A fragment found in a conversation notebook from the beginning of November 1822, annotated by Beethoven while conversing in a restaurant with friends and musicians from the Josephstädter Theater. It is located in Conversation Notebook No. 18, datable to the early days of November 1822, specifically on folios 12 verso and 13 recto/verso. Notebook 18 is preserved, like most of the Konversationshefte, at the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin.

Very interesting and well executed is the transcription—both of the text and the musical parts—made by Schünemann in his volume containing the transcription of the entire body of the Konversationshefte [Georg Schünemann, Beethoven Konversationshefte, 2 volumes. First volume: 400 pages, 5 plates “Hefte I–X.” Second volume: 403 pages “Hefte XI–XXII.” With five plates. Publisher: Hesse, Berlin, 1941 and following years], to which we have referred for the version presented here.

This fragment occupies no fewer than 3 pages of the notebook and appears to be a very preliminary study. It is written in pencil, and on the second page the writing becomes almost illegible. It is worth noting that Beethoven—perhaps attentive to the conversations of his friends present, perhaps absorbed in the study of the melody—does not bother to fully draw the staves. On folio 12 verso, in the final sketch of folio 13 recto, and in the final fragment of folio 13 verso, he traces only 4 lines of the staff, adding (and not always) the fifth line at a later moment; indeed, the last note on folio 13 verso is written on a single line, making it impossible to know what note Beethoven had in mind (Schünemann hypothesizes an F, while we have considered it might be an A).

As often happens with Beethoven, he does not concern himself with indicating the clef or the key in which this study should be read. Therefore, following Schünemann’s analysis, we have hypothesized that the fragment is in F major and written in bass clef, though we are naturally open to other possible interpretations. In any case, from what can be discerned—and considering also the text that is faintly visible on the second page (folio 13 recto)—this is probably a study for a slow and sorrowful aria. The text, almost entirely faded, that can be glimpsed on the central page appears to be “laß verwesen” (to let rot) (or could it be verwenden? – to refer to); even the initial motif, with the quarter note followed by a dotted sixteenth rest and a thirty-second note, suggests the sense of a Largo piece, almost Baroque in character.

In this regard, we must also note the evolution of the initial phrase, which progresses from:

• quarter note, dotted sixteenth rest, thirty-second note, two quarter notes in the first measure of the first fragment [example 1] to:
• double-dotted quarter note, thirty-second note, two quarter notes in the first measure of the second sketch [example 2] to:

• dotted quarter note, eighth note, two quarter notes in the first measure of the third sketch [example 3]; and finally, in the last study, we find the initial phrase displaced to the third beat “in upbeat” [example 4].