| This study focuses on the sketches for the first and last movements of Beethoven's string quartet in F major, Op. 18;The sources used were the sketchbook Grasnick 2 (SV 46), the last three folios of Grasnick 1 (SV 45), parts of Autograph 19e (SV 29), and a few associated leaves. A complete annotated transcription of the last pages of Grasnick 1 is included, but more importantly, transcriptions of virtually every relevant sketch, from whatever source, are provided in the body of the thesis itself.;In the chapter on sources is an account of a manuscript copy in Prague of the Opus 18 quartets, which contained some significant variants before being brought into line with the published version. A complete list of these now-erased variants is given for the A-major and B-flat-major quartets, where most of the discrepancies are concentrated. The remaining chapters, devoted to the movements mentioned earlier, treat the sketches in detail.;To minimize preassumptions, it was decided to refer to the completed works as infrequently as possible. This better approximates Beethoven's own situation, for he, of course, had no finished product on hand as he worked. In one sense, we might best understand each sketch as representing a finished piece (or part thereof), until the next one supplanted it. It was also decided to "intervene" in the written record by carefully fleshing out skeletal sketches, extending short ones, and connecting related ones, sometimes revealing an "implicit draft" in the process. This was attempted only when there was solid support for the results, and all such constructions are clearly distinguished from Beethoven's own notes. |
