BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, May 28, 1825

After working on the op.132 quartet this morning, Beethoven spends his afternoon reading the Vienna newspapers in a coffee house in Baden. In the conversation book, he makes note of four apartments of interest; one of them also has apartments to be had in the summer. These advertisements all appeared in yesterday’s Intelligenzblatt supplement to the Wiener Zeitung (Nr.119) at 782-783.

Beethoven, his mind still preoccupied with his work, then makes a number of sketches for the quartet op.132 in the conversation book (which are reproduced here, courtesy of the Berlin Staatsbibliothek):
23r: “Dorian” [Apparently Beethoven was considering that mode rather than the Lydian for the Holy Song of thanksgiving. A sketch for that movement follows.]

Page 23r of Conversation Book 89, with notes about op.132 quartet being in Dorian mode — Conversation Book 89, 23r. (All images courtesy Berlin Staatsbibliothek)

23v: [Five lines of the beginning of the fourth movement, Alla marcia, assai vivace, as well as further sketches for this movement.]

Conversation Book 89, 23v, containing sketches for the fourth movement of the quartet op.132. — Conversation Book 89, 23v

24r [Four lines of sketches for the fifth movement.]

Conversation Book 89, 24r five lines of sketches for the fifth movement of op.132, and then additional sketches for the third movement Heiliger Dankgesang. — Conversation Book 89, 24r

24r-24v-25r [Additional sketches for the third movement.]

Conversation Book 89, 24v, sketches for the third movement of op.132, the Heiliger Dankgesang. — Conversation Book 89, 24v.

Conversation Book 89, 25r, additional sketches for the Heiliger Dankgesang, third movement of quartet op.132. — Conversation Book 89, 25r