Biamonti 68 – Three Fugues (sketches) around 1794.
The musical examples on this page are by Graziano Denini.
Biamonti 68 – Three Fugues (sketches) dated around 1794.
They are found on a sheet which, in the first two pages, also contains sketches for the third and fourth movements of the Trio in G major for piano, violin, and cello, Opus 1 No. 2. Nottebohm merely mentions them; Shedlock (“The Musical Times”, July 1892) reports the themes as follows.
They are located in the Kafka Miscellany on sheet 69 verso, line 15. I have not found these fugues in Albrechsberger’s Treatise.
The Musical Times and Singing Class Circular, July 1892 – page 396: “The third example should, we imagine, be read in the treble clef and in the key of F. The written sentence at the end (the softened ‘a’ in ‘Tage’ is, we are informed, an Austrian provincialism) seems to refer to the lessons with Albrechsberger. It would, indeed, seem probable that this leaf and the one mentioned by Nottebohm, with the two-part fugue, etc., originally belonged to the same sketchbook. It may be noted that Albrechsberger gave Beethoven a set of subjects prepared for fugue work – i.e., capable of stretto, etc. Beethoven, as far as one can tell from the published studies, always selected one of these subjects for his fugue exercises. They are all in common or alla breve time, whereas – it is curious to note – the three subjects just quoted are in triple time.”
The third example should, I suppose, be read in violin clef and in F major. The phrase written at the end (in ‘a Tage’ is an Austrian colloquialism) could therefore refer to the lessons with Albrechsberger. Indeed, it seems quite likely that this sheet and the one mentioned by Nottebohm, with the two-part fugue, etc., originally belonged to the same sketchbook. It is worth recalling that Albrechsberger gave Beethoven a set of subjects prepared for developing fugues – that is, capable of stretto, etc. Beethoven, as far as can be inferred from the published studies, always chose one of these subjects for his exercises. All are in common or breve time, whereas – it is interesting to note – the three subjects just mentioned are in imperfect time.
