Biamonti 386 – Hints of a Sonata for Piano “with Cello” (page 117), circa 1803

Mentioned by Gustav Nottebohm, page 57 of his book Ein Skizzenbuch von Beethoven aus dem Jahre 1803, without reproducing the music. It is located on page 117, lines 1–2 at the center, of the Landsberg 6 Sketchbook, otherwise known as the Eroica Sketchbook.

Nottebohm briefly cites it among the fragments on page 117: “Ansätze zu einer Sonate für Clavier ‘con Violoncello’” [“Beginnings of a Sonata for piano ‘with cello’”]

In her analytical article on the entire Eroica Sketchbook, Rachel W. Wade associates the Adagio that follows this sonata opening with the cello. However, considering the difference in time signature (4/4 vs. ¾), the fact that only the second of the two fragments bears a tempo indication (Adagio), and the distinct character of the two sketches, I personally would refrain from attributing the second fragment to the same sonata. It is, in fact, a very beautiful fragment, to which I would have assigned a separate catalog number.

Thus, the Sonata is reduced to only two measures of accompanied melody in C major.