Biamonti 759 – Beginning of a Recitative with string accompaniment, 1818–1822, Notebook III, pp. 78–82 (N., II, p. 471, without musical citation). To this may perhaps be connected the note concerning a third Mass in C minor, listed under no. 771.

New information from the Beethoven Music Research Center (January 2026): This sketch is preserved in Berlin, at the Staatsbibliothek, Artaria 201, pp. 76–77.

The text, in Beethoven’s own hand, reads: “Recitativo accompagnato nemlich nach dem Takt” (“Recitativo accompagnato, that is to say, according to the beat”). It is written in score, but on the second page the parts for the Second Violins and the Violas are missing. In the second bar the vocal line continues with a flourish which, in my view, might indicate either a free cadenza or a succession of quavers.

It then proceeds with an instrumental section and, on the following page, with two further sung sections. The overall character is that of a recitative with a chromatic and decidedly modal motion. After this Recitative we find a Beethovenian indication (“pomposo”?) and then a note for a Kyrie with the instruction: “Das Kyrie in der Neuen Messe bloss mit blasenden Instrumenten u. Orgel” [“The Kyrie in the New Mass with wind instruments and organ only”].