11 Bagatelles

By 1820, Beethoven had established himself as the pre-eminent Viennese composer of piano sonatas. The colossal Hammerklavier had appeared a year earlier and he would compose his transcendent final three sonatas over the following two years. At the same time, he was preoccupied with smaller forms, and while working on the last sonatas he compiled a volume of 11 bagatelles—shorter, lighter works that could as easily stand alone as be performed in sequence. The last five of these (as we know them now) were published in a Viennese didactic anthology in 1820, while the remainder appeared with them in 1822 in editions in London and Paris. Some of them truly are Kleinigkeiten or “trifles”, as Beethoven designated them: the galumphing fifth piece, the forlorn waltz of “No. 9” or the 13-bar snippet of “No. 10”, for example, last considerably less than a minute each. Everywhere, though, Beethoven’s brusque humour shines through, and the final bagatelle features one of his most endearing melodies.