The Eleven Bagatelles, Op. 119 were written by Ludwig van Beethoven between the 1790s and the early 1820s.

History

By the end of 1803, Beethoven had already sketched bagatelles Nos. 1 to 5 (along with several other short works for piano that he never published). In 1820, he first finished the last five bagatelles of Op. 119, and published them as a set of five in June 1821 for Wiener Pianoforteschule Schule by Friedrich Stark. The following year, he revised his old bagatelle sketches to construct a new collection for publication, adding a final bagatelle, No. 6, composed in late 1822. Initially Beethoven struggled to get a deal to publish any of the bagatelles. Beethoven met with many people such as Peters of Leipzig and Pacini in Paris for publishing, who declined his request. Eventually Beethoven managed to have the entire set published: first by Clementi in London in 1823, Maurice Schlesinger in Paris some time around the end of 1823, and Sauer & Leidesdorf in Vienna on in April 1824. It is unclear to what degree this represents the composer's intentions. Some scholars have argued that the two halves of Op. 119 — Nos. 1 to 6, and Nos. 7 to 11 — are best thought of as separate collections. However, it is also possible that when Beethoven composed No. 6 in late 1822, he had already planned to send all eleven pieces to England. In that case, No. 6 would not be meant as a conclusion to the first five, but as a way to connect them with the latter five. The key relationship and thematic similarities between No. 6 and No. 7 support this hypothesis, as does the fact that in subsequent correspondence, Beethoven expressed only satisfaction with how the bagatelles were published in England after his ex-pupil Ferdinand Ries helped get the collection published.

Form

A typical performance of Op. 119 lasts around fourteen minutes.