Ludwig van Beethoven, Skizzenblatt zu nicht ausgeführten Werken, Autograph

A Rondo, a Requiem and a Symphony

Ludwig van Beethoven wrote down every single musical idea that came to him. It did not matter whether he was at home or outside, no creative idea should be lost. A multitude of sketches bear witness to this. Beethoven mostly wrote them down in books or notebooks of music paper, so-called sketchbooks. This leaf was originally in a sketchbook, which passed into Gustav Adolf Petters' hands after Beethoven's death - the so-called "Pettersche" sketchbook (HCB Mh 59). Although Beethoven mainly worked on ideas for the Seventh and Eighth Symphonies in this sketchbook, most of the sketches on this leaf were not incorporated into one of the large works. The first page (image 1) has a few bars for a "Symphony", a "Rondo" and a "Requiem", the second (image 2) an andante. Amongst these many ideas there are, however, some famous ones: on line 14 of page one there is a short motif from the second movement of the Eighth Symphony. And on the reverse, on staves four and five there are other sketches for the same movement. (J.R.)