Ludwig van Beethoven, Skizzenblatt zum Streichquartett op. 130, 1. Satz, Partiturskizze, Autograph

Score provides a better overview

Here you can see an autograph score sketch for the first movement of the String Quartet op. 130. Although Beethoven occasionally made score sketches of works in earlier years, he only began to make them systematically and more often when he was working on the late string quartets, starting with op. 127 from 1822 onwards. Depending on how advanced the work on a composition was, score sketches like these sometimes give the impression of being autograph scores. In "normal" sketches ideas and melodic lines are shown in one, or at the most two systems. However, in his score sketches Beethoven sets out the instruments underneath each other. In so doing the aim is not only to find the horizontal melodic line, but also to have an overview of the harmony and structure of the movement in a vertical line. (J.R.)