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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.12.12.00*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced by John Mamoun <mamounjo@UMDNJ.EDU> with +help from numerous proofreaders, including those at the +Distributed Proofreaders' page of Charles Franks. + + + + +"Beethoven: the Man and the Artist, as Revealed in his own Words" + +edited by Friedrich Kerst and Henry Edward Krehbiel + + + + +(See the end of this electronic text for information about +the edition) + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS: + +BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH +PREFACE +CONCERNING ART +LOVE OF NATURE +CONCERNING TEXTS +ON COMPOSING +ON PERFORMING MUSIC +ON HIS OWN WORKS +ON ART AND ARTISTS +BEETHOVEN AS CRITIC +ON EDUCATION +ON HIS OWN DISPOSITION AND CHARACTER +THE SUFFERER +WORLDLY WISDOM +GOD +APPENDIX +INFO ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION + + + + +BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH + + + +Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) is widely considered to be one of +the pre-eminent classical music figures of the Western world. +This German musical genius created numerous works that are firmly +entrenched in the repertoire. Except for a weakness in composing +vocal and operatic music (to which he himself admitted, +notwithstanding a few vocal works like the opera "Fidelio" and the +song "Adelaide,"), Beethoven had complete mastery of the artform. +He left his stamp in 9 symphonies, 5 piano concertos, 10 violin +sonatas, 32 piano sonatas, numerous string quartets and dozens of +other key works. Many of his works are ingeniously imaginative +and innovated, such as his 3rd symphony (the "Eroica"), his 9th +Violin Sonata (The "Kreutzer"), his "Waldstein" piano sonata, his +4th and 5th piano concertos, or his "Grosse Fugue" for string +quartet. + +Of course, many of his works have their own unique character and +innovative "angle" to them. Comparing one to another risks +"comparing apples to oranges," since each adds its own detail to +Beethoven's grand musical paradigm. + +It is difficult to sum up briefly what his musical works represent +or symbolize, since taken together they encompass a vast system of +thought. Generally, however, those who apprehend his music sense +that it reflects their own personal yearnings and sufferings. It +egoistically, and always intelligently, "discusses" with its +listener his or her feelings in the wake of personal failure and +personal triumph, from the lowest depths of despair to the highest +heights of happy or triumphant fulfillment. In his music, he +represents the feelings felt by those attempting to achieve their +yearnings within their societies. + +In a thematic sense, Beethoven does not promote anarchist ideas. +The listener cannot, in listening to Beethoven's music, apprehend +ideas which, if applied, would compromise the welfare of his +society. The music is thus "civically responsible," as is the +music of Bach or Mozart. For Beethoven, the society exists as a +bulwark with which the individual must function in harmony, or at +least not function such as to harm or destroy it. And, should the +society marginalize or hurt the individual, as it often does, the +individual must, according to Beethoven, humbly accept this, never +considering the alternative act of attempting to harm or destroy +the society in the wake of his or her personal frustrations. But, +thanks to Beethoven, such an individual is provided with the means +to sooth his or her misery in the wake of feeling "hurt" at the +hands of society. The means is this music and the euphoric +pleasure that it can provide to minds possessing the psycho- +intellectual "wiring" needed to apprehend it. + +The following book consists of brief biographical commentaries +about Beethoven, each followed by sections of quotations +attributed to the muse. In these quotes, Beethoven demonstrates +his intense preoccupation (or obsession) with thinking +artistically and intelligently, and with helping to alleviate +man's suffering by providing man with musical artworks that could +enlighten him, so as to become educated enough to pull himself out +of his misery. He felt immediate, strong disdain at any artistic +statement that was not truly intelligent and artistic, such as the +music of Rossini. Although not prudish, he had high standards +when it came to marriage, and was morally against "reproductory +pleasure" for its own sake, or any form of adultery. He never +married. Interestingly, experimental psychologists have +discovered that people who have an intense love of humanity or +are preoccupied with working to serve humanity tend to have +difficulty forming intimate bonds with people on a personal +level. + + + + ********************************* + + + +PREFACE + + + +This little book came into existence as if it were by chance. +The author had devoted himself for a long time to the study of +Beethoven and carefully scrutinized all manner of books, +publications, manuscripts, etc., in order to derive the greatest +possible information about the hero. He can say confidently that +he conned every existing publication of value. His notes made +during his readings grew voluminous, and also his amazement at +the wealth of Beethoven's observations comparatively unknown to +his admirers because hidden away, like concealed violets, in +books which have been long out of print and for whose +reproduction there is no urgent call. These observations are of +the utmost importance for the understanding of Beethoven, in +whom man and artist are inseparably united. Within the pages +of this little book are included all of them which seemed to +possess value, either as expressions of universal truths or as +evidence of the character of Beethoven or his compositions. +Beethoven is brought more directly before our knowledge by these +his own words than by the diffuse books which have been written +about him. For this reason the compiler has added only the +necessary explanatory notes, and (on the advice of professional +friends) the remarks introductory to the various subdivisions of +the book. He dispensed with a biographical introduction; there +are plenty of succinct biographies, which set forth the +circumstances of the master's life easily to be had. Those who +wish to penetrate farther into the subject would do well to +read the great work by Thayer, the foundation of all Beethoven +biography(in the new revision now making by Deiters), or the +critical biography by Marx, as revised by Behncke. In sifting +the material it was found that it fell naturally into thirteen +subdivisions. In arranging the succession of utterances care +was had to group related subjects. By this means unnecessary +interruptions in the train of thought were avoided and +interesting comparisons made possible. To this end it was +important that time, place and circumstances of every word +should be conscientiously set down. + +Concerning the selection of material let it be said that in all +cases of doubt the authenticity of every utterance was proved; +Beethoven is easily recognizable in the form and contents of his +sayings. Attention must be directed to two matters in particular: +after considerable reflection the compiler decided to include in +the collection a few quotations which Beethoven copied from books +which he read. From the fact that he took the trouble to write +them down, we may assume that they had a fascination for him, and +were greeted with lively emotion as being admirable expressions +of thoughts which had moved him. They are very few, and the fact +that they are quotations is plainly indicated. By copying them +into his note-books Beethoven as much as stored them away in the +thesaurus of his thoughts, and so they may well have a place +here. A word touching the use of the three famous letters to +Bettina von Arnim, the peculiarities of which differentiate them +from the entire mass of Beethoven's correspondence and compel an +inquiry into their genuineness: As a correspondent Bettina von +Arnim has a poor reputation since the discovery of her pretty +forgery, "Goethes Briefwechsel mit einem Kinde" (Goethe's +Correspondence with a Child). In this alleged "Correspondence" +she made use of fragmentary material which was genuine, pieced +it out with her own inventions, and even went so far as to turn +into letters poems written by Goethe to her and other women. The +genuineness of a poem by Beethoven to Bettina is indubitable; it +will be found in the chapter entitled "Concerning Texts." Doubt +was thrown on the letters immediately on their appearance in 1839. + +Bettina could have dissipated all suspicion had she produced the +originals and remained silent. One letter, however, that dates +February 10, 1811, afterward came to light Bettina had given it +to Philipp von Nathusius. It had always been thought the most +likely one, of the set to be authentic; the compiler has +therefore, used it without hesitation. From the other letters, +in which a mixture of the genuine and the fictitious must be +assumed so long as the originals are not produced, passages have +been taken which might have been thus constructed by Beethoven. +On the contrary, the voluminous communications of Bettina to +Goethe, in which she relates her conversations with Beethoven, +were scarcely used. It is significant, so far as these are +concerned, that, according to Bettina's own statement, when she +read the letter to him before sending it off, Beethoven cried out, +"Did I really say that? If so I must have had a raptus." + +In conclusion the compiler directs attention to the fact that in +a few cases utterances which have been transmitted to us only in +an indirect form have been altered to present them in a direct +form, in as much as their contents seemed too valuable to omit +simply because their production involved a trifling change in +form. + + +--Elberfeld, October, 1904. Fr. K. + + + +CONCERNING ART + + + +Beethoven's relation to art might almost be described as +personal. Art was his goddess to whom he made petition, to whom +he rendered thanks, whom he defended. He praised her as his +savior in times of despair; by his own confession it was only +the prospect of her comforts that prevented him from laying +violent hands on himself. Read his words and you shall find +that it was his art that was his companion in his wanderings +through field and forest, the sharer of the solitude to which +his deafness condemned him. The concepts Nature and Art were +intimately bound up in his mind. His lofty and idealistic +conception of art led him to proclaim the purity of his goddess +with the hot zeal of a priestly fanatic. Every form of pseudo +or bastard art stirred him with hatred to the bottom of his +soul; hence his furious onslaughts on mere virtuosity and all +efforts from influential sources to utilize art for other than +purely artistic purposes. And his art rewarded his devotion +richly; she made his sorrowful life worth living with gifts of +purest joy: + +"To Beethoven music was not only a manifestation of the +beautiful, an art, it was akin to religion. He felt himself to +be a prophet, a seer. All the misanthropy engendered by his +unhappy relations with mankind, could not shake his devotion to +this ideal which had sprung in to Beethoven from truest +artistic apprehension and been nurtured by enforced +introspection and philosophic reflection." + +("Music and Manners," page 237. H. E. K.) + + + + +1. "'Tis said, that art is long, and life but fleeting:-- +Nay; life is long, and brief the span of art; +If e're her breath vouchsafes with gods a meeting, +A moment's favor 'tis of which we've had a part." + +(Conversation book, March, 1820. Probably a quotation.) + +2. "The world is a king, and, like a king, desires flattery in +return for favor; but true art is selfish and perverse--it will +not submit to the mould of flattery." + +(Conversation book, March, 1820. When Baron van Braun expressed +the opinion that the opera "Fidelio" would eventually win the +enthusiasm of the upper tiers, Beethoven said, "I do not write +for the galleries!" He never permitted himself to be persuaded +to make concessions to the taste of the masses.) + +3. "Continue to translate yourself to the heaven of art; there +is no more undisturbed, unmixed, purer happiness than may thus +be attained." + +(August 19, 1817, to Xavier Schnyder, who vainly sought +instruction from Beethoven in 1811, though he was pleasantly +received.) + +4. "Go on; do not practice art alone but penetrate to her heart; +she deserves it, for art and science only can raise man to +godhood." + +(Teplitz, July 17, 1812, to his ten years' old admirer, Emilie M. +in H.) + +5. "True art is imperishable and the true artist finds profound +delight in grand productions of genius." + +(March 15, 1823, to Cherubini, to whom he also wrote, "I prize +your works more than all others written for the stage." The +letter asked Cherubini to interest himself in obtaining a +subscription from King Louis XVIII for the Solemn Mass in D). + +[Cherubini declared that he had never received the letter. That +it was not only the hope of obtaining a favor which prompted +Beethoven to express so high an admiration for Cherubini, is +plain from a remark made by the English musician Cipriani +Potterto A. W. Thayer in 1861. I found it in Thayer's note-books +which were placed in my hands for examination after his death. + +One day Potter asked, "Who is the greatest living composer, +yourself excepted?" Beethoven seemed puzzled for a moment, and +then exclaimed, "Cherubini." H. E. K.] + +6. "Truth exists for the wise; beauty for the susceptible heart. +They belong together--are complementary." + +(Written in the autograph book of his friend, Lenz von Breuning, +in 1797.) + +7. "When I open my eyes, a sigh involuntarily escapes me, for all +that I see runs counter to my religion; perforce I despise the +world which does not intuitively feel that music is a higher +revelation than all wisdom and philosophy." + +(Remark made to Bettina von Arnim, in 1810, concerning Viennese +society. Report in a letter by Bettina to Goethe on May 28, +1810.) + +8. "Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning +this great goddess?" + +(August 11, 1810, to Bettina von Arnim.) + +9. "In the country I know no lovelier delight than quartet +music." + +(To Archduke Rudolph, in a letter addressed to Baden on July 24, +1813.) + +10. "Nothing but art, cut to form like old-fashioned hoop- +skirts. I never feel entirely well except when I am among scenes +of unspoiled nature." + +(September 24, 1826, to Breuning, while promenading with +Breuning's family in the Schonbrunner Garden, after calling +attention to the alleys of trees "trimmed like walls, in the +French manner.") + +11. Nature knows no quiescence; and true art walks with her hand +in hand; her sister--from whom heaven forefend us!--is called +artificiality." + +(From notes in the lesson book of Archduke Rudolph, following +some remarks on the expansion of the expressive capacity of +music.) + + + +LOVE OF NATURE + + + +Beethoven was a true son of the Rhine in his love for nature. As +a boy he had taken extended trips, sometimes occupying days, with +his father "through the Rhenish localities ever lastingly dear to +me." In his days of physical health Nature was his instructress +in art; "I may not come without my banner," he used to say when +he set out upon his wanderings even in his latest years, and +never without his note books. In the scenes of nature he found +his marvelous motives and themes; brook, birds and tree sang to +him. In a few special cases he has himself recorded the fact. + +But when he was excluded more and more from communion with his +fellow men because of his increasing deafness, until, finally, he +could communicate only by writing with others (hence the +conversation-books, which will be cited often in this little +volume), he fled for refuge to nature. Out in the woods he again +became naively happy; to him the woods were a Holy of Holies, a +Home of the Mysteries. Forest and mountainvale heard his sighs; +there he unburdened his heavy-laden heart. When his friends need +comfort he recommends a retreat to nature. Nearly every summer he +leaves hot and dusty Vienna and seeks a quiet spot in the +beautiful neighborhood. To call a retired and reposeful little +spot his own is his burning desire. + + + +12. On the Kahlenberg, 1812, end of September: + +Almighty One +In the woods +I am blessed. +Happy every one +In the woods. +Every tree speaks +Through Thee. + +O God! +What glory in the +Woodland. +On the Heights +is Peace,-- +Peace to serve +Him-- + +(This poetic exclamation, accompanied by a few notes, is on a +page of music paper owned by Joseph Joachim.) + +13. "How happy I am to be able to wander among bushes and herbs, +under trees and over rocks; no man can love the country as I love +it. Woods, trees and rocks send back the echo that man desires." + +(To Baroness von Drossdick.) + +14. "O God! send your glance into beautiful nature and comfort +your moody thoughts touching that which must be." + +(To the "Immortal Beloved," July 6, in the morning.) + +[Thayer has spoiled the story so long believed, and still +spooking in the books of careless writers, that the "Immortal +Beloved" was the Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, to whom the +C-sharp minor sonata is dedicated. The real person to whom the +love-letters were addressed was the Countess Brunswick to whom +Beethoven was engaged to be married when he composed the fourth +Symphony. H. E. K.) + +15. "My miserable hearing does not trouble me here. In the +country it seems as if every tree said to me: 'Holy! holy!' Who +can give complete expression to the ecstasy of the woods ! O, +the sweet stillness of the woods!" + +(July, 1814; he had gone to Baden after the benefit performance +of "Fidelio.") + +16. "My fatherland, the beautiful locality in which I saw the +light of the world, appears before me vividly and just as +beautiful as when I left you; I shall count it the happiest +experience of my life when I shall again be able to see you, +and greet our Father Rhine." + +(Vienna, June 29, to Wegeler, in Bonn.) + +[In 1825 Beethoven said to his pupil Ries, "Fare well in the Rhine +country which is ever dear to me," and in 1826 wrote to Schott, +the publisher in Mayence, about the "Rhine country which I so long +to see again."] + +17. "Bruehl, at "The Lamb"--how lovely to see my native country +again!" + +(Diary, 1812-1818.) + +18. "A little house here, so small as to yield one's self a +little room,--only a few days in this divine Bruehl,--longing or +desire, emancipation or fulfillment." + +(Written in 1816 in Bruehl near Modling among the sketches for +the Scherzo of the pianoforte sonata op. 10.) + +[Like many another ejaculatory remark of Beethoven's, it is +difficult to understand. See Appendix. H. E. K.] + +19. "When you reach the old ruins, think that Beethoven often +paused there; if you wander through the mysterious fir forests, +think that. Beethoven often poetized, or, as is said, composed +there." + +(In the fall of 1817, to Mme. Streicher, who was at a cure in +Baden.) + +20. "Nature is a glorious school for the heart! It is well; I +shall be a scholar in this school and bring an eager heart to her +instruction. Here I shall learn wisdom, the only wisdom that is +free from disgust; here I shall learn to know God and find a +foretaste of heaven in His knowledge. Among these occupations my +earthly days shall flow peacefully along until I am accepted into +that world where I shall no longer be a student, but a knower of +wisdom." + +(Copied into his diary, in 1818, from Sturm's "Betrachtungen uber +die Werke Gottes in der Natur.") + +21. "Soon autumn will be here. Then I wish to be like unto a +fruitful tree which pours rich stores of fruit into our laps! But +in the winter of existence, when I shall be gray and sated with +life, I desire for myself the good fortune that my repose be as +honorable and beneficent as the repose of nature in the winter +time." + +(Copied from the same work of Sturm's.) + + + +CONCERNING TEXTS + + + +Not even a Beethoven was spared the tormenting question of texts +for composition. It is fortunate for posterity that he did not +exhaust his energies in setting inefficient libretti, that he did +not believe that good music would suffice to command success in +spite of bad texts. The majority of his works belong to the field +of purely instrumental music. Beethoven often gave expression to +the belief that words were a less capable medium of proclamation +for feelings than music. Nevertheless it may be observed that he +looked upon an opera, or lyric drama, as the crowning work of his +life. He was in communication with the best poets of his time +concerning opera texts. A letter of his on the subject was found +in the blood-spotted pocketbook of Theodor Komer. The conclusion +of his creative labors was to be a setting of Goethe's "Faust;" +except "Fidelio," however, he gave us no opera. His songs are not +many although he sought carefully for appropriate texts. +Unhappily the gift of poetry was not vouchsafed him. + + + +22. "Always the same old story: the Germans can not put together a +good libretto." + +(To C. M. von Weber, concerning the book of "Euryanthe," at Baden, +in October, 1823. Mozart said: "Verses are the most indispensable +thing for music, but rhymes, for the sake of rhymes, the most +injurious. Those who go to work so pedantically will assuredly +come to grief, along with the music.") + +23. "It is difficult to find a good poem. Grillparzer has promised +to write one for me,--indeed, he has already written one; but we +can not understand each other. I want something entirely different +than he." + +(In the spring of 1825, to Ludwig Rellstab, who was intending to +write an opera-book for Beethoven. It may not be amiss to recall +the fact that Mozart examined over one hundred librettos, +according to his own statement, before he decided to compose "The +Marriage of Figaro.") + +24. "It is the duty of every composer to be familiar with all +poets, old and new, and himself choose the best and most fitting +for his purposes." + +(In a recommendation of Kandler's "Anthology.") + +25. "The genre would give me little concern provided the subject +were attractive to me. It must be such that I can go to work on +it with love and ardor. I could not compose operas like "Don +Juan" and "Figaro;" toward them I feel too great a repugnance. I +could never have chosen such subjects; they are too frivolous." + +(In the spring of 1825, to Ludwig Rellstab.) + +26. "I need a text which stimulates me; it must be something +moral, uplifting. Texts such as Mozart composed I should never +have been able to set to music. I could never have got myself +into a mood for licentious texts. I have received many librettos, +but, as I have said, none that met my wishes." + +(To young Gerhard von Breuning.) + +27. "I know the text is extremely bad, but after one has conceived +an entity out of even a bad text, it is difficult to make changes +in de tails without disturbing the unity. If it is a single word, +on which occasionally great weight is laid, it must be permitted +to stand. He is a bad author who can not, or will not try to make +something as good as possible; if this is not the case petty +changes will certainly not improve the whole." + +(Teplitz, August 23, 1811, to Hartel, the publisher, who wanted +some changes made in the hook of "The Mount of Olives.") + +28. "Good heavens! Do they think in Saxony that the words make +good music? If an inappropriate word can spoil the music, which +is true, then we ought to be glad when we find that words and +music are one and not try to improve matters even if the verbal +expression is commonplace--dixi." + +(January 28, to Gottfried Hartel, who had undertaken to make +changes in the book of "The Mount of Olives" despite the +prohibition of Beethoven.) + +29. "Goethe's poems exert a great power over me not only because +of their contents but also because of their rhythms; I am +stimulated to compose by this language, which builds itself up to +higher orders as if through spiritual agencies, and bears in +itself the secret of harmonies." + +(Reported as an expression of Beethoven's by Bettina von Arnim to +Goethe.) + +30. "Schiller's poems are difficult to set to music. The composer +must be able to rise far above the poet. Who can do that in the +case of Schiller? In this respect Goethe is much easier." + +(1809, after Beethoven had made his experiences with the "Hymn to +Joy" and "Egmont.") + + + +ON COMPOSING + + + +Wiseacres not infrequently accused Beethoven of want of +regularity in his compositions. In various ways and at divers +times he gave vigorous utterance to his opinions of such +pedantry. He was not the most tractable of pupils, especially in +Vienna, where, although he was highly praised as a player, he +took lessons in counterpoint from Albrechtsberger. He did not +endure long with Papa Haydn. He detested the study of fugue in +particular; the fugue was to him a symbol of narrow coercion +which choked all emotion. Mere formal beauty, moreover, was +nothing to him. Over and over again he emphasizes soul, feeling, +direct and immediate life, as the first necessity of an art work. +It is therefore not strange that under certain circumstances he +ignored conventional forms in sonata and symphony. An +irrepressible impulse toward freedom is the most prominent +peculiarity of the man and artist Beethoven; nearly all of his +observations, no matter what their subject, radiate the word +"Liberty." In his remarks about composing there is a complete +exposition of his method of work. + + + +31. "As regards me, great heavens! my dominion is in the air; the +tones whirl like the wind, and often there is a like whirl in my +soul." + +(February 13, 1814, to Count Brunswick, in Buda.) + +32. "Then the loveliest themes slipped out of your eyes into my +heart, themes which shall only then delight the world when +Beethoven conducts no longer." + +(August 15, 1812, to Bettina von Arnim.) + +33. "I always have a picture in my mind when composing, and follow +its lines." + +(In 1815, to Neate, while promenading with him in Baden and +talking about the "Pastoral" symphony.) + +[Ries relates: "While composing Beethoven frequently thought of an +object, although he often laughed at musical delineation and +scolded about petty things of the sort. In this respect 'The +Creation' and 'The Seasons' were many times a butt, though without +depreciation of Haydn's loftier merits. Haydn's choruses and other +works were loudly praised by Beethoven."] + +34. "The texts which you sent me are least of all fitted for song. +The description of a picture belongs to the field of painting; in +this the poet can count himself more fortunate than my muse for +his territory is not so restricted as mine in this respect, though +mine, on the other hand, extends into other regions, and my +dominion is not easily reached." + +(Nussdorf, July 15, 1817, to Wilhelm Gerhard, who had sent him +some Anacreontic songs for composition.) + +35. "Carried too far, all delineation in instrumental music loses +in efficiency." + +(A remark in the sketches for the "Pastoral" symphony, preserved +in the Royal Library in Berlin.) + +[Mozart said: "Even in the most terrifying moments music must +never offend the ear."] + +36. "Yes, yes, then they are amazed and put their heads together +because they never found it in any book on thorough bass." + +(To Ries when the critics accused him of making grammatical +blunders in music.) + +37. "No devil can compel me to write only cadences of such a +kind." + +(From notes written in his years of study. Beethoven called the +composition of fugues "the art of making musical skeletons.") + +38. "Good singing was my guide; I strove to write as flowingly as +possible and trusted in my ability to justify myself before the +judgmentseat of sound reason and pure taste." + +(From notes in the instruction book of Archduke Rudolph.) + +39. "Does he believe that I think of a wretched fiddle when the +spirit speaks to me?" + +(To his friend, the admirable violinist Schuppanzigh, when the +latter complained of the difficulty of a passage in one of his +works.) + +[Beethoven here addresses his friend in the third person, which is +the customary style of address for the German nobility and others +towards inferiors in rank. H. E. K.] + +40. "The Scotch songs show how unconstrainedly irregular melodies +can be treated with the help of harmony." + +(Diary, 1812-1818. Since 1809 Beethoven had arranged Folksongs for +Thomson of Edinburgh.) + +41. "To write true church music, look through the old monkish +chorals, etc., also the most correct translations of the periods, +and perfect prosody in the Catholic Psalms and hymns generally." + +(Diary, 1818.) + +42. "Many assert that every minor piece must end in the minor. +Nego! On the contrary I find that in the soft scales the major +third at the close has a glorious and uncommonly quieting effect. +Joy follows sorrow, sunshine--rain. It affects me as if I were +looking up to the silvery glistering of the evening star." + +(From Archduke Rudolph's book of instruction.) + +43. "Rigorists, and devotees of antiquity, relegate the perfect +fourth to the list of dissonances. Tastes differ. To my ear it +gives not the least offence combined with other tones." + +(From Archduke Rudolph's book of instruction, compiled in 1809.) + +44. "When the gentlemen can think of nothing new, and can go no +further, they quickly call in a diminished seventh chord to help +them out of the predicament." + +(A remark made to Schindler.) + +45. "My dear boy, the startling effects which many credit to the +natural genius of the composer, are often achieved with the +greatest ease by the use and resolution of the diminished +seventh chords." + +(Reported by Karl Friederich Hirsch, a pupil of Beethoven in the +winter of 1816. He was a grandson of Albrechtsberger who had +given lessons to Beethoven.) + +46. "In order to become a capable composer one must have already +learned harmony and counterpoint at the age of from seven to +eleven years, so that when the fancy and emotions awake one +shall know what to do according to the rules." + +(Reported by Schindler as having been put into the mouth of +Beethoven by a newspaper of Vienna. Schindler says: "When +Beethoven came to Vienna he knew no counterpoint, and little +harmony.") + +47. "So far as mistakes are concerned it was never necessary for +me to learn thorough-bass; my feelings were so sensitive from +childhood that I practiced counterpoint without knowing that it +must be so or could be otherwise." + +(Note on a sheet containing directions for the use of fourths in +suspensions--probably intended for the instruction of Archduke +Rudolph.) + +48. "Continue, Your Royal Highness, to write down briefly your +occasional ideas while at the pianoforte. For this a little +table alongside the pianoforte is necessary. By this means not +only is the fancy strengthened, but one learns to hold fast in a +moment the most remote conceptions. It is also necessary to +compose without the pianoforte; say often a simple chord melody, +with simple harmonies, then figurate according to the rules of +counterpoint, and beyond them; this will give Y. R. H. no +headache, but, on the contrary, feeling yourself thus in the +midst of art, a great pleasure." + +(July 1, 1823, to his pupil Archduke Rudolph.) + + +49. "The bad habit, which has clung to me from childhood, of +always writing down a musical thought which occurs to me, good +or bad, has often been harmful to me." + +(July 23, 1815, to Archduke Rudolph, while excusing himself for +not having visited H.R.H., on the ground that he had been +occupied in noting a musical idea which had occurred to him.) + +50. "As is my habit, the pianoforte part of the concerto (op. 19) +was not written out in the score; I have just written it, +wherefore, in order to expedite matters, you receive it in my +not too legible handwriting." + +(April 22, 1801, to the publisher Hofmeister, in Leipzig.) + +51. "Correspondence, as you know, was never my forte; some of my +best friends have not had a letter from me in years. I live only +in my notes (compositions), and one is scarcely finished when +another is begun. As I am working now I often compose three, +even four, pieces simultaneously." + +(Vienna, June 29, 1800, to Wegeler, in Bonn.) + +52. "I never write a work continuously, without interruption. I am +always working on several at the same time, taking up one, then +another." + +(June 1, 1816, to Medical Inspector Dr. Karl von Bursy, when the +latter asked about an opera (the book by Berge, sent to +Beethoven by Amenda), which was never written.) + +53. "I must accustom myself to think out at once the whole, as +soon as it shows itself, with all the voices, in my head." + +(Note in a sketch-book of 1810, containing studies for the music +to "Egmont" and the great Trio in B-flat, op. 97. H. E. K.) + +54. "I carry my thoughts about me for a long time, often a very +long time, before I write them down; meanwhile my memory is so +faithful that I am sure never to forget, not even in years, a +theme that has once occurred to me. I change many things, +discard, and try again until I am satisfied. Then, however, +there begins in my head the development in every direction, and, +in as much as I know exactly what I want, the fundamental idea +never deserts me,--it arise; before me, grows,--I see and hear +the picture in all its extent and dimensions stand before my +mind like a cast, and there remains for me nothing but the labor +of writing it down, which is quickly accomplished when I have +the time, for I sometimes take up other work, but never to the +confusion of one with the other. + +You will ask me where I get my ideas. That I cannot tell you with +certainty; they come unsummoned, directly, indirectly,--I could +seize them with my hands,--out in the open air; in the woods; +while walking; in the silence of the nights; early in the morning; +incited by moods, which are translated by the poet into words, by +me into tones that sound, and roar and storm about me until I have +set them down in notes." + +(Said to Louis Schlosser, a young musician, whom Beethoven honored +with his friendship in 1822-23.) + +55. "On the whole, the carrying out of several voices in strict +relationship mutually hinders their progress." + +(Fall of 1812, in the Diary of 1812-18.) + +56. "Few as are the claims which I make upon such things I shall +still accept the dedication of your beautiful work with +pleasure. You ask, however, that I also play the part of a +critic, without thinking that I must myself submit to criticism! +With Voltaire I believe that "a few fly-bites can not stop a +spirited horse." In this respect I beg of you to follow my +example. In order not to approach you surreptitiously, but +openly as always, I say that in future works of the character +you might give more heed to the individualization of the voices." + +(Vienna, May 10, 1826. To whom the letter was sent is not known, +though from the manner of address it is plain that he was of the +nobility.) + +57. "Your variations show talent, but I must fault you for having +changed the theme. Why? What man loves must not be taken away +from him;--moreover to do this is to make changes before +variations." + +(Baden, July 6, 1804, to Wiedebein, a teacher of music in +Brunswick.) + +58. "I am not in the habit of rewriting my compositions. I never +did it because I am profoundly convinced that every change of +detail changes the character of the whole." + +(February 19, 1813, to George Thomson, who had requested some +changes in compositions submitted to him for publication.) + +59. "One must not hold one's self so divine as to be unwilling +occasionally to make improvements in one's creations." + +(March 4, 1809, to Breitkopf and Hartel, when indicating a few +changes which he wished to have made in the symphonies op. 67 and +op. 68.) + +60. "The unnatural rage for transcribing pianoforte pieces for +string instruments (instruments that are in every respect so +different from each other) ought to end. I stoutly maintain that +only Mozart could have transcribed his own works, and Haydn; and +without putting myself on a level with these great men I assert +the same thing about my pianoforte sonatas. Not only must entire +passages be elided and changed, but additions must be made; and +right here lies the rock of offence to overcome which one must be +the master of himself or be possessed of the same skill and +inventiveness. I transcribed but a single sonata for string +quartet, and I am sure that no one will easily do it after me." + +(July 13, 1809, in an announcement of several compositions, among +them the quintet op. 29.) + +61. "Were it not that my income brings in nothing, I should +compose nothing but grand symphonies, church music, or, at the +outside, quartets in addition." + +(December 20, 1822, to Peters, publisher, in Leipzig. His income +had been reduced from 4,000 to 800 florins by the depreciation of +Austrian currency.) + +[Here, in the original, is one of the puns which Beethoven was +fond of making: "Ware mein Gehalt nicht ganzlich ohne Gehalt." H. +E. K.]) + + + +ON PERFORMING MUSIC + + + +While reading Beethoven's views on the subject of how music ought +to be performed, it is but natural to inquire about his own +manner of playing. On this point Ries, his best pupil, reports: + +"In general Beethoven played his own compositions very +capriciously, yet he adhered, on the whole, strictly to the beat +and only at times, but seldom, accelerated the tempo a trifle. +Occasionally he would retard the tempo in a crescendo, which +produced a very beautiful and striking effect. While playing he +would give a passage, now in the right hand, now in the left, a +beautiful expression which was simply inimitable; but it was +rarely indeed that he added a note or an ornament." + +Of his playing when still a young man one of his hearers said that +it was in the slow movements particularly that it charmed +everybody. Almost unanimously his contemporaries give him the palm +for his improvisations. Ries says: + +"His extemporizations were the most extraordinary things that one +could hear. No artist that I ever heard came at all near the +height which Beethoven attained. The wealth of ideas which forced +themselves on him, the caprices to which he surrendered himself, +the variety of treatment, the difficulties, were inexhaustible." + +His playing was not technically perfect. He let many a note "fall +under the table," but without marring the effect of his playing. +Concerning this we have a remark of his own in No. 75. Somewhat +critical is Czerny's report: + +"Extraordinary as his extempore playing was it was less successful +in the performance of printed compositions; for, since +he never took the time or had the patience to practice anything, +his success depended mostly on chance and mood; and since, also, +his manner of playing as well as composing was ahead of his time, +the weak and imperfect pianofortes of his time could not +withstand his gigantic style. It was because of this that +Hummel's purling and brilliant manner of play, well adapted to +the period, was more intelligible and attractive to the great +public. But Beethoven's playing in adagios and legato, in the +sustained style, made an almost magical impression on every +hearer, and, so far as I know, it has never been surpassed." +Czerny's remark about the pianofortes of Beethoven's day explains +Beethoven's judgment on his own pianoforte sonatas. He composed +for the sonorous pianoforte of the future,--the pianoforte +building today. + +The following anecdote, told by Czerny, will be read with +pleasure. Pleyel, a famous musician, came to Vienna from Paris in +1805, and had his latest quartets performed in the palace of +Prince Lobkowitz. Beethoven was present and was asked to play +something. "As usual, he submitted to the interminable entreaties +and finally was dragged almost by force to the pianoforte by the +ladies. Angrily he tears the second violin part of one of the +Pleyel quartets from the music-stand where it still lay open, +throws it upon the rack of the pianoforte, and begins to +improvise. We had never heard him extemporize more brilliantly, +with more originality or more grandly than on that evening. + +But throughout the entire improvisation there ran in the middle +voices, like a thread, or cantus firmus, the insignificant notes, +wholly insignificant in themselves, which he found on the page of +the quartet, which by chance lay open on the music-stand; on them +he built up the most daring melodies and harmonies, in the most +brillant concert style. Old Pleyel could only give expression to +his amazement by kissing his hands. After such improvisations +Beethoven was wont to break out into a loud and satisfied laugh." + +Czerny says further of his playing: "In rapidity of scale +passages, trills, leaps, etc., no one equaled him,--not even +Hummel. His attitude at the pianoforte was perfectly quiet and +dignified, with no approach to grimace, except to bend down a +little towards the keys as his deafness increased; his fingers +were very powerful, not long, and broadened at the tips by much +playing; for he told me often that in his youth he had practiced +stupendously, mostly till past midnight. In teaching he laid +great stress on a correct position of the fingers (according to +the Emanuel Bach method, in which he instructed me); he himself +could barely span a tenth. He made frequent use of the pedal, much +more frequently than is indicated in his compositions. His reading +of the scores of Handel and Gluck and the fugues of Bach was +unique, inasmuch as he put a polyphony and spirit into the former +which gave the works a new form." + +In his later years the deaf master could no longer hear his own +playing which therefore came to have a pitifully painful effect. +Concerning his manner of conducting, Seyfried says. "It would no +wise do to make our master a model in conducting, and the +orchestra had to take great care lest it be led astray by its +mentor; for he had an eye only for his composition and strove +unceasingly by means of manifold gesticulations to bring out the +expression which he desired. Often when he reached a forte he +gave a violent down beat even if the note were an unaccented one. +He was in the habit of marking a diminuendo by crouching down +lower and lower, and at a pianissimo he almost crept under the +stand. With a crescendo he, too, grew, rising as if out of a +stage trap, and with the entrance of a fortissimo he stood on his +toes and seemed to take on gigantic proportions, while he waved +his arms about as if trying to soar upwards to the clouds. +Everything about him was in activity; not a part of his +organization remained idle, and the whole man seemed like a +perpetuum mobile. Concerning expression, the little nuances, the +equable division of light and shade, as also an effective tempo +rubato, he was extremely exact and gladly discussed them with the +individual members of the orchestra without showing vexation or +anger." + +62. "It has always been known that the greatest pianoforte players +were also the greatest composers; but how did they play? Not like +the pianists of today who prance up and down the key-board with +passages in which they have exercised themselves,-putsch, putsch, +putsch; what does that mean? Nothing. When the true pianoforte +virtuosi played it was always something homogeneous, an entity; it +could be transcribed and then it appeared as a well thought-out +work. That is pianoforte playing; the other is nothing!" + +(In conversation with Tomaschek, October, 1814.) + +63. "Candidly I am not a friend of Allegri di bravura and such, +since they do nothing but promote mechanism." + +(Hetzendorf, July 16, 1823, to Ries in London.) + +64. "The great pianists have nothing but technique and +affectation." + +(Fall of 1817, to Marie Pachler-Koschak, a pianist whom Beethoven +regarded very highly. "You will play the sonatas in F major and C +minor, for me, will you not?") + +65. "As a rule, in the case of these gentlemen, all reason and +feeling are generally lost in the nimbleness of their fingers." + +(Reported by Schindler as a remark of Beethoven's concerning +pianoforte virtuosi.) + +66. "Habit may depreciate the most brilliant talents." + +(In 1812 to his pupil, Archduke Rudolph, whom he warns against too +zealous a devotion to music.) + +67. "You will have to play a long time yet before you realize that +you can not play at all." + +(July, 1808. Reported by Rust as having been said to a young man +who played for Beethoven.) + +68. "One must be something if one wishes to put on appearances." + +(August 15, 1812, to Bettina von Arnim.) + +69. "These pianoforte players have their coteries whom they often +join; there they are praised continually,--and there's an end of +art!" + +(Conversation with Tomaschek, October, 1814.) + +70. "We Germans have too few dramatically trained singers for the +part of Leonore. They are too cold and unfeeling; the Italians +sing and act with body and soul." + +(1824, in Baden, to Freudenberg, an organist from Breslau.) + +71. "If he is a master of his instrument I rank an organist +amongst the first of virtuosi. I too, played the organ a great +deal when I was young, but my nerves would not stand the power of +the gigantic instrument." + +(To Freudenberg, in Baden.) + +72. "I never wrote noisy music. For my instrumental works I need +an orchestra of about sixty good musicians. I am convinced that +only such a number can bring out the quickly changing graduations +in performance." + +(Reported by Schindler.) + +73. "A Requiem ought to be quiet music,--it needs no trump of +doom; memories of the dead require no hubbub." + +(Reported by Holz to Fanny von Ponsing, in Baden, summer of 1858. +According to the same authority Beethoven valued Cherubini's +"Requiem" more highly than any other.") + +74. "No metronome at all! He who has sound feeling needs none, and +he who has not will get no help from the metronome;--he'll run +away with the orchestra anyway." + +(Reported by Schindler. It had been found that Beethoven himself +had sent different metronomic indications to the publisher and +the Philharmonic Society of London.) + +75. "In reading rapidly a multitude of misprints may pass +unnoticed because you are familiar with the language." + +(To Wegeler, who had expressed wonder at Beethoven's rapid +primavista playing, when it was impossible to see each individual +note.) + +76. "The poet writes his monologue or dialogue in a certain, +continuous rhythm, but the elocutionist in order to insure an +understanding of the sense of the lines, must make pauses and +interruptions at places where the poet was not permitted to +indicate it by punctuation. The same manner of declamation can +be applied to music, and admits of modification only according to +the number of performers." + +(Reported by Schindler, Beethoven's faithful factotum.) + +77. "With respect to his playing with you, when he has acquired +the proper mode of fingering and plays in time and plays the +notes with tolerable correctness, only then direct his attention +to the matter of interpretation; and when he has gotten this far +do not stop him for little mistakes, but point them out at the +end of the piece. Although I have myself given very little +instruction I have always followed this method which quickly +makes musicians, and that, after all, is one of the first +objects of art." + +(To Czerny, who was teaching music to Beethoven's nephew Karl.) + +78. "Always place the hands at the key-board so that the fingers +can not be raised higher than is necessary; only in this way is +it possible to produce a singing tone." + +(Reported by Schindler as Beethoven's view on pianoforte +instruction. He hated a staccato style of playing and dubbed it +"finger dancing" and "throwing the hands in the air.") + +[#79 was skipped in the 1905 edition--error?] + + + +ON HIS OWN WORKS + + + +80. "I haven't a single friend; I must live alone. But well I +know that God is nearer to me than to the others of my art; I +associate with Him without fear, I have always recognized and +understood Him, and I have no fear for my music, --it can meet +no evil fate. Those who understand it must become free from all +the miseries that the others drag with them." + +(To Bettina von Arnim. (Bettina's letter to Goethe, May 28, +1810.) + +81. "The variations will prove a little difficult to play, +particularly the trills in the coda; but let that not frighten +you. It is so disposed that you need play only the trills, +omitting the other notes because they are also in the violin +part. I would never have written a thing of this kind had I not +often noticed here and there in Vienna a man who after I had +improvised of an evening would write down some of my +peculiarities and make boast of them next day. Foreseeing that +these things would soon appear in print I made up my mind to +anticipate them. Another purpose which I had was to embarrass the +local pianoforte masters. Many of them are my mortal enemies, and +I wanted to have my revenge in this way, for I knew in advance +that the variations would be put before them, and that they would +make exhibitions of themselves." + +(Vienna, November 2, 1793, to Eleonore von Breuning, in +dedicating to her the variations in F major. "Se vul ballare." +The pianist whom Beethoven accuses of stealing his thunder was +Abbe Gelinek.) + +82. "The time in which I wrote my sonatas (the first ones of the +second period) was more poetical than the present (1823); such +hints were therefore unnecessary. Every one at that time felt in +the Largo of the third sonata in D (op. 10) the pictured +soulstate of a melancholy being, with all the nuances of light +and shade which occur in a delineation of melancholy and its +phases, without requiring a key in the shape of a +superscription; and everybody then saw in the two sonatas (op. +14) the picture of a contest between two principles, or a +dialogue between two persons, because it was so obvious." + +(In answer to Schindler's question why he had not indicated the +poetical conceits underlying his sonatas by superscriptions or +titles.) + +83. "This sonata has a clean face (literally "has washed +itself"), my dear brother!" + +(January, 1801, to Hofmeister, publisher in Leipzig to whom he +offers the sonata, op. 22, for 20 ducats.) + +84. "They are incessantly talking about the C-sharp minor sonata +(op. 27, No. 52); on my word I have written better ones. The F- +sharp major sonata (op. 78) is a different thing!" + +(A remark to Czerny.) + +[The C-sharp minor sonata is that popularly known as the +"Moonlight Sonata," a title which is wholly without warrant. Its +origin is due to Rellstab, who, in describing the first movement, +drew a picture of a small boat in the moonlight on Lake Lucerne. +In Vienna a tradition that Beethoven had composed it in an arbor +gave rise to the title "Arbor sonata." Titles of this character +work much mischief in the amateur mind by giving rise to fantastic +conceptions of the contents of the music. H. E. K.] + +85. "The thing which my brother can have from me is 1, a "Septett +per il Violino, Viola, Violoncello, Contrabasso, Clarinetto, +Cornto, Fagotto, tutti obligati;" for I can not write anything +that is not obligato, having come into the world with obligato +accompaniment." + +(December 15, 1800, to Hofmeister, publisher, in Leipzig.) + +86. "I am but little satisfied with my works thus far; from today +I shall adopt a new course." + +(Reported by Carl Czerny in his autobiography in 1842. Concerning +the time at which the remark was made, Czerny says: "It was said +about 1803, when B. had composed op. 28 (the pianoforte sonata in +D) to his friend Krumpholz (a violinist). Shortly afterward there +appeared the sonatas (now op. 31) in which a partial fulfillment +of his resolution may be observed.") + +87. "Read Shakespeare's 'Tempest.'" + +(An answer to Schindler's question as to what poetical conceit +underlay the sonatas in F minor. Beethoven used playfully to +call the little son of Breuning, the friend of his youth, A&Z, +because he employed him often as a messenger.) + +["Schindler relates that when once he asked Beethoven to tell +him what the F minor and D minor (op. 31, No. 2) meant, he +received for an answer only the enigmatical remark: 'Read +Shakespeare's "Tempest."' Many a student and commentator has +since read the 'Tempest' in the hope of finding a clew to the +emotional contents which Beethoven believed to be in the two +works, so singularly associated, only to find himself baffled. +It is a fancy, which rests, perhaps, too much on outward things, +but still one full of suggestion, that had Beethoven said: 'Hear +my C minor symphony,' he would have given a better starting- +point to the imagination of those who are seeking to know what +the F minor sonata means. Most obviously it means music, but it +means music that is an expression of one of those psychological +struggles which Beethoven felt called upon more and more to +delineate as he was more and more shut out from the companionship +of the external world. Such struggles are in the truest sense of +the word tempests. The motive, which, according to the story, +Beethoven himself said, indicates, in the symphony, the rappings +of Fate at the door of human existence, is common to two works +which are also related in their spiritual contents. Singularly +enough, too, in both cases the struggle which is begun in the +first movement and continued in the third, is interrupted by a +period of calm, reassuring, soul-fortifying aspiration, which, +in the symphony as well as in the sonata, takes the form of a +theme with variations."--"How to Listen to Music," page 29. H. E. +K.] + +88. "Sinfonia Pastorella. He who has ever had a notion of +country life can imagine for himself without many +superscriptions what the composer is after. Even without a +description the whole, which is more sentiment than tone +painting, will be recognized. A note among the sketches for the +"Pastoral" symphony preserved in the Royal Library at Berlin. +[There are other notes of similar import among the sketches +referred to which can profitably be introduced here. "The hearer +should be allowed to discover the situations;" "Sinfonia +caracteristica, or a recollection of country life;" "Pastoral" +Symphony: No picture, but something in which the emotions are +expressed which are aroused in men by the pleasure of the +country (or) in which some feelings of country life are set +forth." When, finally, the work was given to the publisher, +Beethoven included in the title an admonitory explanation which +should have everlasting validity: "Pastoral Symphony: more +expression of feeling than painting." H. E. K.] + +89. "My 'Fidelio' was not understood by the public, but I know +that it will yet be appreciated; for though I am well aware of +the value of my 'Fidelio' I know just as well that the symphony +is my real element. When sounds ring in me I always hear the +full orchestra; I can ask anything of instrumentalists, but when +writing for the voice I must continually ask myself: "Can that +be sung?" + +(A remark made in 1823 or 1824 to Griesinger.) + +90. "Thus Fate knocks at the portals!" + +(Reported by Schindler as Beethoven's explanation of the opening +of the symphony in C minor.) + +["Hofrath Kueffner told him (Krenn) that he once lived with +Beethoven in Heiligenstadt, and that they were in the habit +evenings of going down to Nuessdorf to eat a fish supper in the +Gasthaus 'Zur Rose.' One evening when B. was in a good humor, +Kueffner began: `Tell me frankly which is your favorite among your +symphonies?' B. (in good humor) 'Eh! Eh! The Eroica.' K. 'I +should have guessed the C minor.' B. 'No; the Eroica.'" From +Thayer's notebook. See "Music and Manners in the Classical +Period." H.E.K.] + +91. "The solo sonatas (op. 109-ll?) are perhaps the best, but +also the last, music that I composed for the pianoforte. It is +and always will be an unsatisfactory instrument. I shall +hereafter follow the example of my grandmaster Handel, and every +year write only an oratorio and a concerto for some string or +wind instrument, provided I shall have finished my tenth +symphony (C minor) and Requiem." + +(Reported by Hola. As to the tenth symphony see note to No. 95. + +92. "God knows why it is that my pianoforte music always makes +the worst impression on me, especially when it is played badly." + +(June 2, 1804. A note among the sketches for the "Leonore" +overture.) + +93. "Never did my own music produce such an effect upon me; even +now when I recall this work it still costs me a tear." + +(Reported by Hole. The reference is to the Cavatina from the +quartet in B-flat, op. 130, which Beethoven thought the crown of +all quartet movements and his favorite composition. When alone +and undisturbed he was fond of playing his favorite pianoforte +Andante that from the sonata op. 28.) + +94. "I do not write what I most desire to, but that which I need +to because of money. But this is not saying that I write only for +money. When the present period is past, I hope at last to write +that which is the highest thing for me as well as art,--'Faust.'" + +(From a conversation book used in 1823. To Buhler, tutor in the +house of a merchant, who was seeking information about an oratorio +which Beethoven had been commissioned to write by the Handel and +Haydn Society of Boston.) + +95. "Ha! "Faust;" that would be a piece of work! Something might +come out of that! But for some time I have been big with three +other large works. Much is already sketched out, that is, in my +head. I must be rid of them first:--two large symphonies +differing from each other, and each differing from all the +others, and an oratorio. And this will take a long time. you +see, for a considerable time I have had trouble to get myself to +write. I sit and think, and think I've long had the thing, but it +will not on the paper. I dread the beginning of these large works. +Once into the work, and it goes." + +(In the summer of 1822, to Rochlitz, at Baden. The symphonies +referred to are the ninth and tenth. They existed only in +Beethoven's mind and a few sketches. In it he intended to combine +antique and modern views of life. "In the text Greek mythology, +cantique ecclesiastique; in the Allegro, a Bacchic festival." +(Sketchbook of 1818.) + +The oratorio was to have been called "The Victory of the Cross." +It was not written. Schindler wrote to Moscheles in London about +Beethoven in the last weeks of his life: "He said much about the +plan of the tenth symphony. As the work had shaped itself in his +imagination it might have become a musical monstrosity, compared +with which his other symphonies would have been mere opuscula.)" + + + +ON ART AND ARTISTS + + + +96. "How eagerly mankind withdraws from the poor artist what it +has once given him;--and Zeus, from whom one might ask an +invitation to sup on ambrosia, lives no longer." + +(In the summer of 1814, to Kauka, an advocate who represented him +in the lawsuit against the heirs of Kinsky. + +97. "I love straightforwardness and uprightness, and believe that +the artist ought not to be belittled; for, alas! brilliant as +fame is externally, it is not always the privilege of the artist +to be Jupiter's guest on Olympus all the time. Unfortunately +vulgar humanity drags him down only too often and too rudely from +the pure upper ether." + +(June 5, 1852, to C. F. Peters, music publisher, in Leipzig when +treating with him touching a complete edition of his works.) + +98. "The true artist has no pride; unhappily he realizes that art +has no limitations, he feels darkly how far he is from the goal, +and while, perhaps he is admired by others, he grieves that he +has not yet reached the point where the better genius shall +shine before him like a distant sun." + +(Teplitz, July 17, to an admirer ten years old.) + +99. "You yourself know what a change is wrought by a few years in +the case of an artist who is continually pushing forward. The +greater the progress which one makes in art, the less is one +satisfied with one's old works. + +(Vienna, August 4, 1800, to Mathisson, in the dedication of his +setting of "Adelaide." "My most ardent wish will be fulfilled if +you are not displeased with the musical composition of your +heavenly 'Adelaide.'" + +100. "Those composers are exemplars who unite nature and art in +their works." + +(Baden, in 1824, to Freudenberg, organist from Breslau.) + +101. "What will be the judgment a century hence concerning the +lauded works of our favorite composers today? Inasmuch as nearly +everything is subject to the changes of time, and, more's the +pity, the fashions of time, only that which is good and true, will +endure like a rock, and no wanton hand will ever venture to defile +it. Then let every man do that which is right, strive with all his +might toward the goal which can never be attained, develop to the +last breath the gifts with which a gracious Creator has endowed +him, and never cease to learn; for 'Life is short, art eternal!'" + +(From the notes in the instruction book of Archduke Rudolph.) + +102. "Famous artists always labor under an embarrassment;-- +therefore first works are the best, though they may have sprung +out of dark ground. + +(Conversation-book of 1840.) + +103. "A musician is also a poet; he also can feel himself +transported by a pair of eyes into another and more beautiful +world where greater souls make sport of him and set him right +difficult tasks." + +(August 15, 1812, to Bettina von Arnim.) + +104. "I told Goethe my opinion as to how applause affects men +like us, and that we want our equals to hear us understandingly! +Emotion suits women only; music ought to strike fire from the +soul of a man." + +(August 15, 1810, to Bettina von Arnim.) + +105. "Most people are touched by anything good; but they do not +partake of the artist's nature; artists are ardent, they do not +weep." + +(Reported to Goethe by Bettina von Arnim, May 28, 1810.) + +106. "L'art unit tout le monde,--how much more the true artist!" + +(March 15, 1823, to Cherubini, in Paris.) + +107. "Only the artist, or the free scholar, carries his happiness +within him." + +(Reported by Karl von Bursy as part of a conversation in 1816.) + +108. "There ought to be only one large art warehouse in the +world, to which the artist could carry his art-works and from +which he could carry away whatever he needed. As it is one must +be half a tradesman." + +(January, 1801, to Hofmeister, in Leipzig.) + + + +BEETHOVEN AS CRITIC + + + +The opinion of artist on artists is a dubious quantity. Recall +the startling criticisms of Bocklin on his associates in art +made public by the memoirs of his friends after his death. Such +judgments are often one-sided, not without prejudice, and mostly +the expression of impulse. It is a different matter when the +artist speaks about the disciples of another art than his own, +even if the opinions which Bucklin and Wagner held of each other +are not a favorable example. Where Beethoven speaks of other +composers we must read with clear and open eyes; but even here +there will be much with which we can be in accord, especially his +judgment on Rossini, whom he hated so intensely, and whose airy, +sense-bewitching art seduced the Viennese from Beethoven. +Interesting and also characteristic of the man is the attitude +which he adopted towards the poets of his time. In general he +estimated his contemporaries as highly as they deserved. + +109. "Do not tear the laurel wreaths from the heads of Handel, +Haydn and Mozart; they belong to them,--not yet to me." + +(Teplitz, July 17, l852, to his ten-year-old admirer, Emilie M., +who had given him a portfolio made by herself.) + +110. "Pure church music ought to be performed by voices only, +except a "Gloria," or some similar text. For this reason I prefer +Palestrina; but it is folly to imitate him without having his +genius and religious views; it would be difficult, if not +impossible, too, for the singers of today to sing his long notes +in a sustained and pure manner." + +(To Freudenberg, in 1824.) + +111. "Handel is the unattained master of all masters. Go and learn +from him how to achieve vast effects with simple means." + +(Reported by Seyfried. On his death-bed, about the middle of +February, 1827, he said to young Gerhard von Breuning, on +receiving Handel's works: "Handel is the greatest and ablest of +all composers; from him I can still learn. Bring me the books!" + +112. "Handel is the greatest composer that ever lived. I would +uncover my head and kneel on his grave." + +(Fall of 1823, to J. A. Stumpff, harp maker of London, who acted +very nobly toward Beethoven in his last days. It was he who +rejoiced the dying composer by sending him the forty volumes of +Handel's works (see 11).) + +["Cipriani Potter, to A. W. T., February 27, 1861. Beethoven used +to walk across the fields to Vienna very often. B. would stop, +look about and express his love for nature. One day Potter asked: +'Who is the greatest living composer, yourself excepted?' +Beethoven seemed puzzled for a moment, and then exclaimed: +'Cherubini!' Potter went on: 'And of dead authors?' B.--He had +always considered Mozart as such, but since he had been made +acquainted with Handel he put him at the head. From A. W. Thayer's +notebook, reprinted in "Mug and Manners in the Classical Period," +page 208. H.E.K.] + +113. "Heaven forbid that I should take a journal in which sport is +made of the manes of such a revered one." + +(Conversation-book of 1825, in reference to a criticism of +Handel.) + +114. "That you are going to publish Sebastian Bach's works is +something which does good to my heart, which beats in love of the +great and lofty art of this ancestral father of harmony; I want +to see them soon." + +(January, 1801, to Hofmeister, in Leipzig.) + +115. "Of Emanuel Bach's clavier works I have only a few, yet they +must be not only a real delight to every true artist, but also +serve him for study purposes; and it is for me a great pleasure +to play works that I have never seen, or seldom see, for real art +lovers." + +(July 96, 1809, to Gottfried Hartel, of Leipzig in ordering all +the scores of Haydn, Mozart and the two Bachs.) + +116. "See, my dear Hummel, the birthplace of Haydn. I received it +as a gift today, and it gives me great pleasure. A mean peasant +hut, in which so great a man was born!" + +(Remarked on his death-bed to his friend Hummel.) + +117. "I have always reckoned myself among the greatest admirers of +Mozart, and shall do so till the day of my death." + +(February 6, 1886, to Abbe Maximilian Stadler, who had sent him +his essay on Mozart's "Requiem.") + +118. "Cramer, Cramer! We shall never be able to compose anything +like that!" + +(To Cramer, after the two had heard Mozart's concerto in C-minor +at a concert in the Augarten.) + +119. "'Die Zauberfloete' will always remain Mozart's greatest +work, for in it he for the first time showed himself to be a +German musician. "Don Juan" still has the complete Italian cut; +besides our sacred art ought never permit itself to be degraded +to the level of a foil for so scandalous a subject." + +(A remark reported by Seyfried.) + +["Hozalka says that in 1820-21, as near as he can recollect, the +wife of a Major Baumgarten took boy boarders in the house then +standing where the Musikverein's Saal now is, and that Beethoven's +nephew was placed with her. Her sister, Baronin Born, lived with +her. One evening Hozalka, then a young man, called there and found +only Baronin Born at home. Soon another caller came and stayed to +tea. It was Beethoven. Among other topics Mozart came on the +tapis, and the Born asked Beethoven (in writing, of course) which +of Mozart's operas he thought most of. 'Die Zauberfloete' said +Beethoven, and, suddenly clasping his hands and throwing up his +eyes, exclaimed: 'Oh, Mozart!'" From A. W. Thayer's notebooks, +reprinted in "Music and Manners in the Classical Period," page +198. H. E. K.] + +120. "Say all conceivable pretty things to Cherubini, --that there +is nothing I so ardently desire as that we should soon get +another opera from him, and that of all our contemporaries I have +the highest regard for him." + +(May 6, 1823, to Louis Schlasser, afterward chapel master in +Darmstadt, who was about to undertake a journey to Paris. See +note to No. 112.) + +121. "Among all the composers alive Cherubini is the most worthy +of respect. I am in complete agreement, too, with his conception +of the "Requiem," and if ever I come to write one I shall take +note of many things." + +(Remark reported by Seyfried. See No. 112.) + +122. "Whoever studies Clementi thoroughly has simultaneously also +learned Mozart and other authors; inversely, however, this is not +the case." + +(Reported by Schindler.) + +123. "There is much good in Spontini; he understands theatrical +effect and martial noises admirably. + +Spohreis so rich in dissonances; pleasure in his music is marred +by his chromatic melody. + +His name ought not to be Bach (brook), but Ocean, because of his +infinite and inexhaustible wealth of tonal combinations and +harmonies. Bach is the ideal of an organist." + +(In Baden, 1824, to Freudenberg.) + +124. "The little man, otherwise so gentle,--I never would have +credited him with such a thing. Now Weber must write operas in +earnest, one after the other, without caring too much for +refinement! Kaspar, the monster, looms up like a house; wherever +the devil sticks in his claw we feel it." + +(To Rochlitz, at Baden, in the summer of 1823.) + +125. "There you are, you rascal; you're a devil of a fellow, God +bless you!...Weber, you always were a fine fellow." + +(Beethoven's hearty greeting to Karl Maria von Weber, in October, +1823.) + +126. "K. M. Weber began too learn too late; art did not have a +chance to develop naturally in him, and his single and obvious +striving is to appear brilliant." + +(A remark reported by Seyfried.) + +127. "'Euryanthe' is an accumulation of diminished seventh chords +--all little backdoors!" + +(Remarked to Schindler about Weber's opera.) + +128. "Truly, a divine spark dwells in Schubert!" + +(Said to Schindler when the latter made him acquainted with the +"Songs of Ossian," "Die Junge Nonne," "Die Burgschaft," of +Schubert's "Grenzen der Menschheit," and other songs.) + +129. "There is nothing in Meyerbeer; he hasn't the courage to +strike at the right time." + +(To Tomaschek, in October, 1814, in a conversation about the +"Battle of Victoria," at the performance of which, in 1813, +Meyerbeer had played the big drum.) + +130. "Rossini is a talented and a melodious composer, his music +suits the frivolous and sensuous spirit of the times, and his +productivity is such that he needs only as many weeks as the +Germans do years to write an opera." + +(In 1824, at Baden, to Freudenberg.) + +131. "This rascal Rossini, who is not respected by a single master +of his art!" + +(Conversation-book, 1825.) + +132. "Rossini would have become a great composer if his teacher +had frequently applied some blows ad posteriora." + +(Reported by Schindler. Beethoven had been reading the score of +"Il Barbiere de Seviglia.") + +133. "The Bohemians are born musicians. The Italians ought to take +them as models. What have they to show for their famous +conservatories? Behold! their idol, Rossini! If Dame Fortune had +not given him a pretty talent and amiable melodies by the bushel, +what he learned at school would have brought him nothing but +potatoes for his big belly." + +(In a conversation-book at Haslinger's music shop, where Beethoven +frequently visited.) + +136. "Goethe has killed Klopstock for me. You wonder? Now you +laugh? Ah, because I have read Klopstock. I carried him about +with me for years when I walked. What besides? Well, I didn't +always understand him. He skips about so; and he always begins so +far away, above or below; always Maestoso! D-flat major! Isn't, +it so? But he's great, nevertheless, and uplifts the soul. When I +couldn't understand him I sort of guessed at him." + +(To Rochlitz, in 1822.) + +135. "As for me I prefer to set Homer, Klopstock, Schiller, to +music; if it is difficult to do, these immortal poets at least +deserve it." + +(To the directorate of the "Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde" of +Vienna, January, 1824, in negotiations for an oratorio, "The +Victory of the Cross" [which he had been commissioned to write by +the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston. H. E. K.].) + +136. "Goethe and Schiller are my favorite poets, as also Ossian +and Homer, the latter of whom, unfortunately, I can read only in +translation." + +(August 8, 1809, to Breitkopf and Hartel.) + +137. "Who can sufficiently thank a great poet,--the most valuable +jewel of a nation!" + +(February 10, 1811, to Bettina von Arnim. The reference was to +Goethe.) + +138. "When you write to Goethe about me search out all the words +which can express my deepest reverence and admiration. I am +myself about to write to him about "Egmont" for which I have +composed the music, purely out of love for his poems which make +me happy." + +(February 10, 1811, to Bettina von Arnim.) + +139. "I would have gone to death, yes, ten times to death for +Goethe. Then, when I was in the height of my enthusiasm, I +thought out my "Egmont" music. Goethe,--he lives and wants us all +to live with him. It is for that reason that he can be composed. +Nobody is so easily composed as he. But I do not like to compose +songs." + +(To Mitz, in 1822, when Beethoven recalled Goethe's amiability in +Teplitz.) + +140. "Goethe is too fond of the atmosphere of the court; fonder +than becomes a poet. There is little room for sport over the +absurdities of the virtuosi, when poets, who ought to be looked +upon as the foremost teachers of the nation, can forget +everything else in the enjoyment of court glitter." + +(Franzensbrunn, August 9, 1812, to Gottfried Hartel of Leipzig.) + +141. "When two persons like Goethe and I meet these grand folk +must be made to see what our sort consider great." + +(August 15, 1812, in a description of how haughtily he, and how +humbly Goethe, had behaved in the presence of the Imperial court.) + +142. "Since that summer in Carlsbad I read Goethe every day,--when +I read at all." + +(Remarked to Rochlitz.) + +143. "Goethe ought not to write more; he will meet the fate of the +singers. Nevertheless he will remain the foremost poet of Germany. + +(Conversationbook, 1818.) + +144. "Can you lend me the "Theory of Colors" for a few weeks? It +is an important work. His last things are insipid." + +(Conversation-book, 1820.) + +145. "After all the fellow writes for money only." + +(Reported by Schindler as having been said by Beethoven when, on +his death-bed, he angrily threw a book of Walter Scott's aside.) + +146. "He, too, then, is nothing better than an ordinary man ! Now +he will trample on all human rights only to humor his ambition; +he will place himself above all others,--become a tyrant!" + +(With these words, as testified to by Ries, an eye-witness, +Beethoven tore the title-pane from the score of his "Eroica" +symphony (which bore a dedication to Bonaparte) when the news +reached him that Napoleon had declared himself emperor.) + +147. "I believe that so long as the Austrian has his brown beer +and sausage he will not revolt." + +(To Simrock, publisher, in Bonn, August 2, 1794.) + +148. "Why do you sell nothing but music? Why did you not long ago +follow my well-meant advice? Do get wise, and find your raison. +Instead of a hundred-weight of paper order genuine unwatered +Regensburger, float this much-liked article of trade down the +Danube, serve it in measures, half-measures and seidels at cheap +prices, throw in at intervals sausages, rolls, radishes, butter +and cheese, invite the hungry and thirsty with letters an ell +long on a sign: "Musical Beer House," and you will have so many +guests at all hours of the day that one will hold the door open +for the other and your office will never be empty." + +(To Haslinger, the music publisher, when the latter had complained +about the indifference of the Viennese to music.) + + + +ON EDUCATION + + + +Beethoven's observations on this subject were called out by his +experiences in securing an education for his nephew Karl, son of +his like-named brother, a duty which devolved on him on the death +of his brother in the winter of 1815. He loved his nephew almost +to idolatry, and hoped that he would honor the name of Beethoven +in the future. But there was a frivolous vein in Karl, inherited +probably from his mother, who was on easy footing with morality +both before and after her husband's death. She sought with all her +might to rid her son of the guardianship of his uncle. Karl was +sent, to various educational institutions and to these Beethoven +sent many letters containing advice and instructions. The nephew +grew to be more and more a care, not wholly without fault of the +master. His passionate nature led to many quarrels between the +two, all of which were followed by periods of extravagant +fondness. Karl neglected his studies, led a frivolous life, was +fond of billiards and the coffee-houses which were then generally +popular, and finally, in the summer of 1826, made an attempt at +suicide in the Helenental near Baden, which caused his social +ostracism. When he was found he cried out: "I went to the bad +because my uncle wanted to better me." + +Beethoven succeeded in persuading Baron von Stutterheim, commander +of an infantry regiment at Iglau, to accept him as an aspirant for +military office. In later life he became a respected official and +man. So Beethoven himself was vouchsafed only an ill regulated +education. His dissolute father treated him now harshly, now +gently. His mother, who died early, was a silent sufferer, had +thoroughly understood her son, and to her his love was devotion +itself. He labored unwearyingly at his own intellectual and moral +advancement until his death. + +It seems difficult to reconcile his almost extravagant estimate of +the greatest possible liberty in the development of man with his +demands for strict constraint to which he frequently gives +expression; but he had recognized that it is necessary to grow +out of restraint into liberty. His model as a sensitive and +sympathetic educator was his motherly friend, the wife of Court +Councillor von Breuning in Bonn, of whom he once said: "She knew +how to keep the insects off the blossoms." + + + +149. "Like the State, each man must have his own constitution." + +(Diary. 1815.) + +150. "Recommend virtue to your children; that, alone can bring +happiness; not wealth,--I speak from experience. It was virtue +alone that bore me up in my misery; to her and my art I owe that +I did not end my life by self-murder." + +(October 6, 1802, to his brothers Karl and Johann [the so-called +Heiligenstadt Will].) + +151. "I know no more sacred duty than to rear and educate a +child." + +(January 7, 1820, in a communication to the Court of Appeals in +the suit touching the guardianship of his nephew Karl.) + +152. "Nature's weaknesses are nature's endowments; reason, the +guide, must seek to lead and lessen them." + +(Diary, 1817.) + +153. "It is man's habit to hold his fellow man in esteem because +he committed no greater errors. Beethoven's views on musical +education are to be found in the chapters "On Composition" and +"On Performing Music." + +(May 6, 1811, to Breitkopf and Hartel, in a letter complaining of +faulty printing in some of his compositions.) + +154. "There is nothing more efficient in enforcing obedience upon +others than the belief on their part that you are wiser than +they...Without tears fathers can not inculcate virtue in their +children, or teachers learning and wisdom in their pupils; even +the laws, by compelling tears from the citizens, compel them also +to strive for justice." + +(Diary, 1815.) + +155. "It is only becoming in a youth to combine his duties toward +education and advancement with those which he owes to his +benefactor and supporter; this I did toward my parents." + +(May 19, 1825, to his nephew Karl.) + +156. "You can not honor the memory of your father better than to +continue your studies with the greatest zeal, and strive to +become an honest and excellent man." + +(To his nephew, 1816-18.) + +157. "Let your conduct always be amiable; through art and science +the best and noblest of men are bound together and your future +vocation will not exclude you." + +(Baden, July 18, 1825, to his nephew, who had decided to become a +merchant.) + +158. "It is very true that a drop will hollow a stone; a thousand +lovely impressions are obliterated when children are placed in +wooden institutions while they might receive from their parents +the most soulful impressions which would continue to exert their +influence till the latest age." + +(Diary, spring of 1817. Beethoven was dissatisfied with +Giannatasio's school in which he had placed his nephew. "Karl is +a different child after he has been with me a few hours" (Diary). +In 1826, after the attempt at suicide, Beethoven said to +Breuning: "My Karl was in an institute; educational institutions +furnish forth only hot house plants.) + +159. "Drops of water wear away a stone in time, not by force but +by continual falling. Only through tireless industry are the +sciences achieved so that one can truthfully say: no day without +its line,--nulla dies sine linea." + +(1799, in a sketch for a theoretical handbook for Archduke +Rudolph.) + + + +ON HIS OWN DISPOSITION AND CHARACTER + + + +So open-hearted and straightforward a character as Beethoven +could not have pictured himself with less reserve or greater +truthfulness than he did during his life. Frankness toward +himself, frankness toward others (though sometimes it went to the +extreme of rudeness and ill-breeding) was his motto. The joyous +nature which was his as a lad, and which was not at all averse to +a merry prank now and then, underwent a change when he began to +lose his hearing. The dread of deafness and its consequences drove +him nearly to despair, so that he sometimes contemplated suicide. +Increasing hardness of hearing gradually made him reserved, morose +and gloomy. With the progress of the malady his disposition and +character underwent a decided change,--a fact which may be said to +account for the contradictions in his conduct and utterances. It +made him suspicious, distrustful; in his later years he imagined +himself cheated and deceived in the most trifling matters by +relatives, friends, publishers, servants. + +Nevertheless Beethoven's whole soul was filled with a high +idealism which penetrated through the miseries of his daily life; +it was full, too, of a great love toward humanity in general and +his unworthy nephew in particular. Towards his publishers he often +appeared covetous and grasping, seeking to rake and scrape +together all the money possible; but this was only for the purpose +of assuring the future of his nephew. At the same time, in a merry +moment, he would load down his table with all that kitchen and +cellar could provide, for the reflection of his friends. Thus he +oscillated continuously between two extremes; but the power which +swung the pendulum was always the aural malady. He grew peevish +and capricious towards his best friends, rude, even brutal at +times in his treatment of them; only in the next moment to +overwhelm them most pathetically with attentions. Till the end of +his life he remained a sufferer from his passionate disposition +over which he gradually obtained control until, at the end, one +could almost speak of a sunny clarification of his nature. + +He has heedlessly been accused of having led a dissolute life, of +having been an intemperate drinker. There would be no necessity +of contradicting such a charge even if there were a scintilla of +evidence to support it; a drinker is not necessarily a +dishonorable man, least of all a musician who drinks. But, the +fact of the matter is that it is not true. If once Beethoven wrote +a merry note about merrymaking with friends, let us rejoice that +occasions did sometimes occur, though but rarely, when the heart +of the sufferer was temporarily gladdened. + +He was a strict moralist, as is particularly evidenced by the +notes in his journal which have not been made public. In many +things which be fell him in his daily life he was as ingenuous as +a child. His personality, on the whole, presented itself in such +a manner as to invite the intellectual and social Philistine to +call him a fool. + + + +160. "I shall print a request in all the newspapers that +henceforth all artists refrain from painting my picture without +my knowledge; I never thought that my own face would bring me +embarrassment." + +(About 1803, to Christine Gerardi, because without his knowledge a +portrait of him had been made somewhere--in a cafe, probably.) + +161. "Pity that I do not understand the art of war as well as I do +the art of music; I should yet conquer Napoleon!" + +(To Krumpholz, the violinist, when he informed Beethoven of the +victory of Napoleon at Jena.) + +162. "If I were a general and knew as much about strategy as I, a +composer, know about counterpoint, I'd give you fellows something +to do." + +(Called out behind the back of a French officer, his fist doubled, +on May 12, 1809, when the French had occupied Vienna. Reported by +a witness, W. Rust.) + +163. "Camillus, if I am not mistaken, was the name of the Roman +who drove the wicked Gauls from Rome. At such a cost I would also +take the name if I could drive them wherever I found them to where +they belong." + +(To Pleyel, publisher, in Paris, April, 1807.) + +164. "I love most the realm of mind which, to me, is the highest +of all spiritual and temporal monarchies." + +(To Advocate Kauka in the summer of 1814. He had been speaking +about the monarchs represented in the Congress of Vienna.) + +165. "I shall not come in person, since that would be a sort of +farewell, and farewells I have always avoided." + +(January 24, 1818, to Giannatasio del Rio, on taking his nephew +Karl out of the latter institute.) + +166. "I hope still to bring a few large works into the world, and +then, like an old child, to end my earthly career somewhere among +good people." + +(October 6, 1802, to Wegeler.) + +167. "O ye men, who think or declare me to be hostile, morose or +misanthropical, what injustice ye do me. Ye know not the secret +cause of what thus appears to you. My heart and mind were from +childhood disposed for the tender feelings of benevolence; I was +always wishing to accomplish great deeds." + +(October 6, 1802, in the so-called Heiligenstadt Will.) + +168. "Divinity, thou lookest into my heart, thou knowest it, thou +knowest that love for mankind and a desire to do good have their +abode there. O ye men, when one day ye read this think that ye +have wronged me, and may the unfortunate console himself with the +thought that he has found one of his kind who, despite all the +obstacles which nature put in his path, yet did all in his power +to be accepted in the ranks of worthy artists and men!" + +(From the Heiligenstadt Will.) + +169. "I spend all my mornings with the muses;--and they bless me +also in my walks." + +(October 12, 1835, to his nephew Karl.) + +170. "Concerning myself nothing,--that is, from nothing nothing." + +(October 19, 1815, to Countess Erdody.) + +[A possible allusion to the line, "Nothing can come of nothing." +from Shakespeare's "King Lear," Act 1, scene 1] + +171. "Beethoven can write, thank God; but do nothing else on +earth." + +(December 22, 1822, to Ferdinand Ries, in London.) + +172. "Mentally I often frame an answer, but when I come to write +it down I generally throw the pen aside, since I am not able to +write what I feel." + +(October 7, 1826, to his friend Wegeler, in Coblenz. "The better +sort of people, I think, know me anyhow." He is excusing his +laziness in letter-writing.) + +173. "I have the gift to conceal my sensitiveness touching a +multitude of things; but when I am provoked at a moment when I am +more sensitive than usual to anger, I burst out more violently +than anybody else." + +(July 24, 1804, to Ries, in reporting to him a quarrel with +Stephan von Breuning.) + +174. "X. is completely changed since I threw half a dozen books at +her head. Perhaps something of their contents accidentally got +into her head or her wicked heart." + +(To Mme. Streicher, who often had to put Beethoven's house in +order.) + +175. "I can have no intercourse, and do not want to have any, with +persons who are not willing to believe in me because I have not +yet made a wide reputation." + +(To Prince Lobkowitz, about 1798. A cavalier had failed to show +him proper respect in the Prince's salon.) + +176. "Many a vigorous and unconsidered word drops from my mouth, +for which reason I am considered mad." + +(In the summer of 1880, to Dr. Mueller, of Bremen, who was paying +him a visit.) + +177. "I will grapple with Fate; it shall not quite bear me down." +O, it is lovely to live life a thousand times + +(November 16, 1800, or 1801, to Wegeler.) + +178. "Morality is the strength of men who distinguish themselves +over others, and it is mine." + +(In a communication to his friend, Baron Zmeskall.) + +179. "I, too, am a king!" + +(Said to Holz, when the latter begged him not to sell the ring +which King Frederick William III, of Prussia, had sent to him +instead of money or an order in return for the dedication of the +ninth symphony. "Master, keep the ring," Holz had said, "it is +from a king." Beethoven made his remark "with indescribable +dignity and self-consciousness?") + +[On his deathbed he said to little Gerhard von Breuning: "Know +that I am an artist."] + +[At the height of the popular infatuation for Rossini (1822) he +said to his friends: "Well, they will not be able to rob me of my +place in the history of art."] + +180. "Prince, what you are you are by accident of birth; what I +am, I am through my own efforts. There have been thousands of +princes and will be thousands more; there is only one Beethoven!" + +(According to tradition, from a letter which he wrote to Prince +Lichnowsky when the latter attempted to persuade him to play for +some French officers on his estate in Silesia. Beethoven went at +night to Troppau, carrying the manuscript of the (so-called) +"Appassionata" sonata, which suffered from the rain.) + +181. "My nobility is here, and here (pointing to his heart and +head)." + +(Reported by Schindler. In the lawsuit against his sister-in-law +(the mother of nephew Karl) Beethoven had been called on to prove +that the "van" in his name was a badge of nobility.) + +182. "You write that somebody has said that I am the natural son +of the late King of Prussia. The same thing was said to me long +ago, but I have made it a rule never to write anything about +myself or answer anything that is said about me. October 7, 1826, +to Wegeler. "I leave it to you to give the world an account of +myself and especially my mother." + +(The statement had appeared in Brockhaus's "Lexicon.") + +183. "To me the highest thing, after God, is my honor." + +(July 26, 1822, to the publisher Peters, in Leipzig.) + +184. "I have never thought of writing for reputation and honor. +What I have in my heart must out; that is the reason why I +compose." + +(Remark to Karl Czerny, reported in his autobiography.) + +185. "I do not desire that you shall esteem me greater as an +artist, but better and more perfect as a man; when the condition +of our country is somewhat better, then my art shall be devoted +to the welfare of the poor." + +(Vienna, June 29, 1800, to Wegeler, in Bonn, writing of his return +to his native land.) + +186. "Perhaps the only thing that looks like genius about me is +that my affairs are not always in the best of order, and that in +this respect nobody can be of help but myself." + +(April 22, 1801, to Hofmeister, in Leipzig excusing himself for +dilatoriness in sending him these compositions: the Pianoforte +sonata op. 22, the symphony op. 21, the septet op. 20 and the +concerto op. 19.) + +187. "I am free from all small vanities. Only in the divine art is +the lever which gives me power to sacrifice the best part of my +life to the celestial muses." + +(September 9, 1824, to George Nigeli, in Zurich.) + +188. "Inasmuch as the purpose of the undersigned throughout his +career has not been selfish but the promotion of the interests of +art, the elevation of popular taste and the flight of his own +genius toward loftier ideals and perfection, it was inevitable +that he should frequently sacrifice his own advantages and profit +to the muse." + +(December, 1804, to the Director of the Court Theatre, applying +for an engagement which was never effected.) + +189. "From my earliest childhood my zeal to serve suffering +humanity with my art was never content with any kind of a +subterfuge; and no other reward is needed than the internal +satisfaction which always accompanies such a deed." + +(To Procurator Varenna, who had asked him for compositions to be +played at a charity concert in Graz.) + +190. "There is no greater pleasure for me than to practice and +exhibit my art." + +(November 16, 1800, or 1801, to Wegeler.) + +191. "I recognize no other accomplishments or advantages than +those which place one amongst the better class of men; where I +find them, there is my home." + +(Teplitz, July 17, 1812, to his little admirer, Emile M., in H.) + +192. "From childhood I learned to love virtue, and everything +beautiful and good." + +(About 1808, to Frau Marie Bigot.) + +193. "It is one of my foremost principles never to occupy any +other relations than those of friendship with the wife of another +man. I should never want to fill my heart with distrust towards +those who may chance some day to share my fate with me, and thus +destroy the loveliest and purest life for myself." + +(About 1808, to Frau Marie Biot, after she had declined his +invitation to drive with him.) + +194. "In my solitude here I miss my roommate, at least at evening +and noon, when the human animal is obliged to assimilate that +which is necessary to the production of the intellectual, and +which I prefer to do in company with another." + +(Teplitz, September 6, 1811, to Tiedge.) + +195. "It was not intentional and premeditated malice which led me +to act toward you as I did; it was my unpardonable carelessness." + +(To Wegeler.) + +196. "I am not bad; hot blood is my wickedness, my crime is +youthfulness. I am not bad, really not bad; even though wild +surges often accuse my heart, it still is good. To do good +wherever we can, to love liberty above all things, and never to +deny truth though it be at the throne itself.--Think +occasionally of the friend who honors you." + +(Written in the autograph album of a Herr Bocke.) + +197. "It is a singular sensation to see and hear one's self +praised, and then to be conscious of one's own imperfections as I +am. I always regard such occasions as admonitions to get nearer +the unattainable goal set for us by art and nature, hard as it +may be." + +(To Mdlle. de Girardi, who had sung his praises in a poem.) + +198. "It is my sincere desire that whatever shall be said of me +hereafter shall adhere strictly to the truth in every respect +regardless of who may be hurt thereby, me not excepted." + +(Reported by Schindler, who also relates that when Beethoven +handed him documents to be used in the biography a week before his +death, he said to him and Breuning: "But in all things +severely the truth; for that I hold you to a strict +accountability.") + +199. "Now you can help me to find a wife. If you find a beautiful +woman in F. who, mayhap, endows my music with a sigh,--but she +must be no Elise Burger--make a provisional engagement. But she +must be beautiful, for I can love only the beautiful; otherwise I +might love myself." + +(In 1809, to Baron von Gleichenstein. As for the personal +reference it seems likely that Beethoven referred to Elise +Burger, second wife of the poet G. August Burger, with whom he +had got acquainted after she had been divorced and become an +elocutionist.) + +2OO. "Am I not a true friend? Why do you conceal your necessities +from me? No friend of mine must suffer so long as I have +anything." + +(To Ferdinand Ries, in 1801. Ries's father had been kind to +Beethoven on the death of his mother in 1787.) + +201. "I would rather forget what I owe to myself than what I owe +to others." + +(To Frau Streicher, in the summer of 1817.) + +202. "I never practice revenge. When I must antagonize others I do +no more than is necessary to protect myself against them, or +prevent them from doing further evil." + +(To Frau Streicher, in reference to the troubles which his +servants gave him, many of which, no doubt, were due to faults of +his own, excusable in a man in his condition of health.) + +203. "Be convinced that mankind, even in your case, will always be +sacred to me." + +(To Czapka, Magisterial Councillor, August, 1826, in the matter of +his nephew's attempt at suicide.) + +204. "H. is, and always will be, too weak for friendship, and I +look upon him and Y. as mere instruments upon which I play when I +feel like it; but they can never be witnesses of my internal and +external activities, and just as little real participants. I +value them according as they do me service." + +(Summer of 1800, to the friend of his youth, Pastor Amenda. H. was +probably the faithful Baron Zmeskall von Domanowectz.) + +205. "If it amuses them to talk and write about me in that manner, +let them go on." + +(Reported by Schindler as referring to critics who had declared +him ripe for the madhouse.) + +206. "To your gentlemen critics I recommend a little more +foresight and shrewdness, particularly in respect of the products +of younger authors, as many a one, who might otherwise make +progress, may be frightened off. So far as I am concerned I am +far from thinking myself so perfect as not to be able to endure +faulting; yet at the beginning the clamor of your critic was so +debasing that I could scarcely discuss the matter when I compared +myself with others, but had to remain quiet and think: they do +not understand. I was the more able to remain quiet when I +recalled how men were praised who signify little among those who +know, and who have almost disappeared despite their good points. +Well, pax vobiscum, peace to them and me,--I would never have +mentioned a syllable had you not begun." + +(April 22, 1801, to Breitkopf and Hartel, publishers of the +"Allgemeine Musik Zeitung.") + +207. "Who was happier than I when I could still pronounce the +sweet word "mother" and have it heard? To whom can I speak it +now?" + +(September 15, 1787, from Bonn to Dr. Schade, of Augsburg, who had +aided him in his return journey from Vienna to Bonn. His mother +had died on July 17, 1787.) + +208. "I seldom go anywhere since it was always impossible for me +to associate with people where there was not a certain exchange +of ideas." + +(February 15, 1817, to Brentano of Frankfurt.) + +209. "Not a word about rest! I know of none except in sleep, and +sorry enough am I that I am obliged to yield up more to it than +formerly." + +(November 16, 1801, or 1802, to Wegeler. In Homer's "Odyssey" +Beethoven thickly underscored the words: "Too much sleep is +injurious." XV, 393.) + +210. "Rest assured that you are dealing with a true artist who +likes to be paid decently, it is true, but who loves his own +reputation and also the fame of his art; who is never satisfied +with himself and who strives continually to make even greater +progress in his art." + +(November 23, 1809, to George Thomson, of Edinburgh, for whom +Beethoven arranged the Scotch songs.) + +211. "My motto is always: nulla die sine linea; and if I permit +the muse to go to sleep it is only that she may awake +strengthened." + +(October 7, 1826, to Wegeler.) + +212. "There is no treatise likely to be too learned for me. +Without laying claim to real learning it is yet true that since +my childhood I have striven to learn the minds of the best and +wisest of every period of time. It is a disgrace for every artist +who does not try to do as much." + +(November 2, 1809, to Breitkopf and Haerte1, of Leipzig. + +213. "Without wishing in the least to set myself up as an exemplar +I assure you that I lived in a small and insignificant place, and +made out of myself nearly all that I was there and am here;--this +to your comfort in case you feel the need of making progress in +art." + +(Baden, July 6, 1804, to Herr Wiedebein, of Brunswick, who had +asked if it was advisable for a music teacher and student to make +his home in Vienna.) + +214. "There is much on earth to be done,-do it soon! I must not +continue my present everyday life,--art asks this sacrifice also. +Take rest in diversion in order to work more energetically." + +(Diary, 1814.) + +215. "The daily grind exhausts me." + +(Baden, August 23, 1823, to his nephew Karl.) + + + +THE SUFFERER + + + +216. "Compelled to be a philosopher as early as my 28th year;--it +is not an easy matter,--more difficult for the artist than any +other man." + +(October 6, 1802; the Heiligenstadt Will.) + +217. "Compelled to contemplate a lasting malady, born with an +ardent and lively temperament, susceptible to the diversions of +society, I was obliged at an early date to isolate myself and +live a life of solitude." + +(From the same.) + +218. "It was impossible for me to say to others: speak louder; +shout! for I am deaf. Ah! was it possible for me to proclaim a +deficiency in that one sense which in my case ought to have been +more perfect than in all others, which I had once possessed in +greatest perfection, to a degree of perfection, indeed, which few +of my profession have ever enjoyed?" + +(From the same.) + +219. "For me there can be no recreation in human society, refined +conversation, mutual exchange of thoughts and feelings; only so +far as necessity compels may I give myself to society,--I must +live like an exile." + +(From the same.) + +220. "How great was the humiliation when one who stood beside me +heard the distant sound of a shepherd's pipe, and I heard +nothing; or heard the shepherd singing, and I heard nothing. Such +experiences brought me to the verge of despair;--but little more +and I should have put an end to my life. Art, art alone deterred +me." + +(From the same.) + +221. "I may say that I live a wretched existence. For almost two +years I have avoided all social gatherings because it is +impossible for me to tell the people I am deaf. If my vocation +were anything else it might be more endurable, but under the +circumstances the condition is terrible; besides what would my +enemies say,-they are not few in number! To give you an idea of +this singular deafness let me tell you that in the theatre I must +lean over close to the orchestra in order to understand the +actor; if I am a little remote from them I do not hear the high +tones of instruments and voices; it is remarkable that there are +persons who have not observed it, but because I am generally +absent-minded my conduct is ascribed to that." + +(Vienna, June 29, 1800, to Wegeler. "To you only do I confide this +as a secret." Concerning his deafness see Appendix. + +222. "My defective hearing appeared everywhere before me like a +ghost; I fled from the presence of men, was obliged to appear to +be a misanthrope although I am so little such." + +(November 16, 1801, or 1800, to Wegeler, in writing to him about +his happy love. "Unfortunately, she is not of my station in +life.") + +223. "Truly, a hard lot has befallen me! Yet I accept the decree +of Fate, and continually pray to God to grant that as long as I +must endure this death in life, I may be preserved from want." + +(March 14, 1827, to Moscheles, after Beethoven had undergone the +fourth operation for dropsy and was con fronting the fifth. He +died on March 26, 1827.) + +224. "Live alone in your art! Restricted though you be by your +defective sense, this is still the only existence for you." + +(Diary, 1816.) + +225. "Dissatisfied with many things, more susceptible than any +other person and tormented by my deafness, I often find only +suffering in the association with others." + +(In 1815, to Brauchle, tutor in the house of Countess Erdody.) + +226. "I have emptied a cup of bitter suffering and already won +martyrdom in art through the kindness of art's disciples and my +art associates." + +(In the summer of 1814, to Advocate Kauka. "Socrates and Jesus +were my exemplars," he remarks in a Conversation-book of 1819.) + +226. "Perfect the ear trumpets as far as possible, and then +travel; this you owe to yourself, to mankind and to the Almighty! +Only thus can you develop all that is still locked within you;-- +and a little court,--a little chapel,--writing the music and +having it performed to the glory of the Almighty, the Eternal, +the Infinite---" + +(Diary, 1815. Beethoven was hoping to receive an appointment as +chapelmaster from his former pupil, Archduke Rudolph, Archbishop +of Olmutz.) + +228. "God help me. 'Thou seest me deserted by all mankind. I do +not want to do wrong,--hear my prayer to be with my Karl in the +future for which there seems to be no possibility now. O, harsh +Fate, cruel destiny. No, my unhappy condition will never end. +"This I feel and recognize clearly: Life is not the greatest of +blessings; but the greatest of evils is guilt." (From Schiller's +"Braut von Messina"). There is no salvation for you except to +hasten away from here; only by this means can you lift yourself +again to the heights of your art whereas you are here sinking to +the commonplace, --and a symphony--and then away,--away,-- +meanwhile fund the salaries which can be done for years. Work +during the summer preparatory to travel; only thus can you do the +great work for your poor nephew; later travel through Italy, +Sicily, with a few other artists." + +(Diary, spring of 1817. The salaries were the annuities paid him +for several years by Archduke Rudolph, Prince Rinsky and Prince +Lobkowitz. Seume's "Spaezlergang nach Syrakus" was a favorite +book of Beethoven's and inspired him in a desire to make a +similar tour, but nothing came of it.) + +229. "You must not be a man like other men: not for yourself, only +for others; for you there is no more happiness except in +yourself, in your art.--O God, give me strength to overcome +myself, nothing must hold me to this life." + +(Beginning of the Diary, 1812-18.) + +230. "Leave operas and all else alone, write only for your orphan, +and then a cowl to close this unhappy life." + +(Diary, 1816.) + +231. "I have often cursed my existence; Plutarch taught me +resignation. I shall, if possible, defy Fate, though there will +be hours in my life when I shall be the most miserable of God's +creatures. Resignation! What a wretched resort; yet it is the +only one left me!" + +(Vienna, June 29, 1800, to Wegeler.) + +232. "Patience, they tell me, I must now choose for a guide. I +have done so. It shall be my resolve, lastingly, I hope, to +endure until it pleases the implacable Parca: to break the +thread. There may be improvement,--perhaps not,--I am prepared." + +(From the Heiligenstadt Will.) + +233. "Let all that is called life be offered to the sublime and +become a sanctuary of art. Let me live, even through artificial +means, so they can be found." + +(Diary, 1814, when Beethoven was being celebrated extraordinarily +by the royalties and dignitaries gathered at the Congress of +Vienna.) + +234. "Ah! it seemed impossible for me to leave the world until I +had produced all that I felt called upon to produce; and so I +prolonged this wretched existence." + +(From the Heiligenstadt Will.) + +235. "With joy shall I hasten forward to meet death; if he comes +before I shall have had an opportunity to develop all my artistic +capabilities, he will come too early in spite of my harsh fate, +and I shall probably wish him to come at a later date. But even +then I shall be content, for will he not release me from endless +suffering? Come when you please, I shall meet you bravely." + +(From the Heiligenstadt Will.) + +236. "Apollo and the muses will not yet permit me to be delivered +over to the grim skeleton, for I owe them so much, and I must, on +any departure for the Elysian Fields, leave behind me all that +the spirit has inspired and commanded to be finished." + +(September 17, 1824, to Schott, music publisher in Mayence.) + +237. "Had I not read somewhere that it is not pending man to part +voluntarily from his life so long as there is a good deed which +he can perform, I should long since have been no more, and by my +own hand. O, how beautiful life is, but in my case it is +poisoned." + +(May 2, 1810, to his friend Wegeler, to whom he is lamenting over +"the demon that has set up his habitat in my ears.") + +238. "I must abandon wholly the fond hope, which I brought hither, +to be cured at least In a degree. As the fallen autumn leaves have +withered, so arc now my hopes blighted. I depart in almost the +same condition in which I came; even the lofty courage which often +animated me in the beautiful days of summer has disappeared." + +(From the Will. Beethoven had tried the cure at Heiligenstadt.) + +239. "All week long I had to suffer and endure like a saint. Away +with this rabble! What a reproach to our civilization that we +need what we despise and must always know it near!" + +(In 1825, complaining of the misery caused by his domestics.) + +240. "The best thing to do not to think of your malady is to keep +occupied." + +(Diary, 1812-18.) + +241. "It is no comfort for men of the better sort to say to them +that others also suffer; but, alas! comparisons must always be +made, though they only teach that we all suffer, that is err, +only in different ways." + +(In 1816, to Countess Erdody, on the death of her son.) + +242. "The portraits of Handel, Bach, Gluck, Mozart and Haydn in +my room,--they may help me to make claim on toleration." + +(Diary, 1815-16.) + +243. "God, who knows my innermost soul, and knows how sacredly I +have fulfilled all the duties but upon me as man by humanity, God +and nature will surely some day relieve me from these +afflictions." + +(July 18, 1821, to Archduke Rudolph, from Unterubling.) + +244. "Friendship and similar sentiments bring only wounds to me. +Well, so be it; for you, poor Beethoven, there is no outward +happiness; you must create it within you,--only in the world of +ideality shall you find friends." + +(About 1808, to Baron von Gleichenstein, by whom he thought +himself slighted.) + +245. "You are living on a quiet sea, or already in the safe +harbor; you do not feel the distress of a friend out in the +raging storm,--or you must not feel it." + +(In 1811, to his friend Gleichenstein, when Beethoven was in love +with the Baron's sister-in-law, Therese Malfatti.) + +246. "I must have a confidant at my side lest life become a +burden." + +(July 4, 1812, to Count Brunswick, whom he is urging to make a +tour with him, probably to Teplitz.) + +247. "Your love makes me at once the happiest and the unhappiest +of men. At my age I need a certain uniformity and equableness of +life; can such exist in our relationship?" + +(June 7,1800(?), to the "Immortal Beloved.") + +248. "O Providence! vouchsafe me one day of pure joy! Long has the +echo of perfect felicity been absent from my heart. When O, when, +O Thou Divine One, shall I feel it again in nature's temple and +man's? Never? Ah! that would be too hard!" + +(Conclusion of the Heiligenstadt Will.) + + + +WORLDLY WISDOM + + + +249. "Freedom,--progress, is purpose in the art-world as in +universal creation, and if we moderns have not the hardihood of +our ancestors, refinement of manners has surely accomplished +something." + +(Middling, July 29, 1819, to Archduke Rudolph.) + +250. "The boundaries are not yet fixed which shall call out to +talent and industry: thus far and no further!" + +(Reported by Schindler.) + +251. "You know that the sensitive spirit must not be bound to +miserable necessities." + +(In the summer of 1814, to Johann Kauka, the advocate who +represented him in the prosecution of his claims against the +heirs of Prince Kinsky.) + +252. "Art, the persecuted one, always finds an asylum. Did not +Daedalus, shut up in the labyrinth, invent the wings which +carried him out into the open air? O, I shall find them, too, +these wings!" + +(February 19, 1812, to Zmeskall, when, in 1811, by decree of the +Treasury, the value of the Austrian currency was depreciated one- +fifth, and the annuity which Beethoven received from Archduke +Rudolph and the Princes Lobkowitz and Kinsky reduced to 800 +florins.) + +253. "Show me the course where at the goal there stands the palm +of victory! Lend sublimity to my loftiest thoughts, bring to them +truths that shall live forever!" + +(Diary, 1814, while working on "Fidelio.") + +254. "Every day is lost in which we do not learn something useful. +Man has no nobler or more valuable possession than time; +therefore never put off till tomorrow what you can do today." + +(From the notes in Archduke Rudolph's instruction book.) + +255. "This is the mark of distinction of a truly admirable man: +steadfastness in times of trouble." + +(Diary, 1816.) + +256. "Courage, so it be righteous, will gain all things." + +(April, 1815, to Countess Erdody.) + +257. "Force, which is a unit, will always prevail against the +majority which is divided." + +(Conversation-book, 1819.) + +258. "Kings and Princes can create professors and councillors, and +confer orders and decorations; but they can not create great men, +spirits that rise above the earthly rabble; these they can not +create, and therefore they are to be respected." + +(August 15, 1812, to Bettina von Arnim.) + +259. "Man, help yourself!" + +(Written under the words: "Fine, with the help of God," which +Moscheles had written at the end, of a pianoforte arrangement of +a portion of "Fidelio.") + +260. "If I could give as definite expression to my thoughts about +my illness as to my thoughts in music, I would soon help myself." + +(September, 1812, to Amalie Sebald, a patient at the cure in +Teplitz.) + +261. "Follow the advice of others only in the rarest cases." + +(Diary, 1816.) + +262. "The moral law in us, and the starry sky above us."-Kant. + +(Conversation-book, February, 1820.) + +[Literally the passage in Kant's "Critique of Practical Reason" +reads as follows: "Two things fill the soul with ever new and +increasing wonder and reverence the oftener the mind dwells upon +them:--the starry sky above me and the moral law in me."] + +263. "Blessed is he who has overcome all passions and then +proceeds energetically to perform his duties under all +circumstances careless of success! Let the motive lie in the +deed, not in the outcome. Be not one of those whose spring of +action is the hope of reward. Do not let your life pass in +inactivity. Be industrious, do your duty, banish all thoughts as +to the results, be they good or evil; for such equanimity is +attention to intellectual things. Seek an asylum only in Wisdom; +for he who is wretched and unhappy is so only in consequence of +things. The truly wise man does not concern himself with the good +and evil of this world. Therefore endeavor diligently to preserve +this use of your reason--for in the affairs of this world, such +a use is a precious art." + +(Diary. Though essentially in the language of Beethoven there is +evidence that the passage was inspired by something that he had +read.) + +264. "The just man must be able also to suffer injustice without +deviating in the least from the right course." + +(To the Viennese magistrate in the matter of Karl's education.) + +265. "Man's humility towards man pains me; and yet when I consider +myself in connection with the universe, what am I and what is he +whom we call the greatest? And yet here, again, lies the divine +element in man." + +(To the "Immortal Beloved," July 6 (1800?).) + +266. "Only the praise of one who has enjoyed praise can give +pleasure." + +(Conversation-book, 1825.) + +267. "Nothing is more intolerable than to be compelled to accuse +one's self of one's own errors." + +(Teplitz, September 6, 1811, to Tiedge. Beethoven regrets that +through his own fault he had not made Hedge's acquaintance on an +earlier opportunity.) + +268. "What greater gift can man receive than fame, praise and +immortality?" + +(Diary, 1816-17. After Pliny, Epist. III.) + +269. "Frequently it seems as if I should almost go mad over my +undeserved fame; fortune seeks me out and I almost fear new +misfortune on that account." + +(July, 1810, to his friend Zmeskall. "Every day there come new +inquiries from strangers, new acquaintances new relationships.") + +270. "The world must give one recognition,--it is not always +unjust. I care nothing for it because I have a higher goal." + +(August 15, 1812, to Bettina von Arnim.) + +271. "I have the more turned my gaze upwards; but for our own +sakes and for others we are obliged to turn our attention +sometimes to lower things; this, too, is a part of human destiny." + +(February 8, 1823, to Zelter, with whom he is negotiating the sale +of a copy of the Mass in D.) + +272. "Why so many dishes? Man is certainly very little higher than +the other animals if his chief delights are those of the table." + +(Reported by J. A. Stumpff, in the "Harmonicon" of 1824. He dined +with Beethoven in Baden.) + +273. "Whoever tells a lie is not pure of heart, and such a person +can not cook a clean soup." + +(To Mme. Streicher, in 1817, or 1818, after having dismissed an +otherwise good housekeeper because she had told a falsehood to +spare his feelings.) + +274. "Vice walks through paths full of present lusts and persuades +many to follow it. Virtue pursues a steep path and is less +seductive to mankind, especially if at another place there are +persons who call them to a gently declining road." + +(Diary, 1815.) + +275. "Sensual enjoyment without a union of soul is bestial and +will always remain bestial." + +281. "Look, my dear Ries; these are the great after it one +experiences not a trace of noble connoisseurs who affect to be +able to judge of sentiment, but rather regret any piece of music +so correctly and keenly." + +(Diary, 1812-18.) + +give them but the name of their favorite,--they need no more! + +276. "Men are not only together when they are with each other; +even the distant and the dead live with us." + +(To Therese Malfatti, later Baroness von Drossdick, to whom in the +country he sent Goethe's "Wilhelm Meister" and Schlegel's +translation of Shakespeare.) + +277. "There is no goodness except the possession of a good soul, +which may be seen in all things, from which one need not seek to +hide." + +(August 15, 1812, to Bettina von Arnim.) + +278. "The foundation of friendship demands the greatest likeness +of human souls and hearts." + +(Baden, July 24, 1804, to Ries, describing his quarrel with +Breuning.) + +279. "True friendship can rest only on the union of like natures." + +(Diary, 1812-18.) + +280. "The people say nothing; they are merely people. As a rule +they only see themselves in others, and what they see is nothing; +away with them! The good and the beautiful needs no people,--it +exists without outward help, and this seems to be the reason of +our enduring friendship." + +(September 16, 1812, to Amalie Sebald, in Teplitz, who had +playfully called him a tyrant.) + +281. "Look, my dear Ries; these are the great connoisseurs who +affect to be able to judge of any piece of music so correctly and +keenly. Give them but the name of their favorite,--they need no +more!" + +(To his pupil Ries, who had, as a joke, played a mediocre march at +a gathering at Count Browne's and announced it to be a composition +by Beethoven. When the march was praised beyond measure Beethoven +broke out into a grim laugh.) + +282. "Do not let all men see the contempt which they deserve; we +do not know when we may need them." + +(Note in the Diary of 1814, after having had an unpleasant +experience with his "friend" Bertolini. "Henceforth never step +inside his house; shame on you to ask anything from such an one.") + +283. "Our Time stands in need of powerful minds who will scourge +these petty, malicious and miserable scoundrels, --much as my +heart resents doing injury to a fellow man." + +(In 1825, to his nephew, in reference to the publication of a +satirical canon on the Viennese publisher, Haslinger, by Schott, +of Mayence.) + +284. "Today is Sunday. Shall I read something for you from the +Gospels? "Love ye one another!" + +(To Frau Streicher.) + +285. "Hate reacts on those who nourish it." + +(Diary, 1812-18.) + +286. "When friends get into a quarrel it is always best not to +call in an intermediary, but to have friend turn to friend +direct." + +(Vienna, November 2, 1793, to Eleonore von Breuning, of Bonn.) + +287. "There are reasons for the conduct of men which one is not +always willing to explain, but which, nevertheless, are based on +ineradicable necessity." + +(In 1815, to Brauchle.) + +288. "I was formerly inconsiderate and hasty in the expression of +my opinions, and thereby I made enemies. Now I pass judgment on +no one, and, indeed, for the reason that I do not wish to do any +one harm. Moreover, in the last instance I always think: if it is +something decent it will maintain itself in spite of all attack +and envy; if there is nothing good and sound at the bottom of it, +it will fall to pieces of itself, bolster it up as one may." + +(In a conversation with Tomaschek, in October, 1814.) + +289. "Even the most sacred friendship may harbor secrets, but you +ought not to misinterpret the secret of a friend because you can +not guess it." + +(About 1808, to Frau Marie Bigot.) + +290. "You are happy; it is my wish that you remain so, for every +man is best placed in his sphere." + +(Bonn, July 13, 1825, to his brother Johann, landowner in +Gneisendorf.) + +291. "One must not measure the cost of the useful." + +(To his nephew Karl in a discussion touching the purchase of an +expensive book.) + +292. "It is not my custom to prattle away my purposes, since +every intention once betrayed is no longer one's own." + +(To Frau Streicher.) + +293. "How stupidity and wretchedness always go in pairs!" + +(Diary, 1817.) + +[Beethoven was greatly vexed by his servants.] + +294. "Hope nourishes me; it nourishes half the world, and has been +my neighbor all my life, else what had become of me!" + +(August 11, 1810, to Bettina von Arnim.) + +295. "Fortune is round like a globe, hence, naturally, does not +always fall on the noblest and best." + +(Vienna, July 39, 1800, to Wegeler.) + +296. "Show your power, Fate! We are not our own masters; what is +decided must be,--and so be it!" + +(Diary, 1818.) + +297. "Eternal Providence omnisciently directs the good and evil +fortunes of mortal men." + +(Diary, 1818.) + +298. "With tranquility, O God, will I submit myself to changes, +and place all my trust in Thy unalterable mercy and goodness." + +(Diary, 1818.) + +299. "All misfortune is mysterious and greatest when viewed alone; +discussed with others it seems more endurable because one becomes +entirely familiar with the things one dreads, and feels as if one +had overcome it." + +(Diary, 1816.) + +300. "One must not flee for protection to poverty against the loss +of riches, nor to a lack of friendship against the loss of +friends, nor by abstention from procreation against the death of +children, but to reason against everything." + +(Diary, 1816.) + +301. "I share deeply with you the righteous sorrow over the death +of your wife. It seems to me that such a parting, which confronts +nearly every married man, ought to keep one in the ranks of the +unmarried." + +(May 20, 1811, to Gottfried Hartel, of Leipzig.) + +302. "He who is afflicted with a malady which he can not alter, +but which gradually brings him nearer and nearer to death, +without which he would have lived longer, ought to reflect that +murder or another cause might have killed him even more quickly." + +(Diary, 1812-18.) + +303. "We finite ones with infinite souls are born only for sorrows +and joy and it might almost be said that the best of us receive +joy through sorrow." + +(October 19, 1815, to Countess Erdody.) + +304. "He is a base man who does not know how to die; I knew it as +a boy of fifteen." + +(In the spring of 1816, to Miss Fanny Giannatasio del Rio, when +Beethoven felt ill and spoke of dying. It is not known that he +was ever near death in his youth.) + +305. "A second and third generation recompenses me three and +fourfold for the ill-will which I had to endure from my former +contemporaries." + +(Copied into his Diary from Goethe's "Westostlichen Divan.") + +306. "My hour at last is come; + Yet not ingloriously or passively + I die, but first will do some valiant deed, + Of which mankind shall hear in after + time."-Homer." + +("The Iliad" [Bryant's translation], Book XXII, 375-378.) + +(Copied into his Diary, 1815.) + +307. "Fate gave man the courage of endurance." + +(Diary, 1814.) + +308. "Portia--How far that little candle throws his beams! + So shines a good deed in a naughty world." + +(Marked in his copy of Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice.") + +309. "And on the day that one becomes a + slave, + The Thunderer, Jove, takes half his + worth away."-Homer. + +("The Odyssey" [Bryant's translation], Book XVII, 392-393. +Marked by Beethoven.) + +310. "Short is the life of man, and whoso + bears + A cruel heart, devising cruel things, + On him men call down evil from the + gods + While living, and pursue him, when he + dies, + With scoffs. But whoso is of generous + heart + And harbors generous aims, his guests + proclaim + His praises far and wide to all + mankind, + And numberless are they who call him + good."-Homer. + +("The Odyssey" [Bryant's translation], Book XIX, 408-415. Copied +into his diary, 1818.) + + + +GOD + + + +Beethoven was through and through a religious man, though not in +the confessional sense. Reared in the Catholic faith he early +attained to an independent opinion on religious things. It must +be borne in mind that his youth fell in the period of +enlightenment and rationalism. When at a later date he composed +the grand Mass in honor of his esteemed pupil Archduke Rudolph,-- +he hoped to obtain from him a chapelmastership when the Archduke +became Archbishop of Olmutz, but in vain,--he gave it forms and +dimensions which deviated from the ritual. + +In all things liberty was the fundamental principle of +Beethoven's life. His favorite book was Sturm's "Observations +Concerning God's Works in Nature" (Betrachtungen ber die Werke +Gottes in der Natur), which he recommended to the priests for +wide distribution among the people. He saw the hand of God in +even the most insignificant natural phenomenon. God was to him +the Supreme Being whom he had jubilantly hymned in the choral +portion of the Ninth Symphony in the words of Schiller: +"Brothers, beyond you starry canopy there must dwell a loving +Father!" Beethoven's relationship to God was that of a child +toward his loving father to whom he confides all his joys as well +as sorrows. + +It is said that once he narrowly escaped excommunication for +having said that Jesus was only a poor human being and a Jew. +Haydn, ingenuously pious, is reported to have called Beethoven +an atheist. + +He consented to the calling in of a priest on his death-bed. Eye- +witnesses testify that the customary function was performed most +impressively and edifyingly and that Beethoven expressed his +thanks to the officiating priest with heartiness. After he had +left the room Beethoven said to his friends: "Plaudite, amici, +comoedia finita est," the phrase with which antique dramas were +concluded. From this fact the statement has been made that +Beethoven wished to characterize the sacrament of extreme unction +as a comedy. This is contradicted, however, by his conduct during +its administration. It is more probable that he wished to +designate his life as a drama; in this sense, at any rate, the +words were accepted by his friends. Schindler says emphatically: +"The last days were in all respects remarkable, and he looked +forward to death with truly Socratic wisdom and peace of mind." + +[I append a description of the death scene as I found it in the +notebooks of A. W. Thayer which were placed in my hands for +examination after the death of Beethoven's greatest biographer in +1897: + +"June 5, 1860, I was in Graz and saw Huettenbrenner (Anselm) who +gave me the following particulars:...In the winter of 1826-27 +his friends wrote him from Vienna, that if he wished to see +Beethoven again alive he must hurry thither from Graz. He hastened +to Vienna, arriving a few days before Beethoven's death. Early in +the afternoon of March 26, Huettenbrenner went into the dying +man's room. He mentioned as persons whom he saw there, Stephen v. +Breuning and Gerhard, Schindler, Telscher and Carl's mother (this +seems to be a mistake, i.e. if Mrs. v. Beethoven is right). +Beethoven had then long been senseless. Telscher began drawing the +dying face of Beethoven. This grated on Breuning's feelings, and +he remonstrated with him, and he put up his papers and left (?). + +Then Breuning and Schindler left to go out to Wohring to select a +grave. (Just after the five--I got this from Breuning himself-- +when it grew dark with the sudden storm Gerhard, who had been +standing at the window, ran home to his teacher.) + +Afterward Gerhard v. B. went home, and there remained in the room +only Huttenbrenner and Mrs. van Beethoven. The storm passed over, +covering the Glacis with snow and sleet. As it passed away a flash +of lightning lighted up everything. This was followed by an awful +clap of thunder. Huttenbrenner had been sitting on the side of the +bed sustaining Beethoven's head--holding it up with his right arm +His breathing was already very much impeded, and he had been for +hours dying. At this startling, awful peal of thunder, the dying +man suddenly raised his head from Huttenbrenner's arm, stretched +out his own right arm majestically--like a general giving orders +to an army. This was but for an instant; the arm sunk back; he +fell back. Beethoven was dead. + +"Another talk with Huttenbrenner. It seems that Beethoven was at +his last gasp, one eye already closed. At the stroke of lightning +and the thunder peal he raised his arm with a doubled-up fist; the +expression of his eyes and face was that of one defying death,--a +look of defiance and power of resistance. + +"He must have had his arm under the pillow. I must ask him. + +"I did ask him; he had his arm around B.'s neck." H. E. K.] + + + +311. "I am that which is. I am all that was, that is, and that +shall be. No mortal man has ever lifted the veil of me. He is +solely of himself, and to this Only One all things owe their +existence." + +(Beethoven's creed. He had found it in Champollion's "The +Paintings of Egypt," where it is set down as an inscription on a +temple to the goddess Neith. Beethoven had his copy framed and +kept it constantly before him on his writing desk. "The relic was +a great treasure in his eyes"--Schindler.) + +312. "Wrapped in the shadows of eternal solitude, in the +impenetrable darkness of the thicket, impenetrable, immeasurable, +unapproachable, formlessly extended. Before spirit was breathed +(into things) his spirit was, and his only. As mortal eyes (to +compare finite and infinite things) look into a shining mirror." + +(Copied, evidently, from an unidentified work, by Beethoven; +though possibly original with him.) + +313. "It was not the fortuitous meeting of the chordal atoms that +made the world; if order and beauty are reflected in the +constitution of the universe, then there is a God." + +(Diary, 1816.) + +314. "He who is above,--O, He is, and without Him there is +nothing." + +(Diary.) + +315. "Go to the devil with your "gracious Sir!" There is only one +who can be called gracious, and that is God." + +(About 1824 or 1825, to Rampel, a copyist, who, apparently, had +been a little too obsequious in his address to Beethoven. [As is +customary among the Viennese to this day. H. E. K.]) + +316. "What is all this compared with the great Tonemaster above! +above! above! and righteously the Most High, whereas here below +all is mockery,--dwarfs,--and yet Most High!!" + +(To Schott, publisher in Mayence, in 1822--the same year in which +Beethoven copied the Egyptian inscription.) + +317. "There is no loftier mission than to approach the Divinity +nearer than other men, and to disseminate the divine rays among +mankind.) + +(August, 1823, to Archduke Rudolph.) + +318. "Heaven rules over the destiny of men and monsters +(literally, human and inhuman beings), and so it will guide me, +too, to the better things of life." + +(September 11, 1811, to the poet Elsie von der Recke.) + +319. "It's the same with humanity; here, too (in suffering), he +must show his strength, i.e. endure without knowing or feeling his +nullity, and reach his perfection again for which the Most High +wishes to make us worthy." + +(May 13, 1816, to Countess Erdody, who was suffering from +incurable lameness.) + +320. "Religion and thorough-bass are settled things concerning +which there should be no disputing." + +(Reported by Schindler.) + +331. "All things flowed clear and pure out of God. Though often +darkly led to evil by passion, I returned, through penance and +purification to the pure fountain,--to God,--and to your art. In +this I was never impelled by selfishness; may it always be so. +The trees bend low under the weight of fruit, the clouds descend +when they are filled with salutary rains, and the benefactors of +humanity are not puffed up by their wealth." + +(Diary, 1815. The first portion seems to be a quotation, but +Beethoven continues after the dash most characteristically in +his own words and a change of person.) + +322. "God is immaterial, and for this reason transcends every +conception. Since He is invisible He can have no form. But from +what we observe in His work we may conclude that He is eternal, +omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent." + +(Copied, with the remark: "From Indian literature" from an +unidentified work, into the Diary of 1816.) + +323. "In praise of Thy goodness I must confess that Thou didst try +with all Thy means to draw me to Thee. Sometimes it pleased Thee +to let me feel the heavy hand of Thy displeasure and to humiliate +my proud heart by manifold castigations. Sickness and misfortune +didst Thou send upon me to turn my thoughts to my errantries.--One +thing, only, O Father, do I ask: cease not to labor for my +betterment. In whatsoever manner it be, let me turn to Thee and +become fruitful in good works." + +(Copied into the Diary from Sturm's book, "Observations Concerning +the Works of God in Nature.") + + + +APPENDIX + + + +Some observations may finally be acceptable touching Beethoven's +general culture to which the thoughts of the reader must naturally +have been directed by the excerpts from his writings set forth in +the preceding pages. His own words betray the fact that he was not +privileged to enjoy a thorough school-training and was thus +compelled to the end of his days to make good the deficiencies in +his learning. As a lad at Bonn he had attended the so-called +Tirocinium, a sort of preparatory school for the Gymnasium, and +acquired a small knowledge of Latin. Later he made great efforts +to acquire French, a language essential to intercourse in the +upper circles of society. He never established intimate relations +with the rules of German. He used small initials for substantives, +or capitalized verbs and adjectives according as they appeared +important to him. His punctuation was arbitrary; generally he drew +a perpendicular line between his words, letting it suffice for a +comma or period as the case might be (a proceeding which adds not +a little to the embarrassments of him who seeks to translate his +sometimes mystical utterances). + +It is said that a man's bookcase bears evidence of his education +and intellectual interests. Beethoven also had books,--not many, +but a characteristic collection. From his faithful friend and +voluntary servant Schindler we have a report on this subject. Of +the books of which he was possessed at the time of his death there +have been preserved four volumes of translations of Shakespeare's +works, Homer's "Odyssey" in the translation of J. H. Voss, Sturm's +"Observations" (several times referred to in the preceding pages), +and Goethe's "Westostlichen Divan." These books are frequently +marked and annotated in lead pencil, thus bearing witness to the +subjects which interested Beethoven. From them, and volumes which +he had borrowed, many passages were copied by him into his daily +journal. Besides these books Schindler mentions Homer's "Iliad," +Goethe's poems, "Wilhelm Melster" and "Faust," Schiller's dramas +and poems, Tiedge's "Urania," volumes of poems by Matthisson and +Seume, and Nina d'Aubigny's "Letters to Natalia on Singing,"--a +book to which Beethoven attached great value. These books have +disappeared, as well as others which Beethoven valued. We do not +know what became of the volumes of Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch and +Xenophon, or the writings of Pliny, Euripides, Quintilian, Ovid, +Horace, Ossian, Milton and Thomson, traces of which are found in +Beethoven's utterances. + +The catalogue made for the auction sale of his posthumous effects +on September 7, 1827, included forty-four works of which the +censorship seized five as prohibited writings, namely, Seume's +"Foot Journey to Syracuse," the Apocrypha, Kotzebue's "On the +Nobility," W.E. Muller's "Paris in its Zenith" (1816), and "Views +on Religion and Ecclesiasticism." Burney's "General History of +Music" was also in his library, the gift, probably of an English +admirer. + +In his later years Beethoven was obliged to use the oft-quoted +"Conversation-books" in his intercourse with friends and +strangers alike who wrote down their questions. Of these little +books Schindler preserved no less than 134, which are now in the +Royal Library in Berlin. Naturally Beethoven answered the written +questions orally as a rule. An idea of Beethoven's opinions can +occasionally be gathered from the context of the questions, but +frequently we are left in the dark. + +Beethoven's own characterization of his deafness as "singular" is +significant. Often, even in his later years, he was able to hear a +little and for a time. One might almost speak of a periodical +visitation of the "demon." In his biography Marx gives the +following description of the malady: "As early as 1816 it is found +that he is incapable of conducting his own works; in 1824 he could +not hear the storm of applause from a great audience; but in 1822 +he still improvises marvelously in social circles; in l856 he +studies their parts in the Ninth Symphony and Solemn Mass with +Sontag and Ungher, and in 1835 he listens critically to a +performance of the quartet in A-minor, op. 132." + +It is to be assumed that in such urgent cases his willpower +temporarily gave new tension to the gradually atrophying aural +nerves (it is said that he was still able to hear single or a few +voices with his left ear but could not apprehend masses), but +this was not the case in less important moments, as the +Conversation-books prove. In these books a few answers are also +written down, naturally enough in cases not in tended for the +ears of strangers. At various times Beethoven kept a diary in +which he entered his most intimate thoughts, especially those +designed for his own encouragement. Many of these appear in the +preceding pages. In these instances more than in any others his +expressions are obscure, detached and, through indifference, +faulty in construction. For the greater part they are remarks +thrown upon the paper in great haste. + + + END OF THIS EDITION + + ******************************** + + +INFO ABOUT THIS E-TEXT EDITION + +This edition of "Beethoven: the Man and the Artist, as Revealed in +his own Words," was translated into english and published in 1905 +by B.W. Huebsch. It was also republished unabridged by Dover +Publications, Inc., in a 1964 edition, ISBN 0-486-21261-0. + +This electronic text was prepared by John Mamoun with help from +numerous other proofreaders, including those associated with +Charles Franks' Distributed Proofreaders website. This e-text is +public domain, freely copyable and distributable for any non- +commercial purpose, and may be included without royalty or +permission on a mass media storage product, such as a cd-rom, that +contains at least 50 public domain electronic texts, whether +offered for non-commercial or commercial purposes. Any other +commercial usage requires permission. + +Use of the Project Gutenberg Trademark requires separate permission. + + + + + +End of +***Project Gutenberg Etext Beethoven: the Man and the Artist*** +******as Revealed in his own Words by Ludwig van Beethoven***** +edited by Friedrich Kerst and Henry Edward Krehbiel + + |