Ludwig van Beethoven, Fuge für zwei Violinen, Viola und Violoncello (B-Dur) in Übertragung für Klavier zu vier Händen op. 134, Partitur, Autograph, Fragment

Beethoven as the arranger of his own string quartet

The fragment shown here contains the last 17 bars of the fugue from the String Quartet in B major op. 133 in the arrangement for Piano Four Hands op. 134 by Beethoven. The idea to arrange the fugue of the string quartet for piano can be traced to the Viennese publisher Mathias Artaria. The String Quartet in B major was premiered on 21 March 1826. In the conversation book no. 108 from April 1826 there was a conversation on this topic, when Beethoven visited Artaria's premises. Artaria asks, "There has been a great deal of demand for a pianoforte arrangement for four hands of the fugue. Would you allow me to publish it?" Beethoven answered orally with a question regarding the modalities of an edition, as can be seen from Artaria's next entry, "Score in parts. The 4-handed fugue arranged by yourself to be published once." Although Beethoven liked the idea of an arrangement, he initially refused to do it himself. Thus the composer and pianist Anton Halm, whom Beethoven had known since around 1815, was commissioned to do the arrangement for piano four hands. Halm visited Beethoven on 16 April 1826 and had a longer conversation with him about the arrangement, sending the composer the result on 24 April. However, Beethoven was decidedly unhappy and after a longer delay decided to produce his own version in August. Artaria published it as score and parts in May 1827.

After it had been missing for more than 100 years, the whole autograph of the fugue was found again in 2005. As Mh 25 does not contain any punctures from stapling, we can assume that it is not a first transcript that Beethoven removed from the whole score. The notes on our sheet do not differ in content from the autograph. It is not known why Beethoven wrote down the last bars separately once again. At the bottom of the reverse there are three handwritten points, with which Beethoven made a couple of amusing notes for Artaria, "1-tens Penale bestehend aus 2 Clementi Klav[i]erschulen u. 3 auserlesenen Abdrücken des Portrait von L. v. Beethoven." (Firstly a penalty consisting of 2 of Clementi's piano schools and three choice prints of a portrait of L. v. Beethoven.) Beethoven's reference to penalties goes back to the failed sale of op. 131 to the publisher, for which Beethoven wished to receive Clementi's piano schools and his portrait, both of which had been published by Artaria. The other two points are "2-tens eine Geldbuße wegen diesem u. jenem wie auch Sonstigem" (secondly a fine because of this that and the other) and "3-tens wird das M.[anu]S.[kript] dieses Klawier Auszuges entweder Honorirt oder dem Autor zurückgestellt" (thirdly the manuscript of this piano reduction shall either be paid for or given back to the author). This request was granted by Artaria, as he notes in his expense book on 5.9.1826, "Paid Beethoven for the piano reduction of the fugue 12 # in gold à 4 f. 47". (J.R.)