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Kerman (1967, Beethoven’s String Quartets) has interesting information on a now better-known manuscript copy made by Beethoven in 1799 (usually called the "first version" misleadingly; it's the earliest version we know of, but it's not the autograph manuscript - which is lost - or the provable first complete version that Beethoven wrote, his compositional process from sketches to published work just doesn't exist in anywhere near that state of continuity) - of the F major quartet, sent to Karl Amenda - then later followed with a communication requesting that Amenda not distribute the quartet, as Beethoven had since learned much more about quartet composing and revised the F major quartet extensively (or words to that effect- I've returned my library copy of Kerman, but the words are in that well-known book, will edit when I get a chance.) ... (I wonder though if he revised the D major quartet (1798) before publication too. Kerman also notes that when the last three quartets of this set (chronologically) - Mollo published two groups of quartets, not the whole six of opus 18 as one group - were published, Beethoven mentions that many errors had gone uncorrected in the Mollo edition - Kerman notes that as that edition is almost all we have for those quartets, it's almost impossible to correct those errors today. Schissel | Sound the Note! 03:23, 25 February 2013 (UTC)[reply]
