Biamonti 224 – Unused Sketches Possibly Related to Quartets in E-flat and B-flat Major (1798–1800)

Among Beethoven’s manuscripts once housed in the Library of the Paris Conservatory—referenced by Max Unger (p. 106/64)—is a document catalogued as Biamonti 224. These unused sketches were initially believed to pertain to movements of string quartets in E-flat and B-flat major, dating from 1798 to 1800.

Recent Findings from the Beethoven Center for Musical Research (september 2025)

The manuscript, known as MS 64, is no longer located at the Paris Conservatory Library, as previously noted by Biamonti. It is now preserved in the Gallica collection of the National Library of France. The document consists of a single handwritten sheet, with eight staves per page.

Max Unger described the contents as “unused drafts, apparently mostly for movements of quartets in E-flat major and B-flat major,” and placed them around the midpoint of Beethoven’s life.

However, curators at the Gallica Archive propose a different interpretation. They suggest that the sketches are not related to the Op. 18 quartets, but rather to the first and fourth movements of the Op. 127 quartet. Specifically, the fourth movement includes material from bars 5–12, while other fragments—such as a closing passage in 2/4 and sketches in 3/4—likely pertain to the first movement. These materials were ultimately not used in the final composition. Based on this analysis, the sketches are now believed to date from around 1822–1825.

The sheet does not appear to have been torn from a sketchbook, but rather trimmed along the lower margin from a larger sheet. The sketches are rendered in both ink and pencil. In the first fragment, notes written in elegant calligraphy are overlaid with additional markings in thick pencil, indicating pitches that seem unrelated to the original passage.