Ludwig van Beethoven, Skizzenblatt zu "Ungarns erster Wohltäter" op. 117,4, Autograph

Different paper - the same book

All three sketch leaves (HCB BSk 4/52 is a bifolium) contain sketches for the stage music "König Stephan" ("King Stephen") op. 117, which Beethoven wrote in the summer of 1811 during his stay at Teplitz. Although not all three of the leaves are made of the same paper - HCB BSk 2 and 4 have the same watermark, but have different rastrology, HCB BSk 3 has a different watermark - they are ascribed to the same sketchbook by the sketch scholars Johnson, Tyson and Winter (The Beethoven Sketchbooks, Oxford 1985). Johnson, Tyson and Winter believe that Beethoven used a sketchbook he had assembled himself from the end of 1810 till the summer of 1811. Its leaves are now scattered throughout the world. The fact that the composer did not buy a book from a music dealer but assembled one himself explains the use of different types of paper. The three scholars support their theory with the corresponding stitch holes on all three leaves, which can be clearly seen. (J.R.)