Beethoven, Ludwig.

The Printer's manuscript of the String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op.131, used for the first edition, with an autograph title page signed, inscribed, annotated and corrected by the composer throughout, the title page bearing Beethoven’s humorous description of the work



"4tes [corrected from "5tes"] Quartett (von den Neuesten)/ für 2 Violinen/ Brasche/ u. Violonschell/ von L.v. Beethoven/...nb: zusammengestohlen/ aus verschiedenem/ diesem u. jenem" [(translation:) "...nb cobbled together from various bits and bobs"]



the manuscript written by Beethoven’s copyist Wenzel Rampl, on two systems per page, each of four staves, with the composer’s autograph numbering of the movements in ink, and with his corrections throughout in ink and pencil, in the margins and on the printed staves, including musical notation written on hand-drawn staves, accidentals, alto-, tenor- and bass-clefs, important instrumental markings ("sul ponticello", "da capo per l’ordinario" at the end of movement V), "Ritmo", dynamic markings ("sf" "cres:", and hair-pin crescendos & diminuendos), and phrase-marks, some other annotations, probably also by Beethoven, in orange crayon;  there are also some editorial markings for the printer in red crayon and casting-off marks for the first editions of the score and parts in pencil and, occasionally, in red crayon



77 leaves, oblong 4to (c.25 x 33cms), 10-stave paper, fleur-de-lys watermarks lettered "A K & S" (A Kiesling & sons of Bohemia), [Johnson, Tyson & Winter no. 52 and others similar], the last 2 leaves on different whiter paper, with corrected versions pasted down on folio 29 and elsewhere, modern quarter vellum boards, hinges weak, some browning and dustmarkings to the outside pages of the original fascicles



 

J. Kerman, The Beethoven Quartets (1967); A. Tyson, 'Notes on Five of Beethoven's Copyists', in Journal of the American Musicological Society, (1970), pp.439-471 (esp.450-452); Robert Winter, Compositional Origins of Beethoven's Opus 131  (Ann Arbor, 1982)

This is an important and complete manuscript of one of Beethoven’s celebrated late quartets and likely to be the only manuscript of this great quartet ever to be offered for sale at auction. It was copied from Beethoven’s autograph by one of his most important scribes and used as the model from which the first editions of both the score and the separate parts were printed shortly after Beethoven’s death.

We have no record of the complete score of one of Beethoven late quartets at auction. Beethoven’s autograph is now split between Kraków and Berlin. The only other important manuscript source for this quartet is a set of parts for the first movement in Berlin.

Beethoven himself declared that the C-sharp minor quartet was his greatest work of all. With its seven movements played continuously, it represents the most advanced development of classical forms that he ever achieved. Far from being "cobbled together", it had an unusually complex and arduous evolution. There are some 650 sketch-leaves for this quartet, more than for any other Beethoven work.

By a variety of techniques, Beethoven breaks down the concept of separate movements altogether, creating a single work played without a break. This inaugurated a trend in nineteenth-century music later taken up by composers such as Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt, Wagner, Franck and Sibelius. Wagner first heard the work in Paris in 1853: along with the Ninth Symphony, it was one of two works by Beethoven that he held as the most important models for his music dramas. There are complex interrelationships between the sections: Charles Rosen has drawn attention to the prominence of the semi-tones in the opening fugue subject, a theme which is then developed much further by the second movment being pitched in the key of D major, a semitone above C-sharp. The textures and sounds of the quartet are also very "modern", making use of advanced string techniques, including playing on the bridge ("ponticello") and interlocking pizzicato effects in the 'Presto' fifth movement. Here, Beethoven inserts the markings "sul ponticello" and "da capo per l’ordinario" in the manuscript himself.

The C-sharp minor quartet was composed during the first half of 1826, the year before Beethoven’s death and finished around June. On 20 May 1826 Beethoven promised the work to Schott’s for 80 ducats, but the Stichvorlage was not sent until mid August 1826. This was a stressful time for the composer, and work was probably interrupted by the attempted suicide of his nephew Karl on 30 July. In his letter of 19 August to the publisher, Beethoven writes "You said in your letter that it should be an original quartet. I felt rather hurt; so as a joke I wrote beside the address that it was a bit of a patchwork. But it is really brand new" [Anderson 1498]. Robert Winter has suggested that Beethoven’s sardonic wit extended to the miss-numbering the movements. The numbers were only put into the work at this very late stage: they do not appear in the autograph manuscript, nor were they included in the first edition of the parts. They were included in the first edition of the score, published slightly later, but only for the first three movements. Both editions were prepared from the present manuscript.

The "Stichvorlage was copied directly from Beethoven’s autograph manuscript by one of his most important scribes ("Copyist B"), identified by Alan Tyson as Wenzel Rampl (b.1785). Rampl had been entrusted with many important assignments over a long period from1809 until 1826, including producing Beethoven’s Handexemplar (or personal copy) of Fidelio, the famous presentation copy of the Ninth Symphony sent to the King of Prussia in September 1826 and the set of parts sent to Prince Galitzin of the String Quartets Opp. 130 and 132. For much of this period, Rampl had, in fact, been apprentice to Beethoven’s most trusted copyist Wenzel Schlemmer, who had died in 1823. For this reason, Beethoven took particular care in correcting Rampl’s later scores, made while no longer under Schlemmer’s supervision. The Stichvorlage contains Beethoven’s last corrections to the quartet Op.131: he almost certainly never revised or corrected proofs of the actual edition, which was not published until after his death.

 

The (unpaginated) manuscript appears to have originally comprised four separate fascicles. The second, third and fourth fascicles are numbered on their opening pages.

[Folios 1-18]. The first fascicle, headed by Beethoven’s autograph title-page.

Movement I "Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo" [folios 1-7]. The fugue in C-sharp minor. Beethoven has added the movement number at the beginning of the music ("No. I"). And indicated a correction to a note on the last bar of the first page in pencil ("fis"). Thereafter, most of Beethoven’s corrections can be found in the margins, also in pencil. He would appear to have also made these corrections to the music on the staves themselves, but mostly these have been inked over by a scribal hand. On the verso of the second leaf, a revised version of the viola part in the last bar of the first system, has been written on a slip of manuscript paper pasted in, over the (?Beethoven’s) original correction in red crayon.

Movement II "Allo: molto vivace" [folios 8-17]. The Allegro 6/8 in D major (i.e. the key a semitone above the opening C-sharp minor fugue). Beethoven has added the movement number at the beginning of the music "No.2". Besides his continued corrections to details in pencil, Beethoven has also entered a number of "hairpins" indicating crescendos and diminuendos between the staves (folio 14)

[folio18 verso-19], movement III "Allo: modto". A short transition to the Andante in A major. Beethoven has added the number marking the beginning of the movement "No.3".

[Folios 19-37]. The second fascicle marked "2" in pencil (possibly by Beethoven) on folio19. Both f.18 verso and f.19 recto are more dust-marked than adjacent pages.

Movement IV "Andante ma non troppo e molto cantabile". A set of variations in A major. Beethoven has added the number marking the beginning of the movement ("No.4"). Beethoven’s characteristic C-clefs (tenor) can be seen on f.22 verso and his bass clef on f.23 verso. He has indicated some wrong notes with pencil corrections in the margins of f.24. The lower system of f.29 recto and the whole of f.29 verso have been revised: the original versions have been pasted over with two pieces of manuscript paper containing the new version of first sixteen bars of the Allegretto in A. Beethoven has added some crescendo and diminuendo markings in brown ink on f.36

[Folios 38-57]. The third fascicle containing movement V "Presto" in E major, marked "3" in ink on the first page. Beethoven has added the number at the start of the movement ("No.5"). The composer’s important additions include several in ink. Those in pencil include: in the margins of f.38 verso a two-note chord and tenor clef ("2 Noten"), and on f.39 verso (and again on f.46 recto and verso) musical notation on hand-drawn ledger-lines. On folio 48, he has added four crescendo markings ("cres:"), first in pencil and has then gone over them himself in brown ink. He has added the word "Ritmo" in the margins at the start of the section "Ritmo di quattro battute" on f.48 verso. We can see his characteristic bass clef on folio 50 verso. Towards the end of the movement, on folios 56 and 57, Beethoven has written in brown ink the markings "sul ponticello" and "da capo, per l’ordinario" in between the staves. The end of the movement is marked by the scribe "attacca", indicating that the next movement (on the next bundle of the manuscript), is to be played without a break.

[Folios 58-77]. The fourth fascicle of the manuscript, marked "4" on the first page, containing the final two movements. It was probably separate at some stage, thereby accounting for Beethoven’s miss-numbering of both movements.

Movement VI. "Adagio quasi un poco andte" [folio 58-59]. The slow introduction to the finale, in G-sharp minor. Beethoven has added the number at the beginning of the music ("No.5" [again!]).

Movement VII "Allegro" [folios 59-77]. The last movement, in C-sharp minor. Beethoven has added the number at the beginning of the movement ("6"), which has the editorial correction in crayon to "7". Throughout this movement, Beethoven has added a number of hairpins for crescendos and diminuendos. The final two leaves are written on completely different paper to the rest of the manuscript. Although this can be accounted for by the copyist running out of paper, or even by accidental damage, Robert Winter (p.106) explains that in fact Beethoven originally intended a different ending for the quartet, using the theme in the tonic major (D-flat major) finally used for the slow movement of the very last quartet, Op.135.