Biamonti 471 – Piano Sketch (Grasnick 3) | Beethoven Music Research Center www.lvbeethoven.org

Biamonti 471 – Sketch for Piano, Grasnick Notebook No. 3, Sheet 38, Second Page, Lines 1 and 2 (Dagmar Weise, page 138). Final months of 1808.

The musical examples on this page are by Graziano Denini.

Biamonti 471 – Sketch for Piano, Grasnick Notebook No. 3, Sheet 38, Second Page, Lines 1 and 2 (Dagmar Weise, page 138). Final months of 1808.

This sketch is preserved in Berlin at the Staatsbibliothek, within the sketchbook known as “Grasnick 3,” specifically on sheet 38v, lines 1–2. It is nothing more than a pianistic note for a rapid arpeggio involving hand crossing. The letters above the first notes of the arpeggios (r v r) indicate the hand to be used for the passage (recht = right / link = left).

According to Dagmar Weise, the scholar responsible for the transcription and analysis of this sketchbook, the figure may have been conceived as a possible opening for the Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Opus 73, which Beethoven was studying in these pages.

The initial quarter-note C is written in fine pencil and, as seen in the original manuscript, may not even belong to this sketch.

NOTE: The notebook, known as “Grasnick 3,” was formerly preserved at the Preussische Staatsbibliothek and is now available in facsimile at the Beethoven-Haus. It was studied by Nottebohm (N II, Chapter XLVII) and more recently by Dr. Dagmar Weise in 1957.

The notebook comprises 43 sheets (86 pages) containing sketches for Opus 80, Opus 73, and the Lied “Gegenliebe”, as well as drafts for unknown works: Biamonti 457 and 474.

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