Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Autograph manuscript with a musical sketch, a leaf from one of the conversation books, n.p. [Vienna], n.d. [c.8 August 1825]
An unpublished leaf from the conversation books: Beethoven sketches an early idea for the Cavatina of the String Quartet No 13, Op. 130, before turning his attention to 22 bottles of wine and a book on world travel. Rare at auction: only one other leaf from the conversation books has appeared in the past 25 years (RBH).

In German. Two pages, 195 x 119mm, in pencil, the recto with six bars of music above two lines of text and a set of figures, the verso with nine lines of text.

Provenance:
(1) Musikantiquariat Hans Schneider, Tutzing, cat. 180 (1973), no 9.

(2) Schøyen Collection, MS 5268.

Text:
Recto: ‘+ 22 Vösl. Flsch
aufm Tisch

2 fl: 30
50
18
4
3 fl: 42’

Verso: ‘Strauß dorotheer
Gaße No 1108
bibliothek der
neuestens Entdeckungs[-]
reisen alle Monath
2 oder 3 Bände
prenumeration
auf 20 Bände
6 fl: C.M‘

The six bars of music on the recto have been identified by Professor Barry Cooper as an early sketch for the theme of the Cavatina movement of the String Quartet No 13, Op. 130, dating from early August 1825. Beethoven spent about a month working on this opening theme and the present sketch is therefore one of many for this passage, showing some advancement on another in the conversation books (Konversationshefte, Bd. 8, p.39), dating from around 7 August 1825. A precise dating for the present leaf, and the Cavatina sketch, is found in the text on the verso: Beethoven has copied almost verbatim an advert placed by the bookseller-publisher Anton Strauß in the Wiener Zeitung of 8 August for a forthcoming travel series, the Bibliothek der neuesten Entdeckungsreisen, including the address on Vienna’s Dorotheer Gasse where it might be purchased and for what price (cf. Wiener Zeitung, 8 August 1825: ‘Dorotheergasse Nr. 1108 / Bibliothek der neuesten Entdeckunsreisen / Alle Monathe erscheinen abwechselnd zwei oder drey Bände / Die Pränumeration / 6 fl. C.M.’). In the text beneath the musical sketch on the recto, Beethoven refers to ‘22 bottles of Vöslauer [wine] on the table’; it is not clear to what the sum beneath these lines relate.

By 1818 Beethoven was virtually stone deaf, necessitating a shift to pencil and paper to communicate with friends and acquaintances. This was the start of the ‘conversation books’, much of whose content shows his interlocutors writing down their side of the conversation, to which Beethoven would reply aloud. However, the composer also used these blank books for his private purposes, recording household information, shopping lists, drafts for letters and even musical sketches, as here. 139 of the conversation books survived the custody of Anton Schindler, Beethoven’s secretary and biographer, who took possession of the volumes after Beethoven’s death, seeing fit to destroy some of them.

Unpublished.

Christie's is grateful to Professor Barry Cooper for his research and advice on the present lot.