Biamonti 814 – Two Sketches Probably Intended for the Second Movement of the String Quartet in B-flat Major, Opus 130. February – August 1825 (Deroda, page 92)

These two sketches are housed at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, in the sketchbook known as the De Roda Skizzenbuch, on folio 21 verso.

De Roda writes in his Analytical Book of the Sketchbook: “These two may perhaps belong to the Scherzo (second movement): the first corresponds to page 42, the same page where the sketch for the Presto is found, and the second, two pages later—although this latter could just as well be a study for the ending of the second theme of the first Allegro.”  The first sketch is located on folio 21 verso (manuscript page 42), on staves 6–7 (toward the end) and 8–9 in full. The second sketch is found on folio 21 verso, staves 3 and 4.

In fact, the first sketch consists of two distinct phrases: one in treble clef and the other assigned to the bass. Both sketches are in 4/4 time. Given the shared meter and De Roda’s proposed solution, I’ve also included the additional 8 measures as he envisioned them—though I personally consider them two separate themes. In the second phrase, in the second half of the second measure, in the upper voice, I see five note stems. De Roda suggests that the second might be a natural sign before the F, resolving the passage with just three descending eighth notes (G – F♮ – E). However, that would still leave one extra stem.

In my view, it could instead be a figure of one eighth note followed by four sixteenth notes, with the sixteenth note flags either erased over time or implied.