Arrangements of every kind were popular throughout the nineteenth century and, although Beethoven regarded them for the most part as distractions, he himself rescored several of his own compositions, among them the six noted earlier in Chapters 9, 12 and 27. Other compositions arranged or approved by him include three for piano trio: op. 36, based on the Second Symphony; op. 38 (for clarinet or violin, cello and piano), based on the Septet and written for the musical family of his doctor, Johann Schmidt; and op. 63, based on the String Quintet, op. 4, which, it may be recalled, was itself a transcription of the Wind Octet, op. 103, found among Beethoven's papers when he died. To these he added or approved two additional cello sonatas: op. 17, an arrangement of the Horn Sonata, and op. 64, an arrangement of the String Trio, op. 3.

Not surprisingly, Beethoven was outraged when Hoffmeister in Leipzig and Mollo in Vienna published string quintet arrangements of the Septet and the First Symphony without acknowledgement. As he wrote in the Wiener Zeitung of 20 October 1802:

The most intriguing of Beethoven's own arrangements, however, is the String Quartet in F major (Hess 34), based on his Piano Sonata in E major, op. 14 no. 1; intriguing because, on his own admission, he disapproved of the practice, but wanted nevertheless to prove to himself and to others that he could do the job as well as his two great forebears:[…]