Ludwig van Beethoven, Skizzenblatt zum Streichquartett op. 132, Autograph
Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Sammlung H. C. Bodmer, HCB Mh 100
© Beethoven-Haus Bonn
digitalarchive@beethoven.de
digitalarchive@beethoven.de
Nice to know
The second is the third
The leaf with sketches for the String Quartet op. 132 was not from a larger collection such as a sketchbook or a miscellany but was always a single leaf. Op. 132 is one of the three so-called Galitzin String Quartets, which also include op. 127 and op. 130. Beethoven was commissioned to write them by Prince Nikolaus Galitzin. Although op. 132 is the third quartet as far as the opus number is concerned, it was composed after op. 127, as the second one in the sequence. This is probably what Beethove's heading "quar. 2" is referring to above the first staff. (J.R.)