Biamonti 457 – Funeral March for Requiem (Sketch), Final Months of 1808

Source: Grasnick Sketchbook No. 3, Sheet 19, Second Page, Lines 1 and 2 Transcription and analysis by: Dr. Dagmar Weise, page 98 Location: Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Classification: Unbekannt (Unknown work)

This fragment, preserved in the Grasnick Sketchbook No. 3, is a sketch for a funeral march, conceived by Beethoven in the final months of 1808. It is one of the few instances in which the composer explicitly references a Requiem, writing in his own hand:

“Im Requiem lässt sich der Todten Marsch anbringen” (“In the Requiem, the funeral march can be incorporated”)

This annotation reveals Beethoven’s intention to embed the march within a larger sacred framework—perhaps an unrealized Requiem Mass, a genre he never formally completed. The sketch itself is brief, but its somber character and rhythmic profile suggest a ceremonial gravity akin to the Marcia funebre from the Eroica Symphony.