BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, October 6, 1825 (approximately)

About now, Beethoven begins using the pocket sketchbook Autograph 9, Bundle 1, now held by the Berlin Staatsbibliothek. This short sketchbook of 16 leaves appears to be complete. It was made up from two complete sheets in four gatherings of 2 bifolia each. This sketchbook is very interesting. It includes ideas for a Tenth Symphony, as well as an overture on the name BACH. Since Beethoven had recently written the canon for Kuhlau on the same notes, that canon may have stimulated interest in revisiting this idea that had been percolating for several years. The sketchbook from the fifth leaf to the end is devoted to the work on the Grosse Fuge. There is also some late work on the fifth movement Cavatina of the op.130 quartet. The last part of the book corresponds to the first part of the Kullak sketchbook, which begins being used after Beethoven’s move to Vienna on October 15, so this sketchbook must precede it by a week or two. This book is used by Beethoven for about a month, and the Grosse Fuge, still intended to serve as the Finale of op.130, is preoccupying him for most of this period.