BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, June 8, 1826 (approximately)

Beethoven was to go to dinner with his friend Stephen von Breuning and his family this evening, but there is no reflection of that in the surviving conversation book. They may have used a separate book that no longer survives.

Beethoven’s publisher in Mainz, B. Schott’s Sons, writes a letter to bankers Franck & Co. today, instructing them to deliver 40 ducats to Beethoven as the first installment of payments for the new quartet op.131 upon Beethoven turning over the manuscript to them. The letter is not known to exist, but its contents can be inferred from the receipt of August 14, 1826. Brandenburg Letter 2160.

Sometime about now, Beethoven begins using Pocket Sketchbook Autograph 10, Bundle 1, presently held by the Berlin Staatsbibliothek. This is a small book of 16 leaves, and it has survived intact, being assembled from two sheets of paper. Like its predecessor, this sketchbook was used exclusively for work on the Quartet in C-sharp minor, op.131. There is a little work on the fourth movement, and the bulk of the book is devoted to the last three movements. It is roughly contemporaneous with the sketch material in the Kullak desk sketchbook, folios 40-45.

This pocket sketchbook, bound together with the last sketchbook Beethoven used (Autograph 10, Bundle 2), can be seen here:

https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht/?PPN=PPN1666023671