Biamonti 601 – From a sketchbook dated February – August 1815. In the sketch is written: “Sinfonia H-Moll Pauken D.A. nur 2…”

Biamonti 601 – As reported by Nottebohm, Zweite Beethoveniana, vol. II, page 317, from a sketchbook dated February – August 1815. In the sketch is written: “Sinfonia H-Moll Pauken D.A. nur 2…” It is located in the Jagiellonian Library of Kraków, in a pocket sketchbook named Mendelssohn-Stiftung 1, and occupies nearly all of page 23.

The Mendelssohn 1 sketchbook is one of those small notebooks Beethoven carried in his pocket during walks, so all the sketches and annotations were written in pencil and are therefore difficult to decipher.

Some of these sketches, like this one, were later considered important by the Maestro and thus rewritten in ink by Beethoven so as not to forget them; one can indeed see, beneath the ink writing, the shadow of the pencil notation. The commentary text found below the fragment is difficult to decipher; in any case, it does not seem that the phrase “pauken d. A.” refers to timpani tuning, as Nottebohm suggests.