Hess 302 – “Uns geht es kannibalisch wohl als wie fünfhundert Säuen”,  Sketch of 4 (or 5) bars, possibly a canon. This curious musical fragment is associated with a grotesque and humorous line from Goethe’s Faust, spoken by a drunken chorus: “Uns ist ganz kannibalisch wohl, / als wie fünfhundert Säuen!” (“We feel cannibalistically well, like five hundred sows!”) The line appears in the Auerbach’s Cellar scene, where Mephistopheles and Faust observe the vulgar revelry of Leipzig’s tavern-goers. The full passage includes:

Mephistopheles
Nur hütet euch, daß ihr mir nichts vergießt! (Sie trinken wiederholt)

Alle (singen)
Uns ist ganz kannibalisch wohl,
Als wie fünfhundert Säuen!

Mephistopheles
Das Volk ist frei, seht an, wie wohl’s ihm geht!

Faust
Ich hätte Lust, nun abzufahren.

Mephistopheles
Gib nur erst acht, die Bestialität
Wird sich gar herrlich offenbaren.

Scholarly Interpretations: The sketch is catalogued as SV 26, among materials for the Grosse Fuge, Op. 133. Nottebohm (II, p. 11) speculated that it might be a two-voice canon. Frimmel, in Neue Beethoveniana (1890, p. 341), claimed that around 1825, Beethoven drafted a canon on this mutilated Faust verse. Misch, in Pseudokanons und Rätselkanons von Beethoven (Die Musikforschung, 1950), initially rejected the two-voice solution as too primitive and advised against considering it a canon at all. However, Misch later revised his stance, acknowledging that A. Willem Holsbergen had successfully resolved the sketch as a four-voice canon: “The second voice enters after one bar, a fifth below; the third voice after two bars, in unison; and the fourth voice after two and a half bars, again a fifth below. The fact that this solution is possible does not necessarily mean Beethoven intended it. However, the peculiar rhythmic treatment suggests he was thinking of something more sophisticated than a two-voice canon.”

Manuscript Details: The sketch is preserved in Berlin’s Staatsbibliothek, in the volume titled Autograph 9, folio 40 verso. It occupies the entire page and is written in pencil, in a hurried hand. Beethoven does not indicate clef or key, but the melody is presumed to be in C major, using bass clef. Contrary to Biamonti’s claim of 4 bars, the sketch actually contains 5 bars: Beethoven does not treat the first measure as an upbeat; instead, he inserts a rest before the initial C, making it a full measure. In Nottebohm’s transcription, the fourth bar contains six eighth notes instead of four, suggesting an extra quarter note. However, upon examining the manuscript, the two crossed-out notes and the final two notes are sixteenth notes, correcting the measure’s length.

? Canonical Possibilities: The sketch has inspired several reconstructions: A two-voice canon at unison. A three-voice canon, also at unison. A four-voice canon, as proposed by Holsbergen, with staggered entries and intervallic variation. These reconstructions aim to preserve the humorous and chaotic spirit of the original Faust passage. Musical Humor and Beethoven’s Wit. This fragment exemplifies Beethoven’s fascination with musical humor, especially in the form of canons—a genre he often used for playful or satirical purposes. The grotesque text, paired with contrapuntal treatment, creates a tension between formality and absurdity, a hallmark of Beethoven’s comic miniatures.