Sketch for Scherzo to Piano Sonata op. 26 Biamonti 256 (1800)

Sketch for Scherzo to Piano Sonata op. 26 Biamonti 256 (1800) Professor Biamonti in his catalogue identified Biamonti 256 merely as a Trio in D-flat major. The sketch, found at page 180 of the Landsberg 7 sketchbook, appears from its context to actually be an idea for a very different Trio for an early version of the Scherzo to the Piano Sonata op. 26 (identified by Beethoven here as a Minuet, rather than a Scherzo). The sketch for the Minuet starts off reasonably complete, and the second section quicklky thins out to a continuity draft that differs in some interesting ways from the final Scherzo. After the second section, the key shifts to D-flat (as it does in the completed Scherzo) with the notation "trio in des trio ligato." We present here the full sketch, as Beethoven left it, followed by the five measures of the abandoned Trio that Beethoven sketched. The sketch offers an interesting glimpse into the creative process. The first section of the Scherzo has elements that are nearly the same: the first eight bars are identical to the finished version (though the right-hand part of bars 5-8 is an octave lower). But that section repeats in full, unlike the varied presentation of the theme in op. 26, which Beethoven specifies is not to be repeated. The second section starts off in the first 10 bars much as op. 26, though with a duller bass, but takes a quite different approach to its development, staying much closer to the theme. A phrase that concludes this second section in the sketch receives a concluding coda in the final version. Only the specification "sempre legato" and the D-flat key signature survive in the finished version of the Trio.

Opus: 26
Biamonti: 256

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