Anglaise in D major (Schmitz, XXI) Biamonti 285, bars 8/8, about 1800 Published by Willy Hess in the ninth fascicle of the Supplemente zur Gesamt Ausgabe, 1965. This piece and the previous one (both begun around 1800) are found in an autograph [(In an old catalogue the manuscript is catalogued as BH 114, while in a more recent one as SBH 631, or even as SV 88.)] at the Beethoven-Haus and were first published by Arnold Schmitz [in Beethoven. Unbekannte Skizzen und Entwürfe. Untersuchung, Ubertragung, Faksimile – available in full on the website of the Centro Ricerche Musicali], in vol. 3 of the Veröffentlichungen des Beethoven-Haus, Bonn, 1924, as drafts II and XXL [This piece and the previous one may not have been written before 1793. Published by Hess in SBG, vol. IX, 1965, p. 23.]

This Anglaise initially dated 1800, is now believed to have been composed in 1793. Mark Zimmer informs us that it is found together with the Allemande WoO 81, the Quattro Bagatelle WoO 213, the Bagatella Hess 60. the two Bagatelle already practically completed, Biamonti 269 and 277 and, in numerous cataloged 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). He was part of the Bagatelle group that Beethoven proposed to publish to the publisher Carl Friedrich Peters in 1822 which he refused.

Origin and publication: Composed in 1793 in Vienna. The first edition appeared posthumously in 1924 in Arnold Schmitz’s examination of Beethoven’s sketches.

The Anglaise is annotated on a double sheet on which there are numerous other sketches of published works (WoO 81, Op. 75 no. 3) and unpublished works (for piano, in D major, G major and A major, Hess 60, as well as a rondo in A major). Douglas Johnson dates the writing to 1793/94. According to Johnson, the document may have been revised by Joseph Haydn, who was Beethoven’s teacher in 1793. In that year Beethoven worked mainly on paper of this type. Precisely because of the presence of the sketches of Lied op.75 n.3, Johnson considers the annotations on the double sheet probably the first writings made in Vienna (Johnson-Fischhof vol. 1 pp. 88, 400). Gustav Nottebohm, on the other hand, gave the sketches for op. 75 n. 5 “der Handschrift nach gegen 1800” “from the spelling circa 1800” (Nottebohm / Beethoveniana ll, p. 563).

It is located in the Beethovenhaus in a bifolium catalogued as BH 114 on page 4 lines 15-16. The entire 2 sheets were analyzed by A. Schmitz “Beethoven – Unbekannte Skizzen und Entwürfe” (Beethovenhaus, Bonn 1924) This bifolium dates from the period 1792-1794 and includes, among other things, the Allemande WoO 81 and the Bagatelle that Beethoven had tried to sell to the publisher Peters in 1800. The title of “Anglaise” is indicated directly by Beethoven and we find it at the beginning of the piece between the two staves. The manuscript is very messy especially towards the end and, since it was the last piece written at the bottom of the last page, the chorus and the ending are written in addition to the staff. This is how Schmitz describes them: “The last sketch XXI is again a draft of a dance movement, this time for an Anglaise. The first two periods are fully developed in melody and bass. Like the Allemande, (WoO 81) this movement also has sixteenth notes throughout its main part. But the symmetrical figures in the melody are shorter here and follow one another more closely. This gives the whole thing a more rigid position. The octave tremolo in bars 1, 3, 9, 11 and 13 brings a contrasting moment and at the same time a new rhythmic impulse to the movement.” Sheet of the work: D-BNba, BH 114, sheet 2v. The double sheet also contains sketches for WoO 81 and WoO 213 as well as sketches for op. 75 n. 3. Title: At the beginning of the line (between the lines) “Angloise”. Paper: horizontal format, 23 x 32 cm, 16 lines. Provenance: Johann Nepomuk Kafka, Vienna. – Acquired in 1922. Facsimile and description: DBH/online.  A modern edition, ed. by Jos van der Zanden, published in Amsterdam in 2000 (Zanden Miniatures).