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Images 12 to 17
At the end of variation 31 Beethoven could not restrain himself anymore. So far he had kept his temper, now his creative mind became unleashed. Having forgotten his intention of producing a clean copy, he started sketching again at the bottom of page 64 and the top of page 65 and had to use another insert.
The insert showing the final part of variation 31 was separated from the rest of the manuscript for a long time. In 1987 the Beethoven-Haus acquired it to finally complete the manuscript. Initially, the notation on the insert was done in pencil and later traced with ink. The handwritten reference below "zur Var: 33 [bzw. 30] gehörig" (part of variation 33 [i.e. 30]) indicates that Beethoven was not sure which variation the insert belonged to. Someone else used ink to change the number to 1. For a long time Beethoven did not decide how many variations to include in the cycle.
At the top of page 65 he crossed out the original notation for one voice. With reference to the insert he wrote: "nach anderem erhält Diabelli dieses" (among others Diabelli will receive this).
Although variation 32, an impressive fugue as a tribute to Georg Friedrich Händel, begins with forte already, it features a major progression. This progression also shows in Beethoven's writing. The composer fell into such passion that he accidentally overturned the ink well on page 71.
Page 75 contains the end of variation 32 and the beginning of variation 33. Again, the final part was a hard piece of work as numerous shavings show. At its beginning variation 33 contains three correction references to be communicated to London. The lighter ink and the space restrictions indicate that Beethoven later added the clefs (change from E flat major to C major) and the measure indication ¾ at the beginning of the second curly bracket. The tempo marks "(ma non tirarsi dietro) / aber nicht schleppend" (but not sluggish) are given not only in Italian as it was customary then but also in German. Since 1817 Beethoven set great store by tempo marks.
Also the last page of the manuscript containing the final two measures of the variation cycle gives evidence of how Beethoven strove for a perfect final version even in the last composition stage. The two upper lines include the completely crossed-out first version whereas the final one is written below.
The manuscript demonstrates very well the value of a handwritten Beethoven manuscript as opposed to a copy or printout. Both the composition and the composer's intention are clearly visible.
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