Biamonti 397 – Composition for string and wind instruments, with the annotation: “Konnte zuletz endigen mit einem March” (Could finally end with a march), circa 1803.

Mentioned by Nottebohm, page 71, without reproducing the music. Nottebohm writes on page 71 of his book Ein Skizzenbuch von Beethoven aus dem Jahre 1803: “ (Seite 158) nicht benutze Entwürfe zu einer Composition für Streich- und Blasinstrument mit der Bemerkung: ‘Könnte zuletzt endigen mit einem Marsch’ “(Page 158) unused drafts for a composition for string and wind instruments with the remark: ‘Could finally end with a march’.”

Nottebohm grouped the sketches on this page from lines 4–5 (second half) to the end (lines 12–13). It is found on page 158 of the Eroica Sketchbook (Landsberg 6), lines 8–11. It is actually a fugato beginning in 6/8 and presto tempo, where the second voice is barely indicated, written on a piano staff. It’s unclear where Nottebohm found the indication that it was for strings and winds, since Beethoven doesn’t specify that; perhaps this comes from the previous fragment which includes the indications “Violoncello” and then “B.i.” (Blasinstrumente), and immediately after, in this fragment, Beethoven writes “letztes Stück” (last piece). Nottebohm may have thus grouped all the sketches on this page from lines 4–5 (second half) to the end (lines 12–13) into a single idea.

Beethoven doesn’t write accidentals in the key signature—this happens often in his sketches—and not even the tempo. In their transcription volume of the entire Eroica Sketchbook, L. Lockwood and A. Gosman indicate this sketch in C minor/E-flat major, while Rachel W. Wade (page 287 of her article Beethoven’s Eroica Sketchbook) believes it’s in C major. Therefore, both versions are proposed without taking a definitive stance. Lockwood and Gosman also write a G in the bass at bar 5 as if it were a third entry; but upon closer inspection of the manuscript, this mark is better interpreted as the slur between the two notes found in the sketch on the next staff, which is repeated two bars later.

G in the bass according to Lockwood and Gosman   and   Slur of the following fragment