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Draft research (continuation)
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Since G. Nottebohm's studies were published in the collections of essays Beethoveniana (1872) and Zweite Beethoveniana (1887), Beethoven's sketches have been considered an integral part of his compositional method. Yet they are merely working papers as used by other composers. The difference lies mainly in the fact that Beethoven kept all his sketches till the end of his life despite numerous moves. The surviving manuscripts were almost without exception part of his estate. As Beethoven got into the habit of making sketches for almost all his works, whether large or small, complete or incomplete, the sketches are an ideal source for his artistic biography. They provide valuable information on his aesthetic ideas.
The sketches are private notes, meant only for the composer's eyes. They do not claim to be final and have no artistic value in themselves, rather they have different functions within the creative process and range from short first ideas and longer passages to score-like elaborations. The form of notation and the material on which the sketches were made varies. Sketches and drafts are found on single leaves and sheets, in smaller and larger notebooks which were specially made for this purpose. They can also be found in clean copies of autographs, copies made by copyists or scattered in conversation books. A method can, however, be detected in the use of the materials.
Up to 1798 Beethoven mainly made his sketches on single sheets of paper, bifolios or small gatherings of unattached sheets. From autumn 1798 onwards he began to work with bound sketchbooks. He used small pocket sketchbooks, typical of his later years, for composing in the open air. They fitted comfortably in his coat pocket and were always on hand if he needed to jot down fleeting ideas on his walks or visits to inns. The pocket sketchbooks are predominantly written in pencil. Some of the jottings were inked over at a later stage. Beethoven used large, oblong desk sketchbooks when working at his desk. In the last three years of his life there were also the so-called "score sketches". They are not actually new in themselves but grew out of the experiences he made with "working scores", that is scores which began as clean copies but which degenerated into sketches as work on the composition progressed. The score sketches, however, were from the outset intended as provisional versions prior to the final "clean" score.
An evaluation of the sketch manuscripts has to take into account that not all of them have survived. At the auction held on 5 November 1827 the "Notirungen" (notations), "Notirbücher" (notation books) or "brauchbaren Skizzen" (useful sketches) listed in the inventory of Beethoven's estate were torn apart and in the following decades scattered by those who acquired them, most of whom were Viennese art dealers and music lovers. Books and even single sheets were torn apart because the sketches were popular souvenirs. Between the years 1798 and 1826 Beethoven had used more than 30 large sketchbooks. Today some of them have disappeared and others have only survived as fragments. Only a few have survived in the same condition as Beethoven left them. There are 37 surviving pocket sketchbooks from the years 1811 to 1826, yet the actual number would have been somewhat larger.
H. Schmidt provides an overview of all of the sketches in his catalogue of Beethoven's sketches (Beethoven Jahrbuch VI, 1969). The catalogue of Beethoven's autographs and copies in the former West Berlin "Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz" (Berlin 1975) produced by H.-G. Klein is a valuable addition, as it describes the contents of the manuscripts in the collection in minute detail. A detailed account of other collections of sketches (former East Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek; Cracow, Collections of the former Berlin Preußische Staatsbibliothek; Bonn, Beethoven Haus; London, The British Library; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale; Vienna, Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde) has yet to be produced. The book "The Beethoven Sketchbooks. History - Reconstruction - Inventory" by D. Johnson, A. Tyson and R. Winter (with contributions by S. Brandenburg, Oxford 1985) is of central importance for research into the sketches.
Very few of Beethoven's sketches have been edited up till now (publication series I). Due to the fleeting, abbreviated form of notation and the frequent cancellations and alterations they are extremely difficult to read. Nottebohm and other older authors restricted themselves to transcribing extracts. With the publication of a facsimile of the Engelmann sketchbook (Sketches for the Diabelli Variations and the Ninth Symphony from 1823) in 1913, the first facsimile of a longer, coherent sketch manuscript was published. The first transcription of a complete sketchbook followed in 1927 (Landsberg 7, Skizzen aus dem Jahre 1800/01). Transcriptions, in whatever form, always include a certain degree of interpretation by the transcriber. Modern editions therefore offer a facsimile of the transcribed manuscript for purposes of reference.
Sketches are mainly consulted to answer questions regarding the genesis of the musical text and the chronology of works. Their relevance for the musical analysis of the finished composition is a matter of debate.
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