Biamonti 319 – Finale – Presto for Piano Source: Kessler Sketchbook, pages 164–179 (Nottebohm, Ein Skizzenbuch von Beethoven, aus dem Jahre 1803
The musical examples and texts on this page are by Graziano Denini
Biamonti 319 – Finale – Presto for Piano
Source: Kessler Sketchbook, pages 164–179 (Nottebohm, Ein Skizzenbuch von Beethoven, aus dem Jahre 1803, Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel, 1880, page 32).
Finale – Presto. Nottebohm writes, without reproducing the music: “For a tempo that remains unknown, in 2/4 time, broadly treated, with free development of the theme and in the usual character of a Finale” (possibly referring to the Variations Opus 35?).
Update from our Music Research Center (January 2025): This “Finale Presto molto” is found in the Kessler Sketchbook, folio 83r, lines 7–8, on the pages where Beethoven is studying the Variations Op. 35, and it must be considered in relation to them.Beethoven had intended to compose approximately 30–35 variations on the theme from Prometheus; this Finale Presto molto may represent one of those attempts.
As Beethoven himself writes, the theme is taken: “from an allegorical ballet I composed: Prometheus, or Prometeo, as it is said in Italian, which should have been indicated on the title page.” [See the detailed study on the Variations Op. 35 available on our site.] Contrary to what Nottebohm wrote—and what Biamonti reported (“for a tempo that remains unknown, in 2/4 time, broadly treated, with free development of the theme”)—in my view, the fragment in question consists of only 4 measures.Indeed, the subsequent sketch—a cadence with a long arpeggio on the dominant seventh of E-flat major, concluding on the final motif of the variation—should be connected to another fragment found on folio 82v, lines 5–6. This fragment should therefore be considered the cadential opening for the concluding variation of the work.
