed above.
DATE OF THE SKETCHBOOK In his 1877 account o f D E S S A U E R , Nottebohm suggested that the book had been used from March to September 1814. His revised account in N II amended this to " f r o m February to September." The change appears to have been due to his becoming
227
Dessauer
DESSAUER
Pages
Quadrant
Quadrant
Pages
1/2 3/4
2d Id
3d 4d
163/164 161/162
5/6 7/8
3c 4c
2c lc
159/160 157/158
9/10 11/12
2d Id
3d 4d
155/156 153/154
13/14 15/16
2b lb
3b 4b
151/152 149/150
17/18 19/20
lc 2c
4c 3c
147/148 145/146
21/22 23/24
2b lb
3b 4b
143/144 141/142
25/26 27/28
3a 4a
2a la
139/140 137/138
29/30 31/32
2d Id
3d 4d
135/136 133/134
33/34 35/36
2d Id
3d 4d
131/132 129/130
37/38 39/40
lc 2c
4c 3c
127/128 125/126
41/42 43/44
3c 4c
2c lc
123/124 121/122
45/46 47/48
4d 3d
Id 2d
119/120 117/118
49/50 51/52
la 2a
4a 3a
115/116 113/114
53/54 55/56
3a 4a
2a la
111/112 109/110
57/58 59/60
lc 2c
4c 3c
107/108 105/106
61/62 63/64
3a 4a
2a la
103/104 101/102
65/66 67/68
4d 3d
Id 2d
99/100 97/98
69/70 71/72
2b lb
3b 4b
95/96 93/94
73/74 75/76
3a 4a
2a la
91/92 89/90
77/78 79/80
la 2a
4a 3a
87/88 85/86
81/82 A
4b (3b)
lb (2b)
83/84 B
All the paper is type 25 (4 molds). The TS of the 16 staves is 195 mm.
228
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
acquainted with m o r e evidence concerning the time at which Beethoven began his revision of Fidelio. In 1877 he relied on an entry in Beethoven's Tagebuch for the years 1812—1818, which he cited as: "Die O p e r Fidelio v o m März bis 15. Mai neu geschrieben u n d verbessert." This might suggest that the revision lasted f r o m M a r c h till 15 May; but the earliest transcription of Beethoven's (lost) Tagebuch gives the entry as: " D i e O p e r Fidelio 1814 statt März bis 15ten May neu geschrieben und verbessert," which appears to imply that the production was postponed f r o m March to May. 1 When he came to make the changes in the account published in N II, N o t t e b o h m had come across Beethoven's letter of 13 February 1814 to Franz Brunsvik (Anderson 462); this included the sentence: " M y opera is also going to be staged, but I am revising it a good deal." 2 T h u s it seemed to him justifiable to advance the date of the first sketches in DESSAUER f r o m March to February. N o t t e b o h m was apparently unaware of the earlier Fidelio revisions in LANDSBERG 9. T h e end of the sketchbook has to be dated by the three w o r k s that are sketched on the last pages: the Overture O p u s 115; the Chorus W o O 95; and the Cantata O p u s 136. All three were written by Beethoven with an eye on the social events of the Congress of Vienna, and their sketches in DESSAUER point to a date of September 1814. T h e autograph of the Chorus is in fact dated "1814 am 3ten September" (the strange date given by N o t t e b o h m , " a m 31ten September," is a misreading). 3 A date is also found on the autograph of the Overture, though it is a somewhat misleading one; it runs " a m ersten Weinmonath 1814—abends zum Namenstag unsers Kaisers." This cannot refer to the time at which the Overture was completed but must indicate the date, 1 October 1814, at which Beethoven began to write out a score. A p e r f o r mance on the Emperor's name-day, 4 October, was evidently planned, but B e e t h o ven could not meet the deadline and set the w o r k aside. It was finally finished in M a r c h 1815. T h e sketches for the Overture in DESSAUER can logically be assigned to September 1814, like those of W o O 95; and the autograph of W o O 95 even bears an inscription: "Eben u m diese Zeit die overture in C . " T h e single short entry for the opening n u m b e r of the Cantata O p u s 136 can also be assigned to September, t h o u g h the first performance of the piece did not take place till 29 November. According to his o w n account, the author of the words, Dr. Aloys Weissenbach of Salzburg, arrived in Vienna in September and appears to have met Beethoven for the first time o n 27 September. But he may have corresponded with Beethoven before that, and there is n o difficulty in supposing that Beethoven could have made a brief sketch for the opening w o r d s as early as September. O n this point, see also the discussion of the date of the following sketchbook, M E N D E L S S O H N 6. T h e chief contents of
DESSAUER
are as follows:
Revision of Fidelio (first performance on 23 May 1814)
pp. 1—111
O v e r t u r e to Fidelio (performed on 26 May 1814)
pp. 9 1 - 1 0 6
1
See Maynard Solomon, "Beethoven's Tagebuch of 1812-1818," in BS 3, p. 224. C f . N II, 296, footnote. 5 N II, 300, footnote 2. 2
229
Dessauer Revisions to Leonore Overture No. 2
p. 107
Recitative ("Abscheulicher!") and revised beginning of Leonore's aria (performed 18July 1814)
pp. 108-111
"Abschiedsgesang," WoO 102
pp. 70-72
"Un lieto brindisi," WoO 103
pp. 112-21
Piano Sonata in E minor, Opus 90 (autograph dated "am löten august 1814") first movement second movement (early ideas)
pp. 128-31, 137 pp. 132-33, 137-38
"Elegischer Gesang," Opus 118 (written for 5 August 1814?)
pp. 133-36, 142-44
"Chor auf die verbündeten Fürsten," WoO 95 (autograph dated "1814 am 3ten September")
pp. 148-49, 161-62
Overture "zur Namensfeier," Opus 115 (autograph dated "am ersten Weinmonath 1814")
pp. 150-59, 163
Der glorreiche Augenblick, Opus 136
p. 160
Unidentified sketches
pp. 122-27, 140-41, 145-47, 164
Pages 2, 3, 20, and 60 were not used.
LITERATURE G. Nottebohm,
" E i n S k i z z e n b u c h aus d e m J a h r e 1 8 1 4 , " MIV
8 (1877),
6 6 9 - 7 1 , 6 8 5 - 8 7 ; r e p r i n t e d w i t h s o m e c h a n g e s in N II, 2 9 3 - 3 0 6 .
Alan Tyson, "Yet Another 'Leonore' Overture?" ML 58 (1977), 192-203. Bekker, p. 59 of plates, is a facsimile of DESSAUER page 72. Schmidt-Gòrg/Schmidt, p. 206, includes a facsimile of DESSAUER page 76.
653-54,
MENDELSSOHN 6
LOCATION: K r a k o w , B J
70 leaves DATE: ca. September 1814 to ca. February 1815
PRESENT SIZE: EDITION:
none
6, formerly in the Preussische Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, was a m o n g the manuscripts f r o m that library that could not be traced at the end of World War II. Long believed to be in Poland, it was located, after m o r e than thirty years, in the Biblioteka Jagiellonska in Krakow, where it remains at the time of writing (1983). T h e first account of the sketchbook that has come d o w n to us is N o t t e b o h m ' s brief description in the Musikalisches Wochenblatt of 1875 (see "Literature"). W h e n N o t t e b o h m examined the book it was owned by Ernst von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy of Berlin. It had belonged previously to his father, Paul Mendelssohn (see N o h l II, 574), and before that to Heinrich Beer (see below). T h e sketchbook came to the Royal Library in Berlin with the rest of the Mendelssohn collection in 1908. Shortly after that, Georg Schiinemann published a lengthy account of the sketches for Der glorreiche Augenblick, O p u s 136, that fill the first 97 pages (see "Literature"). T h e r e is no reason for supposing that the condition of the sketchbook today is any different f r o m w h a t it was w h e n N o t t e b o h m examined it. It is still enclosed in the chocolate-brown binding of Heinrich Beer's library; this bears his n a m e on the cover, as well as the words "L. v. B E E T H O V E N / N O T I R U N G E N und S K I Z Z E N . " (The n u m b e r " X I X " is on the spine.) T h e binding does not give the appearance of having been refurbished. All the leaves are in a single gathering, and the stitching at the central fold consists of a thinner and a thicker string. T h e former holds the b o o k together, and the latter also anchors it to the binding. Both probably date f r o m the time of Beer; neither makes use of a few holes that lie along the fold and were evidently made earlier. MENDELSSOHN
MENDELSSOHN 6 includes 70 leaves of 16-stave paper (TS of all but 2 leaves = 193 m m ) . 1 Page numbers have been added to the rectos only, seemingly at a fairly recent date. By a slip the numbering went f r o m 51 to 55 (omitting 53), so that page
' T h e figure of 80 leaves given by Schiinemann in his article on this sketchbook is no d o u b t a misprint.
230
Mendelssohn
6
231
numbers from there to the end of the book were two too high. The mistake was subsequently corrected, and the numbers that were altered are no longer always distinct. A close examination of the book's make-up and the distribution of the watermarks reveals that the 70 leaves are in a single gathering formed by 35 bifolia. Thus every leaf is paired; there is no irregularity in this respect. Moreover, adjacent pairs of bifolia can usually be shown to have come from the same sheet. Here, however, there are a few irregularities to be noted: (a) The outermost bifolium (pages 1/2, 139/40) has a different watermark and rastrology (TS = 192 mm) from all the others, and is unpaired. (b) The bifolium next to that (pages 3/4, 137/38) is unpaired. (c) A bifolium nearer the middle of the gathering (pages 41/42, 99/100) is also unpaired. It is worth pointing out that the latter 2 unpaired bifolia represent the upper and lower quadrants of the predominant paper-type of MENDELSSOHN 6 and are of the same mold. Thus it is possible that they could be from the same original sheet. Whether or not this is the case, however, the evidence of the musical contents and of ink-blot connections confirms that the 2 unpaired bifolia were already in their present positions when Beethoven used the book; they are not indicative of damage sustained by the book since it was used. Only in one place is there evidence of loss: it is nearly certain that leaves are missing from the outside of the gathering, that is to say, f r o m the beginning and end of the book. The first two-thirds of MENDELSSOHN 6 are devoted almost exclusively to the cantata Der glorreiche Augenblick, Opus 136, and Nottebohm observed that the opening of the first chorus, "Europa steht!", is not sketched in the book, which begins with settings of the text "Wer muss die Hehre sein." Apart from the two words "Europa steht!" near the end (page 160) of the immediately preceding DESSAUER sketchbook, any sketches for the very beginning of the Cantata have been lost. On the final page of MENDELSSOHN 6 (page 140) there is a draft of the canon "Kurz ist der Schmerz," WoO 166, and sketches for a polonaise and for a song (probably "Merkenstein"). The canon ends after the tenth bar with ties that were obviously carried over to a further leaf. Thus sketches at the end of the book have undoubtedly been lost. One additional bifolium could have completed a sheet with the present outermost (unpaired) bifolium. Beyond that it is impossible to predict how many leaves may have been lost. No leaves have yet been identified, either by their sketch-content or by physical criteria, as having once belonged to MENDELSSOHN 6 .
DATE OF THE
SKETCHBOOK
Nottebohm suggested that Beethoven used the sketchbook from about August till December 1814. Both dates may need to be modified slightly. The date of August is perhaps a little too early. According to his own account, the author of the text of Opus 136, Dr. Aloys Weissenbach of Salzburg, did not arrive in
232
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
MENDELSSOHN 6
Quadrant
Pages
40
(2a) la
B 139/140
3a
29
2a
137/138
3b 4b
29
2b lb
135/136 133/134 *
9/10 ** 11/12
3b 4b
29
2b lb
131/132 129/130
13/14 + 15/16
2a la
29
3a 4a
127/128 125/126 *
17/18 19/20
3b 4b
29
2b lb
21/22 23/24 25/26 27/28
4a 3a 4a 3a
29
la 2a la 2a
123/124 121/122 * 119/120 117/118 * 115/116 113/114 #
29/30 * 31/32
3b 4b
29
2b lb
111/112 109/110 *
33/34 ^ 35/36
4a 3a
29
la 2a
107/108 105/106
37/38 ^ 39/40
4a 3a
29
la 2a
103/104 101/102 *
t
Pages
Quadrant
A 1/2
(3a) 4a
3/4 5/6 _7/8
Paper-type
29
#
*
41/42
4a
29
la
99/100
43/44 45/46
2a la
29
3a 4a
97/98 95/96
47/48 49/50
3a 4a
29
2a la
93/94 91/92
51/52 53/54
4b 3b
29
lb 2b
89/90 87/88
*
55/56 * 57/58 59/60 61/62
4a 3a
29
la 2a
85/86 83/84
*
3b 4b
29
2b lb
81/82 79/80
**
63/64 * 65/66 67/68 69/70
2a la
29
3a 4a
77/78 75/76
*+
2a la
29 *
3a 4a
73/74 71/72
t
SFC
All the leaves have 16 staves, with a TS of 193 mm (paper-type 29) or 192 m m (paper-type 40).
.
Mendelssohn 6
233
Vienna till September, and he seems to have met Beethoven for the first time only on 27 September. Beethoven had left a card the previous day and presumably had something to discuss with him. It is not impossible that Weissenbach's libretto had been sent to Beethoven sometime before the author's arrival in Vienna—that might account for the single entry o f the opening words near the end o f the DESSAUER sketchbook. But the continuous work on the Cantata in MENDELSSOHN 6 is unlikely to have been undertaken before the first meeting o f composer and librettist. When the Bohemian composer Tomaschek visited Beethoven on 10 October, he found him hard at work on it. It is possible that Nottebohm's date o f December 1814 for the end o f the sketchbook is also somewhat too early. But here the evidence is contradictory. The later pages o f the book have a number o f sketches in polonaise rhythm, including several for Opus 89. The publication o f Opus 89 was announced on 27 February 1815. Since Beethoven apparently received the commission to write a polonaise for the Empress o f Russia in December 1814, it might be expected that any polonaise sketches— which extend to the last page o f MENDELSSOHN 6—would date from that month. Nottebohm seems to have thought so. But the sketches that are identifiably for Opus 89 are by no means the last in the book (they fall between pages 99 and 113), and after completing Opus 89 in December or very shortly after, Beethoven may have continued to experiment with the writing o f other polonaises, though without bringing any to completion. A stronger argument for a December 1814 date comes from the sketches for the single-voice version o f the song "Merkenstein," found on pages 138 and 140 as well as earlier in the book. For in Beethoven's (lost) Tagebuch for the years 1812—1818 there was an entry recording the completion of the song on 22 December 1814. 2 If that entry is to be trusted, the sketches for the song at the end o f MENDELSSOHN 6 could not be later than that month—although Beethoven might have worked again on the song (which he did not publish until the end o f 1815) sometime after he had "completed" it. But a weighty piece o f evidence against Nottebohm's date o f December 1814 lies in the very last entry in the book, the draft in score for the canon "Kurz ist der Schmerz," W o O 166. This, as has been said above, consists o f only the first ten bars; a slur indicates that it was continued on the next leaf, now lost. The canon was presented to Louis Spohr on 3 March 1815, and a sketch for its ending is to be found in the pocket sketchbook MENDELSSOHN I on the same page as an entry copied from the Wiener Zeitung o f 2 March 1815. Thus the Canon seems to have been completed just before Beethoven's meeting with Spohr; and it is hard to believe that the draft at the end o f MENDELSSOHN 6, which corresponds to the final version o f the first ten bars, was written down long before the entry in MENDELSSOHN I and Spohr's visit. Accordingly a date o f February 1815 for the last entries in MENDELSSOHN 6 is suggested here. The chief contents o f
2
MENDELSSOHN
6 are as follows:
See Maynard Solomon, "Beethoven's Tagebuch o f 1 8 1 2 - 1 8 1 8 , " in BS 3, p. 253.
234
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
Der glorreiche Augenblick, O p u s 136 (first performed 29 N o v e m b e r 1814)
pp. 1—97
"Ich bin der H e r r , " W o O 199
p. 5
"Merkenstein," O p u s 100, for 2 voices
pp. 9 1 - 9 2 , 139
"Merkenstein," W o O 144, for solo voice (completed, according to Beethoven's Tagebuch, 22 December 1814)
pp. 92, 96, 138, 140
Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt, O p u s 112 (a single phrase)
p. 99
Polonaise in C major, for piano, O p u s 89 (publication announced 27 February 1815)
pp. 9 9 - 1 0 0 , 102—104, 106 - 1 1 3
" D e s Kriegers Abschied," W o O 143
p. 101
O v e r t u r e in C major, O p u s 115 (autograph dated " a m ersten Weinmonath [1 October], 1814" but n o t finished till March 1815)
p. 105
Piano Concerto in D major, Hess 15 (unfinished)
pp. 1 1 4 - 3 3
Polonaise sketch
p. 140
C a n o n , " K u r z ist der Schmerz," W o O 166 (presented to Louis Spohr on 3 March 1815)
p. 140
Pages 6, 21—26, and 37 were not used.
LITERATURE
N o h l II, 574 (footnote 301). G. N o t t e b o h m , "Ein Skizzenbuch aus dem Jahre 1814," MW 6 (1875), 4 1 3 - 1 4 ; reprinted with corrections and additions in N II, 307-313. N o h l III, 5 1 - 5 2 . G. Schünemann, "Beethovens Skizzen zur Kantate 'Der glorreiche A u g e n b l i c k , ' " Die Musik 9 / 1 (1909/1910), 2 2 - 3 5 and 93-106.
S K E T C H B O O K OF 1 8 1 4 - 1 8 1 5
LOCATION: leaves in various locations 16 leaves known DATE: ca. December 1814 to ca. February 1815
PRESENT SIZE:
EDITION: n o n e
N O sketchbook containing substantial sketches for the Cantata Opus 112, a setting of Goethe's poems "Meeresstille" and "Glückliche Fahrt," has survived intact, although brief phrases from the second poem are found in the desk sketchbook MENDELSSOHN 6 and in the pocket sketchbook M E N D E L S S O H N I. There are some scattered groups of leaves that carry extensive sketches for both poems, however. Since nearly all of these have a pair of large stitch-holes about 142-145 m m apart (and roughly 7 m m from the inner margin or fold), and since there are several ink-blot connections and musical links between the now-dispersed sources, it is highly probable that most of them are the remnants of a homemade sketchbook. The 16 leaves of this sketchbook that have been identified so far are today catalogued as four different sources in three libraries: Paris M s 100 Bonn Mh 90 ( S B H 655) Tours, Conservatoire de Musique, SV 383 Paris M s 90
2 8 3 3
leaves leaves leaves leaves
The above order is probably the one in which they stood in the book when Beethoven used it. For the make-up chart below shows that there arc ink-blot connections linking the first to the second source and the second to the first leaf of the third, as well as internal links within the first two sources; thus an unbroken sequence of 11 leaves can be reconstructed. The third and fourth sources present more problems (discussed below), since leaves may have been lost within them. The description o f this sketchbook is by Alan Tyson and Sieghard Brandenburg.
235
236
THE DESK
SKETCHBOOKS
The sketchbook was obviously disrupted and the leaves dispersed at a very early date; there are no descriptions of it from the time at which it was still intact. What is significant is that three of the four sources can be traced to the Artaria collection. Folio l r of Ms 100 has in its upper right-hand corner the letter Ai in ink, very probably in Anton Gràffer's hand and no doubt relating to Notirungsbuch M in the first classification of the Artaria sketchbooks. 1 The 8 leaves of Mh 90 were among the miscellaneous contents of Notirungsbuch K;2 sold to Victor Goldschmidt of Heidelberg between 1890 and 1893, they eventually found their way into the collection of H. C. Bodmer (Zurich) and thence to the Beethovenhaus. The 3 leaves now in Tours were given away by August Artaria in 1837; an inscription on folio l r runs, "Authographie de L. v. Beethoven donée à MF v. Guelder en temoinage d'amitié par A. Artaria à Vienne, le 2 Mai 1837." Nothing is known about the provenance of Paris Ms 90. Although, as has been said, the 2 leaves of Ms 100, the 8 leaves of M h 90, and the first leaf from Tours form an unbroken sequence, some leaves are probably missing after that. For folios 1 and 3 from Tours are a bifolium, and folio 2 is f r o m another sheet; since there is no continuity of content between folio l v and either folio 2r or folio 3r, it is not unlikely that a bifolium is missing between folio l v and folio 3r, and that folio 2 comes later. (Such a missing bifolium might be expected to contain sketches for Opus 112, and to include the signs "1000" and " V i = " , matching the "1000" and " = de" on tolio lv.) Again in the case of Ms 90 it seems that a leaf may be missing, and that the leaves are not now in their original order. A sketch on folio 2v appears to be continued on folio lr; possibly this bifolium was originally folded the other way round, with folio 1 following folio 2. Folio 3 comes from the same sheet as the other 2 leaves; if its conjunct leaf was ever part of the book, it may well have preceded folio 2. (Although folio 2r is blank, it has a series of ink-blots on it that certainly did not come from folio l v or 3v.) Since a homemade sketchbook is usually assembled from units of varying size (single leaves, bifolia, gathered sheets), structural breaks are not necessarily evidence that leaves have been lost. Discontinuities in sketch-contents are of greater significance. In the chart below, the possible positions of three missing leaves have been indicated; but many other leaves may have been lost.
1 In the Graffer-Fischhof catalogue of 1844, Notirungsbuch M is described as having 12 leaves w i t h c o n tents " A u s d e m 2 t e n C o n c e r t " ; this is almost certainly D S B Artaria 183, the score of an u n f i n i s h e d concertante m o v e m e n t that was enclosed in the Notirungsbuch M cover as recently as the 1950s (see J o h n s o n / Artaria, pp. 211-12). T h a t cover is lost, however, and the M i n s c r i b e d o n M s 100 indicates that the o r i g i nal contents of Notirungsbuch M were different and that the concertante score may have been substituted, o r left behind, after M s 100 (and an u n k n o w n n u m b e r of accompanying leaves) had left the collection, s o m e t i m e b e f o r e 1844. 2 T h e first 19 or 20 leaves of Notirungsbuch K had originally been the ENGELMANN s k e t c h b o o k , w h i c h is inscribed w i t h the letter K and which Artaria gave away in 1835. It has been suggested ( J o h n s o n / A r t a r i a , pp. 2 0 9 - 2 1 1 ) that M h 90 was a m o n g the leaves that filled out Notirungsbuch K in the original classification. For an alternative suggestion that the additional leaves were in fact those of LANDSBERG 8 / I , see p p . 2 8 0 - 8 3 of the present b o o k . But M h 90 had at any rate been placed within the Notirungsbuch K cover b y 1844, w h e n the Graffer-Fischhof catalogue was written (by that time LANDSBERG 8 / I had also left the Artaria collection).
Sketchbook
of
1814-1815
237
DATE OF THE SKETCHBOOK The evidence relating to the dates of the various entries on these 16 leaves is somewhat confusing. A general uncertainty prevails as to the period during which Beethoven sketched Opus 112; moreover, it appears that some entries were already on the leaves before the latter were brought together in a sketchbook. Folio l r of Ms 100 has in its upper margin the inscription " a m 3ten März 1813." But that date seems much too early for Opus 112. Folio 2r of the Tours leaves has entries relating to an "overtura" in C major "oder in E"; there can be no doubt that these are connected with plans for a new Fidelio overture, which Beethoven completed in May 1814. (The E-major theme proposed for the overture here is in fact that of the Allegro section—"Ich folg' dem innern Triebe"—of Leonore's aria " K o m m , H o f f n u n g " in the opera.) And folio l r of Ms 100 has some pencil sketches that also appear to relate to the revision of Fidelio in the early months of 1814 (e.g., the text " n u n Eilet" on stave 7). Thus some of the sketches on Ms 100 and folio 2 f r o m Tours must be dated over a year later than the "3 March 1813" inscription. Yet the paper-types of the 16 leaves are in fact those of 1812-1813 rather than of 1814. That of Ms 100 and that of Ms 90 are both found in the autograph score of the Seventh Symphony, which is dated "13 April 1812." The paper-type of M h 90 and the Tours leaves is first found in certain Abschriften from the beginning of 1813. T h u s the sketchbook was obviously made up of leftover papers, and it would not be altogether surprising if such leaves contained entries from an earlier period. A careful inspection shows that Ms 100 is in fact the first bifolium of a fragmentary autograph score of a piano trio in C major, four staves being joined by a system brace. Beethoven later turned the page and drew another system brace, this time adding clefs and time signature (2/4) and the first three bars of the right hand of the piano part. The melody bears a remarkable resemblance to the first theme of the " A r c h d u k e " Trio, O p u s 97, which is in B|> major. Was Beethoven attempting to revise (and transpose) the work that he had been sketching (and which he appears to have completed in some form) as early as 1811? It may be relevant that the autograph of O p u s 97 is inscribed "Trio am 3ten März 1811"—although it seems more likely that the 3 March 1813 date on folio l r of Ms 100 relates to an enthusiastic review of the t w o O p u s 70 piano trios by E. T. A. Hoffmann that was published (anonymously) in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung on that very date. O t h e r entries on Ms 100 appear to relate to the correcting and copying of the Seventh and Eighth Symphonies. 3 These comments could have been written at any time between April 1813, when the Archduke Rudolph probably arranged for the Seventh Symphony to be rehearsed, and February 1814, when the Eighth S y m -
3 These entries are on folio lv and folio 2r; they are in pencil and are written over the fragmentary trio score. They read as follows: "von den fagotten an muss der Copist mit übersehen die takte müssen gezählt werden von der Sinfonie"; " N b in allen Stirnen der Menuett in A durchzusehen, weil bej der repetion [sie] des ersten Themas gefeh[lt worden ist . . . ] von V[iolinen . . . 1 Einige Fehler welche [ • •] Ohren angezeigt sind.—das 2 in allen Stirnen im lezten Stück wie auch repetitionen aus dem ersten All°." (Some of the text is missing and is supplied here in square brackets.)
238
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
SKETCHBOOK OF Source
Paris Ms 100
Bonn Mh 90
Folio
:
*+
:
1814-1815 Paper-type
Quadrant
not illustrated
la 4a
26
4b 3b 2b lb 4b 3b 2b lb
: Tours, SV 383
1 A r L- B 3
26
26 Paris Ms 90
:
C
2 1 3
38
(4b) 3b 2b lb
Bonn Mh 90 and the Tours leaves are ruled with 14 staves (TS = 192.5 mm). Paris Ms 90 is ruled with 12 staves (TS = 184.5-185 mm). Paris Ms 100 is ruled with 12 staves (TS = 184—185 mm); the watermark o f this paper has the letters FV in quadrant 1 opposite three moons in quadrants 3/4, and the two molds are mirror-images.
phony was first performed. It is not impossible that these entries, too, antedate the assembling o f the leaves into a sketchbook. What seems clear, however, is that the sketchbook had already been stitched together when Opus 112 was sketched. Unfortunately, there is no reliable information as to when Beethoven composed the piece, or for what end. A letter to G. F. Treitschke early in 1814 (Anderson 479) mentions a cantata that he had wanted to produce at his most recent concert (on 27 February 1814), but it is probable that this refers to the cantata "Europens Befreiungsstunde," which was banned by the censor and which was therefore left unfinished. For a planned benefit concert in January or February 1815 Beethoven proposed to produce some new works (see his letter to Rudolph, Anderson 509). These no doubt included the piano concerto in D major (Hess 15), which was never completed, and Thayer (TDR III, 464) suggested that
Sketchbook
0fl8i4-i8i5
239
Beethoven may also have intended to have Opus 112 ready for this concert. A relatively early sketch for Part II on page 99 of M E N D E L S S O H N 6 can be dated by its position in that book to the end of December 1814 or the beginning ofjanuary 1815. The sketch is similar to those on folios 1 - 2 of Mh 90. Another sketch for Part II on page 30 of the pocket sketchbook M E N D E L S S O H N I falls between sketches for the cello sonatas Opus 102 No. 1 (pages 14, ?24) and Opus 102 No. 2 (pages 38-60), and since the autograph of Opus 102 No. 1 is dated "1815 gegen Ende juli" and that of Opus 102 No. 2 "anfangs August 1815," the Opus 112 sketch can be assigned roughly to June or July 1815. It is close to the final version (soprano part, mm. 111—125), and it appears to be later than all the sketches for this part of the work in the present sketchbook. Thus the time over which this book was used cannot be longer at the most than the months from December 1814 to July 1815. It was probably shorter. With the collapse of his plan to give the concert in January or February 1815, Beethoven may well have broken off work on Opus 112. In a letter of 23 July 1815 to Rudolph (Anderson 558), he wrote: When you were in t o w n a few days ago, this chorus again occurred to me. I hurried h o m e to write it down; but I delayed longer over it than I thought at first I would. . . .
If the letter refers to Opus 112, its date marks the completion of the work, which received its first performance at a charity concert on 25 December 1815. But the sketches in the present sketchbook would seem to represent "my first ideas . . . which have often come to nothing," as he says later in the same letter. Probably, then, they can be limited to the period from December 1814 to February 1815. If this is true, Beethoven must have worked alternately on Opus 112 in this sketchbook and on other works in M E N D E L S S O H N 6, the last 3 0 pages of which we have assigned to the same months. The chief contents of this sketchbook are the following: Meeresstille
und glückliche
Fahrt,
Opus 112
Ms 100, fols. 2 r - v Mh 90, fois. Ir—7r, 8 r - v Tours, fois. Ir—v, 3r Ms 90, fois. Ir, 2v
Revision of Fidelio (1814)
Ms 100, fol. Ir Tours, fol. 2r
Cello Sonata in D major, Opus 102 No. 2, first movement?
Ms 100, fol. Ir
Score fragment of a piano trio in C major (cf. Opus 97 I)
Ms 100, fol. lv
"Resignation," WoO 149
Tours, fol. 3r
Polonaise in C major, Opus 89?
Tours, fol. 3r
"An die Hoffnung," Opus 94
Tours, fol. 3v
"Grosse Serenade für Kraft"
Ms 90, fol. 2v
240
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
Remarks on instrumentation
Ms 100, fol. lr
Remarks on the copying of Opus 93 and the correcting of Opus 92?
Ms 100, fols, l v , 2r
Remarks on the construction of ear-trumpets
Tours, fols. 3r, 2v Ms 90, fol. 3r
Ms 90, fol. 2r was not used.
LITERATURE Max Unger, " D i e Beethovenhandschriften der Pariser Konservatoriumsbibliothek," NBJ 6 (1935), 87-123; see esp. 110-13 and 120-21. See N II, 309 and 317ff., for references to the related sketches in M E N D E L S S O H N 6 and M E N D E L S S O H N I respectively.
SCHEIDE
LOCATION: Library of Mr. William Scheide, Princeton, N e w Jersey PRESENT SIZE: 56 (or 55V4) leaves
DATE: ca. March 1815 to ca. M a y 1816 EDITION: n o n e
T h i s s k e t c h b o o k — n a m e d after its present owner, w h o acquired it in 1965—was described for the first time by N o t t e b o h m in the Musikalisches Wochenblatt for 1876 (his essay is reprinted, with minor additions and corrections, in Zweite Beethoveniana). It was then in the possession of Eugen von Miller of Vienna, w h o had b o u g h t it f r o m August Artaria in 1871. 1 Later it passed to G. B. Davy of Kingussie, Scotland, then to Louis Koch of Frankfurt-am-Main, and f r o m him to his heirs, f r o m w h o m M r . Scheide obtained it. T h e SCHEIDE sketchbook is identifiable as Notirungsbuch C in Artaria's first classification and as Skizzenbuch B in the firm's second classification. T h e cover f r o m the later classification is still with the book, and the earlier cover has also survived as a wrapper for some sketchleaves n o w in the Beethovenhaus, M h 92 (SBH 648). B o t h covers record the n u m b e r of leaves in the sketchbook as 55. N o t t e b o h m gives the n u m b e r as 56, but notes that nearly all of one leaf had been torn away. This f r a g m e n tary leaf is still in the book and is included in the present pagination; no d o u b t A r taria chose to omit it f r o m the reckoning. Thus the n u m b e r of leaves has remained unchanged since Artaria's first classification. T h e letter C is inscribed in the upper right-hand corner of page 109; this suggests that at one time pages 109/110 and 111/112 (the last 2 leaves) were folded around f r o m the back to the f r o n t of the book. T h e sketchbook consists of a single gathering of our paper-type 42, ruled 16 staves to a page with a T S of about 195.5 m m . It was held together originally by stitches passed through seven holes directly along the central fold, spaced at distances of 29/30/42/29/29/42 m m (top to bottom); 2 a few bits of white thread are still 'See Brandenburg/Kafka, p. 123. At the beginning and end of the book the spacing of the holes is 28/34/38/32/30/38 m m (top to bottom); this corresponds closely to the spacing of holes in the bifolium DSB Grasnick 20a, folios 2 - 3 . 2
241
242
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
to be found in some of the holes. There is also a single hole that was poked t h r o u g h the inner margins, opposite stave 8, of only the first 10 leaves (pages 1—20) and their conjunct leaves at the back (pages 93-112). Its function is not clear, but there is evidence that it too may date f r o m Beethoven's time (see below). Some damage had been done to the sketchbook before Artaria counted the leaves. After page 32 c o m e the stubs of 17 leaves; an eighteenth leaf (pages 33/34) is the fragment already m e n tioned. T h e loss of these 173/4 leaves is duly noted by N o t t e b o h m . But he fails to c o m m e n t on the fact that 3 leaves earlier in the book—pages 21/22, 23/24, and 25/26—are unpaired. Their conjugate leaves, which originally w o u l d have c o m e between pages 92 and 93, must long ago have disappeared f r o m the book. T h e integrity of most of the rest of the book can be guaranteed, and in the few places where that is not the case there is nothing to suggest that any leaves have been lost f r o m the inside. An ink-blot linking page 44 with page 45 shows that n o t h i n g is missing f r o m the middle of the gathering. O n the other hand, the gathering was originally somewhat larger at the outside. A bifolium n o w in a Berlin miscellany— D S B Grasnick 20a, folios 3 and 2—can be shown to have been adjacent to the present first and last pages. It has the distinctive seven stitch-holes along the fold and also the single hole opposite stave 8 that occurs only at the beginning and end of the b o o k . Moreover, the sketches on its 2 leaves fit at each end of the book (see the list of contents), and there even appears to be an ink-blot connection between Grasnick 20a, folio 3v, and the first page of S C H E I D E . T h e reconstruction offered here suggests that the sketchbook originally consisted of 80 leaves (40 bifolia f r o m 20 sheets) in a single gathering, and that 24 leaves have left it. Some of the 24 can be identified with certainty, others with a high degree of probability. But one special difficulty in the work of reconstruction must be m e n tioned briefly here: there appear to be a number of variant f o r m s of the watermark. T h o u g h not great, the differences are enough to be disturbing; they apply in particular to the precise positioning of the moons and of the letters JJ. In the present reconstruction it has been assumed that all the paper was produced by the same pair of molds but that one or two of the watermark elements were not securely attached and so changed their positions to a certain degree f r o m time to time. T h e uncertainty that remains makes it harder to predict the exact f o r m of the watermark in lost leaves and to identify candidates for them with quite the usual conviction.
DATE OF T H E
SKETCHBOOK
As N o t t e b o h m observed (N II, 321), the S C H E I D E sketchbook when compared w i t h other books of a similar size proves to be less rich in consecutive drafts for large, well-known works than in miscellaneous jottings. This makes it harder to date its contents precisely. T h e b o o k begins with sketches for a chorus and also a romance for Friedrich Duncker's drama Leonore Prohaska (WoO 96), which never reached the stage, and for a piano concerto in D major (Hess 15) that remained unfinished. Neither w o r k therefore yields a firm date, but the sketches for the latter appear to continue those for the same concerto movement found near the end of M E N D E L S S O H N 6, a sketchbook for
243
Scheide
SCHEIDE
Pages Quadrant
Quadrant
Pages
A B
(3b) (4b)
(2b) (lb)
X W w
1/2 3/4
2a la
3a 4a
111/112 109/110
5/6 7/8
4b 3b
lb 2b
107/108 105/106
9/10 * 11/12
4b 3b
lb 2b
103/104 * 101/102 101/102
13/14 15/16
2a la
3a 4a
99/100 97/98
17/18 19/20
4b 3b
lb 2b
95/96 93/94
21/22 23/24
4b 3b
(lb) (2b)
V. U
= Add. 29997, fol. 19 = Grasnick 20a, fol. 5
25/26 27/28
4a 3a
(la) 2a
T 91/92
= Add. 29997, fol. 37
29/30 31/32
2a la
3a 4a
89/90 87/88
C D
(4b) (3b)
lb 2b
85/86 S 83/84
E F
(3a) (4a)
2a la
81/82 s 79/80
G H
(lb) (2b)
4b 3b
- 77/78 S 75/76
I
J
(lb) (2b)
4b 3b
73/74 s 71/72
K L
(lb) (2b)
4b 3b
„ 69/70 s 67/68
M N
(2a) (la)
3a 4a
65/66 S 63/64
Bonn BSk 12 and BSk 7 =
O P
(3b) (4b)
2b lb
^ 61/62 S 59/60
Moldenhauer Archive =
Q R
(4a) (3a)
la 2a
57/58 S 55/56
S 33/34
(4a) 3a
la 2a
53/54 S 51/52
35/36 37/38
4a 3a
la 2a
49/50 47/48
39/40 41/42
4a 3a
la 2a
45/46 ,. 43/44
Grasnick 20a, fol. 3 =
* •
*
* •
+*
Bonn BSk 13 =
+
*
All the paper is type 42, ruled with 16 staves (TS = 195.5 mm).
= Grasnick 20a, fol. 2
* *
+
244
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
which a terminal date of about February 1815 is offered above. The first exactly dated work in SCHEIDE is the Cello Sonata Opus 102 No. 2, the autograph of which is inscribed "Sonate anfangs August 1815." The inscription may apply to no more than the first two movements, sketched (presumably) on leaves missing between pages 32 and 33; the sketches on pages 37-47 of the book are largely for the finale of the sonata, and these overlap with sketches datable to the fall of the year (see below). The last sketches in SCHEIDE are for a March in D major for military band, WoO 24. The autograph of this March bears the date of 3 June 1816, but the sketches do not come very close to the final version. We may conclude that they were written in about May 1816. Other directly or indirectly datable compositions within the book support these conclusions. An autograph of several folk-song settings that include "Robin Adair," WoO 157 No. 7, sketched on pages 42-43, and " O thou art the lad of my heart, Willy," sketched on pages 48-49, is dated "1815 den 23ten Weinmonath" (usually = October). 3 The two canons "Das Schweigen" and "Das Reden," WoO 168, sketched on page 55, were written out in Charles Neate's Stammbuch on 24 January 1816. This date also seems appropriate for the inscription "Bucher—fur Karl" on page 55, since Beethoven's brother (Karl's father) had died just two months earlier, on 15 November 1815. And the autograph of the song-cycle An die feme Geliebte, Opus 98, bears the date of April 1816; this work is sketched on pages 68—73. The chief contents of the SCHEIDE sketchbook are as follows: M u s i c f o r Leonore
Prohaska,
W o O 96
No. 1 (chorus) No. 2 (romance)
pp. 1, 2 p. 3
Piano Concerto in D major, Hess 15 (unfinished)
pp. 1, 3 - 3 2
"Das Geheimnis," WoO 145
pp. 3 3 - 3 5
Cello Sonata in D major, Opus 102 No. 2 (autograph dated "anfangs August 1815") first movement second movement third movement
p. 37 p. 46 pp. 37-41, 43-45, 47
Folksong (for three voices), "Robin Adair," WoO 157 No. 7 (autograph dated "1815 den 23ten Weinmonath")
pp. 4 2 - 4 3
Folksong (for solo voice), " O thou art the lad of my heart, Willy," cf. Opus 108 No. 11, but in F major, not E\, major (autograph dated "1815 den 23ten Weinmonath")
pp. 4 8 - 4 9
3
See, however, BS 2, p. 8, for examples of Beethoven using "Weinmonath" to mean September.
245
Scheide
Opera on theme from antiquity
pp. 52—53
Canons, "Das Schweigen" and "Das Reden," WoO 168 (written out on 24 January 1816)
p. 55
Piano Sonata in A major, Opus 101 second movement third movement fourth movement
pp. 74, 76—78, 80, 81, 84, 85 pp. 75?, 77, 78?, 82?, 83 pp. 56, 77, 79, 80, 82?
"Sehnsucht," WoO 146
pp. 6 0 - 6 5
Piano Trio in F minor (unfinished)
pp. 67?, 86-91, 94-98, 100-105, 107
An die ferne Geliebte, Opus 98 (autograph dated "April 1816")
pp. 6 8 - 7 3
Variations for piano trio, Opus 121a ("Kakadu")
p. 87?
"Der Mann von Wort," Opus 99
p. 99
March for military band, WoO 24 (autograph dated "3 June 1816")
pp. 108, 109?, 110-12
Contents of leaves known or likely to have tormed part of
SCHEIDE:
leaf B (Berlin, DSB, Grasnick 20a, fol. 3) recto: W o O 96 N o . 2 verso: W o O 96 N o . 1
M (Bonn BSk 13 = SBH 710) recto: Opus 101 I and IV verso: Opus 101 I P (Bonn BSk 12 and BSk 7 = SBH 704 and 709; two fragments) recto: unidentified sketches, mostly in D minor, possibly related to Opus 125 (see also next leaf) verso: not used Q (Moldenhauer Archive, Spokane, Washington) recto: WoO 168; unidentified sketches in D minor (see previous leaf) verso: Opus 101 IV T (London, British Library, Add. MS 29997, fol. 37) recto: theme in E minor verso: theme in E minor
246
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
U (Berlin, DSB, Grasnick 20a, fol. 5) recto: theme in E minor; piano trio in F minor verso: theme in E minor; piano trio in F minor V (London, British Library, Add. MS 29997, fol. 19) recto: piano trio in F minor; "zum Marsch" verso: piano trio in F minor W (Berlin, DSB, Grasnick 20a, fol. 2) recto: W o O 24 verso: W o O 24
LITERATURE
G. N o t t e b o h m , "Ein Skizzenbuch aus den Jahren 1815 und 1816," MW 7 (1876), 609-11, 625-27, 637-39, 653-55, 669-70; reprinted with minor changes in N II, 321-48. Georg Kinsky, Katalog der Musikautographen-Sammlung Louis Koch (Stuttgart, 1953), pp. 69-71. Johnson-Tyson, pp. 147-48, 155. Joseph Kerman, "An die ferne Geliebte," in BS 1, pp. 123—57; includes a facsimile of SCHEIDE, p . 7 0 .
Lewis Lockwood, "Beethoven's Sketches for Sehnsucht (WoO 146)," in BS 1, pp. 97— 122; includes facsimiles of SCHEIDE, pp. 60 and 61. , " T h e Beethoven Sketchbook in the Scheide Library," Princeton University Library Chronicle 37 (1976), 139-53. William H . Scheide, "To a Near Centennial of Shared Bibliophily," in Festschrift Albi Rosenthal, ed. Rudolf Elvers (Tutzing, 1984), pp. 259-64. B r a n d e n b u r g / O p u s 125, pp. 9 0 - 9 5 ; includes a facsimile of S C H E I D E , p. 51.
AUTOGRAPH I I , BUNDLE I
LOCATION: PRESENT SIZE: DATE: EDITION:
Berlin, SPK 16 leaves mid-1816 to ? none
T h e t w o sketchbooks n o w b o u n d together as A u t o g r a p h 11 w e r e sold to the Berlin Royal Library b y A n t o n Schindler and received there in 1846. T h e y were a m o n g the manuscripts that Schindler claimed to have received f r o m Beethoven b e f o r e his death; hence they did n o t appear in the Nachlass auction. Schindler himself h a d t h e m b o u n d together: his cover, w i t h a label in his hand identifying s o m e of the contents, still encloses b o t h b o o k s . T h e second b o o k has 30 leaves and dates f r o m 1824. T h e first, w h i c h concerns us here, has 16 leaves and was used eight years earlier, in 1816. In its present state, AUTOGRAPH I I / I presents p r o b l e m s of r e c o n s t r u c t i o n that d r a w u p o n m o s t of o u r m e t h o d s of analysis. T h e 16 leaves are all the same p a p e r (our t y p e 33), ruled in 16 staves w i t h a T S of 195 to 196— m m . W h e n the sequence o f w a t e r m a r k quadrants is observed, it becomes apparent that all these leaves are f r o m o n e side of the center of a b o o k made u p in a single large gathering; there are 8 pairs of vertically adjacent leaves f r o m the same sheet (i.e., quadrants 1/2 o r 3/4). In folios 1—14, the pairing suggested by w a t e r m a r k quadrants and m o l d s is c o n f i r m e d b y m a t c h i n g profiles along the upper edges of the leaves; in the case of the e i g h t h pair, folios 15 and 16, b o t h u p p e r profiles are so even as to preclude j u d g m e n t . In an essay devoted to this sketchbook, N o t t e b o h m was n o t able to say m u c h a b o u t its condition, pointing out merely that the book was originally larger; leaves are missing. Also, the first two leaves may originally not have belonged to it. Conclusions about chronology cannot be drawn from the book. N II, 552 N o t t e b o h m ' s m e t h o d s of analysis included observation of the gathering s t r u c t u r e (see pp. 46 and 50), and if the binding had been sufficiently loose he w o u l d have seen, even in the absence of any obvious stubs, that the leaves are n o t paired in bifolia. O n
247
248
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
the other hand, he would not have noted that the 16 leaves were grouped in pairs f r o m the same sheet, nor would he have proceeded to evaluate the integrity of these leaves as a continuous group on the basis of their contents. If we turn to the evidence of ink-blots and musical connective devices, it is possible to show that folios 2 through 14 are still in their original relationship. Folios 4v—5r and 8v—9r are linked by offsetting ink-blots. Apart from these there are not many blots, since 3 pages (folios lOv, l l v , and 12r) are mostly blank and 6 others (folios 12r—14v) are filled almost entirely by entries in pencil. There are, however, more than the usual number of the connective devices used by Beethoven to cue the continuation of a musical idea from one place to another, sometimes spanning a page or more. When choosing their examples, both Nottebohm and Schenker (who surveyed the contents of this book in his Erlciuterungsausgabe of Opus 101) were reluctant to combine sketches that were separated physically but linked by connective devices, although both must have been aware of their importance for a proper understanding of the evolution of a movement. 1 In this sketchbook, such devices serve as a further means of verifying the structural integrity of folios 3 through 14. If the continuity of these leaves is unbroken, we should expect to find a complementary referent for each such device. And in fact, although they appear in great abundance, these connective devices do fall into eighteen convincing pairs; moreover, in seven cases the connections are between leaves from different original sheets: folios
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
3r to 6r 5r to 7v 7v to lOr 9r to 15r lOr to l l r l l r t o lOv
7. 12v to 13r
referents Vi— 1000/=de
contents (all Opus 101 1000
12000/12000 Vi=/=de
Vi= /referent omitted 100/100
+ /+
x/x
finale)2
mm. 91-95 to 96-101 + 36 unused m m . mm. 95-102 to 103fT. (about 111) mm. 92-116 to 117-19 + 7 unused m m . m m 200-234 to 235-311 + 5 unused m m . unused development to more of same more unused development with new continuation mm. 120-28 to 129-37
The only paired leaves not linked to the others by connective devices are the first and the last (folios 1/2 and 15/16). In the case of the last 2 leaves, there is no reason to doubt the relationship to folios 3—14; although not linked by a Vi=de or some other device, the content of folios 15r—16r is closely related to—possibly even directly continuous with—that of the preceding pages. The relationship of the first 2 leaves to the rest is more problematical. Nottebohm's grounds for questioning it (see above) were probably musical: the only sketches on folios 1 and 2 occur on the top seven staves of folio l r and involve a "Marsch alia fuga fur den p. Eugen" that is unrelated to the Opus 101 sketches on folios 3-16. Folios l v and 2r are empty, and folio 2v ' O n e of N o t t e b o h m ' s examples does link t w o short segments, t h o u g h he cites the page o f the second s e g m e n t only ( N II, 553, f o u r t h example). 2 T h e measures are n u m b e r e d f r o m the beginning of the Langsam und sehnsuchtsvoll, w h i c h f o r m s a slow i n t r o d u c t i o n t o the finale.
Autograph
11/1
249
is filled with figurations that look like pen-trials, some of them probably in another hand (that of nephew Karl?). All of this is suspicious, to be sure, but not sufficient to exclude the 2 leaves from the sketchbook, in view of their physical relationship to the rest—the paper, the pairing of vertically adjacent quadrants, the rastrology, and the c o m m o n provenance. More intriguing is the problem of the probable scope of the original sketchbook. Since the surviving leaves are all from the same half of a single-gathering book, w e must allow for at least 16 more leaves in the other half, completing 8 full sheets. Which half has survived? It appears that it must be the first half. Nearly all the sketches are for the development and recapitulation of the finale of the Sonata in A major, Opus 101, a work which Beethoven had begun in the preceding sketchbook, SCHEIDE. About three-fourths of the way through the latter (on pages 74-85) he had made sketches for the last three movements of the Sonata. 3 Although this w o r k was apparently broken off for a time in favor of a piano trio in F minor that was never completed, and the March for military band, W o O 24, it seems safe to assume that he returned to the Sonata early in the new sketchbook, AUTOGRAPH I I / I .
DATE OF THE SKETCHBOOK
T w o further questions are related. First, are there likely to have been more than 32 leaves in AUTOGRAPH I I / I originally? Second, for how long did Beethoven continue to use the book? The answers to these questions require us to place the surviving torso in a larger context. An unusually long period separates the SCHEIDE sketchbook, which was filled by about May 1816, from the WITTGENSTEIN sketchbook, which Beethoven began to use in the spring of 1819. After Opus 101, the autograph of which was inscribed "1816 im Monath November," the only large project that Beethoven undertook before 1819 was the Sonata in B|> major, Opus 106. The k n o w n sketches for Opus 106 are of two types. Much of the progress of the Sonata can be followed in three pocket sketchbooks—BOLDRINI, VIENNA A 4 5 , and VIENNA A 44—beginning late in 1817 and extending to the fall of 1818. There is no largeformat sketchbook from this period, however; instead, a substantial number of loose leaves survive which do not appear to have been stitched together at the time of their use (see pp. 535-38). Significantly, most of these leaves contain sketches for the finale, while the first three movements are very poorly represented. It is perhaps w o r t h speculating, then, that AUTOGRAPH I I / I may still have been in use as late as the winter of 1817/1818 and may have included sketches for the first three movements of Opus 106. O n e leaf is of special interest in this regard: Bonn M h 91 (SBH 647), with sketches for the third movement, is the only one of the leaves devoted to O p u s 106 that shares the watermark and rastrology of AUTOGRAPH I I / I . The year or more which separated the sonatas Opus 101 and O p u s 106 was not rich in major works. Beethoven spent a good deal of time arranging folk-songs for
3 The first movement appears to have been sketched earlier, either on leaves now missing from the SCHEIDE sketchbook or in some other place.
250
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
George Thomson, a task that was probably done directly in score (the melodies having been provided). Nevertheless, w e can compile a short list of minor works from 1816 and 1817 that might have found their w a y into the second half of the reconstructed sketchbook: (a) Song "Ruf vom Berge," WoO 147—written in mid-December 1816 for Anna del Rio (the autograph is now lost); there are brief sketches in a pocket gathering, PARIS M S 7 8 A N D M S 1 0 3 (see p. 345), and on the single leaf, Bonn NE 34 (SBH 693). (b) Song "So oder so," WoO 148—according to Thayer, the autograph (now lost) was dated simply 1817. A single 16-stave leaf with sketches for this song is now in Budapest (SV 312) and was not examined by the authors. Since its watermark (quadrant 2a) and its rastrology do appear to match those of A U T O G R A P H I I / I , this leaf is a strong candidate for inclusion in the sketchbook. (c) Canon "Gliick fehl dir vor allem," WoO 171—written for the birthday of Anna del Rio in April 1817; no autograph or sketches have survived. (d) Trio "Gesang der Monche," WoO 104—the autograph is dated 3 M a y 1817. Vienna A 70 comprises 2 leaves of sketches—probably a bifolium, though now separated—of the same paper as AUTOGRAPH I I / I , but trimming has eliminated any stitch-holes that might have existed; if the 2 leaves (quadrants 3b and 2b) were a bifolium, it could have appeared in the sketchbook only at the bibliographical center. (e) Fugue for string quintet, Opus 137—the autograph is dated 28 November 1817; no sketches survive aside from fragments in score on page 5 of the BOLDRINI pocket sketchbook (last four measures) and on folio 13r of the miscellany DSB Grasnick 20b (last seven measures). ( f ) Song "Resignation," WoO 149—no autograph has survived, but the song was published in the Wiener Zeitschriji fur Kunst, Literatur, Theater und Mode on 31 March 1818. Beethoven considered this text more than once; there are early sketches from 1814 (cf. SV 187 and SV 383), a sketch for a polyphonic version on the last page of AUTOGRAPH I I / I , and pocket sketches near the beginning of BOLDRINI, but no standard-format sketches corresponding to the final version. If w e are willing to consider the possibility that an expanded A U T O G R A P H I I / I may have overlapped with the BOLDRINI sketchbook, more works could be added to this list, including even the first movement of the Ninth Symphony. One leaf that could have come from the end of the sketchbook is now in the archives of the publisher Schott in Mainz; it has the appropriate watermark and rastrology and is devoted exclusively to early work on the first movement of the symphony (see Brandenburg/Opus 125). To summarize, the 16 surviving leaves of AUTOGRAPH I I / I were used sometime between June and November of 1816. At least 16 more leaves followed in the original book, and the number was probably higher. Depending on the rate at which Beethoven filled these additional pages, AUTOGRAPH I I / I could have been in use throughout 1817 and even during part of 1818. Since the surviving leaves present a continuous sequence and are devoted to a work begun in the SCHEIDE sketchbook, it seems logical to assume that they came close to the beginning of the original book. Had they come toward the end of the first half, of course, hypothetical leaves would have to be added at the beginning of the book as well.
Autograph 11/1
251
T h e chief contents of AUTOGRAPH I I / I are the following: Piano Sonata in A major, O p u s 101, finale development and recapitulation (without m m . 149-99)
fols. 3 r - 1 6 v
"Resignation," W o O 149 (unused sketches)
fol. 16v
For a line-by-line survey, see Hans-Giinter Klein's catalogue of the SPK collection.
AUTOGRAPH I I / I
Folio Quadrant W, W2 etc.
Contents
Quadrant
(Opus 101 III and IV exposition)
1 _ 2 •»
2a la
3 4 ^
Contents
Z2 Zj
.
(3a) (4a)
P O
4a 3a
(la) (2a)
N M
5 6 *
2b lb
(3b) (4b)
L K
7«. 8 §
2b lb
(3b) (4b)
J I
9 10 »
la 2a
(4a) (3a)
H G
11 12 »
2b lb
(3b) (4b)
F E
13 14 »
4b 3b
(lb) (2b)
D C
15 16
2b lb
(3b) (4b)
B A
X, X 2 etc.
O p u s 101 IV, development and recapitulation (without m m . 149-99)
Folio
(Opus 101 IV, m m . 149-99? O p u s 106 I—III? occasional pieces, W o O 147, 148, 171, 104, 149, and O p u s 137?)
Y2 Y,
All the paper is type 33. O t h e r leaves that may have belonged to the sketchbook are B o n n M h 91 (quadrant 4a), Vienna A 70 (quadrants 3b and 2b), and Budapest, SV 312 (quadrant 2a).
252
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
LITERATURE
G. Nottebohm, "Ein Skizzenheft aus dem Jahre 1816," in N II, 552-55. Nohl III, 52, 59. Kalischer 1895, pp. 154-55. H e i n r i c h S c h e n k e r , Beethoven.
Die letzten
Sonaten.
Sonate A dur Op.
101.
Kritische
Einfiihrung und Erläuterung, ed. Oswald Jonas (Vienna, 1972; revision of the 1920 edition), pp. 73, 86-96, 100-108. Klein, pp. 49-52, 60. Brandenburg/Opus 125, pp. 95-100.
WITTGENSTEIN
LOCATION: B o n n , B H ( B S k 1, S B H 6 6 4 ) PRESENT SIZE:
43 leaves
DATE: A p r i l / M a y 1 8 1 9 t o M a y / J u n e 1 8 2 0
EDITION: Beethovenhaus, Bonn (1972), ed. Joseph Schmidt-Görg; facsimile, ibid. (1968)
T h e rich history o f this sketchbook can be traced all the way back to the Nachlass auction, where it was sold as lot 63 ("Messe-Skizzen"). In his own copy o f the auction catalogue, Aloys Fuchs listed himself as the buyer, but it seems more likely that it was actually bought by C. A. Spina, whose name appears in other copies o f the catalogue, and that it was sold to Fuchs a month later. This is a sensible interpretation o f an inscription that Fuchs wrote on a flyleaf accompanying the book when he presented it to the young Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy: Gegenwärtiges Skizzenbuch L. v. Beethovens wurde aus der Verlassenschaft desselben im Dezember 1827 in Wien von mir erstanden, und unterm heutigen Tag dem Herrn Felix Mendelsohn-Bartholdy [sie] als ein kleiner Beweis meiner Dankbarkeit für viele vergnügte Augenblicke, welche mir durch sein ausgezeichnetes Kunsttalent bereitet wurden, übergeben. Wien den 16. September 1830 Aloys Fuchs
Mendelssohn kept the book for only two years, after which he gave it to Ignaz Moscheles. The gift is recorded by a simple addition to Fuchs's inscription: und aus demselben Grunde (und noch aus vielen anderen) wurde es dann von mir dem Herrn Ignaz Moscheles übergeben. Berlin den 19. Oktober 1832 Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy
After Moscheles' death in 1870 the sketchbook evidently remained with his heirs, to be sold, with other manuscripts from his collection, by Leo Liepmannssohn in Ber-
253
254
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
lin on 17 N o v e m b e r 1911. 1 It was purchased by the Wittgenstein family of Vienna, and the Wittgenstein name has (not altogether logically) become the one most closely associated with the book. T h e last private owner was H. C. Bodmer, w h o b o u g h t various items f r o m the Wittgenstein collection; Bodmer's entire collection of Beethoveniana was bequeathed in 1956 to the Beethovenhaus. T h e Fuchs-MendelssohnMoscheles-WITTGENSTEIN-Bodmer sketchbook carries the number BSk 1 f r o m the B o d m e r collection ana appears as entry 663 in Hans Schmidt's catalogue of the Beethovenhaus collection as a whole. In its present condition, WITTGENSTEIN consists of 4 3 leaves of " H o n i g " paper (our type 48), all in a single gathering. There are 16 staves per page, with a T S of 194+ to 195 m m . T h e cover and flyleaves at the front and back were provided by Fuchs, w h o had the book b o u n d in December 1827 (that year is given on the label affixed to the f r o n t cover). T h e binding itself makes use of five stitch-holes, of which the first, third, and fifth attach the leaves to the cover, while the first, second, fourth, and fifth secure the leaves to one another. This fact has a special relevance to one p r o b l e m in reconstructing the book, as w e shall see presently. An earlier set of eight stitch-holes, w i t h remnants of dark blue thread, has been discovered by Sieghard B r a n d e n b u r g near the central fold, largely obscured by the tightness of the subsequent binding. F r o m top to b o t t o m , the distances between these holes are 40/31/33/33/30/33/23 m m . A foliation f r o m 2 to 44 extends throughout the book (the first flyleaf is n u m bered 1), and beginning with the third leaf (= page 5) there is also a pagination, which divides in the second half into t w o conflicting paginations (see the preface to Schmidt-Gorg's edition). T h e earlier of the paginations, which is in Moscheles' hand, has a gap of t w o pages (i.e., one leaf) after the folio numbered 24. T h e 43 leaves that remain in the book today come f r o m 15 different sheets; if w e assume that the structure was regular to begin with, another 17 leaves must have been removed, bringing the original total to at least 60. M a n y of the latter left behind stubs, with profiles that can be matched with the inner profiles of prospective candidates. T w o complete bifolia have also disappeared, including one at the very outside of the gathering. It is tempting, in fact, to suggest that another complete sheet was r e m o v e d f r o m the outside of the book, which would bring the original total to 64 leaves (compare ARTARIA 2 0 1 ) . Fortunately, candidates have been found to fill several of the gaps in the sketchb o o k . Most convincing are 5 leaves in the miscellany Grasnick 20b (Berlin, D S B , folios 2 - 6 ) which supply the appropriate quadrants and matching profiles for a series of leaves missing near the end of the book and which are themselves connected b y ink-blots in t w o places. Three other leaves in Berlin miscellanies (Grasnick 20b, folio 1; D S B Artaria 180, pages 19/20; and SPK Landsberg 10, pages 95/96) can also be restored to the b o o k with some confidence. T h e fact that all 8 of these leaves c o m e f r o m the end of WITTGENSTEIN and have turned up in miscellanies o w n e d by Artaria suggests that most of the damage to the book was done prior to the Nachlass auction and m a y even have been Beethoven's o w n responsibility. A n u m b e r of t h e m contain the earliest sketches for the Sonata in E major, O p u s 109, which were continued in
1
Liepmannssohn's catalogue includes more than six pages of description of the sketchbook.
Wittgenstein
255
the next book (ARTARIA 1 9 5 ) . One more leaf from WITTGENSTEIN has been found; it is now in the Sibley Library of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester (SV 368) and can be identified as the leaf lost following folio 24. This leaf was removed sometime after 1832 (it bears, in Moscheles' hand, the numbers missing from his pagination). A manuscript that deserves special attention because of its problematical relationship to WITTGENSTEIN is Paris Ms 77, pages 5-12, a gathered sheet of the same paper as that of the book. Several things are unusual about this sheet. The first two leaves (pages 5/6, 7/8) contain sketches for the Diabelli Variations, Op. 120, which continue from the ones on folio 6v of the book and proceed directly to those on folio 7r; there is even an ink-blot connection between folio 7r and page 8 of Ms 77. N o r mally this would be taken as incontrovertible evidence that the entire sheet was removed from the sketchbook, with pages 5—8 having come between folios 6 and 7 and pages 9—12 at the corresponding place in the second half of the gathering. But there are difficulties. The last 2 leaves of Ms 77 are not only unused but Beethoven did not even bother to separate them by cutting along the original horizontal fold that joins their upper edges. Further, if our insertion of several leaves from Grasnick 20b into the sketchbook near its present end is correct, there is an ink-blot connection between leaves K and L that precludes Ms 77, pages 9-12, having been in place at the time these leaves were filled. Finally, the earliest set of stitch-holes throughout the rest of the book is not present in Ms 77, pages 5-12, which have a different set of three holes, added much later to attach a cover. 2 Can these contradictory pieces of evidence be reconciled? Although we cannot claim absolute certainty, one hypothetical explanation seems the most likely. Beethoven probably commenced work in the book while it was unstitched (it may have been held together loosely by string or ribbon around its central fold); its singlegathering structure would have held the various bifolia in place. This could account for the slight misalignment of blots between folio 6v and Ms 77, page 5. At some point after the early leaves were filled (at least through the present folio 7r), Beethoven decided to stitch the volume together. A continuity draft (now SPK Landsberg 10, pages 165—76) for the variations sketched on the early leaves may have been sufficiently advanced by that time to permit the removal of the gathering that had remained partially uncut. It is even possible that Beethoven used all of WITTGENSTEIN while it was unstitched. The alternative, of course, is to assume that Ms 77, pages 5—12, never belonged to the book. In that case we should have to suggest why Beethoven would have laid an extraneous gathered sheet into the sketchbook, continued work directly through its first 4 pages, and then left the sheet in place, with its last 2 (unused) leaves now folded back, while he continued on to the next page of the sketchbook. This sequence of events can be imagined, to be sure, but seems highly improbable. Fortunately, the practical implications of the dilemma are not complex. Whether or not the Paris sheet was included in WITTGENSTEIN at the time it was made up, the contents of its first 4 pages must be treated as though they had been an integral part of the book. 2 This information was provided by Sieghard Brandenburg. T h e cover of Ms 77 was supplied by an owner named D ö r g e n f r o m Berlin and bears a note saying that the leaves had belonged earlier to Ludwig Landsberg.
256
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
DATE OF THE SKETCHBOOK Most of the sketches in WITTGENSTEIN are for three major works. The Diabelli Variations are sketched near the beginning, on folios 3 v - 9 r and l l r . From folio 9v to folio 44v, the end of the surviving torso of the book, Beethoven worked on all m o v e ments of the Missa Solemnis. Then on several leaves that were removed f r o m the end he sketched the first movement of the Sonata Opus 109. None of these works reached completion here. There may have been earlier sketches for the Variations and the Mass that have not survived. A continuous draft of 19 variations that Beethoven made on loose leaves in 1819 includes several that do not appear in WITTGENSTEIN; most of these occur early in the sequence. And although both the Gloria and Credo of O p u s 123 are sketched at some length in the book, there are only a few entries relating to the Kyrie. As one of the authors (RW) has shown, we need not assume that significant numbers of Kyrie sketches are missing, since Beethoven worked extensively on this movement within the autograph itself. 3 In our discussion of AUTOGRAPH I I / I we observed that no standard-format sketchbook has survived f r o m the years 1817 and 1818. Beethoven seems to have worked in pocket sketchbooks and in small gatherings of loose leaves during those years (one collection of such leaves, devoted to the finale of the "Hammerklavier" Sonata, O p u s 106, is discussed on pp. 535-38). We have no clear indication of Beethoven's compositional activities between the end of 1818 and the spring of 1819, but on the whole it seems unnecessary to postulate a missing sketchbook from this period. Precise dates for the beginning and end of WITTGENSTEIN are hard to establish. N o t t e b o h m claimed, possibly on the basis of Schindler's unreliable testimony, that Beethoven had begun to work on the Mass before the end of 1818, rumors of Archduke Rudolph's forthcoming elevation to Cardinal apparently having circulated nearly a year before the official announcement was made in April 1819 (N II, 152— N o t t e b o h m never saw this sketchbook). Although there is no way to refute this directly on the basis of the sketches in WITTGENSTEIN, a conversation book entry f r o m the beginning of April 1819 (CB I, 42) suggests that Beethoven had just begun working on the Kyrie at about that time. The Opus 120 sketches that precede the Mass in the book may not have been made much before May, in fact, to j u d g e f r o m the earliest date on any of the single variations that were submitted for the Diabelli project (that of Carl Czerny, dated "7 May 1819"); the precise time of Diabelli's c o m mission is not known. The sketches on the first three pages of WITTGENSTEIN, which Sieghard Brandenburg has associated with the Variations on a Russian Song, O p u s 107 N o . 3, are of less help. Although three sets of variations f r o m O p u s 107 were published by George T h o m s o n in May 1819, No. 3 was not among them. 4 In the absence of more conclusive evidence, then, we may tentatively assign the earliest w o r k in WITTGENSTEIN to April or May 1819. At the other end of the sketchbook we are faced with the loss of the last 9 leaves, perhaps more. A m o n g the ones that have been identified, leaves J - M (Grasnick 20b, 3
Winter/Opus 123. The autographs of Nos. 3, 6, and 7 were apparently never sent to Thomson; the others are now in the British Library. 4
257
Wittgenstein
WITTGENSTEIN
"olio
„ . w Paris Ms pp. pp.
„„ 77, 5/6 7/8
*
Quadrant
Quadrant
Fol
Q p o
A 2
(3a) 4a
(2a) (la)
3 4
la 2a
(4a) (3a)
N
5 6
la
(3a) v__, (4a)
M ... = Grasnick 20b, folio 6? L * = Grasnick 20b, folio 5?
7 8
4b 3b
(lb) (2b)
K
10
9
lb 2b
(4b) 3b
I 44
11 12
3a 4a
2a (la)
43 H
13 14
3b 4b
(2b) lb
G 42
15 16
3b 4b
2b lb
41 40
17 18
2a la
3a 4a
39 38
19 20
3b 4b
2b lb
37 36
21 22
4a 3a
la 2a
35 34
B C
(la) (2a)
4a (3a)
33 F
23 D
4b (3b)
lb 2b
32 31
24 E
2b (lb)
3b 4b
30 29
25 26
2b lb
3b 4b
28 27
All the paper is type 48.
J
= Grasnick 20b, folio 1?
= Grasnick 20b, folio 4? = Grasnick 20b, folio 3? = Grasnick 20b, folio 2?
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
258
fols. 3—6) contain the earliest known sketches for Opus 109. Beethoven had conceived this Sonata by April 1820, for the opening motive was entered in a conversation book at some point between the eleventh and thirteenth of that month (CB II, 56). This is conveniently contemporary with a letter to him from the publisher Adolf Martin Schlesinger, written on 11 April and requesting sonatas. 5 Whether or not Beethoven needed the request to begin work on a new sonata, the intensive sketching that begins here and continues through the summer in another book was probably stimulated by the prospect of a sale, forcing one of several interruptions to work on the Mass. One of the leaves that we have restored to the book immediately before the Opus 109 sketches (Grasnick 20b, folio 2 = leaf I) includes brief, unused sketches for the song "Abendlied unterm gestirnten Himmel," WoO 150, the autograph of which is dated "am 4ten Marz 1820." This suggests that work on the Sonata could have begun as early as March. However, a break in the sketches during that month is probable; in this regard, see the evidence presented in the discussion of the pocket sketchbook B O N N BH 1 0 7 , also in use at that time. At least 4 more leaves originally followed the ones devoted to Opus 109. Candidates for two of these have been proposed, and one (Grasnick 20b, folio 1 = leaf P) contains sketches for the song "Gedenke mein," WoO 130. Nottebohm put two pieces of evidence together to conclude that this song was presented to Archduke Rudolph as a theme for variations on 11 September 1820 (see Kinsky-Halm), and although Nottebohm's argument was rejected by Kinsky it now appears that Beethoven did sketch the final form of the song in the summer of 1820. O n the other hand, we should probably not conclude from this that WITTGENSTEIN was in use as late as August or September. About 75 pages (or three-fourths) of the following sketchbook, A R T A R I A 1 9 5 , were filled before the completion of Opus 109, which Beethoven finally reported (though perhaps a bit prematurely) to Schlesinger on 20 September (Anderson 1033). It seems safest, then, to suggest that work in W I T T G E N STEIN ended in about May or June of 1820. For a detailed (but not altogether reliable) list of the contents of W I T T G E N S T E I N , see the introduction to Schmidt-Gorg's edition. The general distribution is as follows (the present foliation has been adopted, which includes the cover as folio 1): Variations on a Russian Song, Opus 107 No. 3
fols. 2 r - 3 r (+ fol. A?)
33 Variations on a Waltz by Diabelli, Opus 120, including variations 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 26, 28, 30, 32, 33, and others that were not used
fols. 3 v - 9 r , l l r (cf. also Paris Ms 77, pages 5 - 8 )
Missa Solemnis, Opus 123 Kyrie Gloria
5
See the discussion by Alan Tyson in BS 2, pp. 2 2 - 2 5 .
fols. 9v-10r, l l r , 43r fols. 9v-10r, l l v - 2 2 r , 23r, 24r—29v, fol. E
259
Wittgenstein Credo
fols. lOr, l l r , 12r, 2 7 v - 2 8 r , 30r—41v, 42v, 4 3 v - 4 4 v
Sanctus/Benedictus
fols. 23v, 4 1 r - v , 44v
Agnus Dei
fols. 43r, 44v
"Abendlied unterm gestirnten Himmel," W o O 150
fol. I
Piano Sonata in E major, Opus 109 fols. J - M
first movement
fol. P
"Gedenke mein!," W o O 130
LITERATURE Barbara Duncan, "Falling Leaves," Music Library Association Notes 6 (1948), 118—21; includes facsimiles o f leaf E, both sides. Joseph Schmidt-Görg, ed., L. van Beethoven, Ein Skizzenbuch zu den Diabelli-Variationen und zur Missa Solemnis, transcription, commentary, and critical notes (Bonn, 1972); facsimile (Bonn, 1968; appeared 1971). Robert Winter, review o f the Schmidt-Görg edition, JAMS 28 (1975), 1 3 5 - 3 8 . Kinderman/diss, esp. pp. 1 4 - 8 0 . William Kinderman, " T h e Evolution and Structure o f Beethoven's 'Diabelli' Variations," JAMS 35 (1982), 3 0 6 - 3 2 8 . , " D i e Diabelli-Variationen von 1819," in Zu Beethoven 2: Aufsätze und Dokumente, ed. Harry Goldschmidt (Berlin, 1984), pp. 1 3 0 - 6 2 . Sieghard Brandenburg, "Anhang" to Arnold Münster, Studien zu Beethovens Diabelli-Variationen (Munich, 1982), pp. 2 1 5 - 2 2 7 . Brandenburg/Opus 125, pp. 1 0 4 - 1 0 5 . Winter/Opus 123. Bory, p. 169, includes a facsimile o f WITTGENSTEIN, folio 40r. Schmidt-Görg/Schmidt, p. 198, includes a facsimile o f WITTGENSTEIN, folio 39v.
ARTARIA 195
Berlin, SPK 50 leaves DATE: May 1820 to ca. February or March 1821 EDITION: none
LOCATION:
PRESENT SIZE:
T h i s sketchbook was part of the Artaria collection that came to the Berlin Royal Library in 1901. It had been Notirungsbuch H in the first Artaria classification, and GräfFer's entry in the catalogue of 1844 indicates that it had 50 leaves at that time— the same number that it contains today. The letter H is inscribed in the upper right corner of folio lr. When a new classification of the Artaria sketchbooks was worked out by Nottebohm in the late 1860s, this book became Skizzenbuch C, and a snippet from the second cover, inscribed Skizzenbuch/C/50 Blätter, is still attached to a flyleaf at the front of the book (the first cover is lost). References to ARTARIA 1 9 5 as Skizzenbuch C are found in Nohl's biography and in the catalogues of Hans Schmidt and Hans-Günter Klein. The gathering structure of ARTARIA 1 9 5 can no longer be discovered f r o m a simple inspection of the manuscript. When the present binding was provided in the 1930s, all the bifolia were cut and mounted on adhesive strips as single leaves. But a close examination of the sequence of watermark quadrants and the torn upper profiles of the individual leaves reveals that the book originally included the bifolia f r o m at least 15 complete sheets, all in a single gathering. There are two related papers (our types 48 and 49), both ruled in the same way: 16 staves to a page with a TS of 196— to 196+ m m . The two papers are interspersed more or less randomly, and the integrity of their present sequence is confirmed by ink-blots at most of the junctures between them. ARTARIA 1 9 5 has not survived intact, however. The irregularities were first noted by Nottebohm, who described the sketchbook as follows: [The book] n o w includes 50 leaves with 16 staves on each page. Originally it had about 8 leaves more. Four leaves have been torn out [herausgerissen] between pages 80 and 81, and about the same number between pages 98 and 99. The missing leaves at these t w o places may have contained sketches for the Sanctus and Benedictus o f the second Mass. ( N II, 460)
260
Artaria 195
261
T h e choice of w o r d s suggests that N o t t e b o h m had seen stubs of at least s o m e of the missing leaves. Although these are no longer present, the location of the damage to the book can be confirmed today by comparing the sequence of watermarks to either side of the bibliographical center. It appears, however, that N o t t e b o h m u n d e r estimated the full extent of the damage and that 6 rather than 4 leaves have been r e m o v e d at the second location, between pages 98 and 99. Perhaps t w o of the stubs w e r e smaller or nonexistent. Positive identification of these 10 missing leaves is made especially difficult by the pattern of their removal. Since only 4 of them adjoined leaves that are still in the book, the possibilities for matching ink-blots are greatly reduced. Moreover, one of the 4 relevant pages in the book (page 80) is entirely in pencil, and another (page 99) is blank. Perhaps not surprisingly, then, several of the candidates for the missing leaves themselves have pages that are empty or entirely in pencil. This forces us to rely heavily on watermarks and on musical contents—evidence that remains less than conclusive. Despite these difficulties, we can identify 4 leaves w h o s e properties suggest that they may have come f r o m ARTARIA 195. (a) Candidate for missing leaf A—Paris M s 101; quadrant 2a of paper-type 48. T h e recto, like page 80 of the sketchbook, is entirely in pencil. Staves 1—11 contain 32nd-note piano figurations that may relate to the last bars of O p u s 119 N o . 7, which Beethoven had sketched on pages 7 6 - 7 8 without arriving at the final version. Stave 15 has sketches for the Credo of the Missa Solemnis (cf. m m . 54—57) that are similar in scope to Credo sketches at the b o t t o m of page 80. T h e verso of M s 101 is empty. (b) Candidate for missing leaf F—Berlin, D S B Artaria 180, pp. 1/2; quadrant 2a of paper-type 49. This leaf has a torn upper profile that matches that of the following candidate for leaf G (Paris Ms 59), so these t w o must be considered as a pair. T h e sketches, in b o t h ink and pencil on the recto but only pencil on the verso, are mostly for the Benedictus of the Missa Solemnis. T h e recto also includes s o m e unused sketches for the D o n a nobis pacem, with the distinctive inscription "dona nobis pacem noch in moll denn man bittet ja u m den Frieden/darum der Frieden allein behandelt als w a r er schon da." (c) Candidate for leaf G—Paris Ms 59; quadrant la of paper-type 49. T h e torn upper profile matches that of the previous candidate for leaf F. T h e recto contains further sketches in pencil for the Benedictus (staves 1-12) and a f e w sketches in ink for piano; the verso contains more unused sketches for the "dona nobis pac[em] / 5 s t i m m i g , " mostly in ink. (d) Candidate for leaf I—Paris Ms 58 N o . 3; quadrant 4b of paper-type 49. There are unused sketches in ink for the Dona nobis pacem on the recto and for the A g n u s Dei on the verso. T h e last five staves of the recto and the last eight staves of the verso are empty. B e y o n d the 10 leaves k n o w n to be missing—those that have conjunct leaves that are still in the b o o k — t h e r e is one other point in ARTARIA 195 at which w e m i g h t suspect damage. Pages 3 3 - 3 5 contain a draft in t w o staves and in pencil for m m . 86ff. of the Credo, starting at " C r e d o in u n u m d o m i n u m j e s u m C h r i s t u m . " T h e very beginning of this draft at the top of page 33 is suspicious, for the first t w o notes of the four-note C r e d o m o t t o are missing—surely an unlikely way for Beethoven to
262
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
have begun the draft. Page 32, on the other hand, is the last o f about 25 pages devoted to score fragments in ink for the fugue on "et vitam venturi." It seems plausible, then, that an entire sheet (2 bifolia) could have been lost at this point, with the first 2 leaves coming between pages 32 and 33 and the last 2 before page 81 (the 2 conjunct leaves o f pages 3 3 - 3 6 are among the ones already missing). If so, the first 2 leaves would presumably have included the start of the pencil draft that continues on pages 3 3 - 3 5 . This would also bring the original total to 64 leaves, a somewhat more conventional number than 60 (cf. ART ARIA 2 0 1 , with the same structure as ARTARIA 1 9 5 ) .
One leaf that might have come from this hypothetical missing sheet, in the second half o f the book, is pages 11/12 of D S B Artaria 200. The verso o f this leaf contains one o f the few surviving sketches for the Sanctus, which is conspicuously missing from ARTARIA 1 9 5 . Its watermark (quadrant 3a o f type 48) disqualifies it from consideration as any o f the known missing leaves, but it could have come between leaf D and page 81, where a gap of 4 leaves already precedes the start o f work on the Benedictus. 1 DATE OF T H E
SKETCHBOOK
The sketches in ARTARIA 195 are hard to date with much precision. The beginning and end o f the book are devoted to inner movements of the Missa Solemrtis (Credo and Benedictus respectively), a work that occupied Beethoven intermittently from 1 8 1 9 to 1 8 2 2 . Nottebohm, who was unaware of the preceding WITTGENSTEIN sketchbook, suggested that ARTARIA 195 was begun sometime in 1 8 1 9 ( N II, 4 7 5 ) . This is clearly too early. The best way to date the beginning of the book is by analogy with the pocket sketchbook BONN BH 1 0 8 , the last half of which corresponds roughly to the first 3 5 pages o f ARTARIA 1 9 5 . Since BH 1 0 8 was in use from mid-April to midJune o f 1820—dates fixed more or less securely by nonmusical memoranda that Beethoven added in the margins—the first sketches in ARTARIA 1 9 5 can be assigned tentatively to May. The center o f the sketchbook, pages 3 5 - 7 8 , is filled by the second and third movements of the Sonata in E major, Opus 109. On 20 September 1820 Beethoven wrote to Adolf Martin Schlesinger (Anderson 1033) that the Sonata was "quite ready save for correcting the copy" ("bis zur Korrektur"—he presumably means the copyist's score to be sent as a Stichvorlage). There is indirect evidence that he was exaggerating his progress, however, for he goes on in the same letter to claim that he was "working uninterruptedly on the other two [sonatas]," that is, on Opus 110 and Opus 111, though the earliest surviving sketches for Opus 110 were made nearly a year later, in the summer of 1821. Moreover, it was not until 7 March 1821 that Beethoven wrote to Schlesinger with a title and dedication for Opus 109, and the Sonata did not appear until November 1821 (the autograph itself is undated). Some general indication o f the actual date o f submission of the work comes from the sketches that 'It may be worth noting that all of the leaves cited as candidates for inclusion in ARTARIA 195 can be traced to the Artaria collection except Paris Ms 101, the provenance of which is unknown; see Brandenburg/Kafka.
Artaria
263
195
follow it directly in ARTARIA 195 (on pages 76—80), which are for the last five bagatelles o f Opus 1 1 9 . Since the autograph o f these pieces is headed " a m 1 = ten Jenner 1 8 2 1 , " it is safe to say that the last o f the Sonata sketches cannot at any rate have been made after December 1820. Another 20 pages o f the sketchbook—those devoted to the Benedictus o f the Mass—remained to be filled in early 1821. There is no way o f estimating very accurately how long this took, since work on the Mass continues through the first 63 pages o f the following sketchbook, ARTARIA 197. A date o f February or March 1821 seems plausible for the end o f ARTARIA 195. For a systematic survey o f the. contents o f the sketchbook, see Hans-Günter Klein's catalogue o f the SPK collection. The general distribution is as follows: Missa Solemnis, Opus 123, Credo " E t resurrexit" to " E t expecto
pp. 1 - 6
resurrectionem" fugue on " E t vitam venturi"
pp. 7 - 3 2
"Credo in unum dominum Jesum Christum"
pp. 3 3 - 3 5
to "Descendit," passim
p. 80
other Credo sketches Benedictus
pp. 8 1 - 1 0 0
Dona nobis pacem (early sketches)
p. 74
Piano Sonata in E major, Opus 109 second movement
pp. 3 5 - 5 0 , 5 1 - 5 2 ? , 5 5 , 7 9
third movement
pp. 3 6 - 3 7 , 5 0 - 7 3 , 75, 78
Bagatelles for piano, Opus 119 No. 7
pp. 7 6 - 7 8
Nos. 8 - 1 0
p. 77
No. 11
pp. 7 8 - 8 0
Unfinished canon, "Thut auf"
p. 75 LITERATURE
G. Nottebohm, "Eine Stelle in der Sonate Op. 109," AMZ 5 (1870), 92; reprinted in N I, 3 5 - 3 6 . , "Drei Skizzenhefte aus den Jahren 1819 bis 1822," in N II, 4 6 0 - 7 5 , esp. pp. 4 6 0 - 6 3 , 475. Nohl III, 2 0 6 - 2 0 7 , 263. Allen Forte, The Compositional Matrix (Baldwin, N . Y . , 1961). Johnson/Artaria, p. 208. Klein, pp. 1 8 0 - 8 9 . Winter/Opus 123.
264
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
ARTARIA 1 9 5
Sheet
Page
Quadrant
1 3
3a 4a
48
2a (la)
99 J
5 7
lb 2b
49
(4b) (3b)
I H
= Paris Ms 58/3?
9 11
4a 3a
49
(la) (2a)
G F
13 15
2a la
49
(3a) 4a
E 97
= Paris Ms 59? = DSB, Artaria 180, pp. 1/2?
17
4b 3b
48
lb 2b
95 § 93
21 23 §
3a 4a
48
2a la
91 89
25 27
2b lb
48
3b 4b
VIII
29 31 §
lb 2b
48
4b 3b
83 81
IX
33 35 §
lb 2b
48
(4b) (3b)
D C
39 §
4a 3a
48
(la) (2a)
B A
41 43 §
la 2a
49
4a 3a
79 § 77
45 47 §
3b 4b
49
2b lb
75 § 73
49 51 §
la 2a
49
4a 3a
71 § 69
53 55 §
3a 4a
48
2a la
67 § 65
57 59 §
3b 4b
49
2b lb
63 61
I II III
+
T *
+
IV V VI VII
X XI
* § * 19 *
+*
+* * 37
+
XII XIII XIV XV
+ +*
+
Paper-type
*+
Quadrant
Page
87 § 85 * + * *
= Paris Ms 101?
* + * + * * + * +
A complete sheet may have been lost between sheets VIII and IX.
ARTARIA 1 9 7
LOCATION: B e r l i n ,
SPK
44 leaves DATE: ca. March to December 1821
PRESENT SIZE:
EDITION: n o n e
T h i s sketchbook was part of the Artaria collection that came to the Berlin Royal Library in 1901. It had been Notirungsbuch I in the first Artaria classification and Skizzenbuch D in the second. The first cover, inscribed Notirungsbuch/1/43, n o w encloses the " K a f k a " miscellany (London Add. M S 29801, folios 39-162); a snippet f r o m the second cover, n o w attached to a flyleaf bound with ARTARIA 1 9 7 , is inscribed Skizzenbuch/D/43 Blätter. In the secondary literature one finds the b o o k identified by its earlier letter in Thayer's Chronologisches Verzeichniss of 1865 (entry for O p u s 123), by both letters at different points in Nohl's biography (III, 2 6 3 - 6 5 ) , 1 and by the second letter alone in the modern Schmidt and Klein catalogues. T h e r e are 44 leaves in the book today, one more than the n u m b e r indicated on the Artaria covers (and in the GräfFer-Fischhof catalogue of 1844). Since there is no obvious reason to think that a leaf has been added since that time, the discrepancy m i g h t be explained in one of three ways: (a) a failure to count pages 55/56 because all of page 55 and m o r e than half of page 56 are empty; (b) a failure to count pages 69/70, part of which is torn away; or (c) a simple error in the original tally, carried over m e chanically to the catalogue of 1844 and the second cover. T h e gathering structure of ARTARIA 1 9 7 , like that of its companions ARTARIA 1 9 5 and ARTARIA 2 0 1 , was disrupted when the present binding was provided in the early 1930s, w i t h most of the bifolia cut into separate leaves, individually m o u n t e d . W h e n the sequence of watermarks is examined, however, it becomes clear that this b o o k was made u p differently f r o m the other two. Beethoven assembled it f r o m leftover papers, arranged m o r e or less randomly in gathering units of various sizes, f r o m 1 N o h l seems to have subdivided the book after page 16, treating pages 1—16 as Skizzenbuch D because of the second Artaria cover and pages 17ff. as (Skizzenbuch) J because that letter f r o m the first classification is inscribed on page 17. T h e inscriptions Nohl cites from the " t w o " books (III, 2 6 4 - 6 5 ) suggest this interpretation. T h e original stitching may have come apart before he examined the manuscript, so that s o m e or all of the gatherings were loose.
265
266
T H E DESK SKETCHBOOKS
single leaves to complete sheets. As many as eight different paper-types are represented, some of t h e m first used by Beethoven several years earlier. T h e integrity of the b o o k must therefore be questioned at every juncture. Fortunately, there are a sufficient n u m b e r of instances of different papers joined by ink-blots or musical continuities to confirm the general coherence of the book in its present sequence. A n d Beethoven's three original stitch-holes are found in the same asymmetrical pattern t h r o u g h o u t (see the make-up chart below). A n u m b e r of issues are complicated, nevertheless, by the irregular m a k e - u p of A R T A R I A 1 9 7 . O n e concerns the letter H f r o m the first Artaria classification, which is f o u n d on page 17 (folio 9r) rather than on page 1. To j u d g e f r o m their sketch c o n tents, the first 8 leaves (pp. 1-16) are n o w in their correct position, and they must have been part of the book at the time of the first classification, since the tally of leaves w o u l d otherwise have been different (they have the appropriate stitch-holes). In his Verzeichniss, Thayer cites sketches and inscriptions f r o m the beginning of the b o o k and gives the present page references; any internal reorganization must therefore have taken place before 1865. T h e best explanation is probably that the first 8 leaves had been folded around to the back of the book, presumably by Beethoven, and that (after the first classification) someone noted it and restored t h e m to the front. A m o r e serious question, one that affects all the books made up thus f r o m paper remnants, involves the dating of individual entries. It is clear that Beethoven did not limit himself to leaves that were completely empty when he assembled paper for this sort of sketchbook. Leaves with one or t w o entries already on t h e m might be salvaged for the remaining space, and those earlier entries w o u l d then assume an incongruous position in the overall continuity of the sketchbook. N o t t e b o h m had little to say about the structural integrity of these volumes, but he was alert to the possibility that leaves had been partially filled before they were b r o u g h t together in a b o o k . Hence his description of A R T A R I A 1 9 7 : Several o f the leaves from which [the book] was made up had been used for other notations [Aufzeichnungen] before they were stitched together. We include as earlier written items o f this sort: a passage from an unpublished Scottish folk-song in Bl, major and 2/4 meter (p. 9); t w o passages from the Variations, Op. 107 N o . 8 (p. 10); a few sketches for the first section o f Wellingtons Sieg, Op. 91, with a note relevant to the organization o f the whole work and its inscriptions (p. 13): fallt in 2 Theile jedoch ohne ganzlich abzusetzen— Schlachtgemalde—Siegessimphonie and a further sketch in Cjt minor that was probably intended originally for the Sonata, Op. 109, with the inscription (p. 63): nachste Sonata adagio molto sentimento moltissimo espressivo Apart from these and several other notations that are to be excluded from the chronological sequence, the book contains at the beginning and elsewhere (pp. 1 - 6 2 ) sketches for the Agnus Dei o f the Mass. (N II, 463)
Artaria
197
267
With the possible exception o f the last inscription, which cannot be conclusively associated with Opus 109 (its paper suggests an earlier origin), Nottebohm's points are justified. In fact, as he suggests, there are several other entries that may also have preceded assembly o f the sketchbook. I f we imagine that most o f the gathered sheets and bifolia remained loose for some time before being brought together, we should perhaps view the entries on the first and last pages with particular suspicion. O n the very first page o f the book, for example, there are sketches for the sixth variation in the last movement o f Opus 109 (staves 6 - 1 0 ) , preceded (on staves 1 and 2) by two measures o f octaves on B in 6/8 meter that appear to belong to the second movement o f the same work. O n the last page o f this same bifolium (page 4) there are four staves o f one-against-one counterpoint in whole notes, eight to a bar. With their figured basses and utter lack o f thematic profile, these look like exercises (for Beethoven's nephew Karl?) rather than sketches for the Agnus Dei (as Klein suggests). It is probably no coincidence that other isolated entries—such as those for "All they that see H i m " and " H e trusted in G o d " from Handel's Messiah (page 5) or for the Gloria o f the Mass (page 21, in pencil)—also appear on the outside pages o f gatherings. Many o f them probably originated at an earlier time, when their paper-types were in regular use.
DATE OF THE SKETCHBOOK Preexisting entries aside, most o f ARTARIA 197 is devoted to two works. T h e first 63 pages are filled largely by sketches for the Agnus Dei and Dona nobis pacem o f the Missa Solemnis, with a few entries for earlier movements interspersed (some o f these were probably made before the book was assembled). Then on the last 25 pages Beethoven began work on the Sonata in A t , Opus 110. All three movements arc sketched, though the fugue docs not reach a very advanced stage. Near the end o f the book there are also a few preliminary ideas for the last Sonata, Opus 111. T h e existing evidence provides no solid clues to the date o f the Mass sketches at the beginning o f A R T A R I A 197. T h e last 20 pages o f A R T A R I A 195, devoted to the Benedictus, were filled sometime in the first months o f 1821. I f wc assume that Beethoven turned to Opus 110 in August (sec below), then the last 20 pages o f A R T A R I A 195 and the first 60 pages o f ARTARIA 197 (with sketches for the Agnus Dei and Dona nobis pacem) were distributed over a period o f seven or eight months. A date o f about March 1821 for the beginning o f ARTARIA 197 cannot be far wrong. For the end o f the book wc have more evidence, though it is not entirely unambiguous. Again wc must take into consideration the adjoining large-format sketchbook, in this case A R T A R I A 201, together with the contemporary pocket sketches. It will be easiest to list the relevant facts in advance: (a) A R T A R I A 197 ends with the fugue o f Opus 110 at the early stage and with only brief sketches for the first movement o f Opus 111. (b) A R T A R I A 201 begins with sketches for the first movement o f Opus 1 1 1 , which extend from page 1 to page 22; the second movement follows on pages 22—63. At the top o f page 21 is the note "am 13tcn die ncue sonatc." There arc no sketches for Opus 110 at the beginning o f ARTARIA 201.
268
T H E DESK S K E T C H B O O K S
(c) T h e p o c k e t gathering m a d e u p f r o m leaves n o w in PARIS MS 51 (see p p . 384— 87) begins w i t h advanced sketches for the f u g u e of O p u s 110; these are followed b y sketches for the second m o v e m e n t of O p u s 111, together w i t h one late sketch f o r the first m o v e m e n t . (d) T h e a u t o g r a p h s of O p u s 110 and O p u s 111 are b o t h dated: " a m 25ten d e c e m b . / 1821" appears on the f r o n t page of O p u s 110 (the music begins o n the verso), and " a m 13ten j e n n e r 1822" is written at the top of the first page of O p u s 111 (over the score). 2 (e) A receipt indicates that Beethoven received p a y m e n t for the delivery o f a sonata f r o m Schlesinger's Viennese representative on 11 January 1822 (see BS 2, p p . 2 5 - 2 6 ) ; this can only have been O p u s 110. T h e r e are t w o ambiguities in this evidence. O n e involves the extent of the overlap in the sketches for the t w o sonatas. Aside f r o m the f e w early ideas for O p u s 111 o n pages 76—78 o f ARTARIA 197, all the sketches for that w o r k appear to f o l l o w all the sketches for O p u s 110. Yet in the pocket gathering PARIS MS 51, the last sketches f o r the f u g u e of O p u s 110 lead directly to the second m o v e m e n t of O p u s 111, i n t e r r u p t e d o n l y b y a brief appearance of the first m o v e m e n t at a very late stage. O n e possible interpretation of this is that Beethoven used the pocket g a t h e r i n g to c o n tinue w o r k o n the f u g u e after ARTARIA 197 had been filled, and that, h a v i n g finished O p u s 110, he then began w o r k on O p u s 111 in ARTARIA 201, r e t u r n i n g to the u n u s e d pages of the pocket gathering only w h e n the first m o v e m e n t was nearing c o m p l e tion. B u t it is also possible that he began sketching O p u s 111 before he had c o m pleted O p u s 110 and that he kept the t w o w o r k s separate b y reserving ARTARIA 201 f o r the first m o v e m e n t of O p u s 111 while he continued to w o r k o n O p u s 110, first o n the last pages of ARTARIA 197 and then in the pocket gathering. If this was t h e case, the c o m p l e t i o n of O p u s 110 m i g h t have coincided w i t h a late stage of w o r k o n O p u s 111 I, as is suggested by the sequence of sketches in the pocket gathering. T h e second a m b i g u i t y is related to this one. It appears that the dates o n the t w o a u t o g r a p h s m u s t be interpreted differently in order to m a k e chronological sense. T h e m e a n i n g of " a m 13ten j e n n e r 1822" at the beginning of O p u s 111 seems t o b e c o n f i r m e d by the entry of the same date near the conclusion of sketches for the first m o v e m e n t in ARTARIA 201; presumably Beethoven began to w r i t e o u t the a u t o g r a p h of the first m o v e m e n t o n that date, before sketching the second m o v e m e n t . T h i s w a s o n l y t w o days after he had s u b m i t t e d O p u s 110 to Schlesingers representative and nineteen days after 25 D e c e m b e r 1821, the date on the a u t o g r a p h of that sonata (Berlin, SPK Artaria 196; the Urschrift). What, then, does the latter date represent? If it w e r e the day o n w h i c h Beethoven began the autograph, w e should have to believe that in j u s t over t w o weeks he not only w r o t e out the entire Sonata, b u t m a d e f u r ther, extensive sketches for the finale (also in Artaria 196), w r o t e a fair c o p y of this m o v e m e n t (Bonn B M h 2), and then supervised a complete copy of the w o r k t o be dispatched to Schlesinger in Berlin—all this while drafting m o s t of the first m o v e m e n t of O p u s 111. Given the near-impossibility of such a timetable, the date o n the title page of Artaria 196 makes m u c h m o r e sense as the day on w h i c h B e e t h o v e n completed this initial a u t o g r a p h of O p u s 110. T o be sure, there is still relatively little 2 T h e latter inscription is on the Reinschrift of O p u s 111 (DSB Artaria 198); the inscription o n the Urschrift (Bonn B H 71; S B H 565) appears to be " a m 13ten jänner 1822."
Artaria 197
269
time for copying and corrections (and presumably the Reinschrift of the finale), if w e assume that O p u s 111 was already underway. But this allows us to suggest that the autograph of O p u s 110 was started much earlier, with some sketching still to be done. A n d if the w o r k on O p u s 111 in ARTARIA 2 0 1 in fact overlapped with the end of A R T A R I A 1 9 7 (the possibility mentioned above), then the entire process was considerably less rushed than the inscribed dates would lead us to believe. This lengthy discussion can be justified here by its implications for the chronology of b o t h large-format sketchbooks and the related pocket gatherings. In the case of A R T A R I A 1 9 7 , w e can be certain that the book had been filled before the end of December 1821; the actual date was conceivably a bit earlier—perhaps even in N o vember, w i t h the pocket sketches for the fugue of O p u s 110 then continuing into December. With this latter possibility in mind, we are in a position to take up one other anomaly, not yet mentioned, in the evidence relevant to the chronology of A R T A R I A 197. O n the first page of the sketchbook there are several entries for the canon " O Tobias," W o O 182, which Beethoven sent to Haslinger f r o m Baden on 10 September 1821 (Anderson 1056), claiming that it had occurred to h i m in a dream d u r ing a carriage ride to and f r o m Vienna a few days earlier. If these sketches w e r e a m o n g the first in the book, as might be concluded f r o m their location, w e should have to assign A R T A R I A 1 9 7 to a much narrower period, beginning in September 1821. But there is some reason to suspect that the sketches for W o O 182 were added belatedly to page 1. T o begin with, they appear at the b o t t o m of the page and in leftover space at the right ends of the first four staves; the latter placement in particular seems questionable if the remainder of the book was still empty. M o r e important, however, Beethoven also sketched W o O 182 in a pocket gathering (PARIS MS 51/3, M s 99, and M s 80), and there the canon is both preceded and followed by sketches for the second and third movements of O p u s 110. This suggests t w o things: first, that the canon sketches on page 1 of A R T A R I A 1 9 7 were added there while Beethoven was w o r k i n g on the Sonata, sometime after page 64, and second, that w o r k on the Sonata must itself have started as early as August, since the date of W o O 182 is fixed b y Beethoven's letter. We may therefore tentatively conclude that the O p u s 110 sketches on pages 64—88 extended over a period of three months, perhaps a bit m o r e — f r o m August to N o v e m b e r or December 1821. It looks as t h o u g h Beethoven also returned to some problematical passages in the C r e d o of O p u s 123 during this time, since loosely related Credo sketches appear just following the W o O 182 sketches in the pocket gathering, just above the canon sketches on page 1 of A R T A R I A 197, and j u s t preceding O p u s 110 on pages 60 and 63 of the sketchbook. A detailed survey of the contents of A R T A R I A 1 9 7 is provided in Hans-Günter Klein's
catalogue of the SPK collection. In the more general list that follows, entries that clearly preceded assembly of the book are marked with an asterisk. *Piano Sonata in E major, O p u s 109 first m o v e m e n t
p. 29
second m o v e m e n t
p. 1?
third m o v e m e n t
pp. 1, 28, 47
270
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
p.l
Canon " O Tobias," WoO 182 Missa Solemnis,
O p u s 123
p. 21*
Gloria Credo Benedictus Agnus Dei
pp. 1, 6*, 60, 63 p. 48 pp. 2 - 3 , 5, 7 - 9 , 11, 14, 18, 21-23, 28?, 33, 41, 44, 4 8 - 4 9 pp. 2 - 3 , 5, 8 - 9 , 11-12, 14-15, 17-18, 30-31, 33, 35-43, 45-46, 48-50, 53, 57-59, 61
Dona nobis pacem
* Handel, Messiah, copies from two passages
p. 5
* Folk-song, W o O 158 III/3 (fair copy of m m . 53-59)
p. 9
* Variations, Opus 107 No. 8 (vars. 3 p. 10
and 4) * Wellingtons Sieg, O p u s 91
p. 13
Sketches on B A C H theme
p. 62
Piano Sonata in A|> major, Opus 110 first movement second movement third movement
pp. pp. pp. pp.
64-67, 71-74, 78-80, 85? 74-75, 85? 69-70, 88 (fugue) 65?, 8 3 - 8 8 (Adagio/ Klagender Gesang)
Piano Sonata in C minor, Opus 111 first movement
pp. 76-78
Other early ideas for Opus 111 (?)
pp. 63, 66, 68, 75, 7 9 - 8 1
LITERATURE
G. Nottebohm, "Drei Skizzenhefte aus den Jahren 1819 bis 1822," in N II, 460-75, esp. pp. 463-68. Nohl III, 263-65. H e i n r i c h Schenker, Beethoven.
Die letzten Sonaten.
Sonate As dur Op. 110.
Kritische
Einführung und Erläuterung, ed. Oswald Jonas (Vienna, 1972; revision of the 1914 edition), pp. 18—89 passim. K a r l M i c h a e l K o m m a , Die Klaviersonate
As-dur Opus 110 von Ludwig van
commentary volume to the facsimile (Stuttgart, 1967). Drabkin/diss, esp. pp. 50-52, 134-54. Klein, pp. 190-201.
Beethoven.
271
Artaria 19 7 ARTARIA 197 Gathering I
II
III
IV
V
VI
Papertype
Staves
3a 2a
49
16
196
22/105/208
Pages
Quadrant
1/2 3/4
TS
(mm)
Stitch-holes'
: : :
5/6 7/8
4b lb
48
16
195
20/101/196
9/10 11/12
3b 2b
48
16
196
23/106/196
r
13/14
4b lb
38
16
178-81 (stamped)
22/103/194
:
17/18 19/20
la 4a
41
16
195
24/106/197
:
21/22 23/24 25/26 27/28
2a la 4a 3a
48
16
195
27/108/194
L 15/16 —
*
*+ VII
29/30
2b
49
16
196
29/112/197
VIII
31/32
lb
49
16
196
29/112/197
IX
33/34
lb
49
16
196
30/114/197
35/36 37/38
3b 2b
49
16
196
28/117/195
39/40
lb
49
16
196
30/114/197
41/42 43/44
3b 2b
49
16
196
29/113/196
45/46 47/48
3b 2b
48
16
195
23/108/191
X
:
XI XII
XIII
a
:
Distance in mm from top of leaf.
272
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
ARTARIA 1 9 7 ( c o n t . )
Gathering
XIV
Pages
XVIII
XIX
Staves
TS
(mm)
Stitch-holes'
la 2a 3a 4a
48
16
195
26/110/194
57/58
2b
49
16
196
26/110/194
59/60 61/62
3a 4a
38?
16
196
23/107/193
63/64
4a
38
20
65/66
4a
38?
16
191-94 (stamped) 196
L 67/68 — 69/70
la 2a
38?
16
196
I— 71/72 | - 73/74 L 75/76 77/78
la 2a 3a 4a
48
16
196
29/122/206
r
XVII
Papertype
49/50 51/52 53/54 55/56
I— L-
XV XVI
Quadrant
:
79/80 81/82 *
2a 3a
41
16
195
22/115/199
r
83/84
lb
48
16
195
24/117/200
85/86
4a
40
16
87/88
4b
48
16
L
192-93+ 195
Pages 17-20 and 7 9 - 8 2 are from the same original sheet (profiles match). ' Distance in m m f r o m top of leaf.
A R T A R I A 201
LOCATION: B e r l i n , S P K
64 leaves DATE: December 1821 to late 1822 or early 1823 EDITION: n o n e (but see "Literature")
PRESENT SIZE:
T h i s sketchbook was b o u g h t by Domenico Artaria at the Nachlass auction and was still part of the Artaria collection that came to the Berlin Royal Library in 1901. In the first Artaria classification it was Notimngsbuch P. T h e cover f r o m that classification, inscribed Notirungsbuch/P/64, n o w encloses D S B Artaria 180; the letter n o r mally inscribed on folio l r was apparently omitted. In the second classification, ARTARIA 2 0 1 became Skizzenbuch E, and a snippet f r o m the new cover provided at that time is n o w b o u n d with the book. This accounts for references to Skizzenbuch E in the recent literature (e.g., Schmidt and Klein); Thayer, writing in 1865, still refers to the b o o k as Notirungsbuch P. A R T A R I A 2 0 1 appears to be one of the very few sketchbooks to have survived intact. T h e n u m b e r of leaves in the book today is the same as that recorded on b o t h Artaria covers, and also by N o t t e b o h m (N II, 468). T h e gathering structure can n o longer be discerned by direct inspection of the manuscript, for w h e n the b o o k was b o u n d by the library in the late 1920s or early 1930s, all the bifolia were divided along the vertical fold and the leaves then mounted singly on adhesive strips. B u t close examination of the watermark sequence and the upper profiles of adjacent leaves shows that the book consisted originally of bifolia f r o m 16 sheets, all in a single large gathering. Further, all but the outermost sheet have the same w a t e r m a r k (our type 24) and a rastrology of 16 staves with a T S of 194+ to 195— m m . There is n o evidence that the gathering structure of A R T A R I A 2 0 1 has been disrupted at any point. Nevertheless, two irregularities require special consideration. First, it is natural to wonder whether the outer sheet, which has a different watermark and rastrology f r o m all the others, originally belonged with the b o o k . T h e paper of these t w o bifolia—our type 48, ruled in 16 staves with a T S of about 196 m m — i s f o u n d frequently in sketches for the Missa Solemnis that w e r e made in the
273
274
T H E DESK S K E T C H B O O K S
period directly preceding A R T A R I A 2 0 1 . The musical contents at both the front and the back of the book also suggest continuity between this sheet and its inner neighbor: sketches for the first movement of Opus 111 continue from the first 2 leaves to those that follow, while sketches for a few of the Diabelli Variations on the last 2 leaves follow from others on the immediately preceding leaves. Moreover, there are ink-blots that appear to match on the outer margins of pages 4 and 5 and on the upper margins of pages 124 and 125, linking the outer sheet to its neighbor at both ends of the book. Thus there is no reason to suspect that the outer sheet was not part of the original book. If we assume the structural integrity of the sketchbook, we can also deal with the second irregularity: the page numbers provided by Nottebohm for the musical examples in his essay on A R T A R I A 2 0 1 are consistently two higher than the present pagination of the book. From his summary of the contents, it is clear that when N o t tebohm saw the book the final leaf had been turned around to the front, so that the present pages 127-28 appeared as his pages 1 - 2 . This explains how he found sketches for the Agnus Dei of Opus 123 on pages 2 and 3 (they are now on pages 128 and 1) and sketches for a canon on "Edel hulfreich sey der Mensch" at the very end of the book (they are now on the penultimate leaf, page 125). Sometime after Nottebohm described the sketchbook in the 1870s and before Schenker examined it in 1914— 1915, someone restored the last leaf to its (structurally) correct position at the back, where it remained when the book was given its modern binding and pagination. There is a further problem, however. While this explanation accounts for the discrepancy between Nottebohm's description of A R T A R I A 2 0 1 and its present condition (as described, for example, by Schmidt and Klein), it masks an important anomaly in the way Beethoven used the sketchbook. For it appears that the last leaf had in fact been turned back to the front of the book by the composer himself. There are two pieces of evidence for this. First, the words "leztes Buch" are written across the center of both page 127 and page 128. Second, there are directly related sketches for the Dona nobis pacem of the Missa Solemnis on the present pages 1 and 128; these sketches, which appear to have been written with the same pencil, are connected by a Vi=10 (page 1) and a ~de 10 (page 128).' If the two sketches were contemporary, we could assume that the last leaf had been turned back before both were made. If, on the other hand, the Dona nobis pacem sketch on page 128 represents a return to the idea on page 1 after a long interval, the last leaf could have been turned back at a very late stage. In either case Beethoven must have written "leztes Buch" originally on the last page, and then again on page 127 when that became the first page. It will be evident that the sketches for the Dona nobis pacem on pages 128 and 1 are anomalously placed in both interpretations, since the main body of work on this movement is found toward the center of the sketchbook (see the list of contents below). We may be certain, however, that the state of the sketchbook when Nottebohm described it, with the last leaf at the beginning, does represent Beethoven's own final intentions, though it contradicts both the original and the present physical sequence. ' T h e inscription "das tempo vom D. N. P. ja nur Andante" at the top of page 1 probably alludes to an earlier sketch on page 83 of A R T A R I A 1 9 7 , where Beethoven had written "nicht andante/moderato" over the same Dona nobis pacem theme.
Artaria
20i
275
DATE OF THE SKETCHBOOK Nottebohm did not assign precise dates to ARTARIA 195, 197, and 201, observing merely that they spanned the three years from 1819 to 1822 and that there were small gaps between them. We can be somewhat more specific here. Sketches for Opus 110 extend to the last pages o f ARTARIA 197 and do not continue into ARTARIA 201, while sketches for Opus 111 are concentrated almost exclusively in the latter book (a few entries on three pages near the end o f ARTARIA 197 do overlap with Opus 110). Superficially, then, the dates o f the two sonatas would appear to fix the point at which one book was filled and the other begun. The autographs o f Opus 110 and Opus 111 are inscribed "am 25ten decembr. 1821" and "am 13ten jenner 1822" respectively, however, something less than three weeks apart. We can be reasonably sure that the latter date applies only to the first movement o f Opus 111, which is sketched on the first 21 pages o f ARTARIA 201, since Beethoven wrote the same date ("am 13ten die neue Sonate") on page 21 o f the sketchbook itself. How much time we allot to those 21 pages depends on our interpretation o f the sketches and autograph o f Opus 110. These have already been considered at length in the discussion o f ARTARIA 197, where we concluded that 25 December 1821 is more likely to have been the date on which the initial autograph (Artaria 196) was completed than that on which it was begun. Moreover, the evidence o f the related pocket sketches, especially those in PARIS M S 51 (see pp. 384—87), suggests the further possibility that Beethoven worked on Opus 111 in ARTARIA 201 before he had finished sketching Opus 110 in the pocket gatherings that overlap with the two large-format books. It appears that ARTARIA 201 was in use no later than the last week o f December 1821, therefore, and that the actual date could have been earlier in the month, depending on the extent to which the sources overlapped. The end o f the sketchbook is harder to date. Sketches for the chorus " W o sich die Pulse jugendlich jagen," W o O 98, and the Overture in C major, Opus 124, extend from page 81 to page 111. These two movements were written to supplement some pieces from Die Ruinen von Athen, Opus 113, which were adapted to a new play, Die Weihe des Hauses, to celebrate the opening o f the Theater in der Josephstadt on 3 O c tober 1822. Beethoven received a request for the two additional movements at the beginning o f September (cf. Anderson 1100 and 1101), and the autograph o f Opus 124 is dated simply " a m Ende September" (see also the discussion o f the pocket sketchbook ARTARIA 2 0 5 / 1 ) . How long did it take to fill the remaining 1 7 pages o f ARTARIA 201? Here the evidence grows more elusive. The sketches on these pages for Opus 120 and Opus 125 are pursued further in the next large-format sketchbook, ENGELMANN, but there are apparent breaks in the continuity, especially in the sketches for Opus 120, from one book to the next, and there are reasons to think that ENGELMANN may have been in use as early as February or March 1823. The sketch for a canon on "Edel sei der Mensch" at the very end o f ARTARIA 201 is also problematical. This text was taken from Goethe's poem Das Göttliche, which also provided lines for a piece that Beethoven entered in the diary o f Baroness Cäcilie von Eskeles on 20 January 1823 ( " D e r edle Mensch sei hülfreich und gut," WoO 151). A completed version o f "Edel sei der Mensch," W o O 185, which differs from the sketch in ARTARIA 201, was written out
276
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
A R T ARIA 2 0 1
Sheet
Page
Quadrant
Quadrant
1 3
3a 4a
2a la
127 125
5 7
4b 3b
lb 2b
123 121
* * 11
9
la 2a
4a 3a
119 117
IV
13 15
la 2a
4a 3a
115 113
V
17 19
la 2a
4a 3a
111 109
VI
21 23
3a 4a
2a la
107 105
VII
25 27
4b 3b
lb 2b
103 101
VIII
29 31
2b lb
3b 4b
99 97
33 35
3a 4a
2a la
95 93
X
37 39
lb 2b
4b 3b
91 89
XI
41 43
3a 4a
2a la
87 85
XII
45 47
4b 3b
lb 2b
83 81
49 51
3a 4a
2a la
79 77
53 55
3a 4a
2a la
75 73
*
57 59
3a 4a
2a la
71 69
*
61 63
2b lb
3b 4b
67 65
I
* ?*
II III
IX
XIII
*
*
XIV XV XVI
Sheet I is paper-type 48. Sheets II-XVI are paper-type 24.
*
Page
Artaria
277
201
for Louis Schlösser at the beginning of May 1823, but may have been completed earlier. Although there is no firm evidence for it, one is tempted to suggest that the two canons based on the same poem were at least roughly contemporary. In any case, the six months or so between October 1822 and April 1823 were not especially productive ones for Beethoven. His attention shifted to a new project, the Ninth Symphony, and an old one, the variations for Diabelli, but a good deal of his time and attention may have been occupied with the writing out, copying, and sale of the Missa Solemnis and a few smaller works (e.g., Opus 119). We can be certain only that the Variations were completed by the end of April. The last pages of ARTARIA 2 0 1 could therefore have been filled as early as October 1822 or as late as February or March 1823. A line-by-line survey of the contents of A R T A R I A 2 0 1 is provided in Hans-Günter Klein's catalogue of the SPK collection. The general distribution by work is as follows:
Piano Sonata in C minor, Opus 111 first movement second movement Missa Solemnis,
pp. 1 - 2 1 pp. 22-62, 128
O p u s 123,
Agnus Dei/Dona nobis pacem Credo (Judicare) Gloria "Der Kuss," Opus 128
pp. 1, 6 3 - 8 1 passim, 128 pp. 109, 120-21 p. 110
"Heidenröslein," Hess 150
pp. 77, 113 pp. 77, 115
Piano Sonata in A I, major, Opus 110 second movement
pp. 78-79
Chorus, "Wo sich die Pulse," WoO 98
pp. 81-85
Overture, Die Weihe des Hauses, Opus 124
pp. 86-111
Ninth Symphony, Opus 125, I-IV (early sketches)
pp. I l l , 116-23
Diabelli Variations, Opus 120, var. 10 and 32, and unused vars.
pp. 123-25
Canon, "Edel sei der Mensch"; cf. WoO 185
p. 125
LITERATURE
Thayer/ Verzeichniss, entry for Opus 123. G. Nottebohm, "Skizzen zur zweiten Messe," N II, chapter 19, esp. pp. 151-55; reprinted from MW9 (1878), 466-69.
278
T H E DESK S K E T C H B O O K S
, "Skizzen zur neunten Symphonie," N II, chapter 20, esp. pp. 164—68; reprinted with small changes from MW 7 (1876), 169-71, 185-88, 213-15, 2 2 5 28, 241-44. , "Die Musik zur 'Weihe des Hauses,'" N II, chapter 43, esp. pp. 404-408; reprinted with small changes from AMZ 8 (1873), 385-90, 405-408, 422-24, 4 3 6 - 40. , "Drei Skizzenhefte aus den Jahren 1819 bis 1822," N II, chapter 45, esp. pp. 468-75. H e i n r i c h Schenker, Beethoven,
Die letzten Sonaten.
Sonate C moll Op. I I I . Kritische
Einführung und Erläuterung, ed. Oswald Jonas (Vienna, 1971; revision of the 1915 edition), pp. 14—102 passim. H u b e r t U n v e r r i c h t , Die Eigenschriften und Originalausgaben der Werken Beethovens und ihre Bedeutung für die moderne Textkritik (Kassel, 1960). K a r l M i c h a e l K o m m a , Die Klaviersonate As-dur op. liO von Ludwig van Beethoven,
commentary volume to the facsimile of the autograph score (Stuttgart, 1967). Drabkin/diss includes transcriptions of all the Opus 1 1 1 sketches in A R T A R I A 2 0 1 . Klein, pp. 202-216. Kinderman/diss, esp. pp. 88-91. Brandenburg/Opus 1 2 5 , pp. 1 0 6 - 1 1 5 ; includes a facsimile of A R T A R I A 2 0 1 , p. 1 1 1 .
ENGELMANN
LOCATION: B o n n , Beethovenhaus ( M h 60, S B H 664) 19 leaves DATE: ca. F e b r u a r y / M a r c h 1823 EDITION: facsimile only, Wilhelm E n g e l m a n n Verlag (Leipzig, 1913)
PRESENT SIZE:
T h i s s k e t c h b o o k , w h i c h enjoys the distinction of having been the first to appear in a c o m p l e t e facsimile edition, has an unusually c o m p l e x history. It w a s acquired at the Nachlass auction by D o m e n i c o Artaria and became Notirungsbuch K in the first A r taria classification. M o r e accurately, it f o r m e d part of Notirungsbuch K\ for a l t h o u g h the letter K is indeed entered on the u p p e r right corner of its first page, the cover f r o m that classification was inscribed Notirungsbuch/K/39, indicating that 39 leaves w e r e present at that time. 1 O n l y 19 leaves remain in the m a n u s c r i p t today. T h i s is a discrepancy to w h i c h w e shall return shortly. In 1835 Artaria gave the sketchbook to t w o visitors, the violinist A.-J. A r t ô t (1815—1845) and a singer-pianist n a m e d L'Huillier. T h e gift is recorded o n a cover p r o v i d e d f o r the occasion: Esquisses Autographes/de/Louis Van Beethoven/En signe d'amitié/à M.M. J. Artôt et L'Huillier/par Auguste Artaria/Vienne, 1. 19 Mai/1835 F r o m A r t ô t the b o o k passed to the B a r o n de T r é m o n t (1779-1852), w h o m B e e t h o ven had k n o w n as a m e m b e r of the French delegation to Vienna. It w a s T r é m o n t w h o added the g o l d - t r i m m e d leather cover in w h i c h the b o o k is n o w b o u n d and w h o inserted another flyleaf at the f r o n t (before Artaria's cover), w i t h this inscription: Recueil Thématique/de L. v. Beethoven./Autographe/Contenant 37 pages de musique./Donné a M r Artôt (célèbre violiniste français)/par M r Auguste Artaria, editeur des ouvrages de/Beethoven, a Vienne le 19 Mai 1835 . . . T r é m o n t also paginated the sketchbook. Before d o i n g so, h o w e v e r , he r e m o v e d o n e l e a f — t h e last o n e — f r o m the b o o k ; this leaf was included in his h a n d w r i t t e n m e m o i r s , w h i c h are n o w in the D é p a r t e m e n t des Manuscrits of the B i b l i o t h è q u e N a tionale (Fond français 12.756, fol. 196). 1 This cover n o w encloses a miscellany, D S B Artaria 200; the number on it was subsequently e m e n d e d to 22.
279
280
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
After Tremont's death, the 19 remaining leaves passed through the collection of a Johan van Riemsdijk (1843-1895) in Utrecht 2 and subsequently to T h e o d o r Wilhelm Engelmann (1843—1909) in Berlin. It was Engelmann's firm that issued the facsimile edition in 1913, four years after his death. Later the book was acquired by H . C. Bodmer, whose collection came to the Beethovenhaus in 1956. In its present state, the ENGELMANN sketchbook consists of 1 9 leaves f r o m a rather greenish run of "Kiesling" paper (our type 43), ruled 16 staves to a page with a T S of 196+ to 197 m m . It was made up originally in gatherings of a single sheet (2 bifolia). O n l y the inner bifolium of the second gathering remains in the book, but the 2 leaves that formed the outer bifolium have been found elsewhere. The first is n o w in Bonn (BSk 21 = SBH 674); it is connected by ink-blots to both the neighboring pages in the sketchbook. The other leaf is now folio 20 in the miscellany Grasnick 20b (Berlin, DSB); it too has an ink-blot connection with an adjacent page. Both of these leaves had been removed before the book was acquired by T r e m o n t (they are not included in his pagination), and evidence presented below suggests that they were already missing prior to the first Artaria classification. If stubs remained at the points of excision, they must have been removed when the book was bound by Tremont. The last gathering in the book today is represented by a single leaf (pages 37/38), linked by a blot to the last leaf of the preceding gathering. Sieghard Brandenburg has proposed that the leaf removed by Tremont (leaf E in the make-up chart) was the original conjunct leaf of this one. Presumably there was also an inner bifolium that has been lost, although we cannot be certain of this; the sketchbook shows the characteristic signs of having been assembled by Beethoven himself, and in other books of the same general type he did sometimes admit irregular units into an otherwise u n i f o r m gathering structure. It looks, then, as though the ENGELMANN sketchbook that has come down to us once comprised 6 gatherings of 4 leaves each and that 5 leaves were removed, 3 of which can be identified. Can this have been the book's original size? A total of 24 leaves would make ENGELMANN the smallest of the standard-format sketchbooks. And w e must still explain the indication on that first Artaria cover that Notirungsbuch K included as many as 39 leaves. One explanation—tentatively suggested some years ago by Douglas Johnson in his discussion of the Artaria collection 3 —is that the sketchbook had been combined with a group of miscellaneous leaves, and that these other leaves were left behind when August Artaria gave away the book in 1835. But a more provocative explanation has been proposed by Sieghard Brandenburg, w h o suggests that the ENGELMANN sketchbook and the one used immediately after it, LANDSBERG 8 / I , were originally the two parts of a single book, the whole of which constituted Notirungsbuch K. The evidence for this hypothesis is not conclusive, but it deserves our attention here. T h e first requirement, of course, is that the sketches in LANDSBERG 8 / 1 follow logically f r o m those in ENGELMANN. This is at least generally true. T h o u g h there is 2 Since van Riemsdijk was only nine years old when Tremont died, there was probably an intermediate owner. 3 Johnson/Artaria, pp. 209-211.
Engelmann
281
n o direct continuity of content f r o m the last page of E N G E L M A N N to the first page of L A N D S B E R G 8 / 1 (in their reconstructed forms), an overall continuity in Beethoven's w o r k on the first m o v e m e n t of the N i n t h S y m p h o n y is evident. M o r e circumstantial, b u t helpful for the argument, is the fact that L A N D S B E R G 8 / I as w e have r e c o n structed it m a y well have included 19 leaves at one stage, which, together w i t h the 20 leaves of E N G E L M A N N (19 plus the T r é m o n t leaf), w o u l d account for the n u m b e r 39 on the Artaria cover of Notirungsbuch K. In this same regard it is significant that L A N D S B E R G 8/1 was n o t classified as a separate book by Artaria; it has no letter of its o w n , and it is n o w b o u n d with another sketchbook (LANDSBERG 8/2) that does have its o w n letter. 4 T h e most important evidence for combining E N G E L M A N N and L A N D S BERG 8/1, however, is the manner in which these t w o bundles w e r e stitched. E N G E L M A N N has been stitched together several t i m e s — m o s t recently at the t i m e of T r é m o n t ' s binding, and before that when Artaria attached the presentation cover for M . M . A r t ó t and L'Huillier. Beethoven's original holes, which distinguish the b o o k f r o m others that were professionally sewn, are f o u n d in four clusters along the inner m a r g i n of each leaf, 2 - 8 m m f r o m the central fold. There are t w o holes in the t o p cluster, one in the second, t w o in the third, and either t w o or three (this n u m b e r varies) in the b o t t o m cluster. Significantly, the same distribution of holes is f o u n d throughout LANDSBERG 8 / 1 . All this evidence points to a division by Artaria of what had originally been a single sketchbook. But at this point w e must acknowledge certain a w k w a r d aspects of the evidence j u s t presented. First of all, there are some differences in the paper used for E N G E L M A N N and L A N D S B E R G 8/1. While the latter b o o k was made u p in part f r o m paper w i t h the same watermark as that of ENGELMANN, the papers are n o t identical in quality or color and must therefore have come f r o m different batches. M o r e over, all of L A N D S B E R G 8 / 1 is ruled with 12 rather than 16 staves. If w e c o m b i n e the t w o books, the resulting v o l u m e lacks the internal uniformity of its t w o parts (this m i g h t also be viewed as a justification for the place at which Artaria chose to divide the v o l u m e in 1835). T h e happy mathematics that gave us the 39 leaves recorded on Artaria's cover also requires s o m e improbable speculation about the history of L A N D S B E R G 8/1. Specifically, w e m u s t assume that the sheet that comprises its first gathering was present in the b o o k at the time of Artaria's classification and then removed s o m e t i m e b e f o r e Landsberg m a d e his large purchase of sketchbooks f r o m Artaria; 5 for the sheet itself remained in the Artaria collection until 1875, w h e n it was sold w i t h s o m e miscellaneous other manuscripts t o j o h a n n Kafka. 6 T h e m o s t persuasive evidence for combining E N G E L M A N N and L A N D S B E R G 8 / 1 is the similarity of their stitch-holes, and this too is not unambiguous. A l t h o u g h the general pattern of the clusters is essentially the same in b o t h books, the actual 4 LANDSBERG 8/2 was Notirungsbuch O, and the n u m b e r of leaves indicated o n the Artaria cover s h o w s that LANDSBERG 8 / 1 was n o t included at that time (see p. 292). 5 It is possible to arrive at the same n u m b e r in other ways. We m i g h t assume, for e x a m p l e , t h a t ENGELMANN had all 24 of its original leaves at the t i m e of Artaria's classification; b u t this line o f r e a s o n i n g w o u l d r e q u i r e the removal of o n e o r t w o leaves at three different places in the b o o k , w h i c h seems even less likely. 'See Brandenburg/Kafka.
282
THE DESK SKETCHBOOKS
spacing is not. T h i s will be clear in the s u m m a r y presented on page 283 ( w h e r e plain n u m b e r s indicate the distance of each hole f r o m the top of the leaf and n u m b e r s in parentheses indicate the distances between holes). T h e problematical distance is the o n e b e t w e e n the second and third clusters, w h i c h is a b o u t a centimeter larger in L A N D S B E R G 8 / 1 than in E N G E L M A N N . Since the spacing within each book r e m a i n s m o r e or less consistent, w e m u s t assume that Beethoven poked his needle t h r o u g h the t w o batches of paper separately, at least w h e n he was m a k i n g the b o t t o m t w o clusters o f holes. It should be pointed o u t that differences of this m a g n i t u d e d o occur b e t w e e n gatherings in other sketchbooks. A n d of course if one rejects the u n i t y of the t w o b o o k s o n the basis of this discrepancy, one is left to explain the o t h e r w i s e h i g h l y coincidental general correspondence between the clusters. H a v i n g t h u s presented the evidence for c o m b i n i n g the t w o b o o k s and n o t e d the difficulties in it, w e m a y safely set the p r o b l e m aside. As in other cases of the s a m e s o r t — G R A S N I C K I and G R A S N I C K 2 , A U T O G R A P H 9 / 1 A and B O N N B S K 2 2 — t h e p r a c tical implications of our conclusion are really n o t great. T h e essential c o n t i n u i t y of sketch content f r o m E N G E L M A N N to L A N D S B E R G 8 / 1 can be affirmed w h e t h e r o r n o t the t w o b o o k s w e r e in fact stitched together as o n e at the t i m e of their use b y Beethoven.
DATE OF THE SKETCHBOOK contains Beethoven's last sketches for the Diabelli Variations, O p u s 120, and s o m e relatively early ones for the first m o v e m e n t of the N i n t h S y m p h o n y . T h e r e are three different kinds of entries for O p u s 120: the first several pages contain late sketches for the last t w o variations, fair copies of the t h e m e appear o n page 30 (incomplete) and page 37 (complete), and there is a series of entries scattered o v e r pages 16—18 and 33 w h i c h are corrections to one or m o r e copies of the w o r k . M o s t likely the corrections and the Reinschrijten of the t h e m e are o u t of chronological sequence w i t h respect t o the physical continuity of the sketchbook, the result of B e e t h o v e n t u r n i n g ahead to find e m p t y leaves (though not all these entries w e r e m a d e at the s a m e time). T h e s y m p h o n y sketches are f o u n d in t w o large g r o u p s o n the i n t e r v e n i n g pages (7—15 and 19ff.). ENGELMANN
T h e r e is conflicting evidence that remains to be fully clarified c o n c e r n i n g the date o f the various entries in ENGELMANN. A terminus ante q u e m for the b o o k is s u g gested b y the contents of a slightly later pocket sketchbook, A R T A R I A 2 0 5 / 5 . T h e latter is d e v o t e d largely to the N i n t h S y m p h o n y , and its sketches appear to be m o r e advanced than the ones in E N G E L M A N N (and perhaps even those in L A N D S B E R G 8/1). N e a r the m i d d l e of A R T A R I A 2 0 5 / 5 , Beethoven sketched the canon "Falstafferel, lass' dich s e h e n , " W o O 184, w h i c h he mailed to Ignaz Schuppanzigh on 26 April 1823. O n this evidence w e should have to assign E N G E L M A N N an earlier d a t e — F e b r u a r y and M a r c h , perhaps, and at the latest the first days of April. It is n o t yet clear h o w this early date for E N G E L M A N N is to be reconciled w i t h w h a t is k n o w n concerning the completion of the "Diabelli" Variations. A t least s o m e o f the corrections o n pages 1 6 - 1 8 w e r e associated w i t h a c o p y that w a s sent to Ferdin a n d Ries in L o n d o n for a planned English edition of the w o r k . T h e first m e n t i o n of
283
Engelmann
C U
Irt 3 Vi a
Ui
13
Os
O co
%
oo
u
-d i-i •iH -C H
•S Ö Ui 4-> 3 tn
u
Vi« 3 y
sO
oo Os
00 sO
SO SO
O t^
OS 0 S
MM
vO T—»
JS
Ov T-H 00 1
vO O t/i 3 a 0
X in cn CN
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o
^
3 a 0
VI
o (N
VI
7 CO tN ^H
03
>1 a"
>
CO ov
CO CN T—1
CO CN T—1
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VI
cft
3 a 0
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LD
vO t
X Ties
X • in
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rt
X %
>
> 3 in r CN CN T-H T-H
VI Vi 3
e
3 >>
pq T-H O N M (J T—I T-H !H
Vi Vi 3
3
OH OH
3
>I CN O m co T-H T—I
Vi Vi 3 3 Oh Oh
3
Oh CL, fc U
0
0
0 0
00 §
00
CO cs X in in 1
TiCN X in T™H
Tics X in T-H
Tits X in vO T-H
Tt >1 >1 > 7 > >N-N > > 7 t-H >
|
|
3 a- a O a
-H T-H n ^ LO T CO CO rO CO a s T *-H I"* T-H -H T-H Vi 3 3O 3 3 Oh OH 0 0 0 0 ^
t-H ^ t-H IO rO CO CO CO T-H t-h ^ t/n to vi 3 3 3 3 Oh Oh Oh 0 0 0 0
-«J major, Opus 106 first movement second movement third movement Ninth Symphony, Opus 125, first movement (with hints of other movements) Excerpts copied by Beethoven from: Bach, WTC Book I, Fugue in B minor Bach, Art of Fugue, Contrapunctus 4 M a r p u r g , Abhandlung von der Fuge
pp. 18-88 pp. 75-128 pp. 116-27 pp. 92-109
p. 4 p. 7 p. 8
LITERATURE
G. Nottebohm, "Skizzen zur Sonate Op. 106," MW6 (1875), 297-98, 305-307. , "Skizzen zur neunten Symphonie," MW1 (1876), 169-71, 185-88, 213-15, 225-28, 241-44. Nohl III, 97-104, 834-35. G. Nottebohm, "Ein Taschenskizzenbuch aus dem Jahre 1817," MW 10 (1879), 41-42, 53-54, 65-67, 77-78, 89-90. Nottebohm's three articles were reprinted with some rearrangement and expansion in N II, 123-37, 157-92 (see esp. 157-63), 349-55. Brandenburg/Opus 125, pp. 100-103.
VIENNA A 45
LOCATION: PRESENT SIZE: DATE: EDITION:
Vienna, GdM 36 leaves April to June or July 1818 none
T h i s sketchbook came to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in the Nachlass of Johannes Brahms. In the 1870s it had belonged to Nottebohm, and Brahms must have acquired or inherited it from his friend (who died in 1882). The descriptions that Nottebohm published of this book and the following one ( V I E N N A A 4 4 ) refer to them simply as "two not entirely complete pocket sketchbooks [ Taschenskizzenhejten] in the possession of the author and dating from the year 1818" (N II, 123). He does not say from w h o m he obtained the books, and nothing is known of their earlier history. Although Nottebohm does cite a number of sketches from A 45, he says nothing of its physical condition. Today the sketchbook consists of 36 leaves in upright format, all in a single gathering. There are also four stubs where leaves were removed: one between folios 29 and 30 and three more after folio 36, at the end of the book. None of these leaves has been found. The 40 original leaves came from five sheets of "Miltigau" paper (our type 35), ruled 12 staves to a page with a TS of from 185+ to 186 mm. Seven irregularly spaced but uniformly placed stitch-holes are found along the central fold throughout. 1 Sheets II through V appear to be intact, apart f r o m the one missing leaf after folio 29; the complementary profiles along the upper edges and along the outer edges (of the x-portions) confirm the expected sequence of watermarks. There is no reason to suspect that any entire sheets have been lost from within the book. Beethoven wrote directly across the bibliographical center (folios 20v—21r, shown in Plate 15), and sheets I—II and IV—V are connected by an ink-blot and a stain respectively. The condition of the first, or outermost, sheet is such that we must be somewhat more tentative in describing it. Three of the 8 leaves are gone, so only one complete ' T h e holes are 33, 62, 93, 126, 159, 187, and 218 m m from the top of the page.
351
«J J=¡ u "O « G
U .tí li * ss 2
C
î u I h ^ ^ 0
Z
3
> tí a . i .Sb O U r™1 oj o . > Ja 1 > O N S .2 3
u C > 'O « J3 i a o « c -c 0î/5 I
^ U J < Ü = C o T3
3
353
Vienna A 45
pocket bifolium remains (folios 4 and 36), and the first 3 leaves are so tattered that identification of watermark quadrants and comparison of profiles is no longer reliable. Nevertheless, the one intact bifolium is sufficient to suggest a plausible sequence for the watermarks of the first 3 leaves. The possibility of additional sheets at the outside of the gathering cannot be excluded. It is worth pointing out, however, that the third movement of Opus 106 is sketched both at the beginning of A 4 5 and at the end of the preceding BOLDRINI sketchbook. Although the latter is now lost, Nottebohm apparently saw no reason to suggest that the books were not directly continuous; in citing sketches for the third movement he does not even bother to specify in which of the two books they fall. The date of A 45 can be narrowed to the late spring and early summer months of 1818. A series of touching entries on folio 2 5 r - v provides a point of departure: Ein kleines Hauss allda so klein, dass man allein nur ein wenig Raum hat / / N u r einige Tage in dieser göttl. Briel / / Sehnsucht oder Verlangen / / Befreiung o. Erfüllung
"Briel" (Brühl) is a valley near Mödling, where Beethoven spent part of the summer of 1818. A note in his Tagebuch—"Den 19 May hier in Mödling eingetroffen"—records his arrival there. 2 We can assume that the entries on folio 25 of the sketchbook were made sometime after that date. A year later, in a letter to Archduke Rudolph, Beethoven claimed that the first two movements of Opus 106 had been completed before Rudolph's name-day—that is, 17 April—in 1818. Sketches for the second movement extend all the way to the end of the BOLDRINI sketchbook, but in A 4 5 they are confined to a single series of entries on this same folio 25 that look much like late memoranda for the principal points of articulation (cf. N II, 131-32). Notteb o h m concluded from the latter entries that the movement could not have been completed by April 17, but this may be too literal a reading of Beethoven's remarks (see the discussion of BOLDRINI). It seems plausible that the BOLDRINI sketches were in fact made by April and that A 45 followed closely thereafter. This would place folio 25 logically in late May. A date for the end of the sketchbook must be inferred f r o m the book that follows, VIENNA A 4 4 , which was in use by August. Although the precise time of transition from one book to the next cannot be determined, it was presumably sometime in June or July. A 45 is devoted almost exclusively to the last two movements of the "Hammerklavier" Sonata, Opus 106. The distribution of sketches is as follows: Piano Sonata in B|> major, Opus 106 third movement fourth movement second movement "Gott allein ist unser Herr," Hess 322
fols. l r - 1 3 v fols. 3 r - v , 5r, 14r-24v, 2 8 r - 3 6 v fol. 25r—v fols. 20v-21r
2 See Maynard Solomon, "Beethoven's Tagebuch of 1812-1818," in BS 3, p. 283. N o t t e b o h m printed a different reading of this entry (N II, 132).
354
THE POCKET SKETCHBOOKS
"Leb wohl schone Abendsonne," Hess 323
fol. 20v
"Heidenroslein," Hess 150
fol. 31v
T h e last three items are short, fragmentary entries of the kind that Beethoven made often without pursuing them further; the Hess numbers should not tempt one into conferring upon them the status of independent pieces. Folios 15r-16r are empty. Folios 32r and 35v—36v were used upside down. LITERATURE G. N o t t e b o h m , "Skizzen zur Sonate Op. 106," in N II, 123-37; reprinted f r o m MW 6 (1875), 297—98, 305-307, together with musical examples first printed in other MW articles (see B O L D R I N I ) . Schmidt-Gorg/Schmidt, pp. 176-77, include facsimiles of A 45, folios 24v, 25r, 25v, and 26r.
VIENNA A
Sheet
45
Folio
Quadrant
Quadrant
Folio
I
1 2 3 4
4xa? 3xa? 2xa? lxa
(4ya?) (3ya?) (2ya?) lya
D C B 36
II
5 6 7 8
2xb lxb 4xb 3xb
2yb lyb 4yb 3yb
35 34 33 32
III
9 10 11 12
3xb 4xb lxb 2xb
3yb 4yb (lyb) 2yb
31 30 A 29
IV
13 14 15 16
4xa 3xa 2xa lxa
4ya 3ya 2ya lya
28 27 26 25
17
4xa 3xa 2xa lxa
4ya 3ya 2ya lya
24 23 22 21
(stain)
*
V *
1 8
19 20
All five original sheets are paper-type 35.
+
VIENNA A 44
LOCATION: PRESENT SIZE: DATE: EDITION:
Vienna, GdM 14 pocket leaves ( + 3 extraneous leaves) mid-summer 1818 none
In the 1870s this sketchbook and the preceding one ( V I E N N A A 4 5 ) were owned by Gustav Nottebohm. It is not clear whether A 44 came to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde directly after his death or (like A 45) passed first through the collection of Johannes Brahms. Nottebohm does not say where he obtained either book, and nothing is known of their earlier history. The published description of them in Zweite Beethoveniana is less informative than usual: "two not entirely complete pocket sketchbooks in the possession of the author and dating from the year 1818" (N II, 123). Although Nottebohm does describe some of the contents of both books, he says nothing more about their physical condition. A 44 is less well preserved than A 45. Seven pocket bifolia survive, making a total of 14 pocket leaves in upright format.1 The paper seems to be the same as that used for A 45, except that the TS of the 12 staves is a fraction smaller: 185 to 185 + mm rather than 185+ to 186 mm. These 7 pocket bifolia are stored together with 3 standard-format leaves, the latter coming first as folios 1 - 3 and the pocket bifolia, now flattened out, following as folios 4-10. The leaves were probably brought together by Nottebohm because they all contain sketches for the last movement of the "Hammerklavier" Sonata, Opus 106. The 7 pocket bifolia are now loose, but each has the same series of irregularly spaced stitch-holes directly along its central fold, evidence that all 7 were once part of the same sewn gathering.2 Three of the bifolia came from one original mold-B 'As this book went to press, Sieghard Brandenburg reported the discovery of 3 more pocket bifolia and 2 pocket leaves in the miscellany Mendelssohn 2, formerly in the Berlin Staatsbibliothek and now in the Biblioteka Jagielloriska, Krakow (they are pages 1 - 4 , 4 3 - 4 6 , 5 5 - 5 6 , 9 3 - 9 4 , and 9 5 - 9 8 ) . See Brandenburg/Opus 125. 2 The eight holes are 11, 43, 75, 108, 141, 176, 206, and 211 mm from the top of the page; on some leaves the top hole is replaced by a cluster of two or three holes.
355
THE POCKET SKETCHBOOKS
356
VIENNA A
Sheet
Folio Quadrant
Quadrant
Folio
44
x-portion
I
(1)
lya
lxa
(14)
both sides empty
II
(2)
2ya
2xa
(13)
both sides empty
III
(3)
3ya
3xa
(12)
both sides empty
(4) (5)
4xb 3xb 2xb
(11) (10)
(6)
4yb 3yb 2yb
both sides empty verso empty; recto st. 5 - 1 2 empty both sides used
(7)
4ya
4xa
(8)
IV
V
+
(9)
both sides used; WoO 60 sketch on recto
All 7 pocket bifolia are paper-type 35.
sheet. Although the other 4 supply the four quadrants of a mold-A sheet, the evidence of their upper and outer profiles indicates that they came from at least two and perhaps as many as four different sheets. If this is true, there may have been as many as five gathered sheets originally (as in A 45), and a large number of bifolia have been lost. The central fold of these bifolia is now so worn that it is no longer possible to tell which way the book was actually folded—i.e., whether the x or y leaves came first. And no compelling order of the leaves emerges from their musical content (all Opus 106 IV). Nevertheless, one piece of evidence does suggest a possible arrangement: 9 pages were left empty by Beethoven, including both sides of 4 leaves, and all of them are leaves with the x-portion of the watermark. It seems likely that the 4 unused leaves came at the end of the book, preceded by the leaf with an empty verso. The 2 remaining bifolia, those with sketches on all 4 pages, would come logically at the center, before the unused leaves. When this reasoning is applied (as in the makeup chart above), the 3 mold-B bifolia are grouped together, with one mold-A bifolium at the center and the other 3 at the outside of the gathering. The relative order of the mold-B bifolia is confirmed by a musical continuity between folios 4v and 5r (the numbering used here was imposed after reconstruction). The order of the 3 outer mold-A bifolia could be different. If the placement of the empty leaves at the end is correct, then the book was made up by Beethoven with the y-portions at the beginning—not his usual procedure in books of this type. Perhaps because of its fragmentary state, Nottebohm suggested no dates for the beginning and end of this sketchbook. The one bit of firm evidence is a sketch on our folio 8 (quadrant 4xa) for the piano piece in Bb major, WoO 60, which was published in the Berlin Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung of 8 December 1824, with a note that it had been written at someone's request on 14 August 1818. The recipient is not named, but A. B. Marx later claimed it to have been the Polish pianist Maria Szyma-
Vienna A 44
357
nowska, 3 an attribution doubted by Kinsky. The autograph of the little piece in the Musée Mickiewicz, Paris, has been trimmed along its upper margin and has therefore lost whatever inscription it might have carried originally. In any case, there seems to be no reason to doubt the date associated with the work (Nottebohm accepted it without comment). The sketch comes near the center of the book as we have reconstructed it. Presumably, then, Beethoven was using A 44 in the months of July and August 1818; a longer period is possible but cannot be documented. With the exception of the sketch for WoO 60 just noted, all the sketches in A 44 that have been identified are for the last movement of the "Hammerklavier" Sonata, Opus 106.
LITERATURE
G. Nottebohm, "Skizzen zur Sonate Op. 106," in N II, 123-37 (see esp. p. 137); reprinted from MW 6 (1875), 297-98, 305-307, together with musical examples first printed in other MW articles (see BOLDRINI). Brandenburg/Opus 125, pp. 100-103.
3
Ludwig
van Beethoven.
Leben und Schaffen, 2nd ed., Erster Theil (Berlin, 1863), p. 74.
B O N N BH I I O
LOCATION: B o n n , B H ( S B H 6 6 8 )
2 leaves DATE: late spring or summer 1819
PRESENT SIZE:
EDITION: n o n e
X h e s e are 2 separate pocket leaves in upright format, each measuring about 24 X 14 cm. Although it can no longer be proved, they appear to have been cut together from a sewn pocket sketchbook, for the 2 leaves share an identical inner profile close to what would have been the central fold of a book. A likely reason for their removal is that both contain numerous bold inscriptions of the sort that would have interested collectors: omnipotens / orgel / posaun im pedal (lr) credo andachtig / piano credo in unum / geheimnis / voll / et incarnatus / in g moll ( l v ) das incarnatus solo / der chor dazwischen (2r)
The inscriptions refer to the Gloria and Credo o f the Missa Solemnis, and there are also musical ideas for each of the first three movements. In content they appear to be contemporary with the ones on folios 13v—14r of the standard-format WITTGENSTEIN sketchbook (there are particularly striking similarities between entries for the opening motto o f the Gloria). If this association is valid, then BH n o contains the earliest preserved pocket sketches for the Mass, and they would date from the spring or early summer of 1819. An intriguing entry on folio l r for the soprano part in the Kyrie (ca. mm. 156—161) offers evidence that the autograph o f this movement was already well underway by that time (see "Literature"). The first o f the 2 leaves is quadrant lyb of our paper-type 41. The quadrant o f the second leaf cannot be unequivocally identified, but it is probably the y-portion o f quadrant 2, 3, or 4. There are 8 staves to a page, ruled in pairs to accommodate music for solo piano. Beethoven used the same paper in the autograph o f Opus 109 and in two movements of the Urschrijt of Opus 110, written out in late 1820 and late 1821 respectively. Quite possibly the pocket sketchbook from which the BH IIO
358
Bonn BH 110
359
leaves were removed was made up from a batch of paper left over from the autograph (now lost) of Opus 106, which Beethoven had completed near the end of 1818. B O N N BH I IO was acquired by the Beethovenhaus in 1926 from Hans Rothschild, an antiquarian dealer in Cologne. The earlier history of the 2 leaves is unknown. Presumably the torso of the sketchbook has been lost. Should any others of its leaves appear, we can expect them to share the watermark and distinctive rastrology of BH n o and to contain early sketches for Opus 123 or possibly for the Diabelli Variations, Opus 120, the other work sketched at the beginning of the W I T T G E N S T E I N sketchbook.
LITERATURE Winter/Opus 123; includes facsimiles of all four pages of BH IIO.
P O C K E T S K E T C H B O O K OF S U M M E R 1 8 1 9
LOCATION: Berlin, D S B Artaria 180, pages 21/22 and 27/28 Artaria 200, pages 9/10 PRESENT SIZE: 6 p o c k e t leaves
DATE: summer 1819 EDITION: none
A r t a r i a 180 and Artaria 200 together comprise a large miscellany o f sketchleaves devoted primarily to the Missa Solemtiis, Opus 123. T h e miscellany came to the Berlin Royal Library in 1901 as part o f the Artaria collection. T h e leaves themselves were rearranged more than once in the long history o f that collection, and it is no longer possible to tell which o f the entries in the Graffer-Fischhof catalogue o f 1844 apply to them. T h e y were part o f entry 78 in Adler's catalogue o f 1890. All the leaves in this miscellany are now laid out and paginated in standard format. O n l y a few were used that way, however; the remainder had been folded and used in upright pocket format, and some are actually remnants o f sewn pocket sketchbooks, as can be seen by the stitch-holes along their (now flattened-out) folds. T h e 3 standard-format leaves that concern us here are in fact 3 pocket bifolia, all from the same original mold-A sheet o f our paper-type 35. This is the same paper that was used for the pocket sketchbooks VIENNA A 45 and A 44, and the rastrology matches that o f A 45 (12 staves with a T S o f 1 8 5 + to 186 mm). We know that these 3 bifolia came from the same sewn gathering, because they share a distinctive pattern o f eight stitch-holes along their central folds (the pattern is different from those in A 45 and A 44). T h e order o f the bifolia in the original gathering is not clear, but the left and right halves (i.e., pocket pages) o f page 27 are both sketched in ink, an unusual occurrence in the pocket books that suggests that this might have been the bibliographical center. Our hypothetical reconstruction adopts this suggestion. It is not known how many additional sheets might have been included in the original form o f the book. T h e fact that it was stitched together may indicate that at least one more sheet was involved, since Beethoven frequently did not bother to stitch the leaves from a single sheet.
360
Pocket Sketchbook
of Summer
1819
361
The sketches on the 3 surviving bifolia are predominantly for the Gloria of Opus 123, including numerous drafts for the fugue on "cum sancto spiritu in gloria Dei patris, amen" in which the subject assumes its final form. There are also a few sketches for the Credo, with the text fragments "et resurrexit tertia die" (p. 9L), "credo in u n u m " (p. 28R), and "omnipoten[tem]" (p. 28R). Since the latter correspond roughly to sketches on folios 2 2 — 2 5 of the large-format WITTGENSTEIN sketchbook, the fragmentary pocket sketchbook can be assigned to the summer of 1819. In the make-up chart provided below, each pocket page is distinguished as the left (L) or right (R) half of a numbered large page. Artaria 200 was paginated twice. The newer pagination (103-116) continues that of Artaria 180; we retain the older pagination of Artaria 200 as a separate entity (1-14).
LITERATURE
Johnson/Artaria, pp. 194-97.
POCKET SKETCHBOOK OF SUMMER 1 8 1 9
Sheet
Page
Quadrant
Page
Quadrant
10R 9L
3ax
10L 9R
3ya
22R
4xa
22L
4ya
21L
21R
A?
(lxa)
B?
(lya)
28R 27L
2xa
28L 27R
2ya
Pages 27L and 27R are sketched in ink. This paper is type 35.
P O C K E T S K E T C H B O O K OF L A T E S U M M E R 1 8 1 9
LOCATION: Berlin, D S B Artaria 180, pp. 23/24, 25/26, 31/32 Bonn, B H , B H 111 (SBH 669) Geneva-Cologny, Biblioteca Bodmeriana, SV 326 PRESENT SIZE: 10 pocket leaves DATE: late s u m m e r or fall 1819 EDITION: n o n e
T h e 10 pocket leaves listed here comprise 5 pocket bifolia in upright f o r m a t that w e r e originally part of the same sewn gathering. Three of the bifolia are in the miscellany Artaria 180, which came to the Berlin Royal Library in 1901 (see the discussion of the preceding pocket sketchbook). A fourth is n o w in the Beethovenhaus, B o n n , which received it together with the pocket sketchbooks BH 107 and (probably) BH 109 f r o m Robert Mendelssohn in 1899. T h e last bifolium is in the Biblioteca Bodmeriana, Geneva. It is not k n o w n whether the Bonn and Geneva bifolia ever belonged to the Artaria collection. All 5 bifolia are the same "Kiesling" paper (our type 41), ruled 12 staves to a page w i t h a T S of 186+ to 187— m m . T h e principal reason for associating them, however, is a characteristic pattern of eight stitch-holes (or clusters of stitch-holes) f o u n d along their central folds. In the Geneva bifolium, the holes (top to b o t t o m ) are separated by roughly 34/32/29/35/39/26/20 m m . T h e bifolia appear to c o m e f r o m at least three different sheets, t w o of mold A and one of mold B. If this is true, a g o o d deal of the original book has been lost. T h e relative order of 4 of the bifolia suggested in the make-up chart below is based loosely on musical contents and must be considered tentative. In the case of the 2 bifolia f r o m the same sheet, a notational connection ( " V i = d e " ) between t w o facing pages fixes their relative positions w i t h s o m e certainty. T h e sketches on these 5 bifolia are primarily for the Gloria of the Missa Solemnis, O p u s 123, specifically for the fugue on "in gloria Dei patris." There are also a f e w sketches for other movements. An early version of the opening m o t t o of the C r e d o appears at the top of page 31R, and there are entries related to the "crucifixus" o n
362
Pocket Sketchbook
of Late Summer
Ì819
363
POCKET SKETCHBOOK OF LATE SUMMER 1 8 1 9
Sheet
Pages
Quadrant
Quadrant
Pages
25R/26L 24R/23L
3xa 2xa
3ya 2ya
26R/25L 23R/24L
~
II
31R/32L
2xb
2yb
32R/31L
.
III
1/2
lxa
lya
3/4
I
Artaria 180
Bonn B H 111
All 4 bifolia are paper-type 41. The position o f the Geneva bifolium relative to the others was not determined. Its watermark is probably quadrant 4a or 4b.
pages 24L and 26R.' Some sketches with the text "pacem, pacem" are found at the top o f page 25L. Nottebohm quoted the early Credo motto together with the mature fugue subject from the Gloria (both on Artaria 180, page 31) as the first examples in his article on the sketches for Opus 123 (N II, 148). As a group, these sketches correspond generally to the ones on folios 2 6 - 3 0 o f the WITTGENSTEIN sketchbook, which places them just after those in the previous pocket book ( = folios 2 2 - 2 5 o f WITTGENSTEIN). They were probably made sometime in the late summer or fall o f 1819. O n e entry is worthy o f special attention. In the upper margin o f page 26R Beethoven wrote, "Von Herzen - moge / es wieder - zu Herzen gehn," the inscription that appears at the head o f the autograph score o f the Kyrie. He was not sketching the Kyrie itself here (the first seven staves of page 26R are empty, in fact). T h e entry suggests, rather, that he may have written out the autograph o f the Kyrie during the late stages o f work on the Gloria, pausing here to try out (or remind himself o f ) the inscription. T h e fact that the Kyrie autograph is on paper distinctly different from that o f the remainder o f the Mass (the Gloria autograph is lost) is consistent with this suggestion.
LITERATURE G. Nottebohm, "Skizzen zur zweiten Messe," in N II, 148; reprinted from MW 9 (1878), 466. Johnson/Artaria, pp. 1 9 4 - 9 7 .
' T h e pocket bifolia in Artaria 180 have been paginated as if they were standard-format leaves, so individual pocket pages must be identified as the left (L) or right (R) half o f each numbered page.
B O N N BH 1 0 7
LOCATION: PRESENT SIZE: DATE: EDITION:
Bonn, B H (SBH 665) 22 leaves ca. November 1819 to April 1820 Beethovenhaus, Bonn (1952), ed. Joseph Schmidt-Gorg; facsimile, ibid. (1968).
T h i s pocket sketchbook and one other (either BH IO8 or BH 109) were presented to the Beethovenhaus in 1899 by Robert Mendelssohn of Berlin. All that is known of their earlier history is an attribution to "P. Mendelssohn" in the third volume of Nohl's biography, which appeared in 1877 (see "Literature"). Paul Mendelssohn, who by 1877 had been dead for several years, was the father of Robert's distant cousin Ernst von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, whose large collection of Beethoven manuscripts came to the Berlin Royal Library in 1908 (see pp. 37-39). Although Nottebohm described several sketchbooks in the latter collection in the late 1870s, he does not mention the ones that belonged to Robert Mendelssohn. A transcription of the present sketchbook by Joseph Schmidt-Görg was published in 1952 as the inaugural volume in the Beethovenhaus series, and a facsimile appeared nearly twenty years later. Schmidt-Görg's description of the book is as follows (introduction to the transcription, p. 11): The sketchbook at hand comprises 22 (originally 23) leaves in upright format, 245 X 150 m m , with 12 staves. The watermarks that appear are " C I H O N I G " under a fleurde-lis, and probably " G K " (this is hard to read). The chainlines of the paper are about 30 m m apart. With a few exceptions the sketches are all in pencil, and some are very nearly obliterated. The book [Heft], with no cover, shows clear traces o f having been carried about by the composer in his coat pocket (like the other two Bonn sketchbooks for the Mass). There are several stains [Flecken] on the outside pages, and on the back page small traces o f wax.
As an account of the book's physical structure, this is less detailed than many of Nottebohm's descriptions. Schmidt-Görg does not even indicate where the sug-
364
Bonn BH
107
365
gested additional leaf was removed (the suggestion is misleading in any case). And his description of the watermark—the one area that Nottebohm would have ignored—makes no attempt to combine the various elements into a composite sheetwatermark, or to identify the elements found on individual leaves; the latter bit of information presumably had no meaning for Schmidt-Gorg. 1 O u r reconstruction must therefore start from the beginning. In its present state, BH 107 includes 22 leaves of "Honig" paper (our type 48), ruled in 12 staves with a TS of about 186.5 to 187.5 mm. The leaves come from four original sheets stitched together in a single upright-format gathering. At least 6 leaves have been removed: one each after pages 36 and 42, and 4 more after page 44. The addition of these missing leaves brings the total to 28. Another 4 leaves (2 pocket bifolia) are necessary at the very outside of the gathering to complete the first sheet (see the make-up chart below). It is not clear whether these leaves were present when the book was made up and were subsequently lost, or if they were somehow omitted from the beginning. An autograph inscription on the present first page— "noch von/1819/vom Credo"—was presumably added sometime after the book was used (hence the "noch" and the reference to the contents), but it does indicate that any outer leaves must have been removed in Beethoven's lifetime. The alternative possibility—that 2 bifolia were lost between the first two sheets (i.e., after page 4), rather than at the outside—seems to be contradicted by the close musical relationship of pages 4 and 5. BONN BH 107 is one of only a few pocket gatherings still held together by thread (two of the others are BH 108 and BH 109), though we cannot be certain that the stitching was Beethoven's own. 2 It does not appear that any complete sheets have been lost from within the book. There are sketches for the canon "Liebe mich, werther Weissenbach" (Hess 300) across the bibliographical center (pages 28-29), and the junctures of sheets II—III and III—IV are also bridged by probable musical continuities. One of the 6 leaves known to be missing from BH 107 can be identified. It is BSk 27 (SBH 672), which came to the Beethovenhaus in 1956 with the Bodmer collection. Its watermark (quadrant lyb) could be fitted into the book at any of three places (leaf C, D, or even J), but its inner profile—where it was torn or cut from the book—matches that of the conjugate leaf (pages 11/12) of missing leaf D, including remnants of the stitch-holes along the original fold. BSk 27 includes sketches for the Credo ("descendit") of Opus 123 and a full, inked-over draft of the canon "Hoffmann, sei ja kein Hofmann," WoO 180; the latter was no doubt the stimulus for its removal. The rather complicated provenance of the leaf can be traced back to Vienna in the late nineteenth century (see Hans Schmidt's catalogue of the Beethovenhaus
' W a t e r m a r k elements are also cited out of context in Schmidt-Gorg's 1935 catalogue of the B e e t h o venhaus collection (and, for that mattter, in Hans Schmidt's catalogue in 1971). In this respect he docs not i m p r o v e u p o n Karl Mikulicz, w h o referred to watermark elements in the same way in his 1927 edition of LANDSBERC 2
7.
T h e ten holes along the fold at the bibliographical center are 15, 28, 58, 86, 112, 132, 161, 193, 230, and 235 m m f r o m the top.
366
THE POCKET SKETCHBOOKS
collection); it does not appear to have passed through Robert Mendelssohn's hands. The leaf must therefore have been removed from the sketchbook at some earlier time. 3 B O N N BH 107 is devoted largely to the Credo of the Missa Solemnis, with briefer sketches interspersed for the Gloria, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei. Toward the end of the surviving torso of the book, on pages 39—41, Beethoven began to work on the first movement of the Sonata in E major, Opus 109. All these sketches together correspond roughly to 16 leaves, from folio 36 through the missing (but identified) leaf M of the WITTGENSTEIN sketchbook as we have reconstructed it. In the introduction to his edition, Schmidt-Gorg made an extensive comparison between the contents of BH 107 and entries in Beethoven's conversation books from the months between December 1819 and April 1820. His list, which we have corrected and supplemented at the appropriate places with BSk 27 and a related leaf from the W I T T G E N S T E I N sketchbook, is given in the following table: Sketchbook BH
Conversation Book
107 pp. 7ff.
Credo sketches
p. 20
Credo sketch Canon on Weissenbach, Hess 300
pp. 22, 28, 29 p. 32
homophonic Scherz on Sanct Petrus, Hess 256
CB I, 161 sketch CB I, 385 sketch various references to Weissenbach
mid-Dec. 1819
CB I, 187 text entry CB I, 245 reference to WoO 175
early Jan. 1820
end of March 1820 Dec. 1819 and Jan. 1820
early Feb. 1820
WITTGENSTEIN
leaf I
BH
autograph dated 4 March 1820
107 pp. 3 9 - 4 1
BSk 27
BH
sketches for song, WoO 150
Opus 109 sketches
=
CB II, 56 sketch
11-13 April 1820
Canon on Hoffmann, WoO 180
=
CB I, 318, 339, 390, 392 sketch and text
10-29 March 1820
CB II, 52 text entry
about 10 April 1820
107 p. 43
pun on name Gebauer
3 M o s t likely it was Beethoven himself who removed it, before going over the canon in ink. William Meredith has observed that some o f the original pencil strokes continue off the leaf and onto the stub.
367
Bonn BH 107
Taken individually, similarities between brief entries in the sketchbook and conversation books are not always reliable guides to chronology, although the conversation books themselves can be dated with considerable precision. In combination, however, they become more persuasive. There are a few ambiguities in the present list; it is not at all clear, for example, that the discussions o f "Sanct Petrus war ein Fels" as a canon text should be related to the sketches for Hess 256 on page 32 o f BH 107 rather than the two canons on the same text, WoO 175, which Beethoven probably sent to Karl Peters in early January 1820 (see Anderson 1067, where the suggested date is 1821, misprinted as 1881). But on the whole we cannot be far off in assigning the first 30 pages o f the sketchbook to the period between December 1819 and March 1820, with a possible break o f several weeks before Beethoven then took up the Sonata Opus 109 around the beginning o f April.
T h e chief contents o f BH 107 are the following: Missa Solemnis, Opus 123 Gloria
pp. 2 4 - 2 7 , 31
Credo
pp. 1 - 3 9 passim, leaf D
Sanctus
pp. 20, 21, 27, 44
Agnus Dei
p. 21
Piano Sonata in E major, Opus 109 first movement
pp. 39—41, 43
Canon, "Liebe mich, werther Freund (Weissenbach)," Hess 300
pp. 22, 28, 29
Scherz, "Sanct Petrus ist ein Fels," Hess 256
p. 32
Canon, "Wähner . . . es sei kein Wahn," Hess 301
p. 33
Canon, "Hoffmann, sei j a kein Hofmann," WoO 180
leaf D
A detailed survey by work and by location is provided in the introduction to SchmidtGorg's transcription.
LITERATURE Nohl III, 209, 211. Joseph Schmidt-Görg, Ein Skizzenbuch aus den Jahren 1819/20, transcription, c o m mentary, and critical notes (Bonn, 1952); facsimile (Bonn, 1968; appeared 1971). This was volume 1 o f Drei Skizzenbücher zur Missa Solemnis. Winter/Opus 123.
368
THE POCKET SKETCHBOOKS
B O N N BH 1 0 7 Sheet
I
II
III
IV
+?
+
+?
Page
Quadrant
Quadrant
A? B? 1 3
(lxb) (2xb) 3xb 4xb
(lyb) (2yb) (3yb) (4yb)
J? I? H G
5 7 9 11
4xb 3xb 2xb lxb
(4yb) (3yb) 2yb (lyb)
F E 43 D = Bonn BSk 27
13 15 17 19
4xb 3xb 2xb lxb
4yb 3yb 2yb (lyb)
41 39 37 C
21 23 25 27
2xa lxa 4xa 3xa
2ya lya 4ya 3ya
35 33 31 29
All four original sheets are paper-type 48.
Page
B O N N BH 1 0 8
LOCATION: PRESENT SIZE: DATE: EDITION:
Bonn, B H (SBH 666) 32 leaves April to June 1820 Beethovenhaus, Bonn (1970), ed. Joseph Schmidt-Görg; facsimile, ibid. (1968).
T h i s was one of three pocket sketchbooks acquired by the Beethovenhaus in the late 1890s. The numbers B H 107-109 were assigned to them in the 1930s, when Joseph Schmidt-Görg made an inventory of the collection. At some point, however, the provenance of the three books became entangled. In his catalogue of 1971, Hans Schmidt recorded that BH 107 and BH 108 (SBH 665-666) came from Robert Mendelssohn of Berlin, while BH 109 (SBH 667) had belonged previously to a Professor Zitelmann in Bonn, a Dr. Nückel in Cologne, and a Kammersänger Behr. These attributions derive primarily from Schmidt-Görg's handwritten inventory. In his own editions of the sketchbooks, however, Schmidt-Görg mistakenly attributes all three to Robert Mendelssohn. This is contradicted by the records of the Vorstand of the Beethovenhaus at the time of the acquisitions, which confirm that only two of the books came from Robert Mendelssohn (17 February 1899) and the other from Professor Zitelmann (3 July 1897). Moreover, the description of the latter (still unnumbered) book suggests that it could not have been BH 109: Hr. Prof. Zitelmann schenkt dem Verein ein Manuscript, das er von Hrn. Oberlandesgerichtsrath Dr. Nückel erhalten hat. . . . Es sind Skizzen zum Credo der Missa Solemnis mit einer Menge eingestreuter Bemerkungen.
The explicit reference to Credo sketches can indicate only BH 107 or BH 108, for BH 109 is devoted almost exclusively to the Benedictus. Since Nohl, writing twenty years earlier, placed BH 107 and BH 109 in the collection of P[aul] Mendelssohn in Berlin (Nohl III, 209, 207) and made no mention of BH 108, it appears that BH 107 and BH 109 were in fact the two sketchbooks that came to Bonn in 1899 from Robert Mendelssohn and that, despite the evidence of Schmidt-Görg's inventory, BH 108 is the book that was presented by Professor Zitelmann in 1897. 369
370
T H E POCKET SKETCHBOOKS
A transcription of BH 108 by Schmidt-Görg was published by the Beethovenhaus in 1970; a facsimile (dated 1968) became available shortly thereafter. Schmidt-Görg's description of the book's physical condition is more thorough than that of BH 107, which he had published in 1952. Here are the relevant passages (introduction to the transcription, p. 9): T h e b o o k [Heß] which is presented here for the first time in transcription and facsimile originally included 34 leaves in upright format, 245 x 155 m m , ruled with 12 staves. Its condition today reveals the following changes: a leaf has been cut out between the former folios 28 and 29,' and m o s t o f the last leaf has been ripped away, so that only a stub remains. T h e manuscript was paginated during preparation o f the [Beethovenhaus] catalogue [of 1935]. Including the stub, the 33 leaves correspond to the present pages 1 - 6 6 . T h e first 2 leaves, pages 1 - 4 , m a k e a gathering i.e., a bifolium by themselves. T h e remaining leaves f r o m page 5 to 66 are stitched together with thread into a single gathering, probably by Beethoven himself, w h o folded the usual large o b l o n g sheets into small bundles [Hefte] o f this sort, so that he could take them along easily in his pocket. T h e excised leaf already referred to is missing f r o m between pages 56 and 57 (of the present continuous pagination), creating the following s u m m a r y for the arrangement o f the book: first gathering: folios 1 - 2
= pages 1 - 4
second gathering: original folios 3 - 3 3 2 = pages 5 - 6 8 With the elimination o f the former folio 29, the former folios 3 - 2 8 n o w correspond to pages 5 - 5 6 and the former folios 3 0 - 3 4 to pages 5 7 - 6 6 . T h e watermark o f the paper is a fleur-de-lis in a shield, with a c r o w n a b o v e the shield and C & I H O N I G below it.
This description of the sketchbook is misleading in two important respects. First, it now seems clear that Schmidt-Görg's folio 1, which creates an apparent gathering with folio 2, is in reality the last folio of the book, folded back to the front. This explains how the inscription " 1 8 2 0 " (cf. BH 1 0 7 ) found its way onto what is now page 3; it was originally page 1. And it also explains how two newspaper advertisements from mid-June, the probable date for the end of the book, got copied on the present pages 1 and 2; these were originally the last two pages. Schmidt-Görg's elaborate explanation of these problematical entries (pp. 9—10 of his introduction) is unnecessary if the first leaf is restored to the back of the book. Second, the suggestion that 2 leaves were removed, after pages 56 and 64, is based on the observation that 2 leaves in the book are unpaired; in the case of the missing leaf after page 64, a large stub remains. Schmidt-Görg did not consider the possibility that entire bifolia might have been lost (even though he did imagine the way sheets were folded to make books of this size). In fact, the outermost sheet is represented by only 3 bifolia, and the innermost sheet by only 2. It is possible, therefore, that 3 more bifolia have been lost, 2 of them from the center of the gathering. This
Schmidt-Gorg presumably means "former folios 28 and 30" here; see below. Schmidt-Gorg means "original folios 3 - 3 4 . "
1 2
Bonn BH 108
371
cannot be proved—Beethoven may have made up the book without t h e m — b u t w e have indicated in our chart the points at which they would logically have appeared. To summarize: BH 108 was made up originally in a single gathering of bifolia f r o m five sheets; there were at least 34 leaves, probably 36 (with one more bifolium in the outer sheet), and perhaps even a full 40 (with 2 more bifolia at the center). 3 T h e " H o n i g " paper is our type 48, ruled 12 staves to a page with a TS of 187 to 187.5 m m . At the bibliographical center (pages 36-37) there are stitch-holes 13, 28, 30, 37, 46, 58, 73, 129, and 178 m m from the top. Only the three inner sheets are still held together by the original thread, however; the t w o outer sheets have worked loose. O n 26 April 1820, Beethoven wrote to Johann Speer in Modling that he would be arriving there by 1 May at the latest (Anderson 1020). The inscription "schon von der stadt an" (as read by Schmidt-Gorg) below the year "1820" on page 3 of the sketchbook seems to indicate that Beethoven began using the book in April. This is consistent with the date suggested for the end of the previous pocket book, BH 107. And on the last leaf of BH 108 (now pages 1/2) he copied t w o advertisements f r o m the Wiener Zeitung. Each appeared for several days in June; the t w o appeared t o gether on 16 June. Since the memoranda seem to have been written in part over already completed sketches, the book was probably filled by mid-June. Schmidt-Gorg also points out a musical entry in a conversation book from the first week in May ( C B II, 108), a sketch similar to several made in the sketchbook between pages 12 and 25 (cf. especially page 20). This fits comfortably within the dates suggested for the book as a whole. B O N N BH 1 0 8 is devoted almost exclusively to the Credo of the Missa Solemnis. Brief notations for the Agnus Dei and Dona nobis pacem appear on pages 47 and 49. Collectively, the Mass sketches on pages 2 5 - 6 4 and 1 - 2 were contemporary with those on the first 35 pages of the large-format sketchbook ARTARIA 1 9 5 . The sketches on pages 1 - 2 4 , on the other hand, probably correspond to leaves n o w lost f r o m the end of the WITTGENSTEIN sketchbook, although this can no longer be proved. T h e preceding pocket sketchbook, BH 1 0 7 , had accompanied WITTGENSTEIN to within about 8 to 10 pages of our projected end, and there may have been further leaves beyond that (see the discussion of WITTGENSTEIN). For some reason Beethoven set aside the Sonata in E major, Opus 109, after sketching its first movement in BH 107 and WITTGENSTEIN in order to resume intensive work on the Credo of the Mass in BH 1 0 8 and the beginning of ARTARIA 1 9 5 . The Sonata, which itself had interrupted the Credo, is then continued on pages 35ff. of ARTARIA 1 9 5 .
For a detailed survey of the contents of BH 108, by work and by location, see the introduction to Schmidt-Gorg's transcription.
LITERATURE
Joseph Schmidt-Gorg, Ein Skizzenbuch zum Credo, transcription, commentary, and critical notes (Bonn, 1970); facsimile (Bonn, 1968; appeared 1971). This was volu m e 2 of Drei Skizzenbiicher zur Missa Solemnis. 3 T h e loss of complete sheets is less likely, though it cannot be excluded. O n l y t w o of the four j u n c tures between sheets in the book are fixed (see the make-up chart).
372
THE POCKET SKETCHBOOKS
B O N N BH 1 0 8
Sheet
Page
Quadrant
Quadrant
Page
I
3/4 A? 5 7
lxb (2xb) 3xb 4xb
lyb (2yb) (3yb) 4yb
1/2 H? G 63
II
9 11 13 15
3xb 4xb lxb 2xb
3yb 4yb lyb (2yb)
61 59 57 F
III
17 19 21 23
2xa lxa 4xa 3xa
2ya lya 4ya 3ya
55 53 51 49
IV
25 27 29 31
3xa 4xa lxa 2xa
3ya 4ya lya 2ya
47 45 43 41
V
33 35 B? C?
4xb 3xb (2xb) (lxb)
4yb 3yb (2yb) (lyb)
39 37 E? D?
^
All five sheets are paper-type 48. A large stub o f l e a f G remains in the book, with no writing.
B O N N BH 1 0 9
LOCATION: PRESENT SIZE:
DATE: EDITION:
Bonn, B H (SBH 667) 17 leaves fall 1820 Beethovenhaus, Bonn (1970), ed. Joseph Schmidt-Gorg; facsimile, ibid. (1968).
T h i s sketchbook was acquired by the Beethovenhaus in the late 1890s. There is some confusion concerning its earlier history. In the third volume of his biography, Nohl had referred to it and to the book that is now BH 107, placing both with P[aul] Mendelssohn (Nohl III, 207, 209). These therefore appear to be the two books that were given to the Beethovenhaus in 1899 by Robert Mendelssohn of Berlin. But an inventory prepared by Joseph Schmidt-Görg in the 1930s identifies BH 108 as the second of the Robert Mendelssohn books and BH 109 as "aus d. Nachlass des Kammersängers Behr"; these attributions are adopted by Hans Schmidt in his 1971 catalogue of the Beethovenhaus collection. For evidence that Schmidt-Görg may have confused the two books, see the discussion of BH 108 (p. 369). A transcription of BH 109 by Schmidt-Görg was published by the Beethovenhaus in 1970; a facsimile (dated 1968) became available shortly thereafter. Schmidt-Görg describes the physical state of the sketchbook as follows (introduction to the transcription, p. 9): In its present condition, this book [Hefi] contains 17 leaves in upright format, 245 X 150 m m . T h e manuscript was paginated during preparation o f the [Beethovenhaus] catalogue [of 1935]; the page numbers extend from 1 to 34. As in the other books for the M a s s . . . the leaves are stitched together with thread, probably by Beethoven himself, and folios 5 - 1 7 (pages 9 - 3 4 ) make a single gathering. Between folios 8 and 9, 3 leaves have been ripped out, leaving behind only narrow stubs. T h e first 4 leaves o f the m a n u script are all single leaves, stitched rather loosely to the following gathering. Originally these 4 leaves were probably another separate gathering, since the surviving leaves, as one can see clearly from their outer edges, must be supplemented to the left side [nach der linken Seite hin zu ergänzen sind]. Whether these missing pages were also originally
373
374
THE POCKET SKETCHBOOKS
used o r were already missing when the book was made up cannot be determined. T h e present arrangement arises in the following way: Originally first gathering second gathering
folios
folios
1-8 1-4 5-8 9-24 9-12 13-15 16-24
Now
-
Pages
-
1-4
1-8
5-8
9-16
-
9-17
-
17-34
T h e watermark o f the paper is the same as that o f the preceding sketchbook . . . : a fleur-de-lis
in a shield, with a c r o w n above the shield and C & I H O N I G below it.
Schmidt-Gorg's reconstruction needs to be improved in one respect. He notes, correctly, that the first 4 leaves are unpaired, but his suggestion that the 4 missing conjunct leaves made a separate gathering with the first 4 leaves now in the book is almost certainly wrong. By analogy with the other upright-format sketchbooks o f this type, all the bifolia would have been combined in a single gathering; the 4 missing leaves therefore belong at the end, making a complete sheet with folios 1—4 at the outside o f the gathering. (Compare the make-up chart below with the one suggested by Schmidt-Gorg.) The paper is our type 48, ruled 12 staves to a page with a T S of 186+ to 187 mm. The first leaf (pages 1/2) has now worked loose from the stitching, which still holds the other 16 leaves together.1 Although no direct connections link the three sheets to one another, there is no reason to believe that any complete sheets have been lost from within the book. None of the 7 individual leaves that were removed has been identified. B O N N BH 1 0 9 is devoted almost entirely to the Benedictus o f the Missa Solemnis, with a few scattered sketches for the Sanctus (pages 27-29), the Osanna (pages 11, 12, 14, 23, 26), and the Agnus Dei (pages 10, 32, 33) interspersed. These sketches correspond roughly to the ones on pages 81-100 o f the large-format sketchbook ARTARIA 1 9 5 . Because there is nothing in the pocket sketchbook that suggests a specific date, Schmidt-Gorg guessed that it followed closely after BH 108 and assigned it to the summer months o f 1820. This is probably too early. B O N N BH 1 0 8 accompanies A R T A R I A 1 9 5 only as far as page 35; if BH 1 0 9 then resumes at about page 81, some 45 pages o f the large-format book (pages 3 5 - 8 0 ) are left with no complementary pocket sketches. These 45 pages are devoted to the last two movements o f the E-major sonata, Opus 109, a work that Beethoven claimed to have finished by 20 September 1820 (see Anderson 1033, a letter to Adolf Martin Schlesinger). It appears, therefore, that he did not return to the Mass until September and that BH 109 should be assigned to the fall months of 1820, extending perhaps into 1821 (see the following discussion o f G R A S N I C K 5). A pocket sketchbook for the last two movements o f Opus 109, used during the summer months, has presumably been lost. It
1 At the bibliographical center (pages 1 8 - 1 9 ) the eleven stitch-holes are 9, 23, 25, 50, 84, 119, 154, 159, 193, 196, and 233 mm from the top.
375
Bonn BH 109
should also be pointed out that the Sanctus of Opus 123 is under-represented in ARTARIA 195, where 4 leaves are probably missing between pages 80 and 81, and in both BH 108 and BH 109; this section o f the Mass might also have been sketched in the missing pocket book. For a detailed survey o f the contents of BH 109, by work and by location, see the introduction to Schmidt-Gorg's transcription.
LITERATURE
Nohl III, 207, 224. Joseph Schmidt-Gorg, Ein Skizzenbuch zum Benedictus, transcription, commentary, and critical notes (Bonn, 1970); facsimile (Bonn, 1968; appeared 1971). This was volume 3 o f Drei Skizzenbiicher zur Missa Solemnis.
BONN BH 109
Page
Quadrant
Quadrant
Page
I
1 3 5 7
4xb 3xb 2xb lxb
(4yb) (3yb) (2yb) (lyb)
G F E D
II
9 11 13 15
2xa lxa 4xa 3xa
2ya lya 4ya 3ya
33 31 29 27
III
A B C 17
(lxa) (2xa) (3xa) 4xa
lya 2ya 3ya 4ya
25 23 21 19
Sheet
All three sheets are paper-type 48.
GRASNICK $
LOCATION: Berlin, D S B PRESENT SIZE: DATE:
38 leaves 1821
EDITION: n o n e
T h i s pocket sketchbook came to the Berlin Royal Library in 1879 as part o f the collection o f F. A. Grasnick. A catalogue of Grasnick's Beethoven holdings, compiled sometime around 1850 by Aloys Fuchs, includes an entry for " 2 Skizzenbiicher mit Bleistift-Notirungen von Beethovens Hand," which must refer to the pocket sketchbooks G R A S N I C K 4 and 5. These (according to Fuchs) had been acquired from the Haslinger firm, probably in 1849, when Grasnick is known to have been in Vienna (see the discussion of the Grasnick collection on pp. 33-36). 1 Tobias Haslinger himself had bought eight lots o f sketches at the Nachlass auction of 1827, and the two pocket sketchbooks were presumably among them. Although Nottebohm examined Grasnick's collection and wrote about the three large-format sketchbooks (GRASNICK I , 2 , and 3 ) , he did not describe or quote from either of the pocket books. G R A S N I C K 5 consists today o f 38 leaves in upright format, measuring about 24.5 X 16 cm. It was made up in a single gathering from five sheets o f "Honig" paper (our type 48), ruled 12 staves to a page with a T S of about 187 mm; this is the same paper that was used for the three preceding pocket sketchbooks (BONN BH 107, 108, and 109). The book was given a fine leather cover when it was bound by the library in the 1930s. At that time the central fold was also reinforced with tape at many points. Nevertheless, the original stitch-holes can still be found; they appear in a complex pattern on both sides o f the central fold (rather than directly along it), which suggests that this book was stitched across the middle in the manner o f most o f the homemade sketchbooks in standard format (and unlike most o f the single-gathering pocket books). GRASNICK $ appears to be complete except for a single bifolium in the
' T h e suggestion inJohnson/Artaria, p. tion is probably wrong.
215,
that
GRASNICK
376
5 might have come from the Artaria collec-
Grasnick
377
5
GRASNICK 5 Folio
Quadrant
Quadrant
Folio
I
1 A? 2 3
3xa (4xa) lxa 2xa
3ya (4ya) lya 2ya
38 B? 37 36
II
4 5 6 7
2xb lxb 4xb 3xb
2yb lyb 4yb 3yb
35 34 33 32
III
8 9 10 11
4xa 3xa 2xa lxa
4ya 3ya 2ya lya
31 30 29 28
IV
12 13 14 15
3xa 4xa lxa 2xa
3ya 4ya lya 2ya
27 26 25 24
V
16 17 18 19
lxb 2xb 3xb 4xb
lyb 2yb 3yb 4yb
23 22 21 20
Sheet
+
All five sheets are paper-type 48.
outermost sheet. Unless Beethoven omitted one bifolium for some reason, it would have come between the first and second bifolia. There is no reason to suspect that any complete sheets have been lost from within the book. The bibliographical center (folios 19v—20r) is bridged by a musical continuity, and sheets IV—V by an ink-blot. GRASNICK 5 is devoted almost entirely to the Agnus Dei and Dona nobis pacem of the Missa Solemnis, with at least one brief sketch for the Benedictus on folios 5v and 6r (close study might reveal others). These sketches run parallel to the ones on pages 1—62 of the large-format sketchbook ARTARIA 1 9 7 . They appear to follow work on the Benedictus in BONN BH 1 0 9 and ARTARIA 1 9 5 more or less directly and to precede sketches for the Sonata in A|> major, Opus 110, which occupy pages 64—88 of ARTARIA 1 9 7 (the end of that book). Since there are no fixed points of reference with which to date Beethoven's work on the Agnus Dei and Dona nobis pacem specifically, we can only suggest a general time-frame on the basis of the preceding and following sketches. Here, too, things are not as clear as we should like them to be. In
378
THE POCKET SKETCHBOOKS
our discussion of A R T A R I A 197 (pp. 2 6 7 - 6 9 ) and the pocket sketchbook that follows G R A S N I C K 5 (pp. 379—81), we argue that Beethoven may have begun work on Opus 1 1 0 as early as August 1821. If so, G R A S N I C K 5 was presumably filled by that month. As w e have already seen, the sketches for the Benedictus of Opus 123 in BH 109 and on the last 2 0 pages of ARTARIA 195 are more difficult to date precisely. Some of them were made during the last few months of 1820, it appears, but they may have continued into the first months of the following year. It is probably best, therefore, to assign G R A S N I C K 5 loosely to the first eight months of 1821. The actual period may have been somewhat shorter than that.
LITERATURE None.
P O C K E T S K E T C H B O O K OF L A T E 1 8 2 1
LOCATION: PRESENT SIZE: DATE: EDITION:
Paris, B N , Ms 80, Ms 51/3, and Ms 99 12 leaves ca. August to November 1821 none
T h e pocket gathering that is tentatively reconstructed here is the first of at least three unstitched gatherings in upright format that were used by Beethoven in the second half of 1821 and the first months of 1822, the leaves of which (with one exception) are now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. They take the form of loose pocket bifolia, each equal to one leaf in standard format, stored under the numbers Ms 51 (9 bifolia), Ms 80 (2 bifolia), and Ms 99 (2 bifolia). All these leaves had originated in the Artaria collection. They were included in a large miscellany of sketchleaves that Artaria sold to Johann Kafka in 1875. Kafka sold a portion of the miscellany to the British Museum in 1876, and the remainder—including all the leaves under consideration here—was auctioned by Charavay in Paris on 14 May 1881.1 It was purchased by Charles Malherbe (1853—1911), whose collection was left to the Paris Conservatory and subsequently transferred to the Bibliothèque Nationale. One pocket bifolium that belongs with this group remained in the Artaria collection and is now Berlin DSB, Artaria 180, pages 33/34. The absence of stitch-holes forces us to rely on other, less reliable criteria in reconstructing these gatherings. Pocket bifolia from the same original sheet can usually be identified by matching their torn profiles, but gatherings made up from more than one sheet are hard to demonstrate conclusively, since the evidence derives primarily from sketch contents (ink-blots and lengthy musical continuities are rare here). For the purposes of our discussion, the Paris bifolia from 1821—1822 can be divided into three groups: 2 See Brandenburg/Kafka. There is no conventional way of identifying the separate manuscripts within Paris bundles such as these. In most cases we have adopted the concise method shown here (a slash), but see pp. 156 and 527 for two o f the several alternatives. 1
2
379
380 Ms 51/3 (2 bifolia) Ms 80 " Ms 99 "
THE POCKET SKETCHBOOKS
Ms Ms Ms Ms Ms Ms Ms
51/1 (1 bifolium) 51/2 " 51/4 " 51/5 51/6 51/8 51/9
Ms 51/7 (1 bifolium) Artaria 180, pp. 33/34 (1 bifolium)
In the case of the second group, to be described next, the contents strongly indicate a gathering made up from two complete sheets (= 16 pocket leaves). In the present case, the evidence is less conclusive. Ms 80, Ms 51/3, and Ms 99 together comprise 6 pocket bifolia of the same paper (our type 48), ruled in 16 staves with a TS of 194-95 mm. When we compare their upper and inner profiles, it becomes clear that Ms 51/3 and Ms 99 are from the same complete sheet. The order of these 4 bifolia within the gathering also appears to be fixed by their contents, as we shall see presently. The 2 bifolia of Ms 80 are vertically adjacent quadrants (la and 2a) from a second sheet and would normally have been adjacent to each other in a gathering. It is the relationship of this second sheet to the first one that is uncertain. The 3 innermost bifolia of the complete sheet present no problem. Sketches for the canon " O Tobias," WoO 182, cover the last 5 pages of the first half of the gathering and extend across the central fold to the first page of the second half. These are followed by 4 pages of sketches for the Credo of the Missa Solemnis. The outermost bifolium of this sheet contains neither canon nor Credo sketches, however. Three of its 4 pages are devoted to the second and third movements of the Sonata in A!, major, Opus 110, while the second page has sketches for the Agnus Dei of the Mass. If the profiles of this bifolium did not match those of its neighbor, we should probably not suspect that it enclosed the other 3. The apparent implication of the sequence is that Beethoven interrupted work on the last two movements of the Sonata in order to sketch the canon and the Mass (both the Credo and the Agnus Dei had been sketched previously). There is a clear division in the contents of the other 2 bifolia (Ms 80); the 4 pages on one side of the fold have sketches for the Credo, and the other 4 pages have sketches for the last two movements of Opus 110. Since these Sonata sketches seem to be more advanced than the ones on the complete sheet, we are left with two possible interpretations of the overall sequence: (a) The 2 bifolia of Ms 80 are from a separate gathering, used by Beethoven after Ms 51/3 and Ms 99. (b) The 2 bifolia of Ms 80 enclosed the others, with the Credo sketches coming first and the Sonata sketches last. Either interpretation means interruptions in the continuity of both the Mass and the Sonata. The clear break between the first 4 and last 4 pages of Ms 80 implies that they enclosed something—if not all of Ms 99 and Ms 51/3, then at least the other 2 bifolia f r o m the same sheet. We have elected to show all 6 bifolia as a single gathering.
Pocket Sketchbook of Late 1821
381
However the bifolia are deployed, the sequence of sketches for W o O 182, Opus 110, and Opus 123 conflicts in some way with the sequence found in the contemporary large-format sketchbook, ARTARIA 197, and the conflicts raise questions about the chronology o f all the sketches involved. In ARTARIA 197, these same works are distributed as follows: p. 1 pp. 2 - 6 2 60, 63
WoO 182 + Opus 123 Credo (four-note motto) Opus 123 Agnus Dei and Dona nobis pacem Opus 123 Credo ("et vitam venturi," "sedet ad dexteram," "judicare")
64-67
Opus 110 I
69-71
Opus 110 III (fugue)
71-74
Opus 110 I
74-75
Opus 110 II
76-77
Opus 1111 (early)
78-80
Opus 110 I
81-82 83-88
? Opus 110 III (Adagio and Klagender Gesang)
The most obvious anomaly is created by the sketches for the Credo and for WoO 182 on the first page; the most likely explanation is that these sketches were not actually contemporary with the beginning of the book (see the discussion o f A R T A RIA 197). Since the WoO 182 sketches in our pocket gathering are surrounded by sketches for the second and third movements of Opus 110, we must suppose that the canon sketch on page 1 of ARTARIA 197 was made sometime after Beethoven had reached page 67. But the last sketches for the Mass come earlier, around pages 6 0 63. Whereas in the pocket gathering the canon, the Mass, and the Sonata are interwoven, in ARTARIA 197 the Mass and the Sonata occupy separate sections (the canon sketch on page 1 is anomalous in any case). Perhaps Beethoven turned ahead and back in ARTARIA 197, so that the physical sequence o f the sketches there does not represent their actual chronological sequence. The same problems o f relative chronology necessarily complicate any attempt to assign specific dates to these sketches. One point of reference does seem secure. Beethoven sent the canon WoO 182 to Haslinger in a letter o f 10 September 1821 (Anderson 1056), explaining that it had occurred to him in a dream during a carriage ride between Vienna and Baden a few days earlier. The middle o f our pocket gathering may therefore be assigned to early September. There is no way o f dating the earlier pages with much precision, for we do not know at what point Beethoven began to work on Opus 110. In March 1821 he was promising the Mass to Simrock by the end of April, and in a letter o f 7 June to Schlesinger he promised delivery o f the new sonata "soon" (Anderson 1051—1052), both evidently over-optimistic pledges. Beethoven spent much o f June correcting the proofs o f Opus 109, and illness plagued him through most o f the summer and fall (cf. Anderson 1053-1054, 1059). At best we can infer that he had begun work on Opus 110 no later than August.
382
THE POCKET SKETCHBOOKS
POCKET SKETCHBOOK OF LATE 1 8 2 1
Contentsh
Page" Quadrant Ms 80
1 2
lxa
3 4
2xa
A?
(3xa)
B?
(4xa)
5 6
4xa
7 8
3xa
9 10
2xa
11 12
lxa
13 14
+
lya
Opus 123 Credo (deum de deo) " (cujus regni [non] erit finis) "»
(cujus regni, vivos et)
Opus 110 III, Adagio + Klagender Gesang Opus 123 Agnus Dei ?
W o O 182 ti tt »
tt W o O 182; Opus 123 Credo (in unum deum) Opus 123 Credo (omnipoten [tem,] factorem 1 »
15 16
2ya
17 18
3ya
19 20
4ya
C?
(4ya)
D?
(3ya)
21 22
2ya
Opus 110 II Opus 110 II (trio) + III
23 24
lya
Opus 110 II + III (fugue) Opus 110 II + III (fugue); I?
"
("et vitam" subject, "judicare
"
([judijcare)
?
Opus 110 II + III (fugue) Opus 110 III (fugue)
All the paper is type 48. "The manuscripts themselves are not paginated. b Excerpts f r o m the C r e d o text that Beethoven wrote in these sketches are shown here in italics.
Pocket Sketchbook
of Late
Ì821
383
The next dates for which we have documentation are the ones written on the autographs o f Opus 110 and Opus 111: 25 December 1821 and 13January 1822 respectively. These dates are the best guides to the chronology o f the two relevant desk sketchbooks, ARTARIA 197 and ARTARIA 201, and o f the pocket gathering to be described next (PARIS MS 51), which supplies late sketches for Opus 110 that are not found in either large-format book. One conclusion reached in the discussion o f those books is important here: 25 December 1821 is more likely to have been the day on which Beethoven finished the initial autograph o f Opus 110 than the day on which he started it. Moreover, from the appearance o f the fugue—so full o f internal revisions that a later Reinschrijt was required—we may guess that work on the autograph proceeded less rapidly than Beethoven had anticipated. ARTARIA 197, which ends with the fugue still at an early stage, may therefore have been filled by early December or even sometime in November. And since the sketches in our present pocket gathering appear to be generally contemporary with those on the last 20 pages o f ARTARIA 197, we may conclude that this gathering was also in use until about November. A careful comparison o f the sketches themselves should clarify the relationship. T h e distribution o f the contents o f the pocket gathering is shown on the make-up chart on page 382.
LITERATURE William Drabkin, " S o m e Relationships between the Autographs o f Beethoven's Sonata in C Minor, Opus 111," Current Musicology no. 13 (1972), 3 8 - 4 8 , esp. 39, 46 (footnote 11). Drabkin's passing reference to the present manuscripts includes the first suggestion that they formed a single gathering. Brandenburg/Kafka, esp. pp. 105ff.
PARIS M S 5 1
Paris, B N 14 leaves DATE: December 1821 to January or February 1822 EDITION: none (but see "Literature")
LOCATION:
PRESENT SIZE:
T h i s is the second of three unstitched pocket gatherings in upright format from 1821-1822 that can be reconstructed from leaves in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. The common history of these leaves has already been noted in the discussion of the first gathering. The second in the sequence, to be described here, comprises 7 pocket bifolia, now stored separately as parts 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9 of Ms 51 (parts 3 and 7 belong to other gatherings). These 7 bifolia came originally from two sheets of our type 24 paper, ruled in 16 staves with a TS of about 194 mm; they make up one complete sheet and three-fourths of another. One more bifolium, needed to complete the second sheet, must be presumed lost. It was William Drabkin, in an article published in 1972, who first pointed out the physical and musical relationships among the pocket bifolia of Ms 51 (see "Literature"). Besides observing that the bifolia could be grouped by matching their upper and outer profiles, he also noted that each of the two gathered sheets included sketches for the same three movements—the fugal finale of the Sonata in A t major, Opus 110, and both movements of the Sonata in C minor, Opus 111. Since there was no evidence that either gathering had been part of a stitched sketchbook, 1 Drabkin assumed that Beethoven had used the two sheets separately: It is wholly unlikely that Beethoven used these ten leaves together as a continuous sketchbook, and it is quite possible that they were put together long after his death. Nevertheless, the manuscript m a y be reassembled into a number of "sketch gatheri n g s , " usually made up o f four leaves (16 pages) which originally comprised a single
1 Ms 51/2 does have three stitch-holes (59, 77, and 140 mm from the top of the leaf), which must have been added sometime after the gathering was used; none of the other bifolia has holes.
384
Paris Ms 51
385
sheet of paper. [In a footnote:] In both of the above reconstructions, all the sketches for Opus 110 precede those for Opus 111, and there are no musical connections between the gatherings (although they may well have been used at the same time).2 Having discovered other instances in which t w o or more sheets appear to have been gathered together without being stitched (including the gathering j u s t discussed), w e m a y be somewhat more willing to entertain such a possibility again here. And indeed, the contents of the t w o sheets do suggest one possible arrangem e n t as a single gathering, which is proposed in the make-up chart below. T h e inner s h e e t — M s 51, parts 4, 6, 8, and 9—begins with sketches for the f u g u e of O p u s 110 III and continues with O p u s 111, including late sketches for the first m o v e m e n t and early sketches for the second. At the center of the gathering the facing pages look very similar; both are sketched only on staves 1—8, and the sketches themselves are related, t h o u g h not directly continuous. It appears, therefore, that these t w o pages w e r e not separated by other leaves. At the outside of the gathering, the contents of the other sheet divide conveniently into t w o halves. With one exception, all the O p u s 110 sketches fall to one side of the center and all the O p u s 111 sketches to the other. Moreover, the latter are more mature than the O p u s 111 sketches on the other sheet (cf. Drabkin's dissertation, pp. 167, 192-98). It seems reasonable, then, to place one sheet around the outside of the other. T w o anomalies in the overall sequence of the sketches arise whether or not w e treat the sketches as a single gathering. O n e is the presence on the last 2 pages of M s 51/2, the outermost bifolium of its sheet and of the gathering as a whole, of sketches for t w o m o v e m e n t s sketched earlier—the fugue of O p u s 110 and the first m o v e m e n t of O p u s 111. T h e other is the absence, in the first half of the gathering, of any sketches for the first m o v e m e n t of O p u s 111 in its early stages. Hypothetical explanations can be advanced for both these apparent anomalies, but their implications will be clearer if w e consider the chronology of the gathering as a whole. A copy of O p u s 110 was submitted to Schlesinger's Viennese representative, in exchange for the promised fee, on 11 January 1822 (cf. BS 2, pp. 25—26). Beethoven dated the full autograph (Berlin SPK, Artaria 196) " a m 25ten d e c e m b . / 1 8 2 1 . " This autograph gave h i m enormous difficulties, especially in the fugue, where the extent of the internal revisions attests to the insufficiency of the preliminary w o r k . In A r taria 196 the finale turned quickly into a composing score, the end of which is followed by m o r e than half a dozen pages of sketches. Hence it was necessary for the composer to write out a fair copy of the movement (Bonn B M h 2). T h e date in Artaria 196 probably refers to the date on which the initial full autograph was c o m pleted, leaving a little more than t w o weeks for the revision of the f u g u e and the preparation of the copy for Schlesinger. T h e autograph of O p u s 111 is headed " a m 13tenjenner 1822," and that same date is written in the upper margin of page 21 in ARTARIA 201, where the f i r s t - m o v e m e n t sketches end and those for the second movement begin. Beethoven must therefore have started writing out the autograph of the first m o v e m e n t before sketching the
2
Current Musicology, no. 13 (1972), 39, 46.
386
THE POCKET SKETCHBOOKS
second. Work on the first movement must have started well before the copy of Opus 110 was delivered to Schlesinger—additional evidence that the completed autograph of Opus 110 (Artaria 196) was finished rather than begun on 25 December 1821. In the first half of our pocket gathering, the sketches for the fugue of Opus 110 must have preceded (or accompanied) the Urschrift and followed the earlier sketches at the end of ARTARIA 1 9 7 . We may assign them loosely to the first weeks of December 1821. The Opus 111 II sketches that follow on pages 4ff. of the inner bifolium cannot be much earlier than 13 January 1822, the date that marks the end of the first-movement sketches on pages 1 - 2 1 of ARTARIA 2 0 1 . The few first movement sketches in Ms 51 are very late, as Drabkin says (diss, p. 135): It can be shown that the [Arietta] sketches on p. 5 o f M s 51 [our inner sheet] . . . immediately pre-date those on p. 22 of Artaria 201 . . . ; for this reason, it would appear that the sketches for the first movement on pp. 6 - 7 of Ms 51 must post-date the first movement sketches in Artaria 201.
Since Beethoven seems to have started the autograph of the first movement before he sketched the second, these first-movement sketches in Ms 51 may well be contemporary with the autograph itself. 3 How fast pages 1—21 of ARTARIA 2 0 1 were filled is a separate question. If we assume that all this work followed the autograph of Opus 110 (which is not sketched in ARTARIA 2 0 1 ) , they must have been filled very fast. But the two sonatas may well have overlapped, with Beethoven using the pocket gathering to continue Opus 110 III and reserving the new desk sketchbook for Opus 1111, all this after ARTARIA 1 9 7 had been filled. The sketches in Ms 51 for the second movement of Opus 111 should be assigned to the last half of January and perhaps some part of February 1822. Drabkin, in the passage just quoted, points out that the first pocket sketches actually precede those in A R T A R I A 2 0 1 (the earliest of them may recall a preliminary idea for the theme that was sketched in ARTARIA 1 9 7 ) . He goes on to suggest that the pocket sketches on pages 10—16 of our inner sheet probably fall between pages 2 2 - 2 6 and pages 27-31 of ARTARIA 2 0 1 , still an early stage in the planning of the movement. Beethoven must have submitted the complete work to Schlesinger by the end of March, for on 9 April he wrote concerning a new copy of the variations, to replace one that had already been sent (Anderson 1074).
LITERATURE
William Drabkin, "Some Relationships between the Autographs of Beethoven's Sonata in C Minor, Opus 111," Current Musicology, no. 13 (1972), 38-48. Drabkin/diss, esp. pp. 53-56, 134-35, 138, 147, 164-68, 186-209, 210-42 passim. Drabkin provides transcriptions of all the sketches for Opus 111 except those in Ms 51, part 2. Brandenburg/Kafka, esp. pp. 105ff. 3 T h e next pocket gathering (POCKET SKETCHBOOK OF EARLY 1822) includes some sketches for the Maestoso that also post-date the Urschrift of the first movement; see the following discussion.
387
Paris Ms 51
a, rt u ? s bO E
~0 M
cIh/i rt > -o E al U ca CU
rO al > CO « JL s •M 5
u C c u
£
X3 X3 W M NH HH T-H » T-H t-H R-H T—1 T-H C/3 3 A.
O u VI
VI
m a 2 T3 a s a
rt
X cn
al X 5J\
v 3 bß Xi
XI XI XJ X Xi Xi Xi Xi K a « it X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X * X S r H ( N C O T « T f C O C M « H T f C O C M TÍ- ^H C M cO - H t CO C M (NcO-^-'rt S cy 00 C M u a, J- \o r- oo 0\ O ^ ^ C M CO TÍ" LO cO TÌ- LO t^- 00 O N o^H (N CO Tlo o o co co coCO Tj- Tf M M cO o CO CO cc C M C M C MC C N (N C LJzLI
u a, rt O, 1>
JS
'S u
J3 H
418
THE POCKET SKETCHBOOKS
those on folios 6—22 of the large book. The last two leaves of G R A S N I C K 4 include sketches for the Opferlied, and we know from other sources that Beethoven worked on the song in November and December 1824 (see the discussion of A U T O G R A P H 11/2). It is not clear how much earlier he began to work in G R A S N I C K 4 . Here we are forced to rely on the rather uncertain compositional history of Opus 127. A few preliminary entries for the first movement were made at the end of L A N D S B E R G 8 / 2 in about May, and A U T O G R A P H 1 1 / 2 and G R A S N I C K 4 begin with sketches for the second movement. Thus it appears that Beethoven sketched the first movement almost exclusively in the pocket book A R T A R I A 2 0 5 / 4 (and in score on separate leaves) during the early summer months at Baden, and that both A U T O G R A P H 11/2 and G R A S N I C K 4 followed A R T A R I A 2 0 5 / 4 I N the late summer or early fall. The same conclusion is reached if we extrapolate backwards from the end of A U T O G R A P H 11/2. Since Beethoven had filled that book by late January 1825, and since the Opferlied sketches of November/December fall about halfway through it, a date of September or October seems reasonable for the beginning. This date must then apply to the parallel sketches in G R A S N I C K 4 as well. It should be pointed out, finally, that a considerable gap exists between G R A S N I C K 4 and the next surviving pocket sketchbook. Pocket sketches for the finale of Opus 127 break off at an early stage in G R A S N I C K 4 , and little survives for the first two movements of Opus 132. While it is possible that some additional gatherings have been lost from the end of G R A S N I C K 4 itself, the likelihood is stronger than an entire pocket sketchbook from the first months of 1825 has been lost. The chief contents of
GRASNICK 4
are the following:
String Quartet in Et major, Opus 127 second movement third movement fourth movement
fols. 23r-41v, lr, 4 v - 6 r fols. 25v, l r - 4 r , 6r-19v fols. 2 v - 3 r , 13r-14r, 15r-16r
Opferlied, Opus 121b
fols. 39v, 21v-22v
Overture on B A C H
fol. 20r
Folios 26r, 37v, 38r, and 40r were not used.
LITERATURE
Kalischer 1896, p. 27. Brandenburg/Opus 127.
Moscow
LOCATION: MOSCOW, C M M C (F. 1 5 5 , N o . 2)
25 leaves DATE: M a y or June to July 1825 EDITION: facsimile only, with a commentary by M . Ivanov-Boretzky, in Musikalische Bildung, J a n u a r y - M a r c h 1927, pp. 9 - 5 8 (facsimile) and 5 9 - 9 1 (commentary in Russian and German)
PRESENT SIZE:
T h i s pocket sketchbook was turned over to the Central (Glinka) M u s e u m for Music Culture in M o s c o w in 1922, having been left behind by unidentified emigrants. T h e latter were probably the family or heirs of Alexander D. Obolensky (1847-1917), at one time vice-president of the Imperial Russian Music Society, whose correspondence includes references to the book. 1 A clue to the earlier history of the sketchbook is provided by its b r o w n leather cover, decorated with gold ornaments and the German inscription " B E E T H O V E N ' S H A N D S C H R I F T . " Another manuscript b o u n d in exactly the same way was sold by Sotheby's of London in April 1982; this was a copy in Beethoven's hand of excerpts f r o m Don Giovanni which had been given to Franz Liszt in 1841 by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. It seems likely that b o t h the Mozart copy and the sketchbook were among the Beethoven manuscripts that passed t h r o u g h Mendelssohn's hands in the 1830s and 1840s. 2 In this respect it m a y be significant that 2 leaves f r o m the sketchbook found their way into a miscellany o w n e d b y his brother Paul (see below). By the second half of the nineteenth century the M o s c o w pocket sketchbook was evidently inaccessible, for it escaped the attention of N o t t e b o h m , Nohl, and other scholars of the period. It became widely k n o w n with the publication in 1927 of a
T h e reconstruction and description of this sketchbook are by Sieghard Brandenburg. ' T h i s information was provided to us by E. Vyaskova. T h e alternative, of course, is that someone else had the two manuscripts bound before Mendelssohn o w n e d the Mozart copy. 2
419
420
THE POCKET SKETCHBOOKS
complete facsimile and extensive commentary by the Russian scholar M(ikhail) Ivanov-Boretzky. A preliminary reconstruction could be attempted on the basis o f that publication, together with a set o f superior photographs that were made available to the Beethovenhaus. More recently (summer 1982), Sieghard Brandenburg has had the opportunity to study the manuscript firsthand in Moscow. T h e sketchbook consists today o f 25 pocket leaves in oblong format, measuring about 15.5 X 24 cm. The present binding makes use o f four holes directly along the central fold o f each bifolium. But traces o f an earlier binding survive in the form o f four more stitch-holes, no longer used, which are placed about 4 - 6 mm from the central fold on each leaf and which differ clearly from the modern holes in their spacing; from top to bottom, these older holes are 47, 60, and 12 mm apart. T h e paper is o f two types. The first 14 leaves (pages 1 - 2 8 ) are type 18, ruled originally with 16 staves in upright format (TS = 257 mm), so that each oblong pocket leaf has 8 staves. The last 11 leaves (pages 2 9 - 5 0 ) are type 28, the same paper that was used for the four immediately preceding pocket sketchbooks (AUTOGRAPH 8/1 through GRASNICK 4); this paper had been ruled with 10 staves in upright format, so the pocket leaves have 5 staves. The presence o f two different papers is not the only irregularity in the make-up o f the M o s c o w pocket sketchbook. Although the basic unit o f construction throughout much o f the book is a gathering o f 2 bifolia comprising all the x-portions or all the y-portions o f a sheet (see Figure 3 on p. 323), there are some exceptions that do not appear to have arisen because o f damage to the book. Pages 9/10 and 11/12, for example, are a pair o f single pocket leaves cut from a single leaf in standard upright format (quadrant 2a). And pages 2 1 - 2 4 and 25—28 comprise 2 consecutive bifolia, created by the division o f one bifolium in standard upright format (quadrants la— 2a); these would not have been gathered, since x - and y-portions o f each quadrant were normally part o f separate gatherings. It is possible, o f course, to suggest the loss o f large numbers o f leaves that might have filled out conventional gatherings with these 2 single leaves and single bifolia. But there is no evidence in the sketchbook to indicate that these leaves and bifolia represent the remains o f disrupted gatherings. Rather, we must suppose that in assembling the book Beethoven brought together some remnants o f paper-type 18, including one full sheet (pages 1—8 and 1 3 - 2 0 , which have matching profiles), one bifolium (pages 2 1 - 2 4 and 2 5 - 2 8 ) , and at least one leaf (pages 9/10 and 11/12). A sketch for the Credo o f the Missa Solemnis, upside down on page 20, suggests that this was paper left over from an earlier period. In the second half o f the sketchbook, made up from paper-type 28, the gathering structure is regular, and the only evidence o f damage is at the very end, where a leaf is necessary to complete the final gathering (leaf A in the chart). This does not mean, however, that we should regard the book as intact apart from that last leaf. An additional 6 leaves have been found that clearly belonged to it at one time. All 6 belong to one o f the two paper-types, contain sketches that fall within the scope o f the book, and—most important—have the pattern o f four stitch-holes that survives from the original binding. T w o o f the leaves are found today as pages 33/34 and 71/72 in the miscellany Mendelssohn 2, now in the Biblioteka Jagiellonska, Krakow, but formerly part o f the Paul and Ernst von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy collection in Berlin.
Moscow
421
Like pages 9/10 and 11/12 of the sketchbook, these 2 leaves appear to have been cut from a single standard-format leaf (quadrant 3a) of paper-type 18, and there is no reason to suspect that other leaves are missing from the same sheet. The leaves from Mendelssohn 2 share both the paper and the general contents (Opus 132 V) of the first half of the sketchbook. A plausible location for them is after page 28, which includes sketches with a specific relationship to the ones on page 33 of Mendelssohn 2. The other 4 leaves appear to have made a complete gathering in the sketchbook. Two of them are BSk 19, a bifolium in the Bodmer collection of the Beethovenhaus. The other two are a bifolium now in a private collection. Although now separated, the two bifolia belonged to the same man, Franz Trau of Vienna, as recently as the early 1930s. Together they comprise the four y-portions of a mold-A sheet of papertype 28, the 5-stave paper found in the second half of the sketchbook. When the Bonn bifolium is placed inside the other, the sketches on the 4 leaves make a convincing sequence. The two inner sides of BSk 19 are also connected at one point by a thin pencil stroke, confirming that nothing has been lost between them. Conveniently, there is a clear distinction in the remainder of the sketchbook between the 8stave leaves, which are devoted solely to Opus 132, and the 5-stave leaves, which contain sketches for Opus 130. Since our reconstructed gathering includes sketches for both works (albeit in reverse order), it makes good sense to place them tentatively at the very beginning of the 5-stave leaves, before page 29 and after the inserted leaves from Mendelssohn 2. Before we leave the problems of reconstructing the Moscow pocket sketchbook, a more specific word of caution is necessary concerning the 1927 facsimile, which introduced the book to Western scholars. The original photographs sometimes failed to include the edges of the manuscript pages, with the result that staves were partially or even completely lost at the top (some numbers in the lower margins were also lost). These photographs were apparently then reduced by varying amounts, obscuring the internal proportions, and touched up (this was done commonly, and without malicious intent, earlier in the century). As a result, the viewer cannot be certain that everything in the manuscript is accurately reproduced. Some statements in the commentary are also misleading—for example, that pages 25—28 are 7-stave paper, which they seem to be in the photographs. A new edition of the sketchbook, including a full transcription and a facsimile at the original size, is now in preparation by E. Vyaskova. The period in which the Moscow sketchbook was used can be narrowed to the early summer months of 1825. It was apparently after he moved to Baden on 7 May that Beethoven conceived the Heiliger Dankgesang of Opus 132. There are only a few late sketches for this movement in the pocket sketchbook, and they come on the first 3 pages. Most of the book is devoted to the last two movements of Opus 132 and to the first movement of Opus 130. The latter must have been well advanced as early as July, for in August Beethoven was already working on several of the later movements. The specific evidence for these dates derives from entries in the large-format De Roda sketchbook, which was in use from about May to September 1825 (see p. 309). The sketches in the pocket sketchbook correspond roughly to those on folios 1 0 - 2 1 of De Roda.
422
THE POCKET SKETCHBOOKS
Tentative Reconstruction of the M o s c o w Pocket Sketchbook Pages
Paper-type
Quadrant
1/2 3/4 5/6 7/8
18
4ya lya 2ya 3ya
9/10
18
2xa
11/12
18
2ya
i— 13/14 r- 15/16 L 17/18 L - 19/20
18
3xa 2xa lxa 4xa
r- 21/22 L 23/24
18
2xa lxa
18
lya 2ya
A
18
3ya
= Mendelssohn 2, pp. 33/34
B
18
3xa
= Mendelssohn 2, pp. 71/72
i— C
28
(2ya) 3ya 4ya (lya)
r— 29/30 r- 31/32 L 33/34 35/36
28
lxb 4xb 3xb 2xb
|— 37/38 39/40 r L 41/42 major, Opus 130 first movement
pp. 1 - 3 pp. 3 - 1 3 passim, 18; Bonn BSk 19, l v pp. 6 - 2 8 passim; Mendelssohn 2, pp. 71—72, 33—34 Bonn BSk 19, l v - 2 v ; private bifolium, 2r pp. 2 5 - 2 6 , 2 9 - 5 0 ; private bifolium, lr—v, 2v; Bonn BSk 19, l r
Missa Solemnis, Opus 123, Credo
p. 20 (sketch made before the book was assembled)
Sketches on "Tobias . . . tückischer Kerl"
private bifolium lr—v
LITERATURE M . Iwanow-Boretzky, "Ein Moskauer Skizzenbuch von Beethoven," Musikalische Bildung, N o . 1—2 (January—March 1927), 75-91; the article is also printed in Russian on pp. 59—74, and a facsimile of the entire sketchbook appears on pp. 9— 58. A shortened version of Ivanov-Boretzky's commentary was printed in Melos 1 (1928), 407-414. Boris Schwarz, "Beethoveniana in Soviet Russia," MQ 47 (1961), 4 - 2 1 , esp. 9 - 1 0 . Sieghard Brandenburg, " T h e Historical Background to the 'Heiliger Dankgesang' in Beethoven's A-minor Quartet O p . 132," in BS 3, pp. 161-91.
EGERTON 2795
London, BL 16 leaves DATE: July to August 1825 EDITION: none
LOCATION:
PRESENT SIZE:
T h i s pocket sketchbook was acquired by the British Museum (for 250 marks) through the Berlin antiquarian dealer Leo Liepmannssohn at an auction that took place on 4 February 1895. Nothing is known of its earlier history. Liepmannssohn's catalogue, in which the sketchbook appears as lot 996, carries as its title "Katalog der von einem hochgestellten preussischen Diplomaten hinterlassenen AutographenSammlung." The book escaped the notice of Nottebohm and other scholars of the period. EGERTON 2 7 9 5 appears to have survived intact. It comprises 1 6 leaves in upright format, measuring roughly 24 X 15.5 cm, from two complete sheets of our papertype 50. There are 12 staves to a page with a TS of 186+ to 187 m m . All the leaves appear to have been in a single gathering, stitched along the central fold. Only the innermost bifolium has survived intact, however; the others were cut when the book was newly bound. Twelve or thirteen stitch-holes are present today, but some of these are probably from the modern binding, provided by the museum soon after the purchase. Six holes that are larger than the others may date f r o m the time of Beethoven's original stitching. There is no reason to suspect that any complete sheets have been lost. With the exception of a few entries in ink on folios lOv and l l r , 1 all the sketches are in pencil. The book is devoted primarily to movements I—III and V of the Quartet in Bb major, Opus 130. Two brief notations on folio 12r for the first and last movements of the A-minor quartet, Opus 132, were probably made in connection with the autograph of that work, which had been completed by early August 1825. The
1
Beethoven's name in red crayon on the first page is probably not in his hand.
424
Egerton
425
2195
sketches for Opus 130 follow those in the M o s c o w sketchbook, which include only the first movement, and accompany sketches for the same movements on folios 2 0 - 3 0 (perhaps a bit more) o f the standard-format D E RODA sketchbook. T h e only p u b l i s h e d d i s c u s s i o n o f E G E R T O N 2 7 9 5 , i n c l u d i n g its r e l a t i o n s h i p t o b o t h D E R O D A
and the M o s c o w pocket book, appears in Joseph Kerman's survey o f all the Beethoven sketchbooks in the British Library (see "Literature"). Beethoven probably began using EGERTON 2795 in July, while he was writing out the autograph o f Opus 132, and filled it by sometime early in August. A sketch for the untexted canon, WoO 35, on folio 30r of D E RODA was made no later than 3 August, when Beethoven wrote out the piece as a souvenir for a visitor in Baden. T h e chief contents o f the sketchbook, as outlined by Kerman, are as follows: String Quartet in Bl> major, Opus 130 first movement
fols. l r - 3 v , 5 r - v , 8r, 15r
second movement
fols. 4v, 8 r - 9 v
third movement
fols. 4v, 5 v - 7 v
fifth movement
fols. 7 v - 8 r , 9 v - 1 0 v , l l v , 12v, 1 3 v - 1 6 v
String Quartet in A minor, Opus 132, notations for the autograph o f the first and fifth movements
fols. l l r , 12r
LITERATURE Kerman/Sketchbooks, pp. 7 8 - 8 5 .
EGERTON 2795 Sheet
Folio
Quadrant
Quadrant
Folio
1
lxb 2xb 3xb 4xb
lyb 2yb 3yb 4yb
16
lxa 2xa 3xa 4xa
lya 2ya 3ya 4ya
12 11
2 3 4 II
5
6 7 8
Both sheets are paper-type 50.
15 14 13
10 9
A U T O G R A P H 9, B U N D L E 5
LOCATION: B e r l i n ,
SPK
PRESENT SIZE: 2 6 l e a v e s
DATE: August and September 1825 EDITION: none
A u t o g r a p h 9 is a collection o f pocket sketchbooks sold to the Berlin Royal Library by Anton Schindler and received there in 1846. Schindler had claimed them at the time o f Beethoven's death, so they were not sold in November 1827 with the remainder o f the composer's Nachlass. The several bundles are now bound together as a single volume, with a red leather cover that was provided by the library in this century; previously there was a blue cover similar to the ones that still enclose others o f Schindler's manuscripts (see Kalischer's description o f 1895), and the label from that earlier binding, inscribed by Schindler, has been attached to the new cover. Schindler also made frequent inscriptions in the sketchbooks themselves, including a general comment at the head o f each bundle. And it was he who at some point reinforced most o f Beethoven's pencilled sketches with his own darker pencil, presumably to make them more attractive to a prospective buyer (but in the process frequently obscuring their contents). All the leaves in Autograph 9 date from the same period ( 1 8 2 5 - 1 8 2 6 ) , all are in oblong pocket format (measuring about 17 X 24 cm), and all are the same paper (our type 45). This paper, differently ruled, was also used for the large-format KULLAK sketchbook, in which Beethoven was working at about the same time. T h e sheets that were cut up to make the pocket sketchbooks had been ruled in upright format with 12 staves, so that most o f the pocket leaves have 6 staves—occasionally 5'/2 or 6V2, depending on the level o f the horizontal cut. T h e general uniformity o f the leaves in Autograph 9 complicates the process o f distinguishing the various bundles. Since Schindler owned them before they were bound together, his treatment must obviously carry a certain authority. With one exception, the inscriptions he made on the first page o f each bundle are similar,
426
Autograph
9/5
427
noting both the contents ("Skizzen zu . . . " ) ' and position in the overall sequence ( " l t e s H e f t , " " 2 . H e f t , " etc.). Five bundles are numbered in this way, and Schindler supplied each with a separate foliation in red crayon. T h e one exceptional inscription occurs on folio 17r o f the first bundle, where he wrote out a heading that began like the others ("Skizzen zu dem B dur Quartett . . . " ) but included no number. Since there is also a slight change in the spacing o f Beethoven's original stitch-holes at this point, the suspicion has arisen that Schindler's bundle 1 is actually t w o bundles (folios 1 - 1 6 and 1 7 - 3 6 ) and that he meant to indicate as much with his inscription on folio 17r but for s o m e reason omitted the number. T h e division o f Autograph 9 into five bundles was adopted without comment by nineteenth-century scholars, but m o r e recently a division into six bundles has been used. In Hans Schmidt's " V e r zeichnis der Skizzen Beethovens," these are renumbered 1 to 6, which m a y cause confusion with the numbers found in the earlier literature. Hans-Giinter Klein has chosen simply to subdivide Schindler's first bundle into 1 and la, so as to retain the old numbers 2 to 5 for the others, and this is the practice that has been adopted here. T h e evidence for and against a subdivision o f bundle 1 will be discussed elsewhere. T h a t problem aside, it can be pointed out in advance that Schindler's arrangement o f the bundles in Autograph 9 does not represent the order in which they were used by Beethoven. B U N D L E 5 is the earliest o f the six sketchbooks. It was made up f r o m 13 bifolia, cut f r o m three and a quarter original sheets. In assembling the book, Beethoven arranged the bifolia individually in sequence rather than in gatherings o f t w o or m o r e (see the make-up chart below). When the book was given its present binding, all the bifolia were cut and the leaves mounted separately. Nevertheless, Beethoven's original three stitch-holes, in a spacing unique to this bundle, are still visible near the inner edge o f most o f the leaves. 2 Folios 5 - 1 2 and 1 7 - 2 4 each represent an unbroken sequence o f 4 bifolia from the same original sheet. Folios 1 - 4 and 1 3 - 1 6 also appear to have c o m e f r o m the same sheet, though for s o m e reason they were separated when the b o o k was made up. In addition to these three complete sheets, however, there is a single bifolium at the end o f the book (folios 25—26). Here w e m a y suspect that as many as 3 more bifolia may have been lost, completing the final sheet. Although this can no longer be demonstrated, a sketch on two staves at the b o t t o m o f folio 26v does appear to break off arbitrarily, and the end o f the b o o k is a likely place for leaves to have been removed.
N o t t e b o h m devoted an article to the pocket sketchbooks o f Autograph 9, and although he was careful to point out that they had been bound out o f chronological order, he did not provide descriptions o f the individual bundles. 3 B e y o n d a preliminary survey o f the general contents o f each book ( N II, 1 - 2 ) , he did not distinguish
1 Schindler's many other identifications in the margins o f the Autograph 9 leaves all begin less formally: " z u r Ouverture B A C H , " " A n f a n g zum 4. Satz des Cis-moll, jedoch verworfen," and so forth. 2 O n folio 1 the holes are 18, 77, and 140 m m from the top. 3 N o t t e b o h m did not distinguish between BUNDLES I and IA; the sixth book discussed in his article ( " S e c h s Skizzenhefte aus den Jahren 1825 u. 1826") is actually the first bundle o f Autograph 10.
428
THE POCKET SKETCHBOOKS
AUTOGRAPH 9 / 5
Sheet la
Folio
Quadrant
1 2 3 4
3yb 4yb 4xb 3xb
Ib
5 6 7 8 9 L 10 p 11 L 12
lya 2ya 2xa lxa 4ya 3ya 3xa 4xa
III
iL rL
II
iL p L p
Folio
Sheet
Quadrant
p 13 L
14
p 15 L 16 p
p L 20 p 21 + L 22+ p 23 + L 24
lxb 2xb 2yb lyb 4xb 3xb 3yb Vo
25 26
4xb 3xb
L
IV
+
lxb 2xb 2yb lyb
17 18 19
+ : +
All the paper is type 45.
a m o n g t h e m w h e n quoting specific sketches. B U N D L E 5 contains sketches for m o v e ments I I I — V of the Quartet in B|> major, O p u s 130, and for the Grosse Fuge, O p u s 133, the original finale. T h e sketches for the Alia danza tedesca (IV) are very brief, probably because that m o v e m e n t had been sketched earlier in connection w i t h the A - m i n o r quartet, O p u s 132 (see N I, 53, and Schindler 1860, II, 116). W o r k on the fugue, although extensive, is also preliminary, confined largely to possible counterpoints for the 8-note main subject. T h e sketches in BUNDLE 5 are roughly parallel to those on folios 30—37 of the large-format D E R O D A sketchbook. The latter cannot have been made m u c h before the beginning of August 1825; there is a sketch on folio 30r for the untexted canon W o O 35, which was written out for a visitor on 3 August. And A U T O G R A P H 9 / 5 must itself have been filled by mid-September, since the next pocket sketchbook ( A U T O G R A P H 9 / 2 ) was in use later that month. T h e distribution of sketches in
BUNDLE 5
is as follows:
String Quartet in B|, major, O p u s 130 third m o v e m e n t
fols. l r - 8 v , 12r—v
fourth m o v e m e n t
fols. 14r, 15r
fifth movement
fols. 14v-17r, 19v—21v, 22v, 25v
429
Autograph 9/5 Grosse Fuge, Opus 133 (as finale to Opus 130)
fols. 8 v - 2 6 v passim
For a line-by-line survey, see Hans-Günter Klein's catalogue o f the S P K collection.
LITERATURE G . Nottebohm, "Sechs Skizzenhefte aus den Jahren 1825 u. 1 8 2 6 , " MW 6 (1875), 4 2 5 - 3 0 ; reprinted with small changes in N II, 1 - 1 3 (most o f the examples on pp. 3 - 6 are from this bundle). Nohl III, 5 2 4 - 2 5 , 645, 930, 9 3 8 - 3 9 . Kalischer 1895, pp. 1 4 8 - 5 0 . Klein, pp. 2 1 - 2 2 , 4 0 - 4 5 .
A U T O G R A P H 9, B U N D L E 2
LOCATION: B e r l i n ,
SPK
35 leaves DATE: September and October 1825
PRESENT SIZE: EDITION:
none
T h e six pocket sketchbooks b o u n d together as Autograph 9 were sold to the Berlin Royal Library by A n t o n Schindler and received there in 1846. Their c o m m o n history and physical characteristics are summarized in the preceding discussion of BUNDLE 5 , the first of the six in actual use (see pp. 426-27). If BUNDLES I and I A are treated separately, as they are here, BUNDLE 2 becomes the third in the physical sequence of Autograph 9; it was the second to be used. It has 35 leaves, and the basic unit of construction is the single bifolium, the same as in the (chronologically) preceding BUNDLE 5. This is varied only once: folios 9 - 1 2 are a gathering of 2 bifolia. T h e r e is also one unpaired leaf, folio 17, but here we must assume that the conjunct leaf has been removed. In three places—folios 1—8, folios 1 7 - 2 3 (plus the missing leaf), and folios 2 8 - 3 5 — a series of 4 consecutive bifolia makes a complete sheet. Folios 13—16 and 24—27 must be f r o m different sheets, however, since their profiles do not match. Except for the gathered bifolia, which remain intact, all the bifolia in BUNDLE 2 were cut into 2 leaves when the book was rebound, but Beethoven's three original stitch-holes, in a spacing unique to this bundle, are still visible near the inner edge of most of the leaves. 1 This sketchbook is devoted largely to the Grosse Fuge, O p u s 133, conceived as the finale to the Quartet in B|> major, O p u s 130. There is one entry for the three o p e n ing measures of the fifth movement (the Cavatina) of the same Quartet on folio 29v. Beethoven also sketched t w o canons: " U n s ist ganz kannibalisch w o h l , " Hess 302 (left unfinished), on folio 4v, and "Si non per portas," W o O 194, on folio 17r. T h e latter was written out for Maurice Schlesinger on 26 September 1825, providing a date for the middle of the sketchbook. Both canons are quoted by N o t t e b o h m in his survey of Autograph 9 (N II, 11), as is one of a series of ideas for a "Veni creator spiritus" on the last t w o pages (folio 3 5 r - v ) . Lengthy drafts of O p u s 133 itself are
' O n folio 1 the holes are 10, 59, and 1 2 5 - 2 8 m m f r o m the top.
430
Autograph
912
431
rare, but the first clear pocket sketches for the sections in 6 / 8 meter (Allegro molto e con brio) appear at various points in the book. AUTOGRAPH 9 / 2 falls largely between the desk sketchbooks DE RODA and KULLAK, though there may be some overlap between the beginning o f the pocket book and folios 3 7 - 4 0 o f DE RODA. For a detailed list o f the contents o f AUTOGRAPH 9 / 2 , see Hans-Giinter Klein's catalogue o f the SPK collection. LITERATURE G. Nottebohm, "Sechs Skizzenhefte aus den Jahren 1825 u. 1826," MW 6 (1875), 425—30; reprinted with small changes in N II, 1 - 1 3 (four examples on pp. 6 and 11 are f r o m BUNDLE 2).
Nohl III, 5 2 4 - 2 5 , 645, 930, 9 3 8 - 3 9 , 944. Kalischer 1895, pp. 1 4 8 - 5 0 . Klein, pp. 2 1 - 2 2 , 2 8 - 3 2 , 4 4 - 4 5 . Bekker, page 128 o f plates, includes facsimiles o f folios lOv and l l r .
AUTOGRAPH 9 / 2
Sheet I
Quadrant
1 2 3 4 5
2xb lxb lyb 2yb 3xb 4xb 4yb 3yb
IV
4xa lxa 2xa 3xa
V
3xa 4xa 4ya 3ya
VI
6
,
1+ II
III
Sheet
Folio
+
9 10 11 12
,
+
13 14 15 16
Quadrant
A
4yb 3yb 3xb 4xb lyb 2yb 2xb lxb
17 18 19 R l
2 0
21
23
: : : R l
All the paper is type 45.
Folio
+
+
24 25 26 27
lxa 2xa 2ya lya
28 29 30 31 32 33
4xa 3xa 3ya 4ya 2xa lxa lya 2ya
3 4
35
A U T O G R A P H 9, B U N D L E I
LOCATION: B e r l i n ,
SPK
leaves DATE: October and N o v e m b e r 1825 EDITION: none (but see "Literature")
PRESENT SIZE: 1 6
T h e six pocket sketchbooks bound together as Autograph 9 were sold to the Berlin Royal Library by Anton Schindler and received there in 1846. Their c o m m o n history and physical characteristics are summarized in the discussion o f BUNDLE 5 , the first o f the six in actual use (see pp. 426-27). What is referred to here as BUNDLE I comprises the first 16 leaves o f Schindler's " l t e s H e f t , " which also included our BUNDLE 1 A. These two bundles are chronologically continuous and share the same paper-type (our type 45, the one used for all o f Autograph 9). T h e distinction between them is based on a slight change in the pattern o f Beethoven's stitch-holes between the last leaf o f our BUNDLE I and the first leaf o f BUNDLE I A (folios 16 and 17 in Schindler's continuous foliation).' As we have seen, there was apparently s o m e a m bivalence in Schindler's own treatment, for he provided the s a m e sort o f heading at the top o f the first page o f our BUNDLE I A that he made on the first pages o f the other bundles, without, however, assigning a number to it. Since the change in the stitchhole pattern here is in fact no greater than s o m e o f the changes that occur within other sketchbooks, w e cannot regard it as p r o o f that BUNDLES I and I A are separate books, in contradiction to Schindler's numbering (and the treatment o f later nineteenth-century scholars). For practical purposes the decision is not very i m p o r tant, since the general continuity o f their contents has been recognized. It should be observed, however, that a similar problem exists with respect to BUNDLE I A and the following sketchbook, B O N N B S K 2 2 . Taken together, these three bundles a m o u n t to 52 leaves—a significantly greater number than occurs elsewhere in pocket b o o k s
' O n folio 16 o f BUNDLE i the four holes are 9, 16, 66, and 127 m m from the top (this spacing varies earlier in the book). There are five holes on folio 1 of BUNDLE IA, and they are 10, 15, 27, 69, and 132 m m from the top.
432
Autograph
9/1
433
constructed in this manner. For the purposes of our discussion, we have chosen to present the three bundles separately. A U T O G R A P H 9 / 1 is the most regular of the group in structure and appears to have survived intact. It was made up from two complete sheets in four gatherings of 2 bifolia each. Although there are no direct connections between the gatherings, neither is there any reason to suppose that complete gatherings have been lost. In actual use, B U N D L E 1 followed BUNDLES 5 and 2 . Schindler probably placed it first in the series because of its distinctive content, which has subsequently attracted a disproportionate amount of attention in the secondary literature. The first few pages contain sketches that Schindler associated with a tenth symphony and an overture on BACH. He himself published a few of them in 1844, and they were later reproduced and discussed by A. B. Marx, Nottebohm, Riemann, and others. Most of the relevant pages were published in facsimile by Schiinemann in his anthology. The recent study of folios lv-5r by Barry Cooper (see "Literature") identifies a large number of sketches that may have been intended for the symphony. Three-fourths of this sketchbook, from folio 5v to the end, is devoted to the Grosse Fuge, Opus 133, the movement that claimed most of Beethoven's attention at the time. The fugue sketches are interrupted on folios l l r and 14r for late work on the fifth movement of Opus 130 (the Cavatina). The second half of the book corresponds roughly to the first few leaves in the K U L L A K sketchbook; the sketches in the first half have no direct counterparts either in K U L L A K or in the preceding D E R O D A sketchbook, and probably fall between those two books. Since folio 6 of K U L L A K contains sketches that were made before 14 November 1825, we may assign A U T O GRAPH 9 / 1 to October and early November of that year. For a line-by-line survey of the contents of BUNDLE I , see Hans-Giinter Klein's catalogue of the SPK collection.
LITERATURE
G. Nottebohm, "Sechs Skizzenhefte aus den Jahren 1825 u. 1826," MW 6 (1875), 425—30; reprinted with small changes in N II, 1 - 1 3 (five examples on pp. 11—13 are f r o m BUNDLE I ) . Nohl III, 564-67, 838, 930. Kalischer 1895, pp. 148-50. Klein, pp. 21-24, 44-45. Facsimiles f r o m
AUTOGRAPH 9 / 1
are found in the following anthologies:
Schiinemann, plates 80—85 (= folios lv—3v and 5v); Gerstenberg, plates 158-59 (= folios 2v and 3r); Bekker, pp. 119, 140 of plates (= folios 2v and 3r); Bory, p. 211 top (= folio lv). The evidence and arguments concerning sketches for a tenth symphony and an overture on B A C H are approached most easily through the following:
434
THE POCKET SKETCHBOOKS
T D R V, 332-36. Ludwig Misch, "Wo sind Beethovens Skizzen zur zehnten Symphonie?", in Neue Beethoven-Studien und andere Themen (Bonn, 1967), pp. 80-84. Winter/Symphony. Barry Cooper, "Newly Identified Sketches for Beethoven's Tenth Symphony," ML 66 (1985), 9 - 1 8 .
AUTOGRAPH 9 / 1
Sheet
Folio
I
Quadrant
L3 L- 4
3xa 2xa lxa 4xa
L 7 + >— 8
4ya lya 2ya 3ya
Both sheets are paper-type 45.
Sheet
II
Folio
r 109 + rL 11 L— 12 r~ 1314 L r 15 + + —
16
Quadrant
3xa 2xa lxa 4xa 4ya lya 2ya 3ya
A U T O G R A P H 9, B U N D L E I A
LOCATION: PRESENT SIZE: DATE: EDITION:
Berlin, SPK 20 leaves November 1825 to early 1826 none
T h e s e are the last 20 leaves (folios 17-36) of Schindler's "ltes Heft" in what became Autograph 9. The reasons for treating them as a separate book have been presented in the discussion of BUNDLE I on the preceding pages. In most earlier discussions, such as those of Nottebohm and Nohl, BUNDLES I and IA are treated as a single sketchbook. The internal sequence of BUNDLE I A appears to be intact. Folios 1 - 8 and 9—16 are two complete sheets, joined by a direct musical continuity, and folios 17-20 make another gathering, equal to half a sheet.1 If the bundle is incomplete, then, the problems concern the beginning and the end. At the beginning the relationship is the one just considered, between BUNDLE IA and the preceding BUNDLE I . We may turn our attention now to the end of the book, where the last gathering comprises only half of a complete sheet. Has the other half of this sheet, and perhaps more, been lost? Sieghard Brandenburg has provided a tentative answer to this question. Comparing watermark quadrants and the profiles created when the leaves were cut, he has identified the first gathering of the next pocket sketchbook, B O N N B S K 2 2 , as the other half of the incomplete sheet from AUTOGRAPH 9 / I A . Since B S K 2 2 can also be traced back to Schindler—he gave it to Moscheles in 1827—there is no problem in assuming that it was originally part of the Autograph 9 complex. Here again, h o w ever, as with the juncture of BUNDLES I and IA, the pattern of Beethoven's stitchholes changes slightly between the last gathering of BUNDLE IA and the first gathering of BSK 22. The change is small and involves only one of the four holes; 2 it is therefore probably not sufficient to demonstrate that the two books were made up 'We are adopting here the separate numbering of the leaves of BUNDLE IA f r o m 1 to 20, as in the Klein catalogue. 2 T h e lowest three holes are 15, 59, and 128 m m from the top one in the last gathering of BUNDLE IA, and 15, 64, and 128 m m in the first gathering of BSK 22. These measurements were confirmed by Sieghard Brandenburg.
435
436
THE POCKET SKETCHBOOKS
separately. But the fact that Schindler chose, before all the bundles o f Autograph 9 were bound up together, to divide them at this point has resulted in at least a de facto separation, leaving the problem o f their original relationship unsolved. For practical purposes, we shall have to treat AUTOGRAPH 9 / I A and B S K 2 2 as a continuous sequence, with no likely interruption (there is no direct connection from the last page o f one to the first page o f the other). It does seem unlikely that BUNDLE I A formed a single sketchbook with both B S K 2 2 and BUNDLE I, since that would have created a book o f at least 52 leaves—considerably larger than any other o f the pocket sketchbooks in oblong format. B U N D L E I A is devoted primarily to two works. The beginning o f the book, through folio 8, contains the last pocket sketches for the Grosse Fuge, Opus 133; most o f the remainder is filled with early ideas for the Quartet in CK minor, Opus 131, especially for movements I, II, and IV. The book as a whole is roughly contemporary with folios 8—17 o f the large-format K U L L A K sketchbook. Because o f the transition from one quartet to the next, the chronological continuity here is less certain than usual; a temporary break in the use o f both sketchbooks may have occurred as the autograph o f Opus 130/133 was written out. One point o f reference is provided by a few sketches for the canon "Freu' dich des Lebens," WoO 195, which appear in both books near the point o f transition—on folios 6r—7r o f A U T O G R A P H 9/1 A and folios lOv o f KULLAK. Beethoven wrote this piece at the request o f a visitor from Canada, and the autograph is dated 16 December 1825. Since W o O 85 and W o O 86, two dances sketched a few pages earlier in K U L L A K (folio 6v), were written out a month earlier, on 14 November, it appears that Beethoven was not working systematically in the sketchbooks during November and December (perhaps he was drafting Opus 133 in score at this stage).
T h e first sketches for Opus 131 barely overlap with the W o O 195 sketch in KULLAK. I f we assume that Beethoven had not turned ahead to sketch the canon—a risky assumption, since there is no analogous overlap in A U T O G R A P H 9 / I A — h e must have conceived the new quartet in mid-December. There are no reliable signposts by which to measure his subsequent progress, and the quartet was not ready until July 1826. The best estimate, then, is that he began to work in A U T O G R A P H 9 / 1 A sometime in November 1825 and continued into the first months o f 1826. T h e distribution o f sketches in the book is as follows: Grosse Fuge, Opus 133 (as finale to Opus 130)
fols. l r - 7 v , 12r, 14r
String Quartet in Ctt minor, Opus 131 first movement
fols. 8 v - 1 3 v
second movement
fols. lOv, 15v—20v
third movement
fol. 17r?
fourth movement
fols. 14v, 17r—18r
seventh movement
fol. l l r ?
Canon, "Freu' dich des Lebens," WoO 195
fols. 6r—7r
For a line-by-line survey, see Hans-Günter Klein's catalogue o f the S P K collection.
Autograph
437
9/la
LITERATURE
Schindler 1860, Zweiter Theil, pp. 117, 3 5 3 - 5 7 ; reprinted as pp. 309, 4 9 4 - 9 7 o f Schindler-MacArdle (the first example on p. 495 is from A U T O G R A P H 9 / IA, folio llr). G. Nottebohm, "Sechs Skizzenhefte aus den Jahren 1825 u. 1826," MW 6 (1875), 4 2 5 - 3 0 ; reprinted with small changes in N II, 1 - 1 3 (seven examples on pp. 7, 8, 9, and 13 are from BUNDLE I A ) . Nohl III, 5 2 4 - 2 5 , 9 3 8 - 3 9 . Kalischer 1895, pp. 148-50. Klein, pp. 2 1 - 2 2 , 2 5 - 2 7 , 4 4 - 4 5 . Winter/diss, esp. pp. 6 3 - 6 6 .
AUTOGRAPH 9 / 1 A
Folio 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Quadrant
+ +
+ +
lxa 4xa 3xa 2xa 2ya 3ya 4ya lya
9 10 11 12
3xb 2xb lxb 4xb
13 14 15 16
4yb lyb 2yb 3yb
17 18 19 20
+
2xb 3xb 4xb lxb
All the paper is type 45. The 20 leaves are numbered 1 7 - 3 6 in Schindler's continuous foliation of bundle 1 as a whole.
B O N N B S K 2 2 AND M H 96
LOCATION:
Bonn, B H ( = S B H 683 and 703) leaves February and March 1826? none
PRESENT SIZE: 1 6 DATE: EDITION:
T h i s pocket sketchbook originally belonged to the group that is now Autograph 9 in Berlin. Schindler gave the book to Ignaz Moscheles in September 1827, and it remained unknown to the principal nineteenth-century scholars. Moscheles presented one leaf from it to a Professor Ernst Hahnel in 1845, on the occasion of the unveiling of the Beethoven monument in Bonn. This leaf and the sketchbook itself both found their way into the collection of H. C. Bodm^r and subsequently to the Beethovenhaus, where they are stored and catalogued separately as BSk 22 and Mh 96. A list of intermediate owners of the book included E. Grisar of Antwerp and Joseph Joachim (see entries 683 and 703 in Hans Schmidt's catalogue of the Beethovenhaus collection). The green cardboard cover that now encloses the book was probably provided by Moscheles. B O N N B S K 2 2 matches the other bundles of Autograph 9 in paper and format, and it fits into chronological sequence with them, following BUNDLE I A . As in those bundles, the sketches that Beethoven made in pencil were reinforced by Schindler. In its present state, BSK 22 appears to have been made up in a much less regular way than the preceding pocket sketchbooks of Autograph 9. The gathering units include 2 single leaves, 3 unpaired bifolia, and two gatherings of 2 bifolia each. Mh 96, the leaf that Moscheles removed and gave away, is needed to complete one of the latter two gatherings; its original location is indicated by both its watermark fragment and the profile along its cut lower edge. Here is the structure of the book as it has come down to us:
438
Bonn BSk 22 and Mh 96
439
Pages
Quadrant
Pages
Quadrant
1/2 3/4 5/6 7/8
lyb 4yb 3yb 2yb
:
17/18 M h 96 19/20 21/22
4xb lxb 2xb 3xb
9/10 11/12
4ya 3ya
r- 23/24 L 25/26
[- 13/14 L 15/16
2xa lxa
: rL
27/28 + 29/30
4xa 3xa 3yb lyb
Such a variety of gathering units is suspicious, although not w i t h o u t precedent, and we may bejustified in wondering if the manuscript suffered some rearrangement w h e n the original stitching was removed. Sieghard Brandenburg has suggested that the book was assembled by Beethoven in another, more regular manner, in which the unit of construction was 2 gathered bifolia t h r o u g h o u t and all the leaves derived f r o m three sheets. Brandenburg's reconstruction, which we have accepted, is s h o w n at the end of the discussion. T h e evidence for it comes f r o m the physical characteristics of the leaves and f r o m their musical contents. T w o points need to be explained: the reconstruction of a gathering f r o m 2 separate bifolia, pages 1 3 - 1 6 and 2 3 - 2 6 , and the placement of that gathering in the b o o k . It is easy to show that pages 1 3 - 1 6 and 2 3 - 2 6 come f r o m the same original sheet, f o r the profiles match along the edges where they were cut apart. This is especially clear o n the adjacent leaves 13/14 (2xa) and 25/26 (3xa). Moreover, close examination of the lower profile of leaf 25/26 and the vertical fold of the bifolium 23—26 indicates that this was the inner bifolium of the gathering and that the 2 leaves were originally folded the other way around, with 25/26 preceding 23/24. (These observations are confirmed b y the analogous inner position of the bifolium 9 - 1 2 in the next gathering, as we shall see.) It appears that the rearrangement of the bifolia 1 3 - 1 6 and 2 3 - 2 6 occurred sometime after Moscheles received the sketchbook f r o m Schindler. In addition to Beethoven's four original stitch-holes, which are found t h r o u g h o u t the b o o k , the leaves closer to the beginning have extra holes that were made w h e n the cover was attached. These additional holes are found on pages 1 3 - 1 6 and, in the same pattern, o n pages 2 3 - 2 6 , but they are missing on the n o w intervening pages 1 7 - 2 2 and the following pages 2 7 - 3 0 . T h e other gathering f r o m this sheet is represented by only a single bifolium, pages 9 - 1 2 , and here we must assume that the bifolium originally paired w i t h it has been lost. A notational connection between pages 10 and 11 is evidence that these were the center pages of a gathering, so the lost bifolium must have enclosed this one. If we assume that Beethoven folded and cut the entire sheet in the m o s t logical way, the inner bifolium of both resulting gatherings should contain the same q u a d rants, which is the case here (pages 2 3 - 2 6 and 9 - 1 2 = quadrants 3 x - 4 x and 4 y - 3 y ) . T h e placement of pages 9—12 after the reconstructed gathering has to b e j u s t i f i e d on
440
THE POCKET SKETCHBOOKS
Reconstruction of BSK 22 by Sieghard Brandenburg Sheet
Pages
Quadrant
I
1/2 3/4 5/6 7/8
lyb 4yb 3yb 2yb
II
[
13/14 25/26 23/24 15/16
2xa 3xa 4xa lxa
C
A 9/10 11/12 B
+
Sheet
III
Quadrant
Pages
4xb lxb 2xb 3xb
1— 17/18 I- Mh 96 L 19/20 1— 21/22 1— 27/28,
r- C L
- 29/30 — D
}
3yb (2yb) lyb (4yb)
(lya) 4ya 3ya (2ya)
All the paper is type 45.
internal grounds. A plan for the fourth movement of Opus 131, with indications for five variations, begins on page 8 and extends over page 13 to page 14. There is no plausible continuity between the present pages 8 and 9, on the other hand. In fact, the continuity is also broken from page 16 to page 9, which follow one another in our reconstruction; since the sketches on page 9 do look as though they continued an idea begun on another page, this seems to support the conclusion that a leaf has been lost between them. The replacement of pages 23 - 26 to their presumed original position within pages 13—16 explains one further anomaly, an apparent notational connection between pages 22 and 27. These can now be seen to have been adjacent pages originally. The final gathering itself has lost 2 single leaves. At least the first of them, indicated as leaf C in the reconstruction, must have been removed by Beethoven himself at the time when the sketchbook was still in use, for there is a direct musical continuity f r o m the preceding to the following page (the present pages 28 and 29). O n e problem remains, and that is the first sheet, represented here by only 2 bifolia. The other 2 bifolia from this sheet have been identified by Brandenburg as the last gathering of the immediately preceding sketchbook, A U T O G R A P H 9 / 1 A. A S we have already observed, the stitch-hole pattern in that book is very similar to the one found in BSK 22, differing in the position of only one of the four holes. Since Schindler chose to make a division at this point when he presented BSK 22 to Moscheles, it is no longer possible to say with certainty whether the two books are really halves of the same original book. In any case, the complementary relationship between the last gathering of A U T O G R A P H 9 / I A and the first gathering of B S K 2 2 is strong evidence that nothing has been lost between them.
Bonn BSk 22 and Mh 96
441
Most o f the sketches in BSK 22 are for the second and fourth movements o f Opus 131, with a few entries for the first movement at the beginning o f the book and one entry for the third movement on page 24. These sketches are roughly contemporary with folios 18—24 in the K U L L A K sketchbook. Beethoven did not complete the quartet until about July 1826, and there are few reliable hints concerning his progress in the preceding months, beginning with its probable conception in December 1825. It seems safest to assign the present sketchbook loosely to the late winter months, perhaps February and March 1826. One potentially more precise clue to the date o f the book is an inscription on page 21, "Fein doppelt raffinirtes Brennohl 1 Pfund 28 x W. W. Obere Backerstrasse N ° 755," which Beethoven must have copied from a (not yet identified) newspaper advertisement. The distribution o f sketches in BSK 22 is as follows: String Quartet in CK minor, Opus 131 first movement
pp. 1, 2, 5, 9(?)
second movement
pp. 1 - 3 , 5, 15, 2 3 - 2 6
third movement
p. 24
fourth movement
pp. 1, 4, 6 - 8 , 1 0 - 1 4 , 1 6 - 2 2 , M h 96, 2 7 - 3 0
LITERATURE 39. Autographen-Versteigerung vom 17. und 18. November 1911, Leo Liepmannssohn, Berlin, pp. 1 8 - 2 0 , item 7; this auction included items from Moscheles' collection. Winter/diss, esp. pp. 6 7 - 7 2 .
A U T O G R A P H 9, B U N D L E 3
LOCATION: PRESENT SIZE: DATE: EDITION:
Berlin, SPK 28 leaves spring 1826 none
T h e six pocket sketchbooks bound together as Autograph 9 were sold to the Berlin Royal Library by Anton Schindler and received there in 1846. Their common history and physical characteristics are summarized in the discussion of B U N D L E 5 , the first of the six in actual use (see pp. 426-27). B U N D L E 3 now has 28 leaves, and the evidence suggests that it originally had at least 2 more. Except for folios 23—26, where 2 bifolia are gathered, the unit of construction is the single bifolium. Folios 1 - 8 and 12-19 make complete sheets; elsewhere, however, the sequence of bifolia is less regular. Although in a few places the possibilities for rearranging the leaves are limited by musical continuities between bifolia, anyone using this book should approach its present structure warily (see the preceding pocket sketchbook for a suggestion that the internal order might have become scrambled after Beethoven's stitching was removed). In the make-up chart below, missing leaves have been postulated to complete bifolia with the single folios 11 and 22. The presence of parallel sketches on folios 22v and 23v suggests that the conjunct leaf of folio 22 might have come between folios 19 and 20, making a second gathering. In the earlier case, however, continuity f r o m the existing folio 8v to 9r seems to limit the missing leaf to the expected position after folio 11. Three stitch-holes, in a spacing unique to this bundle, are found near the inner edges of all the leaves.1 A U T O G R A P H 9 / 3 is devoted largely to the fourth movement of the Quartet in C # minor, Opus 131, including sketches for every variation found in the final version and a few unused ones as well. Interspersed are ideas for the fifth movement (fo' O n folio 1 the holes are 23, 70, and 139 m m f r o m the top.
442
Autograph
443
913
AUTOGRAPH 9 / 3 Sheet
I
Quadrant
Folio
Lr 21 r 34 rL 56
T1
L
:? II
r L
9 10
1L
+ +?
+
r H l- A III
r
12
r r
14
r
18
L
L
L
L
13
1
15 16 + 17
+
19
lxb 2xb 2yb lyb 4xb 3xb 3yb 4yb 3xa 4xa 4ya (3ya)
Sheet
IV
[
Folio
Quadrant
20
2xa lxa 4xa (3xa)
21 r 22 L- B
V
VI
[
23 24 25 26 27 28
+ + + +
4ya lya 2ya 3ya 2xa lxa
3xb 4xb 4yb 3yb 2xb lxb lyb 2yb
All the paper is type 45.
lios 16v-17r) and for another movement which was contemplated alternately as a scherzo and a finale (folios l v - 3 r , 17v, and 27v). The book as a whole is contemporary with folios 2 5 - 3 2 of the large-format KULLAK sketchbook. Beethoven appears to have conceived the Ctt minor quartet in December 1825 (see AUTOGRAPH 9/1 A) and to have worked on it until July 1826. Within this period the sketches are hard to date with any precision. A note in the margin of the first page of BUNDLE 3—"wenn ich sie nicht zu Tische lade"—was related by Nohl (III, 939) to a letter that Beethoven wrote to Karl Holz on 26 April (Anderson 1482; T D R V, 305) and to an entry in a conversation book from about the same time (Nohl III, 628). Whether or not these associations are justified, a date of April or May seems about right for AUTOGRAPH 9 / 3 .
For a line-by-line survey of the contents of this sketchbook, see Hans-Giinter Klein's catalogue o f the SPK collection.
444
THE POCKET SKETCHBOOKS LITERATURE
Schindler 1860, Zweiter Theil, pp. 117, 353-57; reprinted as pp. 309, 4 9 4 - 9 7 of Schindler-MacArdle (examples 2 and 3 on pp. 495-96 are from A U T O G R A P H 9 / 3 , folios 17v and 27v). G. Nottebohm, "Sechs Skizzenhefte aus den Jahren 1825 u. 1826," MW 6 (1875), 425—30; reprinted with small changes in N II, 1 - 1 3 (three examples on pp. 8 and 9 are from A U T O G R A P H 9/3). Nohl III, 938-39, 945 (Nohl's numbering of the bundles differs fsom the one used here). Kalischer 1895, pp. 148-50. Klein, pp. 21-22, 32-37, 44-45. Winter/diss, esp. pp. 72-74.
A U T O G R A P H 9, B U N D L E 4
LOCATION: PRESENT SIZE: DATE: EDITION:
Berlin, SPK 21 leaves late spring 1826 none
T h e six pocket sketchbooks bound together as Autograph 9 were sold to the Berlin Royal Library by Anton Schindler and received there in 1846. Their common history and physical characteristics are considered in the discussion of B U N D L E 5, the first of the six in actual use (see pp. 426-27). B U N D L E 4 was the last to be used. It consists today of 21 leaves, of which the first 17 are single and the last 4 a gathering of 2 bifolia. Since folios 2 - 9 and 10-17 are from two complete sheets, we might normally suspect that the bifolia from these sheets were cut up when the book was newly bound. This does not seem to be the case, however. The present order of the watermark quadrants cannot be interpreted according to a sequence of bifolia, either singly or gathered, and this order is confirmed at several points by sketch continuities from one leaf to the next. Moreover, 6 of the leaves were stitched into the book backwards—apparently by Beethoven himself, since their relationship to surrounding leaves, and to each other, is confirmed by their sketch contents (see folios 1—5). Here the original stitch-holes would be conclusive, but the leaves have been trimmed in such a way that traces of the holes remain on only 4 of them (folios 12 and 19—21).' The first leaf in the book is structurally unrelated to the others; some loss is therefore likely, but its extent cannot be estimated with any certainty. There is no obvious break in the continuity of sketches from the end of the preceding book ( B U N D L E 3 ) to the beginning of this one. B U N D L E 4 is devoted exclusively to the Quartet in C(t minor, Opus 131. Concentrated work on the fourth movement fills about three-fourths of the book, through folio 15r. On the last 10 pages Beethoven shifted his attention to the fifth movement and the finale. There are also a few sketches at various points for the first two raove-
1
O n folio 12 there are holes 25, 79, and 123 m m from the top.
445
446
THE POCKET SKETCHBOOKS
AUTOGRAPH 9 / 4
Sheet
Folio
I
1
II
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
III
IV
r
~
L r
1
Quadrant
+ + + +
1 1
+ + 1 1
19 8
20 I— 21
1
lyb 2yb 3yb 3xb 2xb 4xb lxb lyb 4yb 2xb 3xb 3yb 2yb lxb 4xb lyb 4yb lxa 4xa 3xa 2xa
All the paper is type 45. Folios 2, 3, 4, 5, 14, and 15 were stitched into the sketchbook backwards.
ments and for the scherzo that Beethoven worked on briefly in BUNDLE 3 and ultimately discarded. B U N D L E 4 as a whole is roughly contemporary with folios 33—39 of the K U L L A K sketchbook, which cannot be dated precisely. The Ctt-minor quartet occupied Beethoven from about December 1825 to July 1826. We may assign B U N D L E 4 tentatively to the late spring of 1826, closely following BUNDLE 3 . The sketches are distributed as follows: String Quartet in C(t minor, Opus 131 fourth movement fifth movement
fols. lr—15r, 20v? fols. 15r, 16v, 18r, 19v
Autograph
9/4
sixth and seventh movements first movement second movement rejected scherzo
447 fols. 15r—16r, 18r-21v fol. 17v fol. 19r? fols. 4r, 5v
For a line-by-line survey of the sketchbook, see Hans-Günter Klein's catalogue of the SPK collection.
LITERATURE
Schindler 1860, Zweiter Theil, pp. 117, 353-57; reprinted as pp. 309, 4 9 4 - 9 7 of Schindler-MacArdle (examples 4 - 6 on p. 496 are from A U T O G R A P H 9 / 4 , folios 4r, 15r, and 18r). G. Nottebohm, "Sechs Skizzenhefte aus den Jahren 1825 u. 1826," MW 6 (1875), 425—30; reprinted in N II, 1 - 1 3 (three examples on pp. 8 and 10 are from A U T O GRAPH 9 / 4 ) .
Nohl III, 938—39, 945 (Nohl's numbering of the bundles differs from the one used here). Kalischer 1895, pp. 148-50. Klein, pp. 21-22, 37-40, 44-45. Winter/diss, esp. pp. 7 4 - 7 8 ; includes facsimiles of A U T O G R A P H 9 / 4 , folios 20r and 21r.
A U T O G R A P H IO, B U N D L E I
Berlin, SPK 16 leaves DATE: early summer 1826 EDITION: none
LOCATION:
PRESENT SIZE:
T h e two pocket sketchbooks that share the call number Autograph 10 were sold to the Berlin Royal Library by Anton Schindler and received there in 1846. They were bound together while still in Schindler's possession. Both are in upright format, measuring about 25 X 16 cm. B U N D L E I was the first to be used and appears to have survived intact. It includes 16 leaves from two complete sheets of "Welhartiz" paper (our type 34), ruled in 14 staves with a TS of 192+ to 193— mm; more of the same paper is found in the score sketches for Opus 131, which Beethoven would have been making at the time this book was assembled. The two sheets are gathered separately, not the usual method in books of this type. Beethoven's three stitch-holes are found about 1—3 mm from the fold on all the leaves, about 18, 110, and 212 mm from the top of each page (construction in a single gathering, the usual method for books in upright format, simplified the stitching, which could be done directly on the fold). AUTOGRAPH I O / I was used solely for the Quartet in Ctt minor, Opus 131. It includes only a few sketches for the variations, which had dominated the two preceding pocket books; that movement was presumably near completion. Most of the sketches are for the last three movements, and these are roughly contemporary with folios 4 0 — 4 5 of the KULLAK sketchbook, which cannot be dated very precisely. Although Beethoven announced the completion of the quartet as early as 20 May, in a letter to Schott (Anderson 1 4 8 5 ) , it was not ready for delivery until two months later. In view of the composer's frequent exaggerations about the progress of his work when dealing with publishers, we must suspect that a good deal remained to be done at the time of the May letter. It will be safest, therefore, to assign A U T O GRAPH IO/ I loosely to the early summer of 1 8 2 6 , directly following AUTOGRAPH 9 / 4 . The contents of the sketchbook are distributed as follows: 448
Autograph
449
ÎO/1
String Quartet in Ctt minor, Opus 131 fourth movement
fols, lv, 8r, 14v
fifth movement
fols, lr—13v passim
sixth movement
fols. 6 v - 8 r , 13v, 15r
seventh movement
fols. 8v—9r, 13r—16r
For a line-by-line survey, see Hans-Günter Klein's catalogue o f the SPK collection.
LITERATURE Schindler 1860, Zweiter Theil, pp. 117, 3 5 3 - 5 7 ; reprinted as pp. 309, 4 9 4 - 9 7 o f Schindler-MacArdle (example 7 on p. 497 is from AUTOGRAPH I O / I , folio 14r). G. Nottebohm, "Sechs Skizzenhefte aus den Jahren 1825 u. 1826," MW 6 (1875), 4 2 5 - 3 0 ; reprinted with small changes in N II, 1 - 1 3 . AUTOGRAPH I O / I is the last o f the six "Skizzenhefte" described in this article (the last example on N II, p. 10, is from AUTOGRAPH I O / I , folio 14r). Kalischer 1895, p. 153. Klein, pp. 4 5 - 4 9 . Winter/diss, esp. pp. 7 8 - 8 1 .
AUTOGRAPH I O / I
Folio
Quadrant 4xb 3xb 2xb lxb lyb 2yb 3yb 4yb
Sheet II
Both sheets are paper-type 34. Beethoven bound the leaves o f the second sheet upside down.
r-
Folio
Quadrant
9 10
lya 2ya
H 12 13 14 15 16
+
+
3ya 4ya 4xa 3xa 2xa lxa
ARTARIA 205, B U N D L E 3
Berlin, D S B 18 leaves DATE: summer 1826 EDITION: none
LOCATION:
PRESENT SIZE:
T h e several bundles of pocket sketches grouped together as Artaria 205 came to the Berlin Royal Library with the rest of the Artaria collection in 1901. In their present state these bundles cannot be matched with any of the entries in the GrafFer-Fischhof catalogue of 1844. The one pocket sketchbook in that list whose contents seem related to those of the present b o o k — Taschen Notirungsbuch D, with GrafFer's note "aus Cis mol Quartett u. a. unbekannte Gedanken"—is described as having 13 leaves, 5 fewer than Artaria 205/3." It was probably Nottebohm, in the late 1860s, who sorted out the pocket bundles as part of his reclassification of all the Artaria sketches. The bundles of Artaria 205 were provided with red cardboard covers and bound individually in the 1960s. BUNDLE 3 was the last of them in actual use. It has 18 leaves in upright format, measuring about 24 X 16 cm. In both watermark and rastrology, the paper (our type 34) is the same as that used for the preceding pocket sketchbook. There is only one gathering, and Beethoven made it up in an unusual way: the 2 standard-format bifolia from each original sheet were separate, not gathered, when he folded them into pocket bifolia. As a result, each structural unit of the book is a pair of pocket bifolia from one standard bifolium, rather than the 4 pocket bifolia from a full sheet. We cannot even be sure that the pocket bifolia that appear to be from the same sheet really are (cf. units I/V and II/III in the make-up chart below); the cut profiles along the upper edges are not distinctive enough to confirm the probable relationships. And for unit 4 (pages 13-16 and 25-28), Beethoven must have folded 2 loose standard-format leaves together, since quadrants 3 and 4 would not have been a bifolium. The possibility might be suggested that 2 other bifolia have
'SeeJohnson/Artaria, pp. 196-98, 214-16.
450
Artaria
451
205/3
ARTARIA 2 0 5 / 3
Structural
unit
+ 11
III IV V
Quadrant
Quadrant
Page
1 3
lxa 4xa
(lya) 4ya
B 35
5 7
2xb 3xb
2yb 3yb
33 31
9 11
lxb 4xb
lyb (4yb)
29 A
13 15
3xb 4xb
3yb 4yb
27 25
17 19
2xa 3xa
2ya 3ya
23 21
Page
1
+ +
:
+
+
All the paper is type 34.
been lost between units 3 and 4—bifolia that would fill out a complete sheet with those of unit 4—but there is little reason to suspect a loss at this point. Single leaves were removed from the book after pages 28 and 36, the first leaving a stub that is still visible. Neither leaf has been found. Beethoven's original stitch-holes occur throughout the book, in three consistently spaced pairs, about 35, 112, and 197 m m f r o m the top of each leaf and 2 - 5 m m from the central fold. This sketchbook seems to have been largely ignored in discussions of the late quartets by Nottebohm, Nohl, and others. It contains the last pocket sketches for the Quartet in Cjt minor, Opus 131, and the first for the Quartet in F major, Opus 135. The finale of Opus 131 occupies most of the first 6 leaves, and there are entries scattered throughout the book for other movements, probably made during the writing-out of the autograph (see especially pages 18—22, devoted to the variations). Beethoven also planned until the last moment (pages 22-25) to end the finale with a D|>-major postlude, the theme of which he salvaged almost immediately thereafter for the slow movement of Opus 135. The second half of the book contains a variety of ideas for the first three movements of Opus 135, which Beethoven worked at more or less simultaneously. As a whole, A R T A R I A 2 0 5 / 3 IS roughly contemporary with folios 4 6 - 5 3 in the K U L L A K sketchbook. Opus 131 was delivered to a representative of the publisher Schott on about 12 August 1826 (Anderson 1498). Beethoven's claim that it was ready for delivery a month earlier, on 12 July, is contradicted by his plea on 29 July for a few more days to "check it again most carefully" (Anderson 1491 and 1494). It seems safe to assume that the work was copied in July; quite possibly the earlier movements were in a copyist's hands while the later ones were still being worked out in autograph. The
452
THE POCKET SKETCHBOOKS
fact that a few ideas for Opus 135 overlap with the last sketches for Opus 131 indicates that Beethoven was thinking ahead to the new quartet before he had polished its predecessor; at any rate, there cannot have been a long interruption between the two. We may assign the first half of A R T A R I A 2 0 5 / 3 to late June or July, then, and allow that the second half may have continued into August. The contents of the book are distributed as follows: String Quartet in CD minor, Opus 131 fourth movement fifth movement sixth movement seventh movement
pp. pp. pp. pp.
String Quartet in F major, Opus 135 first movement second movement third movement
pp. 19, 29-30 pp. 16, 28, 30-34 pp. 29, 32, 35 (see also pp. 22-25)
18-22 10, 15 3, 8, 9 1-12 passim, 22—25
LITERATURE
G. Nottebohm, "Arbeiten zum Quartett in Cis-moll," AMZ 5 (1870), 26-28; reprinted in N I, 54-59 (the first example on p. 55 is from A R T A R I A 2 0 5 / 3 , page 14). Johnson/Artaria, pp. 196-98, 214-16. Winter/diss, esp. pp. 81-85.
PARIS M S 6 2 A N D M S 6 6
LOCATION: PRESENT SIZE: DATE: EDITION:
Paris, B N 29 ( + 2) leaves fall 1826 none
M s 62 and M s 66 in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, together make up a collection of pocket bifolia in upright format, most of which were used by Beethoven in the fall o f 1826. The bifolia are now loose and subdivided into individual units which can be referred to as M s 62/1, M s 62/2, and so forth. 1 One bifolium (Ms 66/6) is the same paper as that used for the two preceding pocket sketchbooks, A R T A R I A 2 0 5 / 3 and A U T O G R A P H 1 0 / I , and stands apart from the rest of this collection. Since it contains sketches for the last three movements of Opus 135, one might normally suppose that it had been removed from A R T A R I A 2 0 5 / 3 , but its three stitch-holes do not match the ones in that book (nor those of the book to be described presently). This bifolium must therefore be a fragment of a gathering of unknown size that directly followed A R T A R I A 2 0 5 / 3 . Fourteen other pocket bifolia in this collection, and one pocket leaf, are a different paper, the one used by Beethoven to write out the parts to O p u s 135 (our type 54; the pocket leaves measure about 25 X 16 cm). It was ruled with 8 staves which have a T S o f 179+ to 180— m m . These 14V2 bifolia share a common pattern o f stitchholes in three consistently placed clusters, indicating that they must at one time have been part of the same sewn bundle. Close examination of the watermark sequence and the musical contents suggests a possible reconstruction, presented below. Three sheets are completely represented, and the internal order of their leaves can be determined with a fair degree of certainty. Two other sheets are represented by one and two bifolia respectively; while these may actually be complementary (i.e., all from a single sheet), the sketch contents suggest different locations in the bundle. 2
' M s 66 also includes three standard-format leaves used for score sketches ( M s 66/1 and M s 66/13). T h e profiles o f these bifolia appear not to match.
2
453
454
THE POCKET SKETCHBOOKS
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