Ludwig van Beethoven, Skizzenblatt zu nicht ausgeführten Werken, Autograph

Concerto or vocal work?

The handwriting, but in particular the paper, show this sketch leaf to be a very early one. Beethoven used it between 1790 and 1792, during his last years in Bonn. Most of the front page is covered with the cello part for an unknown work in G major. In the British Library in London there is a miscellany with sketch leaves and autograph manuscripts by the young composer, the so-called Kafka Sketchbook (call number Add. Ms 29801). Leaf 124 in this miscellany is probably from the same sheet of paper as the sketch leaf shown here. This leaf also contains a single part from an unknown orchestral work in G major, in this case that of the first oboe. Both are part of the same work. Douglas Porter Johnson (Beethoven's Early Sketches in the 'Fischhof Miscellany' Berlin Autograph 28, Ann Arbor 1980) offers two possible explanations. They are either both from the final part of a concerto, because they both begin at a pause, as is usual in concertos after the cadenza. Johnson suggests the concerto or concertante might be a "Romance cantabile" (Hess 13) for piano, flute and bassoon with the accompaniment of two oboes and strings. Beethoven also wrote down the score of this movement, which according to Johnson could be the middle movement, in the Kafka Sketchbook on leaves 74v-80v. On the other hand the parts could also be discarded obligato instrumental parts from a vocal work. (J.R.)