Hess 60 – Sketch for piano, in A major.

Sketch for piano in A major, playable. Bonn, Beethoven Haus, SBH 631 (SV 88). It is found in the Beethoven Haus in a manuscript catalogued as BH 114, page 1 lines 5-10, immediately after the Allemande WoO 81. It is also included in the Biamonti Catalogue as Biamonti 267. According to Johnson, Tyson, Winter in their volume The Beethovens sketchbooks (page 519), these 2 bifolia are part of the Vienna Papers pre Grasnick 1 and, considering the format, watermark and number of lines, are to be linked, among other Beethoven manuscripts, with the Kafka Skizzenbuch and the Miscellanea Fishhof. Arnold Schmitz in his book Unbekannte Skizzen und Entwürfe barely mentions this fragment by placing it in association with the next one (III), again in A major but in 4/4 time, although he transcribes it faithfully. At measure 6, second movement, Beethoven does not put the repetitions on the C#-E chord, while he puts them in the repetition at measure 15; it could be a mistake but I still preferred to leave it as in the original. Beethoven at the end of the piece, between staves 7-8 and 9-10, writes cal-lando; we don’t know if he meant by dropping or slowing down.

Mark Zimmer informs us that it is found together with the Allemande WoO 81, the Anglaise WoO 212, the Bagatelles WoO 213, the Bagatelle Hess 60, the two Bagatelle practically already completed, Biamonti 269 and 277 and numerous catalogued sketches Biamonti 268 – 270 – 271 – 272 – 273 – 274 – 276 – 278 – 279 – 280 – 281, in two folios in the Beethoven-Archiv of Bonn, SBH 631 (SV 88).