Sketches for Piano Trio in B-Flat Major, op. 97 (the “Archduke Trio”)

Ludwig van Beethoven changed the trajectory of Western music through a combination of ingenuity and sensitivity applied to traditional genres, such as the string quartet. This piece, now frequently referred to as the “Archduke Trio” (a title Beethoven neither bestowed nor knew), was first performed in April 1814, with Beethoven at the piano, and first published two years later. Beethoven is unique in having left behind so many of his musical sketches, or preliminary drafts of his finished compositions. The composer wrote most of these in sketchbooks—notebooks with music paper—many of which transferred to private hands after Beethoven’s death. These 19th-century owners often presented friends with a leaf or leaves cut from the books, which explains why the Library has only six pages from a once-larger sketchbook. Extensive scholarly research to theoretically reconstruct some of these sketchbooks has resulted in a fairly comprehensive understanding of this great composer’s creative process.