Beethoven’s Experiments in Composition: The Late Bagatelles

Although the Bagatelles Op. 119 and Op. 126 are often considered together—as here—the two collections are quite different in origin. Op. 126 was apparently composed at one stretch, in 1823-24, and was published (by Schott) in 1825. The pieces were evidently planned as a unit: they were sketched on an integral group of leaves ¹ where Beethoven called them a "Ciclus von Kleinigkeiten"—a term that may refer not only to their performance as movements of a single work but also, as Nottebohtn first suggested,' to the major-third cycle that connects their keys. ² The earlier set, Op. 119, was more heterogeneously conceived. No. 6 is found in a draft on sketch pages which also contain studies for the Missa solemnis, as Nottebohm observed; the piece would thus date from 1819-20. ³ Nos. 7-11 are sketched in a book devoted chiefly to the Missa and Op. 109. ⁴ They were published as part of a Wiener Pianoforteschule (by Friedrich Starke) in 1821, and had been written shortly before for this purpose. ⁵ In 1822 Beethoven finished five more bagatelles. These he com 380bined with the other six to create the present suite, and in that form they were published in 1823 (by Clementi in London). ⁶ Actually, it seems that all the "new" bagatelles were based on much older material. Nos. 2 and 4 are probably the earliest; they are sketched along with a cadenza for the Second Piano Concerto and an unfinished "Erlkonig" (WoO 131). ⁷ Nos 3 and 5 are found in the "Wielhorsky" and "Kessler" Sketchbooks respectively. And since the time of Nottebohm it has been assumed that No. 1 is also of early origin, although no sketches have yet come to light.