BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, December 6, 1820 (approximately)

At some point about now, Beethoven will have completed his revisions to the piano sonata #30, op.109. The original autograph of the sonata in Beethoven’s hand is held today by the Library of Congress in the United States. The dating is unfortunately very approximate, if not arbitrary, due to the lack of conversation books.

The autograph can be found here:

https://loc.gov/item/ihas.200033155

The Library of Congress also permits one to download the entire autograph in color PDF form from that page.

It appears that Beethoven sends the original autograph to Schlesinger for use in printing, without having a fair copy made first. Is this an indication of Beethoven’s haste to send something to Schlesinger so he can get paid? Or does it mean Beethoven has insufficient money to hire a copyist? While there is also extant a copy of the sonata that Beethoven has made for Archduke Rudolph, it is not sent to the Archduke until next summer, suggesting that it is a copy made as part of the proofreading of op.109, which contained an unfortunate number of serious errors. Those errors probably arose from Schlesinger’s engravers being unfamiliar with Beethoven’s handwriting. The first two systems of the Archduke’s copy are written out by Wenzel Schlemmer, Beethoven’s best copyist, and the rest is done by Wenzel Rampl, who Beethoven also used. Schlemmer also makes corrections to Rampl’s score, which indicates they were working in close cooperation on this important work.

The Wiener Zeitung of December 13, 1820 (nr. 284) reports that Archduke Rudolph continues to offer even more sacraments of confirmation to the young around Troppau in Austrian Silesia on this date.