Ludwig van Beethoven, Skizzenblatt zur Sinfonie Nr. 8 op. 93 und zu einer nicht ausgeführten Sinfonie, Autograph

Wrongly attributed

The so-called Petter Sketchbook HCB Mh 59 belongs to the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn. Beethoven mainly worked on his Seventh and Eighth Symphonies in this sketchbook, and today it still has 74 of its originally at least 96 leaves. The remaining leaves were removed at some time and either sold or given away to collectors. The Beethoven-Haus also owns some of these single leaves. On the reverse of the sketch leaf shown here there are drafts for the last movement of the Eighth Symphony op. 93. The paper and the 16-line staff ruling are the same as those in the Petter Sketchbook. For this reason it was believed for a long time that it was one of the leaves that had been removed. However, several important arguments refute this theory: unlike the other single leaves this one does not have the stitch holes which frequently help us to ascertain from where a sketch leaf originally came. This leaf does not only not have the right kind of stitch holes - it does not have any at all. The dedication leaf by a previous owner (not shown here) with the sketch leaf also speaks against its belonging to the sketchbook: "Beethovens großem Verehrer Herrn Regierungsrat Schmidt in Weimar empfiehlt sich Georg Poelchau in Berlin 30. V. 33" ("To Beethoven's great admirer Herr Regierungsrat Schmidt in Weimar from Georg Poelchau in Berlin 30. V. 33") According to this Poelchau, who owned the leaf, passed it on as early as May 1833. This means that the leaf would have been removed from the sketchbook in 1833, if not even earlier. Yet this does not tie in with the provenance of the sketchbook. So only one conclusion remains for HCB Mh 86: although it cannot be completely discounted that the leaf once belonged to Petter, certain weighty arguments refute this theory. (J.R.)