BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Monday, April 10, 1826

Beethoven works on an errand and shopping list this morning.

• Laundry foot muffs woolen pants and flannel vests—
  —
  About the kitchen maid
  mi dear : etc Linz
• Sea salt baths in the Dianabad [these baths used water from the Danube, but they also had artificial sea salt baths available.]
  —
  Night lamps
• glasses
• Chamber pot

Conversation Book 108, 4v. Brother Johann had an apothecary shop and other property in Linz, but it is unclear what Ludwig is referencing here. In a few days, Beethoven will ask unpaid assistant Karl Holz how to pronounce “mi dear” and whether it refers to a male or female. Where he has gotten this phrase is unclear.

There is a thunderstorm at about 2 in the afternoon today.

Roughly about now, Beethoven begins using pocket sketchbook Autograph 9, bundle 3, held by the Berlin Staatsbibliothek. This homemade sketchbook presently consists of 28 leaves, though it seems likely at least several leaves have been removed and those that remain are probably not in the correct order. Like the succeeding bundle, which starts being used in a month or so, this pocket sketchbook is primarily devoted to the fourth movement of String Quartet op.131, a theme and variations. There are sketches for all of the final variations, as well as several variations that went unused. There are also ideas for a Scherzo movement, work on which will continue in bundle 4, but will ultimately be abandoned.

This sketchbook is roughly contemporaneous with leaves 25-32 of the Kullak desk sketchbook. A note in the margin of the first page is connected to a letter to Karl Holz dated April 26, 1826, Brandenburg Letter 2150; Anderson Letter 1482, as well as conversation book entries from about the same time. This sketchbook was thus probably in use then, even if that marginal note was added after Beethoven had already begun working in the sketchbook.