Ludwig van Beethoven, Skizzenblatt zum spanischen Volkslied WoO 158, Nr. 21, Partiturskizze, Autograph

Sketch for a Spanish folk song

Here you can see a score sketch for the Spanish song "Tiranilla española" from the collection of folk songs WoO 158, which Beethoven set for voice and piano trio. The musical text begins with bar 21, there a few differences with the final version, none of the parts have a clef. The vocal part is in the upper staff of each accolade, in this case the text has not been put underneath (Beethoven first composed the melody for his folk songs, only adding the text later). Both of the lower staves in the accolade are reserved for the piano part, the two staves between the piano and vocal parts are for the strings: the second one for the violin, the third for the cello. Whereas the vocal and piano parts have been fully notated, Beethoven only hints at the string parts. The sparse notes are sufficient as an aid to memory. The parts are not fully written out but are abbreviated with "etc." or have the note "in 8", meaning that the instrument doubles the vocal part an octave higher. (J.R.)