Biamonti 657 – “Christ ist Erstanden”, sketch, with the annotation “Christ ist Erstanden Variationen”

Date: November 1816 Context: Found among the sketches for the Piano Sonata Opus 101 (see Biamonti 656). So reported by Nottebohm, Zweite Beethoveniana, Chapter 59, page 555, who deduces that Beethoven: “must already have been thinking of a form that he would later use eight years later in the Quartet Opus 132.” The manuscript containing this sketch is located in Berlin, at the State Library, Beethoven Autograph 11a, folio 16 verso, lines 1–2. Considering the text of the hymn Christ ist erstanden, one might imagine Beethoven engaged in composing a piece for Easter of the following year.

Nottebohm describes it as: “Anzuführen ist noch ein zwischen den Skizzen zum Sonaten-satz (S. 32) vorkommender Ansatz mit einer Bemerkung, bei der Beethoven an eine Form dachte, die ungefähr 8 Jahre später im Quartett in Amoll zur Anwendung kam”  (“Another approach appearing among the sketches for the sonata movement (p. 32) [Sonata Op. 101] should be mentioned, with a remark in which Beethoven had in mind a form used about eight years later in the Quartet in A minor (Op. 132).”)

According to Wikipedia, the Easter hymn Christ ist erstanden is considered: “the oldest surviving liturgical song in the German language.” It likely derives from southern Austro-German culture, sung by the community around 1100 as a response. It is considered the epitome of the Easter musical motif.

The melody does not correspond to the transmitted liturgical hymn. It may be supposed that Beethoven was seeking a melody that evoked the hymn—almost a more musical variation of it—just as he had attempted in his youth with the variants of the Unvollendete 20 “Lamentations of Jeremiah” (page 96 recto of the Kafka Skizzenbuch), rather than constructing a set of piano variations based directly on the hymn.

Regarding the manuscript: In the first measure, Nottebohm notes a descending C major arpeggio, followed in the second measure by one in F minor. In reality, Beethoven writes: “G–G–F–E–C”, then “C–C–B♭–A♭–F”. The “B” in the left hand of the second beat of the first measure should be read as B♭, as should the “B” in the right hand of the second measure. The figuration in the second measure should be considered identical to the first, even though the syncopation is missing.