The Beethoven Sketchbooks

A comprehensive description of Beethoven's sketchbooks - bound books of music paper in which Beethoven made sketches for his compositions from about 1798 - has been long felt by Beethoven scholars. Although almost all the sketchbooks have survived in one form or another, it became clear in the 1960s that they were in a state of disarray. A reconstruction of their original condition was essential to the proper study of their musical contents. The book comprises: * Introductory chapters which summarize the ways in which past scholars have treated the sketches, explain the bewildering nomenclature that surrounds them, and proceed to more detailed discussions of the principal collections through which they passed. There is a central portion consisting of detailed accounts of individual desk and pocket sketchbooks. Each account follows the same basic plan: provenance of the manuscript, problems of reconstruction, chronology, contents, and structural chart. Later chapters deal with the sketches in score for the late quartets and highlight some of the problems. Beethovian scholars and students, especially those interested in the compositional process.

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