6 Bagatelles, Op. 126

In prefatory remarks to his edition of the works, Otto von Irmer notes that Beethoven meant the six bagatelles to be played in order as a single work, as least insofar as this can be inferred from a marginal annotation Beethoven made in the manuscript: "Ciclus von Kleinigkeiten" (cycle of little pieces). Lewis Lockwood suggests another reason to regard the work as a unity rather than a collection: starting with the second Bagatelle, the keys of the pieces fall in a regular succession of descending major thirds, a pattern Lockwood also notices in Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony and the String Quartet, Op. 127.