# Early Beethoven piano music



## Aurelian

Until about 1800 Beethoven wrote a large number of very short pieces (often only a few bars) for the piano. Unlike the sketches, these short pieces were neatly written with clefs, dynamics, etc. Most curiously, why he wrote them is unclear. They do not seem to be the basis of any of his published works. Are these pieces available somewhere? I did not find them at IMSLP.


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## KenOC

Aurelian said:


> Until about 1800 Beethoven wrote a large number of very short pieces...


It would be l helpful if you could supply names, WoO or Hess numbers, or some kind of reference. I'm not sure what pieces you are talking about.


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## Ukko

Aurelian said:


> Until about 1800 Beethoven wrote a large number of very short pieces (often only a few bars) for the piano. Unlike the sketches, these short pieces were neatly written with clefs, dynamics, etc. Most curiously, why he wrote them is unclear. They do not seem to be the basis of any of his published works. Are these pieces available somewhere? I did not find them at IMSLP.


You do need to supply some ID numbers, not that I could help you then. Is 1800 the right year? I figured most of those things for prior to 1792... mostly in ignorance.


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## Aurelian

KenOC: Reasonable question, but I don't think they have any catalog numbers...which may be why they are hard to find.


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## joen_cph

Pieces like 
http://unheardbeethoven.org/seldom-heard-beethoven/seldom-heard-works-with-hess-numbers/

or these ???
LP Beethoven:"Menuet" As-Dur (1783?)/Schnabel/angel 3lp mono ic6067
LP Beethoven:"Menuet" G-Dur ()/Varella-Cid/readers digest 10lp 81 GBET-A-110
LP Beethoven:"Rondo" A-Dur (1784?)/Schnabel/angel 3lp mono ic6067


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## KenOC

Beethoven was known primarily (not entirely) as a pianist prior to about1797. Look for those works here, starting with WoO 47:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...eethoven#Instrumental_works:_WoO_1.E2.80.9386


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## Aurelian

I first learned of these short pieces from the book "The Creative World of Beethoven". One of the essays is by Joseph Kerman:

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/740925?uid=3739840&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21102565637247

On the 10th page there are samples of these fragments. Unfortunately, it cost $29 to see them...

Thanks for the links Joen and Ken.


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