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+Project Gutenberg's Beethoven: A Memoir (2nd Ed.), by Elliott Graeme
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Beethoven: A Memoir (2nd Ed.)
+
+Author: Elliott Graeme
+
+Release Date: November 12, 2011 [EBook #37996]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEETHOVEN: A MEMOIR (2ND ED.) ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David E. Brown, Jane Hyland, Bryan Ness and
+the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned
+images of public domain material from the Google Print
+project.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: BEETHOVEN.
+
+Maclure & Macdonald, Lith. London]
+
+BEETHOVEN:
+
+A Memoir
+
+BY ELLIOTT GRAEME.
+
+WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY BY DR. FERDINAND HILLER. OF COLOGNE.
+
+SECOND EDITION.
+
+"How glorious it is to live one's life a thousand times!"
+
+BEETHOVEN
+
+LONDON CHARLES GRIFFIN AND COMPANY; STATIONERS' HALL COURT.
+
+1876.
+
+[_The right of translation is reserved._]
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+The following brief sketch can lay no claim to originality; it is merely
+a slight _resume_ of the principal events in the master's life (from the
+works of Schindler, Ries, and Wegeler, and more especially from Marx and
+Thayer), and is intended for those who, without the leisure to go deeply
+into the subject, yet desire to know a little more about the great
+Tone-poet than can be gathered from the pages of a concert programme,
+however skilfully annotated.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The few letters introduced have been translated as nearly as possible in
+the manner in which they were written. Beethoven's epistolary style was
+simple, fervent, original, but certainly not polished.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The author feels convinced that any shortcomings in the "Memoir" will be
+more than atoned for by Dr. Hiller's eloquent and appreciative
+"_Festrede_," which seems to have been dictated by that poetic genius,
+the possession of which he so modestly disclaims.
+
+    E.G.
+
+    LONDON,
+    _17th December, 1870._
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
+
+
+The first edition of this little book was exhausted within a few months
+of publication, and I have repeatedly been asked since to reprint it,
+but have hitherto withheld my consent, trusting to be able to undertake
+a more comprehensive work on the subject. As, however, the necessary
+leisure for this is still wanting to me, and the demand for the "Memoir"
+continues, it is fated to reappear, and I can but commend it again to
+the kind indulgence of the reader.
+
+Several rectifications as to dates, &c., have been made throughout, in
+accordance with the recent researches of ALEXANDER THAYER, and the
+chapter entitled _Lehrjahre_ has been partly rewritten on the basis of
+NOTTEBOHM'S _Beethoven's Studien_ (_Part I., Unterricht bei Haydn und
+Albrechtsberger_) by far the most important contribution to
+Beethoven-literature which has appeared for some time. It may, indeed,
+be considered the first step to the _systematic_ study of the Master,
+and as such deserves to be better known in England than is at present
+the case.
+
+    E.G.
+    LONDON.
+    _August, 1876._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                                                       PAGE
+
+    ESSAY _quasi_ Fantasia "On the Hundredth Anniversary of Beethoven's
+    Birth," by Dr. Ferdinand Hiller                                     vii
+
+    CHAP. I.--INTRODUCTORY: Origin of the Family Van Beethoven--The
+    Electorate of Cologne--Court of Clemens August the Magnificent--Ludwig
+    van Beethoven the Elder--Johann van Beethoven--Bonn in 1770           1
+
+    CHAP. II.--BOYHOOD: Birth--Early Influences and Training--Neefe--First
+    Attempts at Composition--The Boy-Organist--Max Friedrich's National
+    Theatre--Mozart and Beethoven--Disappointment                        12
+
+    CHAP. III.--YOUTH: Despondency--The Breuning Family--Literary
+    Pursuits--Count Waldstein--National Theatre of Max Franz--King Lux and
+    his Court--The Abbe Sterkel--Appointment as Court Pianist--First
+    Love--Second Visit of Joseph Haydn                                   31
+
+    CHAP. IV.--LEHRJAHRE: Arrival in Vienna--Studies with Haydn--Timely
+    Assistance of Schenk--Albrechtsberger--Beethoven as a Student--His
+    Studies in Counterpoint--What did Beethoven compose in Bonn?--Why have
+    we so few examples of _fugue_ in his early works?--Letters to Eleanore
+    v. Breuning                                                          46
+
+    CHAP. V.--THE VIRTUOSO: Family Occurrences--Music in Vienna--Van
+    Swieten--Prince Lichnowski--Beethoven's Independence, Personal
+    Appearance, Manners--Rasoumowski Quartet--Occurrences in Lichnowski
+    Palace--First Three Trios--Artistic Tour to Berlin--Woelfl--Beethoven
+    as an Improvisatore--Steibelt                                        69
+
+    CHAP. VI.--CONFLICT: Deafness and its Consequences--His Brothers'
+    Influence--Letters to Wegeler--"Mount of Olives"--Beethoven's
+    Will--Beethoven as a Conductor--As an Instructor--Sinfonia
+    Eroica--"Leonora" ("Fidelio")--"Adelaide"                            93
+
+    CHAP. VII.--LOVE: The Fourth Symphony--Julia Guicciardi--Letters to an
+    Unknown--To Bettina Brentano--Beethoven's Attachments--Domestic
+    Troubles--Frau Nanette Streicher--Daily Life--Composing "_im Freien_"
+                                                                        127
+
+    CHAP. VIII.--VICTORY AND SHADOW: Period of Greatest Creative
+    Activity--Hummel--The Battle of Vittoria--Congress of
+    Vienna--Maelzel--Pecuniary Difficulties--Adoption of Nephew--The
+    Philharmonic Society--The Classical and Romantic Schools--The Jupiter
+    Symphony--His Nephew's Conduct--Last Illness                        147
+
+    REMARKS ON THE PIANOFORTE SONATAS, BY DR. HILLER                    171
+
+    CATALOGUE OF BEETHOVEN'S WORKS                                      178
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+THE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF BEETHOVEN'S BIRTH.[1]
+
+    "_Quasi Fantasia._"
+
+
+The year 1749 brought us Goethe; 1756, Mozart; 1759, Schiller; and 1770,
+Beethoven. Thus, within the short space of twenty-one years four of the
+greatest poetic geniuses were born--four men of whom not only the German
+Fatherland, but all mankind must be proud.
+
+And even more happy than proud, since the most splendid gift which the
+Divine Being from time to time vouchsafes to poor humanity is that of
+genius. Through it we receive the highest good in which we are capable
+of participating--the forgetfulness of self in a nobler life. Genius it
+is that gives us, if but for a few short hours, that which the believer
+awaits with earnest hope in another and a better world.
+
+Has there ever existed a poet who transported our souls into his ideal
+kingdom with more irresistible force than our Beethoven? Certainly not.
+More universal effects have been achieved by others, but none more deep
+or noble. Nay, we may say without exaggeration that never did an artist
+live whose creations were so truly _new_;--his sphere was the
+unforeseen.
+
+Amidst so much that is trivial and dispiriting in art and life, the
+widely diffused interest, the delight in the creations of the wondrous
+man is a bright sign of our times. I do not say the _comprehension_ of
+them; that is not, and cannot be the case. But there are, perhaps, no
+poems in the love and admiration of which so many of the highest
+intellects concur as the tone-poems of our master. To the essential
+nature of our Art, which bears within itself the all-reconciling element
+of love, must we attribute the fact that against it the most violent
+differences in religious, political, and philosophical opinion make no
+stand--it is the might of Beethoven's genius which subdues the proudest
+minds, while quickening the pulsations of the simplest hearts.
+
+If in anything the will of man shows itself weak, nay, helpless, it is
+in the matter of intellectual creation. A very strong will (is not even
+this beyond the reach of most?) may lead to great learning, to brilliant
+technical acquirements, to virtue itself--a spontaneous poetic thought
+in word, tone, or colour, it will never be able to bring forth. Thus,
+the true relation of genius to us is that of a star, diffusing light and
+warmth, which we enjoy and admire. Since, however, to the higher man
+recognition and gratitude are necessities, since he desires to add
+intelligence and reverence to his admiration, and would willingly offer
+up love also to the subject of it, he begins to investigate. He asks,
+what the divine germ, existing even in the lisping child, demanded for
+its development; what brought it out into blossom--what influences
+worked upon it beneficially--to what extent he who was so nobly gifted
+was supported and furthered by moral strength--how he used the talent
+committed to him--finally, how he fought through the life-struggle from
+which no mortal is exempt.
+
+And then he inquires again and further; which of his qualities, which of
+the properties peculiar to himself, affect us most strongly?--in what
+relation does he stand to the development of his art--in what to that of
+his nation?--how does he appear with regard to his own century?
+
+A mere attempt at answering these questions, and the many connected with
+them, would require an enormous apparatus of a biographic and aesthetic
+nature, including a knowledge of the history of art and culture, and an
+acquaintance with musical technicalities. It does not fall either within
+our power or the scope of these pages to make any approach to such a
+task. A few slight hints may suffice to prevent our forgetting (amid the
+extraordinary and all-engrossing occurrences of the present time) the
+day which sent to us a hundred years ago the no less extraordinary man,
+who, a prophet in the noblest sense of the word, foresaw and declared
+(though only in tones) the nobleness and greatness which will be
+revealed by the German people, if friendly stars shine upon their
+future.
+
+A species of caste seems to have been implanted in man by nature--there
+are families of statesmen, warriors, theologians, artists. It will
+nevertheless be admitted that while it is often the case that
+circumstances, family traditions, cause the sons to follow in their
+fathers' footsteps, it frequently happens that the calling lays hold of
+the man, becomes, in the truest sense of the word, a _calling_.
+
+Several of our first composers have sprung out of families in which the
+profession of music was chiefly followed--but certainly not many. One
+thing, however, was common to nearly all--they were marvellous children,
+prodigies. _Prodigy!_ now-a-days an ominous word, recalling immediately
+to mind industrious fathers, who force on concerts, and musical
+attainments which do not refresh by their maturity, but only excite
+astonishment at the precocity of those from whom they are exacted. The
+abuse of the phenomenon has brought the latter itself into a bad light.
+A musical hothouse plant forced into premature bloom through vanity or
+the thirst for money may soon become stunted; none the less, however,
+does the fact remain, that no intellectual gift shows or develops itself
+earlier than that of music. Bach, Handel, Mozart, Hummel, Rossini,
+Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, Liszt, Joachim, were prodigies. Nature
+knows what she is about. He alone to whom this wondrous tone-language
+has become a second mother tongue, will be able to express himself with
+freedom in it; but how soon do we begin to attempt our mother tongue!
+And how few succeed in really learning to _speak_ it!
+
+It would be inexplicable had not our Beethoven been also a prodigy. He
+was one, but after such a sound, healthy sort, that those about him were
+more struck by the thought of his great future, than enthusiastic about
+his achievements at the time. The compositions which have been preserved
+to us from his boyish days bear traces, even then, of the frank, honest
+mode of expression which remained his to the end of his career.
+Naturally, their contents are trifling; what has a boy of twelve years
+to communicate to the world, if his inner life develop itself according
+to nature? Borne onwards by his artistic readiness, he attained,
+however, at a very early age an honourable, independent position with
+regard to the outer world. He had barely quitted childhood when he was
+organist at the Elector's Court in Bonn. At a later period he occupied
+for several years the post of violist in the orchestra. The viola was
+then one of the most neglected orchestral instruments, and we must form
+but a slight estimate of Beethoven's achievements upon it. It was,
+however, invaluable for him, the future Commander of the instrumental
+tone-world, to have served _in the line_. In fact, every striving young
+composer ought, as a matter of duty, to act for at least one year as
+member of an orchestra, were it only at the great drum. It is the surest
+method of making the individuality of the different sound organs
+ineffaceably one's own. When the latter are entrusted to capable
+executants (as was the case in the Electoral orchestra), the idea of a
+definite personality is added to the peculiarity of the instrument,
+which is not at all a bad thing. How often in later years may the image
+of one or other of his former colleagues have presented itself vividly
+and helpfully to the mind of the master, as he sat meditating over a
+score! How often may he have heard in spirit an expressive solo
+performed by one of them!
+
+The stimulus which Beethoven received from singers in those early days
+at Bonn did not work very deeply. His own father, indeed, was one of the
+Elector's vocalists, and sang both in church and on the stage. But he
+was a sorry fellow, who saw in his gifted son only a means of
+extricating himself from his gloomy pecuniary difficulties, and
+certainly not the man to inspire him for the wedding of Word to
+Tone--the noblest union ever contracted.
+
+Even in the most magnificent of Beethoven's vocal works there exists a
+certain roughness; the words domineer over the melody, or the latter
+over the poem. That perfect union--that melting in one another of both
+factors--which is peculiar to Mozart and Handel is found only separately
+(_vereinzelt_) in him. Would a youth spent in the midst of a great
+song-world have led our master along other paths?
+
+Certainly not without significance for his development was the fact,
+that he was born on the lovely banks of our joyous old Rhine. Do we not
+sometimes hear it surging like a wave of the mighty stream through the
+Beethoven harmonies? Do we not feel ourselves blown upon by the fresh
+mountain air? And do not the cordial, true-hearted melodies, which so
+often escape from the master, breathe the very magic of one of those
+enchanting evenings which we talk or dream away on the shore of the most
+truly _German_ stream? The taste for an open-air life (a life _im
+Freien_, in freeness, as the German language so nobly expresses it)
+remained faithful to him until the end; and we can scarcely picture him
+to ourselves better than as wandering in forests and valleys, listening
+for the springs which sparkled within himself.
+
+Scientific knowledge, even in its most elementary form, was hardly
+presented to the notice of the young musician, and if at a later period
+any interest in such pursuits had arisen within him, he would have been
+obliged to dismiss it. On the other hand, he buried himself with his
+whole soul in the loftiest works of poetry, that second higher world,
+and always came back with renewed delight upon the works of Homer,
+Shakspere, Goethe, and Schiller. Many and varied were the influences
+which they exerted upon him. They were to him "intellectual wine," as
+Bettina once named his music. But those are completely mistaken who
+expect to find, either in them or anywhere else, positive expositions or
+elucidations of Beethoven's compositions, as some have occasionally
+attempted to do, building their theory partly on utterances of the
+master. When the latter refers the constantly inquiring secretary,
+Schindler (I know not on what occasion), to Shakspere's "Tempest," it
+was, after all, only an answer--nothing more. The awakening of pure
+musical imagination is just as inexplicable as are its results. One
+thing alone stands firm,--that which speaks to the heart, came from the
+heart,--but the life-blood which pulsates at the heart of the true
+artist is a thousand times more richly composed than that which flows in
+our veins. No aesthetic physiologist will ever be able to analyze it
+completely. And, in life, is it only the deep thoughts, the
+extraordinary occurrences, which call forth all our sensations, out of
+which alone our happiness and our misery are formed? Is not a calm,
+serene autumn day enough to entrance our inmost nature? a single verse
+to console us? the friendly glance of a maiden to throw us into the
+sweetest _reverie_? What trifling influences affect the eternally rising
+and falling quicksilver of our hopes! And thus the smallest occasions
+may have been sufficient to cause vibration in a soul so highly strung
+as Beethoven's. Most powerfully, however, in such a genius, worked the
+pure creative impulse, that eternally glowing fire in the deepest
+recesses of his nature, with its volcanic--but, in this instance,
+blissful eruptions.
+
+We know that Beethoven proceeded as a young man to Vienna, which he
+never afterwards left. He found there (at least in the first half of his
+residence) enthusiastic admirers, intelligent friends, admission to
+distinguished circles, and lastly, that most necessary evil--money.
+Nobody will grudge to the lively, good-humoured, imperial city the fame
+of being able to designate as her own a brilliant line of our greatest
+tone-poets. But then she ought not to take it amiss that we should
+wonder how, within her walls, at _that_ time, so magnificent an artistic
+development as Beethoven's should ever have been accomplished. Shall we
+say, not _because_, but--_in spite of_ her? or shall we utter the
+supposition that no agglomeration of men can be sufficient for genius,
+since it treads a way of its own, which bears no names of streets? When,
+however, the question comes under discussion, of the relation of a great
+composer to _that_ public among whom his lot is cast, we cannot deny
+that it is easier to understand how a Handel created his oratorios in
+the so-called unmusical London, than how Beethoven composed his
+symphonies in the musical Vienna of the period. The former found himself
+in London in the midst of a grand public life,--grand were the powers
+over which he held sway, like the continually increasing throngs of
+listeners who streamed to his performances. When, on the other hand, we
+hear of the difficulty with which Beethoven, during the course of a
+quarter of a century, succeeded in giving about a dozen concerts in
+which his Titanic orchestral poems were performed _for the first time_,
+we become faint at heart. And I cannot do otherwise than express my
+conviction that, under other conditions, no inconsiderable portion of
+his works, which are (to use Schumann's expression) _veiled symphonies_,
+would have revealed their true nature. The world of the musician would
+hardly have been more enriched thereby, but the musical public would
+have benefited. For millions would have been edified, where now hundreds
+torment themselves (with quartets and sonatas) for the most part in
+vain.
+
+Yes! these symphonies and overtures, with their unpretending
+designations, are the first poems of our time, and they are _national
+poems_ in a far truer sense than the songs of the Edda, and all
+connected with them, ever can or will be for us, despite the efforts of
+litterateurs and artists. Yes! in the soul of this Rhinelander, who
+every day inveighed against the town and the state in which he lived,
+who was zealous for the French Republic, and ready to become
+Kapellmeister to King Jerome--in this soul was condensed the most ideal
+Germania ever conceived by the noblest mind. With the poet we may
+exclaim, "For he was ours!"--_ours_ through what he uttered--_ours_
+through the form in which he spoke--_ours_, for we were true to the
+proverb in the way we ill-treated and misunderstood him.
+
+"Industry and love" Goethe claims for his countrymen. No artist ever
+exercised these qualities with regard to his art in a higher degree than
+did Beethoven. _She_ was to him the highest good--no care, no joy of
+life could separate him from her. Neither riches nor honours estranged
+him from the ideal which he perceived and strove after so long as he
+breathed. He never could do enough to satisfy himself either in single
+works or in his whole career. He spared himself no trouble in order to
+work out his thoughts to the fullest maturity, to the most transparent
+clearness. To the smallest tone-picture he brought the fullest power.
+His first sketches, like the autographs of his scores, show in the
+plainest manner that inflexible persistency, that unwearied patience,
+which we presuppose in the scientific investigator, but which, in the
+inspired singer, fill us with astonishment and admiration. In all
+conflicts (and every artistic creation is a conflict) the toughest
+difficulty is _to persevere_.
+
+Truth was a fundamental part of Beethoven's character. What he sang came
+from his deepest soul. Never did he allow himself to make concessions
+either to the multitude and its frivolity, or to please the vanity of
+executants. The courage which is bound up with this resembles the modest
+bravery of the citizen, but it celebrates even fewer triumphs than the
+latter.
+
+Beethoven was proud, not vain. He had the consciousness of his
+intellectual power--he rejoiced to see it recognised--but he despised
+the small change of every-day applause. Suspicious and hasty, he gave
+his friends occasion for many complaints, but nowhere do we find a trace
+of any pretension to hero-worship. He stood too high to feel himself
+honoured by such proceedings; but, at the same time, he had too much
+regard for the independent manliness of others to be pleased with a
+homage which clashed against that.
+
+What a fulness of the noblest, the sublimest conceptions must have lived
+and moved in him to admit of their crystallizing themselves into the
+melodies which transport us!--softness without weakness, enthusiasm
+without hollowness, longing without sentimentality, passion without
+madness. He is deep but never turgid, pleasant but never insipid, lofty
+but never bombastic. In the expression of love, fervent, tender,
+overflowing with happiness or with melancholy, but never with ignoble
+sensuality. He can be cordial, cheerful, joyful to extravagance, to
+excess--never to vulgarity. In the deepest suffering he does not lose
+himself--he triumphs over it. He has been called humorous--it is a
+question whether music, viewed in its immediateness and truth, be
+capable of expressing humour--yet it may be that he sometimes "smiles
+amid tears." With true majesty does he move in his power, in his
+loftiness, in the boldness of his action, which may rise to
+defiance--never to senseless licence. A little self-will shows itself
+here and there, but it suits him well, for it is not the self-will of
+obstinacy, but of striving. He can be pious, never hypocritical; his
+lofty soul rises to the Unspeakable; he falls on his knees with
+humility, but not with slavish fear, for he feels the divinity within. A
+trace of heroic freedom pervades all his creations, consequently they
+work in the cause of freedom. The expression, "_Im Freien_"--liberty!
+might serve as the inscription on a temple dedicated to his genius!
+
+Like Nature herself, he is varied in his forms, without ever
+relinquishing a deep-laid, well-concerted basis; he is rich in the
+melodies which he produces, but never lavish; he acts in regard to them
+with a wise economy. In the working out of his thoughts he unites the
+soundest musical logic to the richest inventive boldness. Seldom only
+does he forget the words of Schiller,--"In what he leaves _unsaid_, I
+discover the master of style."
+
+This wise economy does not forsake him either in the selection or the
+number of the organs which he employs. He avoids every superfluity, but
+the spirits of sound which he invokes must obey him. Nevertheless, not
+to slavish servitude does he reduce them; on the contrary, he raises
+them in their own estimation by that which he exacts from them. What
+might be urged against him, perhaps, is that he sometimes makes demands
+upon them to which they are not adequate, that his ideal conception goes
+beyond their power of execution.
+
+He has spoken almost exclusively in the highest forms of instrumental
+music, and where, in one way or other, words are added to these, he has
+always been actuated by high motive. He sings of Love and Freedom with
+Goethe, of Joy with Schiller, of the heroism of Conjugal Love in
+"Fidelio;" in his solemn Mass he gives expression to all those feelings
+which force their way from man to his Maker.
+
+Enough, enough! we would never have done, were we to say all that could
+be said about such a mind. Dare we now really claim his creations, which
+breathe the highest humanity, as specially _German_? I think this will
+be granted us when we add to it the consideration that our greatest
+poets and thinkers have, in like manner; struck root firmly in their
+nationality, whence they have grown up--away, beyond--into those regions
+from which their glance embraced but _one_ nobly striving human family.
+
+It has been often declared that we, for long, felt and recognised our
+national unity only through the works of our poets, artists, and
+philosophers; but it has never been fully recognised that it was our
+first tone-poets in particular, who caused the essential German
+character to be appreciated by other nations. There are, perhaps, no two
+German names which can rejoice in a popularity--widely diffused in the
+most dissimilar nations--equal to that of Mozart and Beethoven. And
+Haydn, and Weber, and Schubert, and Mendelssohn! what a propaganda have
+they made for the Fatherland! That they speak a _universal_ language
+does not prevent their uttering in it the best which we possess _as
+Germans_.
+
+Nevertheless, as men are constituted, it is not to be denied that what
+enchants does not on that account overawe them; they _esteem_ the
+beautiful, they _respect_ only force and strength, even should these
+work destroyingly.
+
+Well, then! Germany has now shown what she can do in this way; she will
+bloom afresh, and follow out her high aims in every direction. The
+consideration which we could long since have claimed as a people, will
+then be freely accorded to the German state.
+
+As a musician, I can wish for the nation nothing better than that it
+should resemble a Beethoven symphony,--full of poetry and power;
+indivisible, yet many-sided; rich in thought and symmetrical in form;
+exalted and mighty!
+
+And for the Beethoven symphonies I could wish directors and executants
+like those of whom the world's history will speak when considering the
+nineteenth century. But History, if at all true to her task, must also
+preserve the name of the man who, nearly seventy years ago, created the
+Eroica,--an achievement in the intellectual life which may place itself
+boldly by the side of every battle which has left invigorating and
+formative traces on the destiny of mankind.
+
+    FERDINAND HILLER.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: This Essay also appeared in Germany in the _Salon_.]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+BEETHOVEN:
+
+A Memoir.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+INTRODUCTORY.
+
+    Origin of the family VAN BEETHOVEN--The Electorate of Cologne--Court
+    of Clemens August the Magnificent--Ludwig van Beethoven the
+    Elder--Johann van Beethoven--Bonn in 1770.
+
+
+Towards the middle of the seventeenth century there lived in a Belgian
+village near Louvain a family of the name VAN BEETHOVEN. To their
+position in life we have no clue, unless it be that contained in the
+name itself (_beet_, root; _hof_, garden), which after all only
+indicates that the occupation of some remote progenitor was akin to that
+of the "grand old gardener" from whom we all claim descent. The
+question, however, is immaterial.
+
+A member of this family left his native place, and in the year 1650
+settled in Antwerp, where he married, and became the founder of a race,
+one of whom was destined to render the hitherto obscure name immortal.
+
+The grandson of this Beethoven had twelve children, the third of whom,
+Ludwig, followed the example of his great-grandsire, and quitted the
+paternal roof at an early age. It has been imagined that this step was
+the result of family disagreements; however that may be, it is certain
+that after the lapse of some years Ludwig was again in friendly
+correspondence with his relations.
+
+The youth bent his steps towards the home of his ancestors, where he
+probably had connections, and succeeded in getting an appointment for
+the period of three months in one of the churches of Louvain. As this
+was merely to fill the place of the _Phonascus_ who was ill, young
+Beethoven found himself when the three months were over again adrift.
+
+He was but eighteen; tolerably well educated, however; a cultivated
+musician, and the possessor of a good voice. With these qualities he was
+pretty sure of making his way, and in the following year we hear of him
+at Bonn, the seat of government of the splendour-loving Clemens August,
+Elector of Cologne.
+
+It has been thought that he received a special summons thither, but this
+is, to say the least, doubtful. It is more probable that the young man,
+with the love of change and the confidence in his own abilities natural
+to his age, was drawn to Bonn by the dazzling reports that were spread
+far and wide of the Maecenas then on the episcopal throne.
+
+A few words may not be out of place here as to the nature of the
+independent Ecclesiastical States (and specially of Cologne), which
+occupy so large a space in the history of Germany prior to the French
+Revolution; since the fact of the great master having been born in one
+of these communities had an influence on his career which would have
+been wanting had fate placed him in a state of more importance,
+politically speaking.
+
+We in England are inclined to hold somewhat in contempt the petty German
+court--the "Pumpernickel" of Thackeray,--with its formality, its gossip,
+its countless rules of etiquette, and its aping the doings of its
+greater neighbours. And yet in this ridicule there is a touch of
+ingratitude, for how greatly are we indebted to these "Serene
+Transparencies," and their love of pomp and display! How many
+masterpieces of art owe to their fostering care their very existence!
+How many men eminent in science and literature have to thank them for
+that support and encouragement without which their works, if produced at
+all, must have fallen to the ground dead-born! People talk of the divine
+power, the inherent energy of genius, but what a loss is it for the
+world when that energy is consumed in the effort of keeping soul and
+body together! The divine power will and does manifest itself at length,
+but enfeebled and distorted by the struggle which might have been
+averted by a little timely aid.
+
+These prince-bishops of Cologne generally belonged to some royal house,
+the office being in fact regarded as a convenient sinecure for younger
+sons. They were chosen by the Chapter, subject only to the approval of
+the Pope and the Emperor, as the supreme spiritual and temporal heads,
+the people themselves having no voice in the matter.
+
+They ruled over a small territory of about thirty German miles in
+length, and in some places only two or three in breadth. Within this
+limited area there were several wealthy and flourishing towns; among
+which, strangely enough, that which gave its name to the diocese was not
+included, a feud of the thirteenth century between the reigning
+archbishop and the burghers of Cologne having resulted in the
+recognition of the latter as a free imperial city, and the removal of
+the court to Bonn, which continued to be the seat of government until
+the abolition of the Electorate in 1794.
+
+Were it not that the loss of so wealthy a town as Cologne was of no
+small moment to the episcopal coffers, the change must have been
+agreeable rather than otherwise, for Bonn, even in those days, fairly
+bore the palm from Cologne as a place of residence. Here, then, for
+about five hundred years, the little state flourished, better perhaps
+than we, with our modern ideas as to the union of the temporal and
+spiritual power are willing to admit, and especially in the last fifty
+years of its existence, was this the case.
+
+Debarred by the limited income at their disposal from taking any
+prominent part in political life, cut off from ordinary domestic ties
+and interests, the archbishops were driven to seek compensation for
+these deprivations in some favourite pursuit; and to their credit be it
+said, not the delights of the chase or the table alone engaged their
+attention. The old genius of appreciation of art transferred its
+presence from the Arno to the Rhine, and began to exert in the Electors
+of Cologne an influence of great importance in the aesthetic development
+of Germany.
+
+The four last Electors especially distinguished themselves, and shed a
+lustre on their court, by the number of talented men they drew around
+them, and the liberal patronage they bestowed on music and the drama.
+Joseph Clemens, the first of these, was himself a composer, after the
+usual fashion of royal dilettanti, no doubt, but a keen discerner of
+talent in others.
+
+His successor, Clemens August, had passed his youth in Rome, where,
+although modern taste was on the decline, the imperishable monuments of
+art by which he was surrounded seem to have breathed something of their
+own spirit into him. He did a great deal towards beautifying the town of
+Bonn; built, besides churches and cloisters, an immense palace, the
+present university, and greatly enlarged the villa of Poppelsdorf, now
+the Natural History Museum. His household was conducted on the most
+magnificent scale, grand fetes were of common occurrence, and his court
+was thronged by celebrities of every rank.
+
+Especially did the reputation of the court music stand high. The
+archbishop, like his predecessor, was a connoisseur, and selections from
+the operas of Handel and the cantatas of Sebastian Bach were performed
+at Bonn in a style worthy of the imperial court at Vienna.
+
+It was to this brilliant little capital, then, that young Ludwig van
+Beethoven made his way in the year 1732, with a light heart and still
+lighter purse, and begged for an engagement as one of the court
+musicians, which distinction, after the customary year's probation, was
+formally granted him, with an annual stipend of four hundred guldens, at
+that time considered a very good income for so young a man.
+
+His career seems to have been uniformly successful and honourable.
+Existing documents speak of him as successively simple _Musicus_, then
+_Dominus van Beethoven_, next as _Musicus Anticus_, and finally in the
+year 1761 as _Herr Kapellmeister_, when his name also figures third in a
+list of twenty-eight _Hommes de chambre Honoraires_ in the "Court
+Calendar." This success is the more remarkable when we reflect that
+Ludwig van Beethoven the elder was no composer, and in those days the
+musical director in the service of a prince was expected to produce
+offhand, at an hour's notice, appropriate music for every family
+occurrence, festival or funeral; so that his appointment as
+kapellmeister must have created no little jealousy, especially as there
+were several eminent composers at court. But in truth it would have been
+impossible for him to find much time for composition amid the
+multifarious duties that devolved upon him. In addition to the general
+responsibility over all pertaining to musical matters, including the
+oversight of the numerous singers, choristers, and instrumentalists in
+the Elector's service, he was expected to conduct in church, in the
+theatre, on private occasions at court, to examine the candidates for
+vacancies in the choir and orchestra, and also to take the bass part in
+several operas and cantatas. Truly the Herr Kapellmeister held no
+sinecure, if his royal master did!
+
+Notwithstanding, he seems to have led a quiet, even-going life, able,
+unlike the most of his colleagues, to lay by a little sum of money,
+happy in the exercise of his art (alas, poor man! domestic bliss was
+denied him), respected and beloved by all.
+
+Such was the grandfather of the great Beethoven. He died when the boy
+was but three years of age; nevertheless the old man in the scarlet robe
+usually worn at that time by elderly people, with his dark complexion
+and flashing eye, seems to have made no ordinary impression on
+Beethoven's childish mind. He always spoke with reverence of his
+grandfather, whom he doubtless regarded as the founder of the family,
+and the only relic that he cared to have when settled in Vienna was a
+portrait of the old man, which he begs his friend Wegeler in a letter to
+send him from Bonn.
+
+We have hinted that Ludwig van Beethoven was not happy in his home. If
+every one is haunted by some skeleton, his was grim enough. Not many
+years after their marriage his wife Josepha had become addicted to
+drinking, and in fact her habits were such that it was found necessary
+to place her in the restraint of a convent at Cologne. Thayer attributes
+this failing to grief for the loss of her children, only one of whom
+lived to manhood; but this trait in her character was unfortunately
+reproduced in her son Johann.[2]
+
+The latter appears to have been a man of vacillating, inert temperament,
+gifted with a good voice and artistic sensibility, but not capable of
+any sustained effort. At the age of twenty-four we find him filling the
+post of Tenor in the Electoral Chapel with the miserable stipend of one
+hundred thalers, and not distinguished in any way, unless we except his
+ingenuity in spelling or misspelling his own name in the petitions which
+he from time to time addressed to the Elector for an increase of salary.
+In these he calls himself _Bethoven_, _Betthoven_, _Bethof_,
+_Biethoffen_; but this instance does not warrant us in concluding that
+he was a man of no education whatever, for the orthography even of those
+who considered themselves scholars was at that time very erratic.
+
+At the age of twenty-seven, on an income not much larger than that just
+mentioned, Johann van Beethoven took unto himself a wife. The entry in
+the register of the parish of St. Remigius runs thus:--
+
+    "Copulavi-- "Nov. 12, 1767.
+
+    "JOHANNEM VAN BEETHOVEN, filium legitimum LUDOVICI VAN BEETHOVEN et
+    MARIAE JOSEPHAE POLL,
+
+    Et
+
+    MARIAM MAGDALENAM KEFERICH, viduam LEYM, ex Ehrenbreitstein, filiam
+    HENRICI KEFERICH et ANNAE MARIAE WESTROFFS."
+
+The object of his choice was a young widow, Maria Magdalena, daughter of
+the head cook at the castle of Ehrenbreitstein. Her first husband,
+Johann Leym, one of the _valets de chambre_ to the Elector of Treves,
+had left her a widow at the age of nineteen. The fruit of this plebeian
+union between the tenor singer of the Electoral Chapel and the daughter
+of the head cook to his Grace the Archbishop of Treves was the great
+maestro.
+
+What a downfall must the discovery of this fact have been to the
+numerous Viennese admirers of Beethoven, who for long persisted in
+attributing to him a noble origin, confounding the Flemish particle
+_van_ with the aristocratic _von_! It was impossible, they thought, that
+Beethoven's undoubted aristocratic leanings could be compatible with so
+humble a parentage. Hence the absurd fable, promulgated by Fayolle and
+Choron, which represented him as a natural son of Frederic II., King of
+Prussia, which was indignantly repudiated by Beethoven himself.
+
+In general careless of his own reputation, he could not bear that the
+slightest breath of slander should touch his mother; and in a letter
+addressed to Wegeler begged him to "make known to the world the honour
+of his parents, particularly of his mother." Her memory was always
+regarded by him with the deepest tenderness, and he was wont to speak
+lovingly of the "great patience she had with his waywardness."
+
+We cannot conclude this short sketch better than by presenting the
+reader with Thayer's picturesque description of Bonn, as it must have
+appeared in the eyes of the young Beethoven.
+
+The old town itself wore an aspect very similar to that of the present
+day. There were the same churches and cloisters, the same quaint flying
+bridge, the same ruins of Drachenfels and Godesberg towering above the
+same orchard-embedded villages. The Seven Hills looked quietly down on
+the same classic Rhine, not as yet desecrated by puffing tourist-laden
+steamboat or shrieking locomotive.
+
+Gently and evenly flowed the life-current in the Elector's capital, no
+foreboding of nineteenth century bustle and excitement causing even a
+ripple on the calm surface.
+
+"Let our imagination paint for us a fine Easter or Whitsun morning in
+those times, and show us the little town in its holiday adornment and
+bustle.
+
+"The bells are ringing from castle tower and church steeple; the country
+people, in coarse but comfortable garments (the women overladen with gay
+colours), come in from the neighbouring villages, fill the
+market-places, and throng into the churches to early mass.
+
+"The nobles and principal citizens, in ample low-hanging coats, wide
+vests, and knee-breeches (the whole suit composed of some
+bright-coloured stuffsilk, satin, or velvet), with great white
+fluttering cravats, ruffles over the hands; buckles of silver, or even
+of gold, below the knee and on the shoes; high frizzed and powdered
+perruques on the head, covered with a cocked hat, if the latter be not
+tucked underneath the arm; a sword by the side, and generally a
+gold-headed cane; and, if the morning be cold, a scarlet mantle thrown
+over the shoulders.
+
+"Thus attired they decorously direct their steps to the castle to kiss
+the hand of his Serene Highness, or drive in at the gates in ponderous
+equipages, surmounted by white-powdered, cocked-hatted coachman and
+footman.
+
+"Their wives wear long narrow bodices with immense flowing skirts. Their
+shoes with very high heels, and the towering rolls over which their hair
+is dressed, give them an appearance of greater height than they in
+reality possess. They wear short sleeves, but long silk gloves cover
+their arms.
+
+"The clergy of different orders and dress are attired as at the present
+day, with the exception of the streaming wigs. The Electoral Guard has
+turned out, and from time to time the thunder of the firing from the
+walls reaches the ear.
+
+"On all sides strong and bright contrasts meet the eye; velvet and silk,
+'purple and fine linen,' gold and silver. Such was the taste of the
+period; expensive and incommodious in form, but imposing, magnificent,
+and indicative of the distinction between the different grades of
+society."
+
+Such was the Bonn of 1770.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 2: We are told on good authority that the elder Beethoven had
+invested his money in "two cellars of wine," which he bought from the
+growers of the district, and sold into the Netherlands. An unlucky
+speculation! Johann, we learn, was early an adept at
+"wine-tasting."--THAYER, Vol. i. App., p. 328.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+BOYHOOD.
+
+    Birth--Early Influences and Training--Neefe--First Attempts at
+    Composition--The Boy Organist--Max Friedrich's National
+    Theatre--Mozart and Beethoven--Disappointment.
+
+
+On the 17th of December, 1770, in the old house in the Bonngasse, Ludwig
+van Beethoven first saw the light. He was not the eldest child, Johann
+having about eighteen months previously lost a son who had also been
+christened Ludwig.
+
+Beethoven's infant years flew by happily, the grandfather being still
+alive, and able to make good any deficiency in his son's miserable
+income; but in the year 1773 the old man was gathered to his fathers,
+and the little household left to face that struggle with poverty which
+embittered Beethoven's youth.
+
+The father, however, was not yet the hardened, reckless man he
+afterwards became, and could still take pleasure in the manifest joy
+exhibited by his little son whenever he sat at the pianoforte and
+played or sang. The sound of his father's voice was sufficient to draw
+the child from any game, and great was his delight when Johann placed
+his little fingers among the keys and taught him to follow the melody of
+the song.
+
+On the title-page of the three Sonatas dedicated to the Elector
+Maximilian Friedrich, Beethoven says, "From my fourth year music has
+been my favourite pursuit;" and such would seem to have been really the
+case.
+
+The readiness with which the child learned was, however, unfortunate for
+him. No long interval had elapsed since the extraordinary performances
+of the young Mozarts had astonished the whole musical world, and the
+evil genius of Johann van Beethoven now prompted him to turn his son's
+talents to the same account. He resolved to make of Ludwig a prodigy,
+and foresaw in his precocious efforts a mine of wealth which would do
+away with any necessity for exertion on his part, and allow him to give
+full scope to what was fast becoming his dominant passion.
+
+With this end in view he undertook the musical education of his boy, and
+the little amusing lessons, at first given in play, now became sad and
+serious earnest. Ludwig was kept at the pianoforte morning, noon, and
+night, till the child began positively to hate what he had formerly
+adored.
+
+Still the father was relentless: Handel, Bach, Mozart, all had been
+great as child-musicians; and if the boy (only a baby of five years)
+showed signs of obstinacy or sulkiness, he must be forced into
+submission by cruel threats and still more cruel punishments. Many a
+time was the little Ludwig seen in tears, standing on a raised bench
+before his pianoforte, thus early serving his apprenticeship to grief.
+
+In short, Johann was fast doing all he could to ruin the genius of his
+son, when, fortunately for the world, it soon became evident that if
+Ludwig were to do wonders as a prodigy, he would require a better
+teacher than his father, and the boy was accordingly handed over to one
+Pfeiffer, an oboist in the theatre, and probably a lodger in Johann's
+house.
+
+This man seems to have been of a genial, kindly nature, though only too
+willing to second his landlord's views with regard to the boy; for we
+learn that when the two came home from the tavern far on in the night
+(as was too often the case) the little Ludwig would be dragged from his
+bed and kept at the pianoforte till daybreak! Beethoven seems, however,
+to have had a great regard for Pfeiffer, who was an excellent pianist,
+and from whom he declared he had learned more than from any one else.
+
+On hearing many years after that he was broken down and in poverty, he
+sent him, through Simrock the music publisher, a sum of money.
+
+This ruthless conduct on the part of Johann, though unjustifiable and
+inhuman, probably layed the foundation of the technical skill and power
+over the pianoforte which so greatly distinguished Beethoven. It is not
+positively certain that the father gained his end, and made money by
+exhibiting the child, though we have the testimony of the widow Karth
+(who as a child inhabited the same house as the Beethovens) that on one
+occasion the mother made a journey to Holland and Belgium--probably to
+some relations in Louvain,--where she received several considerable
+presents from noble personages before whom the wonder-child had
+performed. This, however, is a mere childish reminiscence, not to be
+depended on, though it certainly coincides with all we know of Johann's
+character.
+
+The boy was also forced to learn the violin, and this he disliked
+infinitely more than the piano, a fact which puts to flight the pretty
+anecdote narrated in the "Arachnologie" of Quatremere Disjonval, who
+gravely states that whenever the boy began to practise--in an old ruined
+garret filled with broken furniture and dilapidated music-books--a
+spider was in the habit of leaving its hiding-place, and perching itself
+upon his violin till he had finished. When his mother discovered her
+son's little companion she killed it, whereupon this second Orpheus,
+filled with indignation, smashed his instrument! Beethoven himself
+remembered nothing about this, and used to laugh heartily at the story,
+saying it was far more probable that his discordant growls frightened
+away every living thing--down to flies and spiders.
+
+When he was nine years old, Pfeiffer left Bonn to act as bandmaster in a
+Bavarian regiment, and the boy was placed under the care of Van den
+Eeden, the court organist. At his death, which took place not long
+after, Ludwig was transferred to his successor, Christian Gottlob
+Neefe, whose pupil he remained for several years.
+
+This Neefe, long since forgotten, was one of the best musicians of the
+time, and thought worthy to be named in the same breath with Bach and
+Graun. He was a ready composer, and the favourite pupil of Johann Adam
+Hiller, Bach's successor as Cantor in the Thomasschule at Leipzig. He
+appears, moreover, to have been an amiable, conscientious man, and so
+high did his artistic reputation stand that he, although a Protestant,
+was tolerated as organist in the archbishop's private chapel.
+
+How comes it, then, that with all these qualifications Beethoven would
+not afterwards allow that he had profited by his instructions? The
+question is not easily solved. Beethoven himself wrote from Vienna to
+his old teacher in 1793, "I thank you for the advice which you often
+gave me whilst striving in my divine art. If I ever become a great man
+you have a share in it."
+
+Notwithstanding this tribute there was a coldness between them. It may
+be that master and pupil had not that entire sympathy with each other
+which is essential to any worthy result from the relationship.
+
+Beethoven, as we know, was self-willed, and overflowing with an
+originality which, even at that early age, would not easily brook
+dictation. Neefe, on the other hand, was a _young_ man, and endowed, as
+he himself tells us in his Autobiography, with a certain satirical
+tendency, which he may have allowed somewhat too free play in
+criticising his young pupil's efforts in composition. If the latter
+conjecture be correct, it gives the clue to the earnest advice Beethoven
+was wont to give the critics in after years--never to judge the
+performances of a beginner harshly, as "many would thus be deterred from
+following out what they might, perhaps, have ultimately succeeded in."
+Contempt to a sensitive, shrinking nature is like the blast of the east
+wind on a tender flower; downright condemnation is easier to bear than
+the sneer which throws the young aspirant, smarting and humiliated, back
+into himself--his best energies withered for the moment.
+
+Whatever Beethoven's feeling to Neefe may have been, it did not, at any
+rate, prevent his making very decided progress under his tuition, at
+which the organist himself rejoiced, as we learn from the following
+letter written by him, and published in _Cramer's Magazine_--the first
+printed notice of Beethoven:--"Louis van Beethoven, son of the Tenor
+mentioned above, a boy of eleven years, with talent of great promise. He
+plays the pianoforte with great execution and power, reads very well at
+sight, and, to say all in brief, plays almost the whole of Sebastian
+Bach's 'Wohl-temperirte Clavier,' which Herr Neefe has put into his
+hands. He who knows this collection of preludes and fugues through all
+the keys (which one might almost call the _non plus ultra_) will
+understand what this implies. Herr Neefe has also given him, so far as
+his other occupations permit, some introduction to the study of
+thorough-bass. Now he exercises him in composition, and for his
+encouragement has had printed in Mannheim nine variations for the
+pianoforte written by him on a March. This young genius deserves help in
+order that he may travel. He will certainly be a second Wolfgang Amadeus
+Mozart if he continue as he has begun."
+
+What could be kinder than the tone of this letter?
+
+The allusion to Mozart in the last sentence does credit to Neefe's
+discernment, as the great composer was at that time comparatively little
+known. It is to be presumed that at this period Beethoven also studied
+the works of C.P.E. Bach, since there is evidence that he was familiar
+with them. His progress, in short, was such that we find him in 1782,
+when he had not completed his twelfth year, installed as Neefe's
+representative at the organ, while the latter was absent on a journey of
+some duration.
+
+Thus we may picture the boy Beethoven to ourselves, at an age when other
+children are frolicsome and heedless, as already a little man, earnest,
+grave, reserved, buried in his own thoughts, his Bach, and his organ. He
+had no time to join his young companions in their games, even had his
+inclination prompted him to do so; for besides the hours devoted to
+music, he attended the public school, where he went through the usual
+elementary course, and learned besides a little Latin. His knowledge of
+the latter must, however, have been very slight, as when composing his
+first Mass he was obliged to make use of a translation, which,
+considering that he was brought up in a Catholic family, is singular
+enough. Johann v. Beethoven was not the man to waste money, as he
+thought, on giving his son a liberal education, so that the degree of
+culture attained by Beethoven was due only to his own efforts and the
+influences afterwards thrown around him.
+
+In the year 1783 the three sonatas already alluded to were published,
+Beethoven at the time being nearly thirteen--not _eleven_ years of age
+as was stated,--the falsifying of his age being part of his father's
+plan with regard to him. We give the dedication entire, because (though
+probably not written wholly by Beethoven himself) it offers a curious
+contrast to his subsequent ideas regarding the princes and great ones of
+the earth:--
+
+    "Most illustrious Prince! From my fourth year music has been my
+    favourite pursuit. So early acquainted with the sweet Muse, who
+    attuned my soul to pure harmonies, I won her, and methought was
+    loved by her in return. I have now attained my eleventh year, and my
+    Muse has often whispered to me in hours of inspiration, Try to write
+    down the harmonies of thy soul! Eleven years old, thought I, how
+    would the character of author become me? and what would riper
+    artists say to it? I felt some trepidation. But my Muse willed it--I
+    obeyed, and wrote.
+
+    "And dare I now, most Serene Highness, venture to lay the first
+    fruits of my youthful labour before your throne? and may I hope that
+    you will cast on them the encouraging glance of your approval? Oh
+    yes! for knowledge and art have at all times found in you a wise
+    protector, a generous patron; and rising talent has thriven under
+    your fatherly care. Filled with this cheering conviction I venture
+    to approach you with these youthful efforts.
+
+    "Accept them as the pure offering of childlike reverence, and look
+    with favour,
+
+    "Most illustrious Prince,
+
+    "On them and their young composer,
+
+    "LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN."
+
+It has been generally imagined that Neefe was paid by the Elector for
+the instruction given to Beethoven, but this is merely a supposition,
+without any proof whatever. It is more than likely that Neefe considered
+the assistance rendered to him by the boy an equivalent for his lessons.
+We have seen how, as early as 1782, he was qualified to relieve him in
+the organ duty, rather a heavy task, owing to the number of services at
+which the organist was expected to be present.
+
+In addition to this, Neefe soon found another way of employing him--but
+this will require a little explanation.
+
+Whilst awaiting his appointment as court organist, Neefe had acted as
+musical director to a troupe of singers known as the Grossmann Company,
+from the name of the leader and organizer. This was one of the best
+operatic companies in Germany, all its members being actors of
+experience and reputation.
+
+Now it had entered the Elector's head to take this company into his own
+service, and found a national theatre (in imitation of that at Vienna)
+which should serve as a school of refinement for the worthy citizens of
+Bonn. Neefe found himself, therefore, burdened with double duties as
+conductor and organist, and in the season of 1783, owing to the absence
+of one of his colleagues (the well-known Lucchesi), was almost
+overwhelmed with work. He found it impossible to attend the morning
+rehearsals in the theatre, and accordingly young Ludwig was appointed
+_cembalist_ in the orchestra, _i.e._, to preside at the pianoforte. In
+those days this was considered a distinction (as such Haydn regarded it
+in London), and in fact only an accomplished musician could fill the
+post, as all the accompaniments were played from the score.
+
+To this early initiation may be attributed the extreme facility with
+which Beethoven read, _a prima vista_, the most involved and complicated
+scores, even when in manuscript, and that manuscript written by a Bach
+in a manner calculated to drive any ordinary reader to despair.
+
+For two seasons young Ludwig was the accompanist at all rehearsals, and
+in addition to the advantage of thus working out in the most practical
+way all that he learned of theory, he also gained a thorough
+acquaintance with the works of Gretry and Gluck.
+
+The operas were varied by dramatic representations, and these must have
+had an immense influence on the observant, reflective boy; for the
+_repertoire_ of the company was large, and embraced not only the
+standard pieces of the day, but the new plays of Lessing, and "The
+Robbers" of Schiller, which had begun to create a ferment of excitement
+throughout Germany; besides translations from Moliere, Goldoni, and our
+own Garrick and Cumberland.
+
+To return to our young _cembalist_, the two years 1783-84 must have been
+a busy time to him between the chapel and the orchestra, but not a penny
+did he receive for his services, although he may have earned a trifle by
+playing the organ every morning at the six o'clock mass in the church of
+St. Remigius.
+
+When he was thirteen, however, through Neefe's influence he was
+nominated officially to the post he had so long filled in reality, that
+of assistant organist, and would have drawn a salary but for an event
+which threw him back again.
+
+The Elector Max Friedrich died, the operatic company was dismissed, and
+Neefe, having nothing to do but play his organ, had no further need of
+an assistant.
+
+This must have been a great blow to the boy; not that he cared for the
+money in itself, but he knew how it would have lightened his poor
+mother's cares, and shed a gleam of sunshine over the poverty-stricken
+household.
+
+His father was now beginning to throw off all restraint; his failing was
+generally known, and more than once he was rescued from the hands of the
+police and brought home by his son in a state of unconsciousness. Long
+ere this, two sons, Caspar Anton Carl and Nikolaus Johann, respectively
+four and six years younger than Ludwig, had been added to the family,
+and doubtless many were the secret councils between the boy and his
+mother as to how the few thalers of Johann (_minus_ what was spent in
+the alehouse) could be made to meet the needs of the household. It was
+probably about this time that Beethoven began to give lessons, that most
+wearisome of all employments to him, and so for more than a year, to the
+great hindrance of his own studies, contributed his mite to the general
+fund.
+
+The year 1785, however, brought with it a little heartening; Ludwig's
+former appointment as assistant organist was confirmed by the new
+Elector, and with the yearly stipend of a hundred thalers an era of hope
+dawned for the lad.
+
+Max Franz, Archbishop of Cologne, was the youngest son of Maria Theresa,
+and the favourite of his brother, the Emperor Joseph II., whom he
+strongly resembled in character and disposition.
+
+To any one familiar with the musical history of the period and the
+Emperor's relation to Mozart, this will be sufficient to indicate the
+pleasure with which the Bonn musicians must have hailed his advent. Nor
+were their expectations disappointed; Max Franz surpassed his
+predecessors not only in the munificence of his support, but (what is
+perhaps of more importance) in the real interest shown by him in the
+progress of art at his court. Neither did he confine his patronage to
+music alone (though, as was natural in a son of Maria Theresa, this was
+his first care); painting, science, and literature alike felt the
+influence of his generous mind. The university was founded and endowed
+by him, and the utmost efforts made to meet that universal demand for a
+higher culture, and that striving after truth in art, which the works of
+Schlegel, Lessing, Schiller, Goethe, and others were rapidly
+disseminating throughout the length and breadth of Germany. As Wegeler
+(the friend and biographer of Beethoven, at that time a medical student
+of nineteen) writes, "It was a splendid, stirring time in many ways at
+Bonn, so long as the genial Elector, Max Franz, reigned there." It can
+readily be imagined, therefore, that a youth so full of promise as
+Beethoven could not escape the notice of such a prince, and that to his
+own talents, backed by the recommendation of Neefe--not to the influence
+of any patron--he owed the only official appointment ever held by him.
+
+For the next year he seems to have had a comparatively easy life, his
+salary no doubt going to his mother, and the little he could make by
+teaching carefully put aside for a great purpose he had formed. A
+characteristic anecdote of this period is worth repeating, inasmuch as
+Beethoven himself used often to speak of it with glee in after life as a
+specimen of his boyish achievements.
+
+In the old style of church music, on the Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday
+of Passion Week it was usual to sing select portions from the
+Lamentations of Jeremiah, consisting of short phrases of from four to
+six lines. In the middle of each phrase a pause was made, which the
+accompanist was expected to fill up as his fancy might dictate by a
+free interlude on the pianoforte--the organ being prohibited during
+these three days. Now it so happened that the singer to whom this was
+allotted in the Electoral Chapel was one Heller, a thoroughly
+well-practised but somewhat boastful musician. To him Beethoven declared
+that he was able to throw him out in his part without employing any
+means but such as were perfectly justifiable. Heller resented the
+insinuation, and rashly accepted a wager on the subject. When the
+appropriate point was reached, Beethoven ingeniously modulated to a key
+so remote from the original one, that although he continued to hold fast
+the key-note of the latter, and struck it repeatedly with his little
+finger, Heller was completely thrown out, and obliged abruptly to stop.
+Franz Ries the violinist, father of the afterwards celebrated Ferdinand,
+and Lucchesi, who were present, declared themselves perfectly astounded
+at the occurrence, and the mystified singer rushed in a tumult of rage
+and mortification to the Elector and complained of Beethoven. The
+good-humoured Max Franz, however, rather enjoyed the story, and merely
+ordered the young organist to content himself with a more simple
+accompaniment for the future.
+
+In the spring of 1787, Ludwig at length reached the height of his boyish
+aspirations. His little savings had accumulated to what was in his eyes
+a large sum, and he looked forward with eagerness to a journey to
+Vienna. It has been supposed that the funds for this visit were supplied
+by others, but this is improbable. At that time Beethoven had no
+wealthy friends; there is no evidence to show that the Archbishop
+assisted him, and certain is it that no money was forthcoming from his
+father. We are obliged to fall back upon the supposition that his own
+scanty earnings, eked out perhaps by his mother, were his only means,
+especially as we know that they proved insufficient for his purpose, and
+that he was obliged to borrow money for his journey home.
+
+What were Beethoven's intentions with regard to this visit?
+
+His father's conduct, which must have many a time brought the flush of
+shame to his young brow, his mother's evidently failing health, the
+numerous unsupplied wants of the family, now increased by the birth of a
+daughter,[3]--all these circumstances combined to urge on his sensitive,
+loving nature the necessity of making some exertion, of taking some
+decided step for the assistance of his dear ones.
+
+Vienna, so far away, was his goal; there were assembled all the great
+and noble in art--Gluck, Haydn, Mozart! the very mention of these names
+must have roused the responsive throb of genius in the lad. To Vienna he
+would go, and surely if there were any truth in the adage that "like
+draws to like," these men must recognise the undeveloped powers within
+him; and help him to attain his object.
+
+That some such hopes as these must have beat high in Beethoven's breast,
+animating him for the effort, is evident from the reaction that set in,
+the despair that took possession of him when he found himself forced by
+the iron course of events to abandon his project.
+
+Arrived in the great capital he obtained an interview with Mozart, and
+played before him. The maestro, however, rewarded his performance with
+but feeble praise, looking upon it as mere parade; and probably in
+technical adroitness the boy before him was far behind the little
+Hummel, at that time under his tuition; for Beethoven's style, through
+his constant organ-playing, was somewhat heavy and rough.
+
+Beethoven, sensitively alive to everything, perceived Mozart's opinion,
+and requested a thema for an improvisation. Somewhat sceptically Mozart
+complied, and now the boy, roused by the doubt cast upon his abilities,
+extemporized with a clearness of idea and richness of embellishment that
+took his auditor by storm. Mozart went excitedly to the bystanders in
+the anteroom, saying, "Pay heed to this youth--much will one day be said
+about him in the world!"
+
+The amiable Mozart did not live to see the fulfilment of his prophecy,
+but he appears to have taken an interest in the boy, and to have given
+him a few lessons.
+
+Beethoven afterwards lamented that he had never heard Mozart play, which
+may perhaps be accounted for by the fact that the master was much
+occupied at the time with his "Don Giovanni," and also had that year to
+mourn the loss of his father.
+
+The following letter fully explains the cause of Beethoven's sudden
+departure from Vienna, and the apparent shipwreck of all his hopes:--
+
+    "_Autumn._ _Bonn_, 1787.
+
+    "MOST WORTHY AND DEAR FRIEND,--I can easily imagine what you must
+    think of me--that you have well-founded reasons for not entertaining
+    a favourable opinion of me, I cannot deny.
+
+    "But I will not excuse myself until I have explained the reasons
+    which lead me to hope that my apologies will be accepted.
+
+    "I must tell you that with my departure from Augsburg, my
+    cheerfulness, and with it my health, began to decline. The nearer I
+    came to my native city, the more frequent were the letters which I
+    received from my father, urging me to travel as quickly as possible,
+    as my mother's health gave great cause for anxiety. I hurried
+    onwards, therefore, as fast as I could, although myself far from
+    well. The longing to see my dying mother once more did away with all
+    hindrances, and helped me to overcome the greatest difficulties. My
+    mother was indeed still alive, but in the most deplorable state; her
+    complaint was consumption; and about seven weeks ago, after enduring
+    much pain and suffering, she died.
+
+    "Ah! who was happier than I, so long as I could still pronounce the
+    sweet name of mother, and heard the answer! and to whom can I now
+    say it? To the silent images resembling her, which my fancy presents
+    to me?
+
+    "Since I have been here, I have enjoyed but few happy hours.
+    Throughout the whole time I have been suffering from asthma, which I
+    have reason to fear may eventually result in consumption. To this is
+    added melancholy, for me an evil as great as my illness itself.
+
+    "Imagine yourself now in my position, and then I may hope to receive
+    your forgiveness for my long silence.
+
+    "With regard to your extreme kindness and friendliness in lending me
+    three carolins in Augsburg, I must beg you still to have a little
+    indulgence with me, as my journey cost me a great deal, and here I
+    have not the slightest prospect of earning anything. Fate is not
+    propitious to me here in Bonn.
+
+    "You will forgive my having written at such length about my own
+    affairs; it was all necessary in order to excuse myself.
+
+    "I entreat you not to withdraw your valuable friendship from me;
+    there is nothing I so much desire as to render myself worthy of it.
+
+    "I am, with all esteem,
+
+    "Your most obedient servant and friend,
+
+    "L. V. BEETHOVEN,
+
+    "_Cologne Court Organist_.
+
+    "_To_ Monsieur de Schaden,
+
+    "_Counsellor at Augsburg_."
+
+When years afterwards Ferdinand Ries came as a boy of fifteen to
+Beethoven in Vienna, and solicited his help and countenance, the
+master, who was much occupied at the time, told him so, adding, "Say to
+your father that I have not forgotten how my mother died. He will be
+satisfied with that." Franz Ries had, in fact, at the time of the
+mother's illness, lent substantial assistance to the impoverished
+family; and this to the heart of the son was a sure claim on his lasting
+gratitude.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 3: Margaret, who died while still an infant.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+YOUTH.
+
+    Despondency--The Breuning Family--Literary Pursuits--Count
+    Waldstein--National Theatre of Max Franz--King Lux and his
+    Court--The Abbe Sterkel--Appointment as Court Pianist--First
+    Love--Second Visit of Joseph Haydn.
+
+
+How "flat, stale, and unprofitable" must everything in Bonn have
+appeared to our Beethoven after the charms of Vienna--charms real in
+themselves, and surrounded by the ideal nimbus of his fresh young hopes
+and strivings! The desolate, motherless home, his neglected orphan
+brothers, his drunken father, the weary round of teaching,--it was no
+light task for an impetuous, ardent genius to lift; but it had to be
+faced, and with a noble self-sacrifice he entered on the dreary path
+before him.
+
+He had his reward--the very occupation which he disliked more than any
+other, opened up to him a friendship which secured to him more peace and
+happiness than he had yet known, and whose influence was potent
+throughout his whole life--that, namely, with the family Von Breuning.
+
+Madame von Breuning was a widow; her husband, a state councillor and a
+member of one of the best families in Bonn, had perished in the attempt
+to rescue the Electoral Archives from a fire that had broken out in the
+palace, and since this calamity she had lived quietly with her brother,
+the canon and scholar, Abraham v. Keferich, solely engaged in the
+education of her children. These were four in number: three
+boys--Christoph, Stephan, and Lenz; and one girl--Eleanore. It appears
+that Beethoven (who was about four years older than Stephan) was
+receiving violin lessons at the same time with the latter from Franz
+Ries; and Stephan, struck, no doubt, with the genius of his
+fellow-pupil, managed to get him introduced to his mother's house in the
+capacity of pianoforte teacher to the little Lenz. Madame von Breuning
+was not slow to perceive the extraordinary gifts of her son's new
+acquaintance; and learning incidentally, with her woman's tact, the sad
+state of matters at home, opened her heart as well as her house to the
+motherless boy. He soon became one of the family, and used to spend the
+greater part of the day and often the night with his new friends.
+
+It is impossible to over-estimate the value of this friendship to the
+young man. What a contrast to his own neglected home did the
+well-ordered house of Madame v. Breuning present! Now for the first time
+he was admitted to mix on equal terms with people of culture; here he
+first enjoyed the refining influence of female society (did any
+remembrance of Leonore suggest his ideal heroine?); and here also he
+first became acquainted with the literature of his own and other
+countries.
+
+The young Breunings were all intellectual, and in the pursuit of their
+studies they were encouraged and assisted by their uncle, the canon.
+Christoph wrote very good verses, and Stephan also tried his hand at
+some, which were not bad. The striving of these young people would
+naturally lead our sensitive musician to reflect on his own defective
+education, and to endeavour so to rectify it as to render himself worthy
+of their friendship. Beethoven's love of the ancient classical writers
+may be traced to this period, when Christoph and Stephan were studying
+them in the original with their uncle, though it is not probable that he
+ever learned Greek. His knowledge of Homer was gained through Voss's
+translation, and his well-worn copy of the "Odyssey" testifies to the
+earnest study it had received from him. French and Italian he seems to
+have been acquainted with so far as he deemed it necessary; but his
+principal literary studies were confined to Lessing, Buerger, Wieland,
+and Klopstock. The last especially was his favourite, and his constant
+companion in the solitary rambles among the mountains which he was fond
+of indulging in. There, alone with the nature he venerated, the sonorous
+lines and rolling periods of the German Milton sank deeply into his
+mind, to be reproduced years after in immortal harmonies. At a later
+period Klopstock was replaced in Beethoven's esteem by Goethe, of whose
+poems he was wont to say that they "exercised a great sway over him, not
+only by their meaning, but by their rhythm also. Their language urged
+him on to composition."
+
+But of all the blissful influences which tended to make this time the
+happiest in his life, not one was so powerful as that of Madame von
+Breuning herself. To her everlasting honour be it said that she was the
+first of the very few individuals who ever thoroughly understood the
+morbid and apparently contradictory character of Beethoven; and greatly
+is it to the credit of the latter that he merited the love of such a
+woman. Not his abilities alone gave him a place in her heart; it was his
+true, noble, generous nature that won for him a continuance of the
+favours first bestowed upon the artist. Madame v. Breuning thoroughly
+appreciated Beethoven; he felt that she did. Hence the tacit confidence
+that existed between them--he coming to her as to a mother, and she
+advising him as she would have done one of her own sons. Beethoven used
+to say of her that she understood how to "keep the insects from the
+blossoms."
+
+Even she, however, sometimes failed in one point, that, namely, of
+inducing him to give his lessons regularly. It has been hinted before
+that this was an unpalatable task to Beethoven. Wegeler describes him as
+going to it _ut iniquae mentis asellus_, and this dislike grew with every
+succeeding year. Even his subsequent relation to his illustrious friend
+and pupil, the Archduke Rudolph, was in the highest degree irksome to
+him; he looked upon it as a mere court service. But while in Bonn our
+composer was not in a position to choose his occupation. "Necessity
+knows no law," and the higher claims of genius were forced to submit to
+very sublunary considerations. Madame v. Breuning's representations
+would sometimes succeed so far as to induce him to go to the house of
+his pupil; but it was generally only to say that he "could not give his
+lesson at that time--he would give two the next day instead." On such
+occasions she would smile and say, "Ah! Beethoven is in a _raptus_
+again!" an expression which the composer treasured up mentally, and was
+fond of applying to himself in after life.
+
+About this time also Beethoven gained another friend, Count Waldstein, a
+young nobleman, who was passing the probationary time previously to
+being admitted into the Teutonic Order, at Bonn, under the Grand-Master,
+Max Franz. Beethoven afterwards expressed his obligations to him in the
+dedication of the colossal sonata Op. 53.
+
+He became a frequent visitor to the young organist's miserable room,
+which he soon enlivened by the present of a grand pianoforte, and here
+the friends--to outward appearance so different--doubtless passed many a
+happy hour, for Waldstein was an excellent musician, and an enthusiastic
+admirer of Beethoven's improvisations.
+
+These were also one of the great pleasures in the Breuning circle, where
+Wegeler relates that Beethoven would often yield to the general request,
+and depict on the pianoforte the character of some well-known
+personage. On one occasion Franz Ries, who was present, was asked to
+join, which he did--probably the only instance on record of two artists
+improvising on different instruments at one and the same time.
+
+We have long lost sight of Johann v. Beethoven, however, and must
+retrace our steps to see what has become of him. By the year 1789 he had
+grown so hopelessly incapable that it was proposed to send him out of
+Bonn on a pension of one hundred thalers, while the remaining hundred of
+his former salary should be spent on his children. This plan was not
+fully carried out, but the father's salary was by the Elector's orders
+paid into Ludwig's hands, and entrusted to his management; so that the
+young man of nineteen was the real head of the family.
+
+The Elector Max Franz now followed the example of his predecessor, and
+established a national theatre. Beethoven was not this time _cembalist_
+to the company; he played the viol in the orchestra, whither he was
+often accompanied by his friend Stephan Breuning, who handled the bow
+creditably enough. For four years Beethoven occupied this post, and the
+solid advantage it was to him is shown in his subsequent orchestration.
+
+In the autumn of the year 1791 an incident occurred which broke the
+monotony of the court life, and gives us an interesting side-glimpse of
+our young musician. The Teutonic Order, referred to before, held a grand
+conclave at Mergentheim, at which the Elector as Grand-Master was
+obliged to be present. He had passed some months there two years
+before, and had probably found time hang somewhat heavy on his hands; at
+any rate, he resolved that his private musical and theatrical staff
+should attend him on this occasion.
+
+The announcement of this determination was received with great
+approbation by all concerned, and Lux, the first comedian of the day,
+was unanimously chosen king of the expedition. His Majesty then
+proceeded to appoint the various officers of the household, among whom
+Beethoven and Bernhard Romberg (afterwards the greatest violoncellist of
+his time) figure as Scullions. Two ships were chartered for the
+occasion, and King Lux and his court floated lazily down the Rhine and
+the Main, between the sunny vine-clad hills where the peasants were hard
+at work getting in the best harvest of the year. It was a merry time,
+and, as Beethoven afterwards said, "a fruitful source of the most
+beautiful images."
+
+We can imagine the boat gliding peacefully along under the calm moonlit
+sky--Beethoven sitting by himself, enjoying the unusual _dolce far
+niente_; his companions a little apart are chanting a favourite
+boat-song; the harmonious sounds rise and fall, alternating with the
+gentle ripple on the water--and the young maestro, pondering on his
+future life, tries to read his destiny in the "golden writing" of the
+stars. Is not some such scene the background to the Adagio in the
+"Sonata quasi Fantasia," dedicated to the Countess Giulietta?
+
+At Aschaffenburg, Simrock, a leading member of the company (afterwards
+the celebrated music-publisher), deemed it necessary that a deputation
+(which included Beethoven) should pay a visit of respect to the Abbe
+Sterkel, one of the greatest living pianists.
+
+They were very graciously received, and the Abbe, in compliance with the
+pressing request of his visitors, sat down to the pianoforte, and played
+for some time. Beethoven, who had never before heard the instrument
+touched with the same elegance, listened with the deepest attention, but
+refused to play when requested to do so in his turn. It has been
+mentioned that his style was somewhat hard and rough, and he naturally
+feared the contrast with Sterkel's flowing ease. In vain his companions,
+who, with true _esprit de corps_, were proud of their young colleague,
+urged him to the pianoforte, till the Abbe turning the conversation on a
+work of Beethoven's, lately published, hinted, with disdain either real
+or assumed, that he did not believe the composer could master the
+difficulties of it himself. (The work alluded to was a series of
+twenty-four variations on Righini's Theme "Vieni Amore.") This touched
+Beethoven's honour; he yielded without further hesitation, and not only
+played the published variations, but invented others infinitely more
+complicated as he went along, assuming the gliding, graceful style of
+Sterkel in such a manner as utterly to bewilder the bystanders, who
+overwhelmed him with applause.
+
+It was perhaps after this display that he was promoted to a higher post
+in King Lux's service by the royal letters patent, and to this weighty
+document a great seal--stamped in pitch on the lid of a little box--was
+attached by threads made of unravelled rope, which gave it quite an
+imposing aspect. Seven years afterwards Wegeler discovered this
+_plaisanterie_ carefully treasured among Beethoven's possessions, a
+proof of the enjoyment afforded him by this excursion.
+
+At Mergentheim the sensation created by the Elector's musicians was
+immense. In an old newspaper exhumed by the indefatigable Thayer, the
+following notice of Beethoven occurs.
+
+The writer is Carl Ludwig Junker, chaplain to Prince Hohenlohe, and
+himself a composer and critic of no mean reputation. After giving a
+general account of the whole orchestra, he goes on:--
+
+"I have heard one of the greatest players on the pianoforte, the
+dear, worthy Beethoven.... I believe we may safely estimate the
+artistic greatness of this amiable man by the almost inexhaustible
+wealth of his ideas, the expression--peculiar to himself--with which
+he plays, and his great technical skill. I should be at a loss to
+say what quality of the great artist is still wanting to him. I have
+heard Vogler[4] play on the pianoforte often, very often, and for
+hours at a time, and have always admired his great execution; but
+Beethoven, in addition to his finished style, is more speaking, more
+significant, more full of expression,--in short, more for the heart;
+consequently as good an Adagio as an Allegro player. Even the
+first-rate artists of this orchestra are his admirers, and all ear
+when he plays. He is excessively modest, without any pretensions
+whatever.... His playing differs so materially from the ordinary
+mode of touching the piano, that it appears as though he had
+intended to lay out a path for himself, in order to arrive at the
+perfection which he has now attained."
+
+But even the pleasantest things must come to an end, and the expedition
+to Mergentheim was no exception to the rule. In a few weeks, Archbishop,
+musicians, and actors were once more at Bonn, busily engaged in
+preparing for Christmas.
+
+About this time Beethoven was nominated Court pianist, an appointment
+due partly to his friend, Count Waldstein, partly also to the following
+circumstance, which gave the Elector a striking proof of his young
+_protege's_ abilities. A new Trio by Pleyel had been sent to Max Franz,
+and so great was his impatience to hear it that nothing would content
+him but its immediate performance, without previous rehearsal, by
+Beethoven, Ries, and Romberg.
+
+To hear was to obey, and the Trio was played at sight very fairly, the
+performers keeping well together. It was then discovered that two bars
+in the pianoforte part had been omitted, and supplied by Beethoven so
+ingeniously that not the slightest break was perceptible!
+
+In the same year, 1791, Beethoven wrote the music for a splendid _bal
+masque_, organized by his friend Waldstein, and attended by all the
+nobility for miles around. It was believed for long that Waldstein was
+the author of the music.
+
+Beethoven, meanwhile, continued his intimacy with the Breuning family,
+where from time to time another attraction offered itself in the person
+of Fraeulein Jeannette d'Honrath, a young lady of Cologne, who
+occasionally paid a visit of a few weeks to her friend Eleanore.
+
+It has been asserted by some writers that Beethoven was insensible to
+the charms of woman, and that love was to him a sealed book! For the
+refutation of this statement it is only necessary to turn to his works,
+which breathe a very different story to such as have ears to hear. For
+those who have not, let the testimony of his friend Wegeler suffice:
+"Beethoven was _never_ without a love, and generally in the highest
+degree enamoured." The reason why his love was fated never to expand and
+ripen will be explained in its own place. Here it is sufficient to say
+that Beethoven, while glowing with fire and tenderness, eminently
+calculated to love and be loved, was throughout his whole life, and in
+every relation, delicacy itself; his nature shrunk instinctively from
+anything like impurity.
+
+To return: Mademoiselle Jeannette, a fascinating little blonde, divided
+her attentions so equally between Beethoven and his friend Stephan, and
+sang so charmingly about her heart being _desole_ when the time for
+parting came, that each believed himself the favoured one, until it
+transpired that the "Herzchen had long since been bestowed" in its
+entirety on a gallant Austrian officer, whom the young lady
+subsequently married, and who afterwards rose to the rank of general.
+
+There does not seem to have been any attachment between Beethoven and
+Leonore; she was his pupil, his sister,[5] but nothing more; her
+affections were already given to young Wegeler, whose wife she
+afterwards became.
+
+So our Beethoven was left to gnaw his fingers for the loss of his pretty
+Jeannette, and to flutter on the outside of the crowd which hovered
+round fair Barbara Koch, the beauty of Bonn, daughter of a widow,
+proprietress of a coffee-house or tavern.
+
+What! exclaims the reader, is this an instance of the so-called
+"aristocratic leanings" of Beethoven?
+
+We must beg him in reply not to look at things through exclusively
+British and nineteenth century spectacles. The position of worthy Frau
+Koch was, if not distinguished, certainly respectable.
+
+Lewes, in his Life of Goethe, was obliged to combat with the same
+prejudice in his account of the poet's student days at Leipzig, and we
+cannot do better than quote his words with regard to the society to be
+found in a German Wirthshaus of the period:--
+
+"The _table d'hote_ is composed of a circle of habitues, varied by
+occasional visitors, who in time become, perhaps, members of the circle.
+Even with strangers conversation is freely interchanged, and in a little
+while friendships are formed, as natural tastes and likings assimilate,
+which are carried out into the current of life."
+
+The habitues of Frau Koch's house were the professors and students at
+the university, and such members of the Electoral household as were
+engaged in artistic pursuits. It was a rendezvous for them all, where
+science, literature, art, and politics were discussed by able men; and
+here, doubtless, Beethoven, with his friends Stephan Breuning and young
+Reicha (nephew of the director), spent many a pleasant evening. The fair
+Babette was, as we have hinted, no small attraction. She was a
+cultivated woman, and the great friend of Eleanore v. Breuning. She
+afterwards became governess to the children of Count Anton von
+Belderbusch, whom she finally married.
+
+We now come to an event which completely changed the current of
+Beethoven's life--the return of Joseph Haydn from his second visit to
+London. As he passed through Bonn the musicians gave him a public
+breakfast at Godesberg, on which occasion Beethoven laid before him a
+cantata of his composition--probably that on the death of Leopold II. It
+met with the warmest praise from Haydn, but the author apparently did
+not think highly of it himself, as it was never printed.
+
+Whether the arrangements were made at this time for Haydn's reception of
+Beethoven as his pupil, or negotiated afterwards through Waldstein, is
+not known. Certain it is that in the October of 1792 we find his
+long-delayed hopes on the point of realization, a pension from the
+Elector having removed all difficulties.
+
+Beethoven had often bemoaned in secret, and specially to his friend
+Waldstein, the irregular, broken instruction he had received,
+attributing Mozart's early success to the systematic course of study he
+had pursued under the guidance of his father. It is a question, however,
+whether Beethoven--even had he enjoyed the advantages of Mozart--would
+ever have composed with the facility of the latter. Thayer thinks not;
+there is evidence enough in the symphonies, &c., of our great master to
+prove that he "earned his bread by the sweat of his brow."
+
+The following note from Waldstein evinces the deep interest he took in
+Beethoven, and his faith in the young composer's genius:--
+
+    "DEAR BEETHOVEN,--"You are now going to Vienna for the realization
+    of your wishes, so long frustrated. The Genius of Mozart still
+    mourns and laments the death of his disciple. He found refuge with
+    the inexhaustible Haydn, but no scope for action, and through him he
+    now wishes once more to be united to some one. Receive, through
+    unbroken industry, the spirit of Mozart from the hands of Haydn.
+
+    "Your true friend,
+    "WALDSTEIN.
+    "Bonn, _29th October, 1792_."
+
+In the beginning of November, then, 1792, Beethoven finally took leave
+of his boyhood's friends--father and brothers, Wegeler, Franz Ries,
+Neefe, Reicha, Waldstein, pretty Barbara Koch, and, hardest of all, the
+Breunings.
+
+Some of these he saw for the last time.
+
+He was destined never again to tread the old familiar streets of Bonn.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 4: One of the greatest pianists of the time.]
+
+[Footnote 5: The following birthday greeting, surrounded by a wreath of
+flowers and accompanied by a silhouette of Eleanore, was found among
+Beethoven's papers:--
+
+    "Glueck und langes Leben
+      Wuensch' ich heute Dir,
+    Aber auch daneben
+      Wuensch' ich etwas mir!
+    Mir in Ruecksicht Deiner
+      Wuensch' ich Deine Huld,
+    Dir in Ruecksicht meiner
+      Nachsicht und Geduld!
+
+    "Von Ihrer Freundin und Schuelerin,
+
+    "LORCHEN V. BREUNING.
+
+"1790."]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+LEHRJAHRE.
+
+    Arrival in Vienna--Studies with Haydn--Timely Assistance of
+    Schenk--Albrechtsberger--Beethoven as a Student--His Studies in
+    Counterpoint--Letters to Eleanore v. Breuning.
+
+
+Behold, then, our young musician at the long-desired goal--free from all
+depressing, pecuniary cares, with his pension secure from the Elector,
+and a little fund of his own to boot. He reached the capital about the
+middle of November, alone and friendless; nor is there any proof that
+the advent of the insignificant, clumsily built provincial youth made
+the slightest sensation, or roused the interest of one individual among
+the many thousands who thronged the busy streets.
+
+His first care, as shown from a little pocket-book still preserved, was
+to seek out a lodging suitable to his slender purse; his next, to
+procure a pianoforte. The first requirement he at length met with in a
+small room on "a sunk floor," which commended itself by the low rent
+asked for it. Here Beethoven contentedly located himself until
+fortune's smiles had begun to beam so brightly on him that he felt
+entitled to remove to more airy lodgings.
+
+We may be sure that he lost no time in setting about the purpose which
+he had most at heart, and enrolling himself among Haydn's pupils, for he
+could not have been more than eight weeks in Vienna when the master
+wrote to Bonn, "I must now give up all great works to him [Beethoven],
+and soon cease composing."
+
+The harmony, however, which at first existed between Haydn and his pupil
+was soon disturbed. The former seems to have been always pleased with
+the work executed by Beethoven, who, on the contrary, was very much
+dissatisfied with the instruction given by the master. He was obliged,
+in this instance, to make the same experience that he had formerly
+confided to Junker, at Mergentheim, regarding pianoforte players, viz.,
+that he had seldom found what he believed himself entitled to expect.
+Distance lends enchantment to the view; and the keen, striving worker
+soon discovered that Haydn was not the profound, earnest thinker that
+his longing fancy had painted in Bonn.
+
+But an unexpected help was at hand. One day as he was returning from his
+lesson at Haydn's house, his portfolio under his arm, he met a friend
+whose acquaintance he had only recently made, but with whom he was
+already on intimate terms--Johann Schenk, a thorough and scholarly
+musician, afterwards well known as the composer of the "Dorfbarbier,"
+and one of the most amiable of men. To him Beethoven confided his
+troubles, bitterly lamenting the slow progress his knowledge of
+counterpoint made under Haydn's guidance. Somewhat astounded, Schenk
+examined the compositions in Beethoven's portfolio, and discovered many
+faults which had been passed over without correction.
+
+Haydn's conduct in this instance has never been explained. Generally
+conscientious in the discharge of his duties as an instructor, this
+carelessness must have arisen either from a pressure of work, or from
+some undefined feeling with regard to Beethoven, which prompted him to
+give him as little assistance as possible. The latter supposition is
+hardly compatible with the terms in which he wrote of his pupil to Bonn,
+but Beethoven could never shake off the idea that Haydn did not mean
+well by him--a suspicion which was strengthened by what afterwards
+occurred.
+
+Excessively irritated by Schenk's discovery, Beethoven would have gone
+on the impulse of the moment to reproach Haydn and break off all
+connection with him. Schenk, however, who had early perceived
+Beethoven's worth, succeeded in calming him, promising him all the
+assistance in his power, and pointing out the folly of a course which
+would inevitably have led to the withdrawal of the pension from Max
+Franz, who would naturally have disbelieved any complaint against the
+greatest master of the day, and have attributed Beethoven's conduct to
+wrong motives. The young man had the sense to perceive the justice of
+these remarks, and continued to bring his work to Haydn (Schenk always
+giving it a strict revisal) until the latter's journey to England in
+1794 afforded a feasible opportunity of providing himself with a better
+teacher.
+
+Thus, although neither cordially liked the other, a tolerable appearance
+of friendship was maintained. It was, perhaps, impossible that, between
+two such totally different natures the connection could have been
+otherwise. Haydn was genial and affable; from his long contest with
+poverty, rather obsequious; not apt to take offence or to imagine
+slights; ready to render unto Caesar his due; in short, a courtier.
+
+What greater contrast to all this can be imagined than our proud,
+reserved, brusque Beethoven? _He_ pay court to princes, or wait with
+"bated breath" upon their whims! He, the stormy republican, who regarded
+all men as on the same level, and would bow to nothing less than the
+Divine in man!
+
+Haydn, who had laughingly bestowed on him the title of the "Great
+Mogul," probably felt that there was no real sympathy, or possibility of
+such a feeling, between them. Nevertheless, as we have said, they
+continued to outward seeming friends, though Beethoven's suspicions
+would not allow him to accept Haydn's offer of taking him to London. He
+accompanied him, however, in the summer to Eisenstadt, the residence of
+Prince Esterhazy, Haydn's patron, and on this occasion left the
+following note for Schenk, which shows the friendly feeling existing
+between them:--
+
+    "DEAR SCHENK,--I did not know that I should set off to-day for
+    Eisenstadt. I should like much to have spoken once more to you.
+    Meanwhile, depend upon my gratitude for the kindnesses you have
+    shown me. I shall endeavour, so far as is in my power, to requite
+    you.
+
+    "I hope to see you soon again, and to enjoy the pleasure of your
+    society. Farewell, and don't quite forget
+
+    "Your BEETHOVEN."
+
+One of Beethoven's peculiarities may as well be referred to here in
+passing. Although living in the same town with many of his friends--nay,
+within a few minutes walk of them,--years would elapse without their
+coming in contact, unless they continually presented themselves to his
+notice, and so _would_ not let themselves be forgotten. Absorbed in his
+creations, the master lived in a world of his own; consequently, many
+little circumstances in his career, in reality proceeding from this
+abstraction, were at the time attributed to very different motives.
+
+His connection with Schenk is an instance of this. Though both inhabited
+Vienna, they had not met for many years, when in 1824 Beethoven and his
+friend Schindler encountered Schenk--then almost seventy years of
+age--in the street. If his old teacher had spent the intervening years
+in another world, and suddenly alighted from the clouds, Beethoven could
+not have been more surprised and delighted. To drag him into the
+quietest corner of the "Jaegerhorn" (a tavern close at hand) was the
+work of a moment, and there for hours the old friends mutually compared
+notes, and reviewed the ups and downs of fortune that had befallen them
+since the days when the Great Mogul used to storm Schenk's lodgings and
+abuse his master. When they parted it was in tears, never to meet again.
+
+The opportune departure of Haydn allowed Beethoven to place himself
+under the instruction of Albrechtsberger, the cathedral organist. This
+man, who counted among his pupils not only Beethoven, but Hummel and
+Seyfried, was a walking treatise on counterpoint; but far from investing
+the science with any life or brightness, it was his delight to render
+it, if possible, more austere and stringent than he had found it, and to
+lay down rules which to a fiery, impulsive nature were positively
+unbearable. Nevertheless, Pegasus can go in harness if need be.
+Beethoven, who, like every true genius, was essentially modest in his
+estimate of himself, and had already felt the want of a thoroughly
+grounded knowledge, submitted to Albrechtsberger's routine for a period
+of about fifteen months--beginning almost at the elements of the
+science, and working out the dry-as-dust themes in his master's Gradus
+ad Parnassum, until he had gained for himself an insight into the
+mysteries of fugue and canon.
+
+This is not the commonly received notion of Beethoven's student-days.
+Ries in his "Notices" has the following:--
+
+"I knew them all well [_i.e._, Haydn, Albrechtsberger, and Salieri, who
+gave Beethoven instruction in writing for the voice]; all three
+appreciated Beethoven highly, but were all of _one_ opinion regarding
+his studies. Each said Beethoven was always so obstinate and self-willed
+that he had afterwards much to learn through his own hard experience,
+which he would not accept in earlier days as the subject of instruction.
+Albrechtsberger and Salieri especially were of this opinion."
+
+But this testimony ought not to be accepted for more than it is worth.
+Haydn, absorbed in his own pursuits, and utterly unable to fathom
+Beethoven's nature--the very reverse of his own; Albrechtsberger, the
+formal contrapuntist, far more concerned about the outside of the cup,
+the form of a composition, than about its contents; Salieri, the
+superficial composer of a few trashy operas long since forgotten,--how
+were these men competent to pass judgment on a _Feuerkopf_ like
+Beethoven?
+
+A little further examination of the question in the light of recent
+researches will enable the reader to judge for himself whether the
+master was an earnest, willing student, or not.
+
+Until very lately, the main source whence biographers drew their
+accounts of the _Lehrjahre_ was the work published by the Chevalier von
+Seyfried, which purported to be a correct transcription of Beethoven's
+"Studies in Thorough-bass." This volume, as given to the world, was
+garnished with a number of sarcastic annotations, professedly emanating
+from Beethoven himself, wherein the theoretical rule under
+consideration at the moment is held up to ridicule. It is this
+circumstance, coupled with the assertion of Ries above alluded to, which
+has chiefly produced the prevalent impression regarding Beethoven as a
+student. We suppose that nine readers out of ten will have pictured to
+themselves the master receiving instruction in much the same spirit as
+that in which he was wont to give it in Bonn, namely, like the
+rebellious colt described by Wegeler!--Now what are the real facts of
+the case?--Thanks to the unwearied exertions of Gustav Nottebohm, we are
+in a position to answer the question. In his admirable book,
+"Beethoven's Studien," the _actual_ work done by Beethoven under Haydn
+and Albrechtsberger is at length laid before the public, and the falsity
+of Seyfried's compilation fully proved.[6] Nottebohm has no hesitation
+in affirming that Beethoven was a willing rather than a mutinous
+scholar, and that he was always intent on his subject, and strove hard
+to obtain a clear conception of it.
+
+As for the "sarcastic" marginal remarks which for nearly half a century
+have been treasured up and smiled over by every admirer of the master as
+eminently "characteristic" of him, will the reader believe that they
+turn out to be characteristic of--nothing but the unblushing impudence
+of Kapellmeister Ritter von Seyfried? They have no existence except in
+his imagination. The running commentary which accompanies the exercises
+is of a very different description from that supplied by him; it
+contains one instance, and one only, of an ironical tendency, and this
+is amusing enough in its simplicity to have extorted a smile from
+Albrechtsberger himself. One of the text-books employed appears to have
+been that of Tuerk, who makes use of the term "_galant_" to designate the
+_free_ as opposed to the _strict_ style of composition. Now what
+Beethoven saw lurking beneath the title _galant_, or what stumblingblock
+it presented to him, is hard to discover; but we find the expression, as
+often as it occurs, invariably altered to one that suits his notions
+better; and once he breaks out with, "Laugh, friends, at this
+_galanterie_!" Perhaps we may arrive at an appreciation of his distaste
+to the phrase, if we translate it by the word _genteel_,--imagine
+Beethoven writing in a _genteel_ style!!
+
+But in addition to thus clearing away the haze of misapprehension that
+had settled round our master's character as a learner, the efforts of
+Thayer and Nottebohm have also thrown much light on two questions which
+have proved more or less perplexing to all students, and to the brief
+consideration of which we would now ask the reader's attention.
+
+First, then, how is it that Beethoven's genius as a composer was so
+late, comparatively speaking, in developing? At the time of his arrival
+in Vienna he was in his twenty-second year, and before that age Mozart,
+as we know, had produced no less than 293 works. Yet our master passed
+his boyhood in an atmosphere where every influence tended to quicken the
+musical life, and to hasten, rather than retard, its growth. Are we to
+take the handful of works--the little sonatas, the crude preludes, and
+other trifles generally recognised as composed in Bonn, to be the sole
+outcome of that period? Impossible! Alexander Thayer may fairly be said
+to have solved the problem by a single reference to chronology. He finds
+that between the years 1795-1802 (that is, a period _commencing
+immediately after the conclusion of his studies_) Beethoven published no
+fewer than ninety-two works, many of them of the first magnitude,
+including two symphonies, an oratorio, three concertos, nine trios,
+thirty-two sonatas, with and without accompaniment--and this during a
+time when his leisure for composition must have been scant indeed. We
+find him in these years incessantly occupied in more mechanical work,
+teaching, perfecting his style as a pianoforte virtuoso, travelling,
+continuing his studies with Salieri, and, in addition, enjoying life as
+he went along, not burying himself hermit-wise in his works, as was the
+case at a later date. Moreover, in Thayer's words: "Precisely at the
+time when he began to devote himself _exclusively_ to composition, this
+wondrous fertility suddenly ceased. The solution lies on the surface"
+viz., that many, if not most, of these works were actually composed in
+Bonn, and deliberately kept back by the author for a certain time.
+"Why?" we ask; "on what account?" "Until he had attained, by study and
+observation, to the _certainty_ that he stood on the firm basis of a
+thoroughly-grounded knowledge," replies Thayer, Beethoven would give
+nothing to the world. That goal reached, the creations of his youthful
+fancy are taken in hand again one by one; the critical file, guided by
+the "dictates of an enlightened judgment," is faithfully applied, and
+the composition, bearing the final _imprimatur_ of its author's
+satisfaction, launched to meet its fate. Well might Beethoven laugh
+securely at his critics!--he had been beforehand with them--he had sat
+in judgment on himself.
+
+This view receives ample confirmation in the newly published version of
+the "Studies." The reader may reasonably take objection to the
+foregoing, and may inquire: "Was not Beethoven, then, master of the mere
+technicalities of composition by the time he reached Vienna? He had
+been engaged in studying the theory as well as the practice of music for
+over ten years, under a master, himself well known as a composer."--Let
+us hear Nottebohm on the point. The instruction imparted by Neefe,
+although calculated to be eminently helpful as regards "the formation of
+taste and the development of musical feeling," was yet "from a technical
+standpoint unsatisfactory," being based, not on the strict contrapuntal
+system of the early ecclesiastical writers (the system which alone
+offers the necessary _discipline_ for the composer), but rather on the
+lighter and more superficial method of the _new_ Leipzig school, of
+which Johann Adam Hiller, Neefe's master and model, was one of the
+leading exponents.
+
+Beethoven seems to have divined intuitively where his weakness lay. For
+the radical defect which he recognised in his training there was but one
+remedy, viz., to lay aside preconceived opinion; to go back in all
+humility to the very _Urquelle_, the Fountain-head, of Harmony, and
+trace out thence for himself, slowly and painfully, the eternal channel
+of LAW, _within_ which the mighty sound-flood may roll and toss at will,
+but _beyond_ whose bounds, immutable and fixed, no mortal power may send
+it with impunity.
+
+Turning to the "Studies," we find no trace of a disposition to claim
+exemption from toil on the score of genius. On the contrary!--commencing
+at the very foundation (the names of the different intervals), every
+branch of composition is taken up in its turn--simple, double, and
+triple counterpoint in all detail--and worked at with a will (several of
+the exercises, being written and rewritten two or three times), until we
+arrive at Fugue, where, for a reason shortly to be noted, there is a
+halt.
+
+What shall we say to the picture thus presented to us?--A young man
+self-willed and impatient by nature, at an age when submission to direct
+instruction is, to say the least, unpalatable, voluntarily placing
+himself under the yoke--a poet, within whose soul divine melodies plead
+for freedom, and thoughts of fire press hard for utterance, resolutely
+keeping inspiration under, until he shall have penetrated into the
+structure of language--a painter, in whose desk lie sketches, marvellous
+in freshness, vigour, and originality, occupying himself for weary
+months in the study of anatomy! Truly our Beethoven at this period, as
+at a later, comes well within the practical definition of Genius; his
+"capacity for painstaking" was "infinite." Not so, however, his
+patience, as we shall presently see.
+
+Now for the second difficulty to which Nottebohm has found a clue: how
+is it that in Beethoven's earlier works we have so few instances of
+fugue-writing--at the time one of the most favoured styles of
+composition; and that these, when they do occur, should from the
+irregularity of their construction invariably be disappointing? Here
+again the scholarship of our critic has done good service. His minute
+examination of the exercises done under Albrechtsberger has led him to
+the conclusion, that to the faulty teaching of the master is due the
+faulty workmanship of the pupil--a somewhat astounding discovery when we
+remember the high estimation in which the contrapuntist was held by his
+contemporaries. The fact remains, however, that the instruction given by
+Albrechtsberger, "in several important details of fugue building, was
+deficient and not grounded;" hence, in all probability, the rarity of
+fugue during the first ten years of Beethoven's creative activity. He
+had not entire mastery over its resources, and therefore hesitated to
+introduce it, save in a subordinate and fitful way. We may be surprised
+that the indoctrination in the works of J.S. Bach, which we noted in the
+Bonn days, should not of itself have been powerful enough imperceptibly
+to mould his style. There is, however, no trace of this at the period we
+are considering. That the influence of the _Urvater_[7] of harmony (a
+title applied by Beethoven himself to John Sebastian) worked deeply into
+his inner life, there can be no doubt; but its effects were not
+_apparent_ till a very much later date--a phenomenon, to our thinking,
+only to be explained on psychological grounds.
+
+To return. Beethoven's patience, which had held out over two years,
+comes to a sudden halt on this very question. Clear-sighted and tolerant
+of no incompetence, our young "Thorough!" seems to have detected
+Albrechtsberger's weak point, and there and then to have cast off
+allegiance to him. The exercises up to fugue are, generally speaking,
+most carefully executed. No sooner, however, does the scholar perceive
+that the master is almost as much "at sea" as himself, and steering
+vaguely without a chart, than docility is at an end; he conceives an
+intense disgust for the theoretical tread-mill; growls to a friend that
+he has "had enough of making musical skeletons!" and absolves himself,
+without permission, from the remainder of Albrechtsberger's course.
+
+We hear the old Theoretiker long after this grimly warning one of his
+pupils against his _ci-devant_ scholar: "Have nothing to do with him.
+_He_ never learned anything!" "Nay," Beethoven might have replied, had
+he thought it worth his while, "I learned _all_ that _you_ had to teach.
+Would you have had me walk with my eyes shut?" As Nottebohm remarks "the
+one _could_ not" teach, "the other _would_ not" learn, and so the
+instruction came to a close, and Beethoven fell back upon his own
+resources.
+
+He had, however, by this time achieved his purpose in the main. He had
+probed and examined the received theoretical axioms, and was in a
+position to decide for himself as to their actual importance. Henceforth
+none were accepted by him as imperative, simply out of deference to
+current ideas, and thus we find instances again and again of an
+inflexible determination to shake off all restraints, the utility of
+which was not recognised by his inner consciousness. He was wont in
+after years, when told of any perplexity of the critics, to rub his
+hands together in glee, saying; "Yes, yes! they are all astonished, and
+put their heads together, because--they don't find it in any
+thorough-bass book!"
+
+That independence may easily be merged in self-will, however, he
+sometimes proved to demonstration, to the delight of those who were on
+the watch for flaws. Ries tells us, for instance, that on one occasion
+he discovered and pointed out (in the C minor quartet, Op. 18) two
+perfect fifths in succession. "Well?" asks the master, testily, "and who
+has forbidden them?" Somewhat taken aback, the scholar keeps silence.
+Again the question is repeated. "But it is a first principle!" hesitates
+Ries in astonishment. "WHO HAS FORBIDDEN THEM?" thunders out the master
+again. "Marpurg, Kirnberger. Fux,--all the theorists." "AND I ALLOW
+THEM!" is the conclusion. But the obstinacy displayed in this and
+similar anecdotes is more an expression of petulance, than of
+preconsidered judgment. Beethoven, as we know, enjoyed nothing better
+than an opportunity of mystifying certain individuals as to his real
+thoughts and intentions. Occasionally we hear his true voice in the
+matter. A friend had remarked, regarding the second and third "Leonora"
+overtures, "The artist must create in freedom, only giving in to the
+spirit of his age, and be monarch over his own materials; under such
+conditions alone will true art-works come to light." "Granted," replied
+Beethoven; "but he must _not_ give in to the spirit of his age,
+otherwise it is all over with originality.... Had I written them [the
+two overtures] in the spirit that prevailed at the time, they would
+certainly have been understood at once, as, for example, the 'Storm of
+Kotzeluch.' But I cannot cut and carve out my works according to the
+fashion, as they would fain have me do. Freshness and originality create
+themselves, without thinking about it."
+
+After all, let us remember that it is vain to measure the strides of a
+giant with the footsteps of ordinary men. Epoch-Makers are necessarily
+Law-Breakers to the eyes of their contemporaries. Years must pass before
+the import of their work is fully discerned. Reverting to our former
+simile, _we_ can see that while Beethoven's critics believed him to be
+rebelliously diverting the current of Harmony from the pure course
+directed by a Palestrina, a Bach, a Handel, a Haydn, a Mozart, he was in
+reality simply engaged in deepening and widening its channel, that the
+Stream might flow on in grander and nobler proportions to meet the
+ever-growing necessities of Humanity.
+
+Beethoven continued a diligent student through life; from those who had
+devoted special attention to any particular subject he was always eager
+to learn, although, as we have seen, without pledging himself to follow
+their views. Thus we find him in 1799 studying the art of
+quartet-writing more closely with Foerster, who excelled in that branch
+of composition; and as late as 1809 he styles himself the "pupil" of
+Salieri, from whom, as the friend of Metastasio, and versed in the
+requirements of the Italian school, he often sought advice in his vocal
+compositions.
+
+But in addition to more purely theoretic studies, Beethoven was
+indefatigable in his practical investigations into the nature and
+capabilities of the instruments for which he wrote, and which his
+creative genius roused to unheard-of achievements. From Herren Kraft and
+Linke he learned the mechanism of the violoncello; Punto taught him that
+of the horn, and Friedlowsky that of the clarionet. He often consulted
+these artists in after life regarding the suitability of certain
+passages for their respective instruments, and allowed himself to be
+guided by their suggestions.
+
+Far otherwise was it, however, with singers; for them Beethoven composed
+as he liked, without humouring any little predilection of the most
+fascinating prima donna, or introducing a single piece for display (one
+reason why Rossini was able for so long to play the part of the
+successful rival). On the other hand, the singers had their revenge, and
+sang his music precisely as they listed, interpolating embellishments
+and cadenze _a piacere_ without the slightest regard to his wishes.
+
+The following letters to Eleanore van Breuning belong to this epoch:--
+
+    "_Vienna, Nov. 2nd, '93._
+
+    "MOST ESTEEMED ELEANORE! MY DEAREST FRIEND!--A whole year of my
+    residence in the capital has nearly elapsed without your having
+    received a letter from me, notwithstanding you have been continually
+    with me in the liveliest remembrance. I have often entertained
+    myself with the thought of you and your dear family, but oftener
+    still I have not enjoyed the peace in doing so which I could have
+    wished.[8]
+
+    "At such times that fatal dispute hovered before me, and my conduct
+    in the matter appeared to me detestable. But it was past and gone.
+    How much would I give to be able to obliterate entirely from my life
+    the way in which I then acted! so dishonouring to me, so opposed to
+    my general character. At the same time there were many circumstances
+    which tended to keep us apart, and I suspect that what specially
+    hindered a reconciliation was the manner in which the remarks of
+    each were repeated to the other. We both believed that what we said
+    was the result of honest conviction, when in reality it proceeded
+    from anger inflamed by others, and so we were both deceived. Your
+    good and noble character, my dear friend, warrants me in believing
+    that you have long since forgiven me; but they say that the truest
+    repentance is that in which we confess our own faults, and this is
+    what I desire to do. And let us now draw the curtain over the whole
+    affair, only extracting the lesson from it that when a dispute
+    happens between friends, it is always better that no mediator should
+    be employed, but that friend should address himself direct to
+    friend.
+
+    "You will receive along with this a dedication,[9] and I can only
+    wish that it were greater and more worthy of you. They teased me
+    here into publishing this little work, and I avail myself of the
+    opportunity to give you, my esteemed Eleanore, a proof of my regard
+    and friendship for yourself, and a token of my lasting remembrance
+    of your house. Accept this trifle, and think of it as coming from a
+    devoted friend. Oh! if it only gives you pleasure, my wishes will be
+    quite satisfied. May it be a little reawakening of the time when I
+    passed so many happy hours in your house! perhaps it may keep you in
+    remembrance of me until I return again, which certainly will not
+    happen soon. Oh! my dear friend, how we shall rejoice then! You will
+    find your friend a more cheerful man, with all the former furrows of
+    adversity chased away through time and a happier lot.
+
+    "If you should see B. Koch, I beg you to tell her that it is unkind
+    of her not to have written me even once. I have written to her
+    twice, and to Malchus[10] three times--but no answer. Tell her that
+    if she will not write herself, she might, at least, urge Malchus to
+    do so.
+
+    "In concluding my letter, I venture one more request, namely, that
+    it would make me very happy to possess an Angola vest knitted by
+    your hands, my dear friend. Forgive this not very modest demand! It
+    arises out of my great predilection for everything made by you; but
+    I must tell you confidentially that there is also a little vanity
+    connected with it. I want to be able to say that I possess something
+    of one of the best and most admired girls in Bonn. I have, it is
+    true, still the first which you kindly gave me in Bonn, but it has
+    become so old-fashioned that I can only treasure it up in my
+    wardrobe as something of yours, very dear to me. You would delight
+    me much by favouring me soon with one of your kind letters. Should
+    mine give you any pleasure, I promise you certainly, so far as lies
+    in my power, to continue them; since everything is welcome to me
+    whereby I may prove to you how much I am,
+
+    "With all esteem,
+
+    Your true Friend,
+
+    L. V. BEETHOVEN.
+
+    "P.S.--You will find the v. [variations] somewhat difficult to play,
+    especially the shake in the coda; but don't let this alarm you,
+    since it is so arranged that you have nothing to do but the shake;
+    the other notes you may leave out, as they occur in the violin part.
+    I would never have written in this manner had I not had occasion to
+    remark that there are several people here in V., who, after I have
+    extemporized of an evening, write down many of my peculiarities next
+    day, and pass them off as their own.[11] As I foresaw that such
+    things would soon be published, it occurred to me to anticipate
+    their movements. Another reason was also--to perplex the pianoforte
+    teachers here. Many of them are my mortal enemies, and I wished to
+    revenge myself on them in this way; knowing that they would
+    occasionally be asked to play the variations, when these gentlemen
+    would come out in rather an unfavourable light."
+
+The following fragment is without date:--
+
+    "The beautiful cravat, worked by your own hands, has caused me the
+    greatest possible surprise. Although in itself so pleasing, it
+    awakened within me feelings of melancholy. Its effect was to recall
+    the past, and to shame me by your generous behaviour. In truth, I
+    did not think that you still considered me worthy of remembrance.
+
+    "Oh! could you have been a witness of my emotions yesterday when it
+    arrived, you would not think I exaggerate in saying that the
+    recollection of you brings the tears to my eyes, and makes me very
+    sad. However little I may deserve credit in your eyes, I beg you to
+    believe, _my friend_ (allow me still to call you so), that I have
+    suffered and still suffer through the loss of your friendship. You
+    and your dear mother I shall never forget. Your goodness to me was
+    such that the loss of you neither can nor will be easily replaced. I
+    know what I lost and what you were to me, but----if I attempt to
+    fill up this blank, I must refer to scenes which are as unpleasant
+    for you to hear as for me to describe.
+
+    "As a slight return for your kind remembrance of me, I take the
+    liberty of sending you some variations, and the rondo with violin
+    accompaniment. I have a great deal to do, or I would have copied the
+    long-promised sonata for you. In my manuscript it is little better
+    than a sketch, and it would be very difficult for Paraquin
+    himself,[12] clever as he is, to transcribe it. You can have the
+    rondo copied, and then return the score to me. It is the only one of
+    all my compositions suitable for you, and as you are shortly going
+    to Kerpen,[13] I thought it might afford you some pleasure.
+
+    "Farewell, my friend. It is impossible for me to call you by any
+    other name, however indifferent I may be to you. Pray believe that I
+    reverence you and your mother as highly as formerly.
+
+    "If it is in my power to contribute anything to your happiness, pray
+    do not fail to let me know, since it is the only means left to me of
+    proving my gratitude for past friendship.
+
+    "May you have a pleasant journey, and bring your dear mother back in
+    perfect health!
+
+    "Think sometimes of
+
+    "Your admiring Friend,
+
+    "BEETHOVEN."
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 6: The origin of this work may not be uninteresting to the
+reader. It is briefly as follows. Among the effects of Beethoven offered
+for sale at the public auction of 1827 were five packets of MSS.,
+labelled "Exercises in Composition." These were bought by the publisher,
+T. Haslinger, in the not unreasonable belief that they would be found to
+present a complete view of the preparation made by the master for his
+life's work. He determined to give the collection to the world, and
+entrusted the editing of it to the Chevalier von Seyfried, as a friend
+of Beethoven and himself a scholarly musician. In process of time the
+volume appeared, and was received with very opposite sentiments by
+different sections of the public: by some it was accepted as genuine; by
+others rejected as a fabrication. Nottebohm's investigation has proved
+the truth to lie between the two extremes. "Seyfried's book," he says,
+"is neither authentic nor forged; it is a _falsified_ work." Seyfried,
+in fact, seems to have gone to work with incredible recklessness; his
+"Beethoven's Studies" is an _Olla Podrida_, composed of not only
+Beethoven's own exercises (put together without regard to natural
+sequence or chronology), but of another theoretical course, probably
+that prepared by Beethoven years after for the instruction of the
+Archduke Rudolph; while a third element is actually introduced in the
+shape of Studies from a MS. written in a strange hand, and possibly the
+work of another pupil of Albrechtsberger!]
+
+[Footnote 7: Original father--creator.]
+
+[Footnote 8: The following remarks are eminently characteristic of
+Beethoven. When his fiery nature had led him into saying or doing
+anything which subsequent reflection showed him to be contrary to true
+friendship, his remorse knew no bounds. Wegeler declares that his
+contrition was often entirely disproportionate to the fault committed,
+as in the present instance.]
+
+[Footnote 9: Variations on Figaro's air, "Se vuol ballare."]
+
+[Footnote 10: Afterwards Count Marienrode, and Minister of Finance in
+the kingdom of Westphalia. At a later period he filled the same office
+in Wirtemberg.]
+
+[Footnote 11: Wegeler says, "Beethoven often complained to me also of
+this sort of _espionage_. He particularized the Abbe Gelinek, a very
+fruitful composer of variations, in Vienna, who always settled himself
+in his neighbourhood. This may have been one of the reasons why
+Beethoven always looked out for a lodging in as open a place as
+possible."]
+
+[Footnote 12: _Paraquin_, contro-basso in the electoral orchestra; a
+thorough musician, and universally esteemed as such.]
+
+[Footnote 13: _Kerpen_, the residence of an uncle of Fraeulein v.
+Breuning, where the family usually spent some weeks in summer.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE VIRTUOSO.
+
+    Family Occurrences--Music in Vienna--Van Swieten--Prince
+    Lichnowski--Beethoven's Independence, Personal Appearance,
+    Manners--Rasoumowski Quartet--Occurrences in Lichnowski's
+    Palace--First Three Trios--Artistic Tour to
+    Berlin--Woelfl--Beethoven as an Improvisatore--Steibelt.
+
+
+Beethoven's period of study embraced over two years, during which many
+events took place that produced a revolution in his circumstances, and
+left him at their close in a very different position from that in which
+they had found him.
+
+The first of these was the death of his father, which happened about a
+month after his arrival in Vienna, obliged the young man to take upon
+himself once more the duties of guardian to his two brothers, and
+necessitated the following petition to the Elector:--
+
+    "MOST REVEREND AND GRACIOUS PRINCE,--Some years ago your Highness
+    was pleased to grant a pension to my father, the court tenor Van
+    Beethoven, and graciously to decree that one hundred thalers of his
+    salary should be placed in my hands, that I might provide for the
+    clothing, maintenance, and education of my two younger brothers, and
+    also discharge the debts contracted by our father. I wished at once
+    to present this order to your Highness's treasurer; but my father
+    earnestly implored me not to do so, that it might not be imagined he
+    was incapable of superintending his own family; and he further added
+    that he would himself pay me quarterly the twenty-five R. thalers,
+    which up to the present time was faithfully performed.
+
+    "After his death, however (in December last), when I wished to avail
+    myself of your Highness's kindness and present the above-mentioned
+    order, I was alarmed by the discovery that my father had made away
+    with it.
+
+    "With all dutiful respect I therefore beg your Serene Highness
+    kindly to renew this order, and to instruct your treasurer to let me
+    have the last quarter of this gracious addition to my salary (due
+    the beginning of February).
+
+    "Your Serene Highness's
+
+    "Most obedient and faithful Servant,
+
+    "LUD. V. BEETHOVEN, _Court Organist_."
+
+This request was granted, and Franz Ries undertook the management of the
+money; but after June, 1793, not only this but the pension granted to
+Beethoven himself was suddenly stopped. The fruits of the French
+Revolution had made themselves apparent, and the Elector was forced to
+fly from Bonn and take refuge in Mergentheim. Henceforth, Beethoven
+must depend upon himself.
+
+Luckily the emergency found him prepared; he was already esteemed as one
+of the best pianoforte players of the day--nay, there were not wanting
+those who assigned to him the very first place. The recommendation of
+Count Waldstein, who was nearly related to more than half a dozen of the
+best families in Austria, coupled with that of the elector (uncle to the
+reigning emperor), together with the fact that he was Haydn's most
+promising pupil, gained for the young man admission to the highest
+circles in the capital, where his extraordinary abilities speedily met
+with recognition, and placed him above all fear of want.
+
+In accounting for the peculiar facility with which Beethoven obtained a
+hearing in Vienna, the state of society and position of art at the
+period must not be forgotten.
+
+In a wide sense, and as we should understand it now, music was not
+universally cultivated or appreciated. The opera houses were two in
+number, one entirely given up to Italian performances; the other plain
+and unattractive, struggling under great disadvantages to bring forward
+native composers.
+
+Church music was at a low ebb; the influence of Albrechtsberger at the
+cathedral not tending to much life or novelty in that branch of
+composition.
+
+Public concerts, such as are now of daily occurrence, happened perhaps
+once a year, when funds were required for some charity.
+
+Thus, music was not then the universal pursuit of all classes. The
+enjoyment of it was almost entirely limited to the privileged few--the
+aristocracy--who, following the example set by the reigning family,
+professed an adoration of the art, a devotion to it, which (though, of
+course, in many instances genuine) was so general, so common, as to cast
+a doubt upon its reality. Music was, in short, the fashionable rage; to
+be non-musical was to shut oneself out of the pale of society--an
+alternative not to be thought of without shuddering by the gay,
+pleasure-loving Viennese.
+
+Accordingly the musical enthusiasm was wonderful. We find no less than
+ten private theatres, each with its full corps of actors and actresses,
+at most of which operettas were performed; and an orchestral society,
+composed exclusively of members of noble houses, who gave public
+concerts, open only to their equals in society, at the unwonted hour of
+six in the morning.
+
+In addition to these, every nobleman had his private orchestra, or his
+_Quartettistes_, or, if his means would not admit of this, at least one
+eminent instrumental player, attached to his household. As all the great
+families of Austria vied with each other in the splendour and
+_recherche_ style of their musical entertainments, it may easily be
+imagined how, in such a state of society, Beethoven was lionized,
+petted, and feted.
+
+Thayer gives a list of no fewer than thirty-one great houses (nine of
+them belonging to princes) which must have been open to him, as the
+owners were all recognised, worthy dilettanti in the highest sense--not
+mere followers of the fickle goddess, Fashion. Add to these the crowd
+that is ever ready to patronize him whom the leaders of _ton_ have taken
+by the hand, and we see that Beethoven could not have wanted either for
+pupils or for opportunities of playing at private concerts.
+
+It was, doubtless, the bustle and pressure of this episode in his life,
+the contact with vulgarity in high places, that gave him the dislike he
+afterwards manifested to playing in public. At an earlier period in
+Bonn, as we have seen, it was his delight to communicate his ideas to
+others, and to pour forth the inmost feelings of his soul in the
+presence of a little circle of sympathising, cultivated listeners. But
+here, in Vienna, to play at the command of some birth-proud aristocrat,
+who regarded art and artists as mere ministers to his pleasure--from
+such a task Beethoven's mind revolted. Wegeler relates the effect which
+such an occurrence would have upon him:--
+
+"An invitation to play in society robbed him of all gaiety. He would
+come to me gloomy and down-cast, complaining that he was forced to play
+till the blood tingled to his very finger tips. By degrees we would
+begin to talk together in a friendly way, when I sought to distract his
+thoughts and to soothe him. When this end was achieved, I let the
+conversation drop. I placed myself at my desk, and if Beethoven wished
+to speak to me again, he was obliged to seat himself on a chair before
+the pianoforte. Soon, and often without turning, he would strike a few
+undecided chords, out of which the most beautiful melodies were
+gradually developed. I dared not hazard a remark about his playing, or
+only allude to it _en passant_. Beethoven would go away quite cheerful,
+and always return willingly to me. The dislike, however, remained, and
+was often the occasion of a rupture between him and his best friends."
+
+But the halcyon days had not yet arrived when the great tone-poet could
+devote himself entirely to his life-mission. His own wants and those of
+his brothers had to be provided for, and accordingly the round of
+pianoforte-playing was gone through, as that of teaching had been
+before, and with the same result, it paved the way to life-friendships.
+
+Amongst the distinct leaders of the musical taste of the capital was
+Gottfried, Baron van Swieten, the son of Maria Theresa's Dutch
+physician, and the composer of twelve symphonies (on which Haydn's
+verdict was--"as stiff as himself.") He had formerly passed some time in
+Berlin, where he had become acquainted with Friedemann and Emanuel Bach,
+and had heard the "Messiah," "Judas Maccabaeus," and "Alexander's Feast."
+After his return to Vienna, he acted as secretary to a musical society
+which met at his house, where the great works of Bach, Handel, and the
+old Italian writers (including Palestrina), were devotedly studied.
+Mozart's co-operation in this undertaking had been invaluable; but
+Mozart was gone, and Van Swieten was inconsolable for his loss until he
+discovered Beethoven. He was a quaint type of a race long extinct--the
+genuine old _kenner_ or connoisseur. One can almost see him, when at a
+concert an incautious whisper was heard in the background, rising
+majestically from his place, and conspicuous from his great height,
+taking an awful survey of the room to discover the offender and wither
+him by a glance! In his efforts after the _true_ in art, however, no
+very marked line was discernible to him between the sublime and the
+ridiculous; hence the earnestness with which he persuaded Haydn (and for
+which the latter never forgave him) to insert the croaking of the frogs
+in the Seasons. But take him for all in all, he was a valuable friend to
+Beethoven, and as such the latter regarded him. A carefully preserved
+note of his is still extant: "If nothing comes in the way, I should like
+to see you here next Wednesday, at half-past eight o'clock, with your
+nightcap in your pocket."
+
+The latter precaution was not unnecessary, for the insatiable host
+(after the evening's entertainment was over and the guests gone home)
+would not consent to release his young _protege_ under at least
+half-a-dozen of Bach's fugues for a "good-night," or "_evening
+blessing_," as he was wont to call it.
+
+Most valuable were the evenings spent in Van Swieten's house to
+Beethoven, for here he was first made fully acquainted with the majesty
+of Handel, "that unequalled master of all masters," in Beethoven's
+estimation, of whom he once said: "Go, and learn of him how to produce,
+with small means, such great effects!"
+
+Another patron of the young musician, and one able to benefit him more
+substantially, was the Prince Karl Lichnowski, the accomplished pupil of
+Mozart, who, with his amiable wife Christiane, devoted every leisure
+hour to artistic pursuits. This couple, worthy in all respects of their
+exalted rank, at first attracted by the wonderful improvisation of
+Haydn's pupil, soon discovered, on a more intimate acquaintance, the
+true nobility of soul and dazzling genius which lay beneath the rough
+exterior.
+
+They were childless; with the utmost delicacy it was proposed to
+Beethoven in 1794 that he should come to them; he accepted the offer in
+the spirit in which it was made, and for several years was an inmate of
+the Lichnowski Palace, treated with more than parental tenderness by the
+Prince and Princess. The latter took the place of Madame von Breuning,
+and Beethoven used afterwards to say laughingly, "They wanted to train
+me there with _grandmotherly_ love; and the Princess Christiane would
+have liked to put a glass case over me, so that no evil might come nigh
+me."
+
+Not that there was never any misunderstanding between Beethoven and his
+patron; on the contrary, the Princess had very often to mediate between
+them. How could it be otherwise? it was not easy for the powerful,
+impulsive mind of Beethoven, with his previous training, to accommodate
+itself to the smooth, etiquette-trammelled life of a palace. To abide by
+a settled routine was to him impossible; and after a few ineffectual
+struggles the attempt to make him do so was abandoned, and the artist
+left free to develop himself in his own way.
+
+Wegeler relates that when he came to Vienna he found Beethoven installed
+in the Lichnowski Palace, but by no means so content with his position
+as one would imagine. Amongst other things he complained to him that the
+Prince's dinner-hour was fixed at four o'clock. "Now," said he, "I ought
+to be at home by half-past three to dress and trim my beard, &c. I could
+not stand that!" So some restaurant was more frequently honoured by his
+presence than the Lichnowski dinner-table.
+
+It must not be thought that Beethoven forfeited any of his independence
+by thus becoming an inmate of the palace. On the contrary, he knew well,
+and the Prince did also, that the advantage was mutual. If he had a
+zealous and wealthy patron, the Prince had in return the benefit of the
+constant presence of the first pianist and improvisatore of the day at
+all his _Musikabende_, besides the _eclat_ attached to the fact that so
+many of the composer's productions were first performed at his house.
+Not that either of them ever coolly balanced the one set of advantages
+over against the other. This was in point of fact the relation between
+them; in reality it was more like that of father and son.
+
+The critical judgment of the Prince was highly esteemed by Beethoven,
+who often allowed himself to be persuaded by him into making alterations
+which no other influence had power to effect; and his proficiency as a
+pianoforte-player, which enabled him to master with comparative ease
+the difficulties in the new style inaugurated by his _protege_,
+confirmed Beethoven in his own views, and gave him fresh strength to
+resist those who would have had him adopt a more simple manner of
+writing.
+
+Beethoven's independence of thought and action was of vital importance
+in his development. "Help thyself!" was his motto. But we are sometimes
+inclined to smile at the lengths to which he carried his favourite
+doctrine. For instance, having overheard the prince (who had a
+peculiarly loud voice) direct his Jaeger, that whenever Beethoven and he
+rang at the same time, the latter should be waited on first; he took
+care that very day to procure a servant for himself. Another time, when
+he had a great desire to learn riding, and the Prince's stud had been
+placed at his disposal, he would not accept the offer, but bought an
+animal for his own special use. Any one who has ever been so unlucky as
+to borrow a friend's favourite horse, will not find Beethoven's conduct
+in this instance so very peculiar.
+
+We can now imagine our master settled for a time, in the possession of
+much that could make life enjoyable. His days were entirely at his own
+disposal, and generally occupied by study; his evenings were passed
+either in his patron's _salon_, at Van Swieten's, or at the house of
+some connoisseur. Wherever he went, he was welcomed, in spite of his
+unpolished manner and appearance.
+
+We have seen how, rather than submit to the necessity of an elaborate
+toilette, he would content himself with the plainest fare; but there
+was that in Beethoven's _physique_ which the utmost pains could never
+have smoothed down to the conventional standard. Rather short, with a
+figure more indicative of strength than elegance, hair that baffled
+Figaro's efforts to reduce it to order, and a broad face, whose one
+redeeming point was the lofty, expansive forehead--a true throne of
+genius--Beethoven presented a _tout-ensemble_ which at once marked him
+out from all others, and was an index to the independent, original
+spirit within.
+
+His demeanour was such as might be expected in one who had made his own
+life-path, and had constantly encountered hostility and
+misunderstanding; brusque, angular, and a little defiant; but--where he
+was sure of his ground--gentle and loveable as a woman, innocent and
+guileless as a child.
+
+Beethoven had no time for the _petits-soins_ of life, his thoughts were
+too deeply engrossed with higher matters, but that he was the bear so
+often represented, we emphatically deny. Such accusations were brought
+against him by those who were incapable of appreciating either him or
+his works, who would have had the great poet descend to the common level
+of every-day life, fritter away precious time and thought, and force his
+powerful mind to the punctilious observance of every little social
+etiquette.
+
+One condition alone was necessary for Beethoven to come out in a
+favourable light in society, viz, _he must be understood_. Not
+flattered, not admired, not caressed,--simply understood in his true
+character as a poet, an artist, a revealer of beauty undreamt of by
+others. The following anecdote is an illustration of this:--
+
+"When we were both still young (writes Herr von Griesinger, Ambassador
+from the Court of Saxony to Vienna), I only an _attache_, and Beethoven
+only a celebrated pianoforte player, but as yet little known as a
+composer, we happened to be both together at the house of Prince
+Lobkowitz. A gentleman, who thought himself a great connoisseur, entered
+into a conversation with Beethoven upon a poet's life and inclinations.
+'I wish,' said Beethoven, with his native candour, 'that I was relieved
+from all the bargain and sale of publication, and could meet with some
+one who could pay me a certain income for life, for which he should
+possess the right to publish exclusively all that I wrote; and I would
+not be idle in composition. I believe Goethe does this with Cotta, and,
+if I mistake not, Handel's London publisher held similar terms with
+him.'
+
+"'My dear young man,' said this grave wiseacre, 'you must not complain,
+for you are neither a Goethe nor a Handel, and it is not to be expected
+that you ever will be, for such masters will not be born again.'
+
+"Beethoven bit his lips, gave a most contemptuous glance at the speaker,
+and said not another word to him. Afterwards, however, he expressed
+himself pretty warmly on the subject of this flippant individual.
+
+"Prince Lobkowitz endeavoured to draw Beethoven into more temperate
+habits of thought, and said in a friendly manner, when the conversation
+once turned upon this person, 'My dear Beethoven, the gentleman did not
+intend to wound you; it is an established maxim, which most men adhere
+to, that the present generation cannot possibly produce such mighty
+spirits as the dead, who have already earned their fame.'
+
+"'So much the worse, your Highness,' replied Beethoven; 'but with men
+who will not believe and trust in me because I am as yet unknown to
+universal fame, I cannot hold intercourse.'
+
+"Many then shook their heads, and called the young composer arrogant and
+overbearing. Had these gentry been able to look into the future, they
+would have been a little ashamed of themselves."
+
+With Beethoven's residence in the Lichnowski Palace, many characteristic
+anecdotes are connected, amongst others that already referred to of his
+reading the complicated Bach MS. _a prima vista_.
+
+But one of the most important features of his life here was his
+connection with the Schuppanzigh Quartette, afterwards known as the
+Razoumowski, which, under his auspices, took so notable a place in
+musical annals. The players were all very young (Schuppanzigh, first
+violin, a boy of sixteen; Sina, second violin, still a very young man;
+Weiss, viola, fifteen; and Kraft, violoncello, only fourteen years of
+age), and this was probably a recommendation in the eyes of the Prince,
+who was passionately fond of the quartets of Haydn and Mozart, and
+doubtless found that he could more easily inoculate young and unformed
+minds with his peculiar views regarding the performance of them, than he
+could persuade more mature artists into adopting his views. Beethoven
+was his able coadjutor in this attempt, and the boy-quartet, directed by
+one not much older than themselves, did honour to the discernment of
+their patron. For many years they worked harmoniously together, meeting
+for practice every Friday morning, and probably no quartet-players,
+either before or since, enjoyed advantages so great. For them Beethoven
+composed his immortal productions, and his genius fired and animated
+theirs, so that one mind and one will alone seemed at work. The
+following note, preserved by Schindler, relative to the production of
+the difficult E flat major Quartet in March, 1825, shows how his desire
+that his old companions should prove equal to their reputation continued
+unabated to the last:--
+
+    "MY GOOD FRIENDS,--Herewith each will receive his part, and must
+    with it promise allegiance, and pledge himself in all honour to do
+    his very best to distinguish himself, and to vie with the others in
+    zeal.
+
+    "Every one who wishes to take part in the affair must sign this
+    paper."
+
+    (Here follow the four signatures.)
+
+On one occasion a new pianoforte quartet by Foerster, a well-known
+composer of the day, was in progress of rehearsal. The violoncellist was
+suddenly called out, when Beethoven, who was at the pianoforte,
+instantly began to sing the missing part in addition to going on with
+his own, which he read for the first time.
+
+The Prince, astonished, asked him how he could sing music with which he
+was not acquainted. Beethoven smiled and replied, "The bass _must_ have
+been so, otherwise the author could have known nothing whatever of
+composition." On the Prince remarking further, that Beethoven had taken
+the _Presto_ so quickly that it was impossible for him to have seen the
+notes, he answered, "That is not at all necessary. A multitude of faults
+in the printing do not signify. If you only know the language, you don't
+see them or pay any heed to them."
+
+To show the good understanding between Beethoven and the Princess
+Christiane, we give the following anecdote here, although it properly
+belongs to a later period.
+
+One evening, Ries, while still Beethoven's pupil, in performing a sonata
+before a large company, played a wrong note, on which the master tapped
+him on the head with one finger by way of reminder. Beethoven next took
+his seat at the pianoforte, and the Princess (who always felt for the
+weak, and had observed that Ries was rather vexed by the occurrence)
+stationed herself behind the composer. Beethoven played the beginning of
+one of his own compositions rather carelessly, as he was often wont to
+do in commencing, when the Princess seized her opportunity, and giving
+him several well-directed blows, said: "When a pupil is punished with
+one finger for having failed in a single note, the master deserves to be
+punished with the whole hand for graver faults!" "Everybody began to
+laugh," adds Ries, "and Beethoven the first. He recommenced, and played
+admirably."
+
+In the year 1793, the first of that unparalleled series of works which
+ended only in 1827 with Beethoven's death--the three Trios for
+pianoforte, violin, and 'cello, Op. I.,--was publicly performed; that is
+to say, before a large and brilliant assembly in the Lichnowski Palace.
+The result was most gratifying, alike to the composer and to his
+friends--Beethoven was at once recognised as the successor of Mozart.
+One incident alone detracted from the happiness of the young author.
+Haydn, who was present, while warmly praising the two first trios,
+strongly recommended that the last, in C minor, should not be published.
+
+Beethoven's suspicion, already on the alert, was fairly roused by this
+apparently well-meaning advice. Why should that particular trio be kept
+back? He himself thought it the best and most original of the three, and
+as such it is now generally regarded.
+
+It offered, however, such a contrast to his own simple style of
+trio-writing, that Haydn was, perhaps, honest in stating as his reason
+for advocating its non-publication that he did not believe the public
+would understand it. Beethoven, however, was strengthened by this
+occurrence in his conviction that Haydn "did not mean well by him;" and,
+though he deferred to the criticism at the time (probably more out of
+regard to Lichnowski's representations) a bitter feeling towards his
+former master rankled in his heart. This did not prevent his dedicating
+the three Pianoforte Sonatas, Op. II., to Haydn. The dedication,
+however, was a mere mark of appreciation, not of the man, but of his
+works, a compliment from one artist to the other--not a grateful
+recognition of the master by the pupil. In fact, when Haydn wished him
+to inscribe on the title-page, "Pupil of Haydn," he flatly refused,
+saying that he "had never learned anything from him!"
+
+We have said that he deferred to Haydn's criticism, but he went beyond
+it. If the C minor trio was not to be published, neither should the
+other two. So the unlucky works were thrust back into his portfolio,
+where they lay for two years, during which the irate composer paved the
+way for their proper reception by publishing an immense number of
+bagatelles, especially variations on different themes, which have no
+great value beyond that attached to them as studies in the development
+of Beethoven's genius.
+
+Although evincing more ingenuity and variety than the themes treated by
+Mozart in the same way, they are often found unequal to the latter in
+clearness.[14] Beethoven seems to have had a lingering partiality for
+this style of writing. After having abandoned it, we find it adopted
+again in the Thirty-two Variations Serieuses on an original theme, which
+were written after he had more than established his success in the
+Sonata form; and, so anxious was he to have them well understood and
+rendered, that he made Ries, when studying them with him, repeat the
+last no fewer than seventeen times before he was satisfied with the
+effect; "though," adds Ries rather naively, "I thought I played it as
+well as Beethoven himself!"
+
+The growth of the Thirty-three Variations, Op. 120, we must leave to
+Schindler to relate:--
+
+"In the villa of Hetzendorf, Beethoven wrote the Thirty-three Variations
+on a Waltz by Diabelli, a work which delighted him uncommonly. At first
+there were only to be six or seven variations, for which modest number
+Diabelli had offered him eighty ducats (the price he received for almost
+each of his later Sonatas). But when he set to work, there sprang into
+life first ten, then twenty, then twenty-five--and still he could not
+stop. When Diabelli heard of the twenty-five variations, he was greatly
+concerned lest the work should be too large, but was at last obliged to
+accept for his eighty ducats, not _seven_, but _three and thirty
+variations_." The following story is a proof of the ease with which he
+invented variations. Being one evening in a box with a lady during a
+performance of "La Molinare," she lamented to him that she had once
+possessed a number of variations on the air "Nel cor non piu mi sento,"
+which she had lost. Next morning she received "Sei variazioni perdute
+per la--ritrovate per Luigi v. Beethoven."
+
+The year 1795 brought with it two events: one the arrival of his
+brothers in Vienna; the other his first appearance in public as a
+virtuoso. Hitherto his performances had been confined to the Lichnowski
+Palace, and other private houses, and public curiosity had long been
+whetted by the various rumours which flew about concerning him. At
+length it was to be gratified, on the occasion of the Annual Concert for
+the Widows and Orphans of Musicians. The direction of this was usually
+entrusted to Salieri, who held the _baton_ at the Italian Opera-house,
+and his programme for the year 1795 consisted of an operetta, composed
+by one of his pupils, and a Pianoforte Concerto in C major by another,
+Herr Louis van Beethoven.
+
+Wegeler relates that two days before the date fixed for the event the
+Concerto was not yet finished, and there did not seem much probability
+of its being ready in time, as Beethoven was suffering much from attacks
+of colic, to which he was often subject. Wegeler, from his medical
+knowledge, was able to render a little assistance, and so the work
+progressed, Beethoven writing as fast as he could, and handing over each
+sheet as it was finished to four copyists who were in attendance in the
+antechamber. Next day, at the rehearsal, the pianoforte was found to
+have been tuned half a tone lower than the other instruments; when
+Beethoven, to save time, played the whole Concerto through in the key of
+C sharp!
+
+Seyfried tells us that when Beethoven asked him to turn over the leaves
+of several of his concertos for him while playing in public, he found
+nothing but a sheet of paper with here and there a bar filled in, or a
+mass of notes unintelligible to any one but the composer. Jahn describes
+Mozart as doing the same, but what a difference is there between his
+concertos and--say, _the Emperor_!
+
+The year 1796 was marked by a slight variation; Beethoven made a short
+journey to Prague and Berlin, the only occasion, with the exception of
+his visit to the Baths, on which he ever left Vienna or its
+neighbourhood. In both cities he met with a flattering reception. In
+Berlin he played his two sonatas for pianoforte and 'cello, Op. 5,
+before Frederick William II., who presented him with a snuff-box filled
+with Friedrichs-d'or; "not an ordinary snuff-box," as Beethoven was wont
+to remark with grim satisfaction, "but one similar to those given to
+ambassadors!"
+
+Here, also, he unwittingly incurred the enmity of the pianist Himmel.
+The latter had begged Beethoven for an improvisation, with which request
+our musician complied, and then asked Himmel to favour him in return.
+Nothing loath, Himmel seated himself at the pianoforte and began a
+succession of smooth running passages and arpeggios, skilfully linked
+together. Beethoven listened for a while in silence, imagining this to
+be the prelude, but as it seemed to "go on for ever," he said with some
+impatience, "Pray do begin now!" Himmel, however had already exhausted
+his imagination and finished his (_quasi_) improvisation.
+
+No better fate awaited others who opposed themselves to Beethoven as
+improvisatori, not excepting the celebrated pianists Woelfl and
+Steibelt. That the former could ever have been seriously regarded as
+the rival of Beethoven is scarcely credible to us. Such was the case,
+however, and as with Gluck and Picini in Paris, and Handel and
+Buononcini in London (connected with which Swift's well-known
+_jeu-d'esprit_ will occur to every amateur), so it was with Beethoven
+and Woelfl in Vienna. Each had his allies, and party spirit ran so high
+that Beethoven, although devoid of any feeling of rivalry, accepted a
+challenge to improvise. The meeting took place at the villa of Baron von
+Wetzlar, Woelfl's patron; the pianofortes were placed side by side, and
+the two artists played and improvised by turns.
+
+Inspired by the ardour of contest, each seemed to surpass himself; never
+had Woelfl's technical skill seemed greater; never had the wealth of
+Beethoven's ideas shone out more resplendently. Some of Woelfl's
+stoutest adherents contended that he had gained the day in a technical
+point of view, and this may, perhaps, have been the case, since his
+immense hand, which enabled him to grasp tenths with the same ease as
+octaves, undoubtedly gave him an advantage. His sonata, "Non plus
+ultra," gives us an idea of his execution.
+
+Beethoven, on the other hand, never cared to make a display of mere dash
+and brilliancy; technicalities were always subordinated by him to idea
+and feeling.
+
+The gift of improvisation must have been his to an extent unparalleled
+either before or since. His wealth of idea, certainty of form, and
+poetry of expression, combined to produce an effect very different from
+that achieved by ordinary extempore players, who in general, as we have
+seen in the case of Himmel, mistook the art of preluding for that of
+improvising. Only one conversant with that language of music to which
+Beethoven often alluded, could venture, without preparation, to speak to
+any purpose in it.
+
+A circumstance that contributed to his success was his _power of
+abstraction_, which, in common with all deep thinkers, he possessed in a
+remarkable degree. With the first few bars of the given Thema, the scene
+before his eyes, the daylight, the bystanders, all vanished; and
+Beethoven was as fully immersed in the solitude of his own thoughts as
+though he had been suddenly transported to some desert island, with
+penguins and sea-gulls for listeners.
+
+Ries gives a curious instance of this utter disregard of all outward
+things, in the story of the great master's commencing one day, while
+giving him a lesson, to play with the left hand the first fugue from
+Graun's "Tod Jesu." Gradually the right hand was added, and regardless
+of his awkward position, the fugue developed in all conceivable manners
+for the space of half an hour, when he suddenly awoke to discover that
+his pupil was still in his place before the pianoforte.
+
+In 1800 a more formidable rival appeared at Vienna in the person of
+Steibelt. Having conceived a great idea of his own powers from the
+flattery of his Parisian admirers, Steibelt came to the capital sure of
+conquest, and did not even consider it necessary to visit the opponent
+so far beneath him. They met accidentally at the house of Count Fries,
+"where," says Ferdinand Ries, "Beethoven played for the first time[15]
+his Trio in B flat major for piano; clarionet, and 'cello, Op. 11, in
+which there is not much room for display. Steibelt heard it with a kind
+of condescension, paid Beethoven several compliments, and believed
+himself sure of victory. He played a quintet of his own composition, and
+then improvised, and produced a great sensation by his free use of
+_tremolo_, which was at that time something quite new. To ask Beethoven
+to play again was not to be thought of. Eight days after there was again
+a concert at Count Fries'. Steibelt played another quintet with great
+success; he had besides, as might be easily perceived, _studied_ a
+brilliant improvisation, and chosen for a subject the theme on which the
+finale of Beethoven's trio was built. This disgusted the admirers of
+Beethoven, and displeased the latter also. It was his turn to seat
+himself at the pianoforte and to improvises. He placed himself at the
+instrument with his ordinary air--I might say, rather ill-humouredly,
+and as if pushed there. In passing, he seized the violoncello part of
+Steibelt's quintet, placed it upside down on the desk (was this
+designedly?), and drummed out with one finger the theme of the first few
+bars.
+
+"Then, impelled by his insulted and excited feelings, he improvised in
+such a manner that Steibelt quitted the room before Beethoven had
+ceased. He would never meet him again, and, when invited anywhere,
+always stipulated that Beethoven should not be present."
+
+But enough of such anecdotes! Triumphs which would have been glory to
+others were nothing to him. Let us pass on and see the master in the
+great struggle which prefaced the real commencement of life's work, and
+was continued without intermission until the victory was won.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 14: Marx, vol. i., p. 66.]
+
+[Footnote 15: This is evidently an error. The Trio had been published in
+1798.--Thayer, Vol. II., p. 101.]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+CONFLICT.
+
+    Deafness and its Consequences--His Brothers' Influence--Letters to
+    Wegeler--"Mount of Olives"--Beethoven's Will--Beethoven as an
+    Instructor--a Conductor--Sinfonia Eroica--"Leonora"
+    ("Fidelio")--"Adelaide."
+
+
+Suffering and genius! apparently so far apart, in reality so near!
+
+The bitter cry of Milton,--
+
+    "Dark, dark, dark, amidst the blaze of noon!"
+
+has gone up from many a thousand hearts to the eternal throne; but who
+may presume to fathom the dispensations of a mysterious providence? or
+to question that wisdom which gives to every earthborn soul the
+necessary discipline for immortality? Let us rather wonder and adore,
+and--
+
+    "Know how sublime a thing it is
+    To suffer and _be strong_."
+
+We left our young musician in the full flush of success, in apparently
+vigorous health, caressed and flattered by princes, without a rival as
+a virtuoso, and fast leaving all competitors behind him as a composer,
+when suddenly a cloud appears, the brightness is overcast, and darkness
+comes on apace. _Beethoven became deaf._
+
+For three years he had had premonitory fears, which were too sadly
+realized in the year 1801.
+
+The loss of hearing is deprivation enough in ordinary cases; but to a
+young man of excitable artist temperament, and a musician! it seemed for
+a while worse than the loss of life itself. Our Beethoven writes thus to
+Wegeler:--
+
+"If I had not read somewhere that man must not of his own free will
+depart this life, I should long ere this have been no more, and that
+through my own act."
+
+From this despair he was mercifully rescued. The strong, secret voice
+within, impelling Beethoven onwards and upwards to that aim which he
+"felt, but could not describe," spoke now in more stirring accents and
+with more thrilling emphasis amid the profound silence and desolation of
+his nature.
+
+He "was not disobedient" to the heavenly call; the triumph of mind was
+achieved; and from the dark prison-house the noblest strains the world
+has ever heard escaped to wake responsive echoes in the hearts of all
+who have felt and suffered.
+
+But this victory was not gained without leaving behind it evident tokens
+of the struggle; distrust, suspicion, irritability, those constant
+attendants on deafness, haunted Beethoven day and night, poisoning his
+happiness, and casting their shadow over his childlike, benevolent
+disposition. Stephan Breuning writes thus of the alteration in his
+friend in a letter dated the 13th of November, 1806:--"You cannot
+realize the indescribable impression made upon Beethoven by the loss of
+his hearing. Imagine, with his excitable temperament, the feeling of
+unhappiness, added to reserve, distrust of his best friends, and
+indecision in many things. In general, intercourse with him is a
+positive exertion, in which it is impossible to feel entirely at one's
+ease; the occasions on which his old true nature shows itself are few
+indeed."
+
+Schindler, also his friend and biographer, describes him as being "like
+a child, devoid of all experience, suddenly cast upon this earth from
+some ideal world; like a ball, tossed from one hand to another;
+consequently, at the mercy of other people. And," he adds, "_so
+Beethoven remained throughout his whole life_."
+
+These evils were increased by the presence of his brothers, Carl and
+Johann (the "evil principles" of his life, as Schindler calls them), who
+now began to exercise an almost unlimited influence over him. These men
+seem to have been totally incapable of appreciating the true character
+or work of Ludwig; they only saw that he was making money rapidly (and,
+as they thought, easily), and determined to take advantage of it. To
+this end they resolved to obtain entire possession of him, and began by
+endeavouring to alienate as far as possible Beethoven's friends,
+misrepresenting to him all that occurred, and fanning every little spark
+of anger into a flame.
+
+Their efforts partially succeeded; our unhappy composer, absorbed in his
+own creations, overwhelmed by his misfortune, and intensely irritable,
+was but too ready to believe all the world in league against him, and
+would have shut the door against his best friends. Prince Lichnowski
+alone had still some weight with him, and when once persuaded that he
+had acted unjustly, nothing could exceed Beethoven's contrition and
+desire to make amends to those he had wounded.
+
+But he would never lay any blame upon his brothers, and even when their
+duplicity and falseness had been clearly pointed out to him, he would
+still continue to defend them strenuously, refusing to look upon their
+conduct in any but the most favourable light, and adding, "After all,
+they are my brothers."
+
+It may easily be believed how, with dispositions such as those of Carl
+and Johann, this mistaken lenity and brotherly feeling confirmed them in
+their course. It was they who generally made all arrangements with the
+music publishers, and through their instrumentality many minor pieces
+were given to the world which the composer had produced in Bonn, and
+kept back from publication as unworthy of his name.
+
+Such a consideration, however, had no weight with the two; money they
+wanted, and were resolved to get at all hazards. Once only did Beethoven
+come into collision with them regarding this, when he discovered that
+Carl had, without his knowledge, sold a copyright which had been
+promised to another person.
+
+Carl held a situation in the National Bank of Austria, and Johann had
+been established by Beethoven as an apothecary. In a very short time,
+however, the latter became so wealthy (how?) as to be able to exchange
+the pestle and mortar for the state of a country gentleman. Of this he
+was so immoderately proud, that one New Year's day he sent in to his
+brother a card, on which was written,--
+
+    "Johann van Beethoven, Land Proprietor."
+
+The composer, who was at table when it was brought to him, laughed
+heartily, and writing on the other side,--
+
+    "Ludwig van Beethoven, Brain Proprietor,"
+
+sent it back to him.
+
+The following letters to Wegeler display, more fully than we can
+describe, Beethoven's condition during the first few years of his
+calamity:--
+
+    "_Vienna, 29th June_, (1801.)
+
+    "MY DEAR GOOD WEGELER,--How much I thank you for your remembrance of
+    me! I have deserved it, and sought to deserve it, so little; and yet
+    you are so good, and will not allow yourself to be discouraged even
+    by my unpardonable neglect--you are always the same true, good,
+    worthy friend. That I could ever forget you or yours, who were once
+    so dear and precious to me, do not believe; there are moments in
+    which I long for you, and wish that it were in my power to spend
+    some time with you. My fatherland, the lovely spot in which I first
+    saw the light, is as distinct and beautiful before my eyes now as
+    when I first left you. In short, I shall consider it one of the
+    happiest events of my life when I am able to see you, and to greet
+    our Father Rhine again. When this will be I cannot positively say.
+    So much I will tell you--you shall not see me again until I have
+    become really great--not as an artist only, but a better and more
+    perfect man: and if the prosperity of my country be once more
+    re-established, my art shall be devoted solely to the relief of the
+    poor. Oh blissful moment! how happy do I consider myself in being
+    able to procure thee--to create thee!
+
+    "You want to know something about my position? Well, after all it is
+    not so bad. Lichnowski is still, and always has been, my warmest
+    friend, however incredible it may appear to you. (Of course there
+    were little misunderstandings between us; but did they not serve
+    rather to cement our friendship?) Since last year he has settled on
+    me a pension of six hundred guldens, which I am to draw until I find
+    an appointment suited to me. I make a great deal by my compositions;
+    indeed, I may say that there are more demands upon me than I can
+    execute. For every one of my works I have at least six or seven
+    publishers, and could have more if I wished. They do not drive
+    bargains with me now: I demand, and they pay. You see this is a
+    very good thing. If, for instance, I see a friend in difficulty, and
+    am not in funds to help him immediately, I have only to sit down and
+    write, and in a short time he is relieved. I am also more economical
+    than I used to be. If I remain here permanently, I shall certainly
+    contrive to reserve one day in every year for a grand concert, of
+    which I have already given several. That malicious demon, bad
+    health, has cast a stumblingblock in my path--for the last three
+    years my hearing has gradually become weaker. The original cause of
+    this defect is the state of my digestive organs, which, as you know,
+    was formerly bad enough, but has now become much worse, for I have
+    been constantly troubled with diarrhoea, which has induced extreme
+    weakness. Frank tried to restore the tone to my constitution by
+    strengthening medicines, and to my hearing by oil of almonds, but
+    _prosit!_ with no good effect; my hearing grew worse, and my
+    digestion remained in the same state. This lasted till the autumn of
+    last year, and I was often in despair. Then one medical _asinus_
+    recommended cold bathing for my complaint; another, a little more
+    sensible, the ordinary tepid Danube bath. This worked wonders; my
+    digestion became better, but my deafness continued as bad as ever,
+    or grew worse. Last winter I was truly miserable, suffering so
+    dreadfully from colic that I fell completely back again into my
+    former state, in which I continued till about four weeks ago, when I
+    went to consult Vering;[16] partly because I think my complaint
+    requires surgical treatment, and partly also because I have always
+    had confidence in him. He succeeded in almost entirely arresting the
+    violent diarrhoea. He ordered me the tepid Danube bath, into which
+    I pour every time a phial of some strengthening mixture; but he gave
+    me no medicine at all, except four days ago some digestive pills and
+    a lotion for the ears. I must say I find myself much stronger and
+    better for this treatment, but the buzzing and ringing in my ears
+    continues day and night.
+
+    "I may say that I pass my life wretchedly; for nearly two years I
+    have avoided all society, because I cannot possibly say to people,
+    '_I am deaf!_' If I were in any other profession it would not so
+    much signify, but for a musician it is a really frightful condition.
+    Besides, what would my enemies say to it?--and they are not few!
+
+    "To give you an idea of this extraordinary deafness, I must tell you
+    that in the theatre I am obliged to lean forward quite close to the
+    orchestra in order to understand the actors. The high tones of the
+    instruments and voices I do not hear if I am a little way off. In
+    conversation it is surprising that there are some people who do not
+    observe it--they attribute it to the absent fits which I often have.
+    Many a time I can with difficulty distinguish the tones, but not the
+    words, of any person who speaks in a low voice; and yet, directly
+    any one begins to shout, it is unendurable to me. What is to be the
+    result of all this, the good God alone knows. Vering says that my
+    condition will certainly improve, though I may not be perfectly
+    restored. I have often already--cursed my existence. Plutarch has
+    led me to resignation. I am resolved, if possible, to defy my fate,
+    although there should be moments in my life when I shall be the most
+    unhappy of all God's creatures.
+
+    "I beg of you not to mention my state to any one, not even to
+    Lorchen;[17] I only confide it as a secret to you. I should like
+    much if you would correspond some day with Vering about it. Should
+    my affliction continue, I shall come next spring to you. You shall
+    hire a house for me in some lovely spot in the country, and there I
+    shall become a peasant for six months. Perhaps that might bring
+    about a change. Resignation! what a miserable refuge! and yet the
+    only one left to me!
+
+    "You must forgive me for adding the burden of these friendly cares
+    to your troubles, already gloomy enough. Steffen Breuning[18] is now
+    here, and we are almost every day together; it does me so much good
+    to call up the old feelings. He has become really a capital fellow,
+    who knows something, and has his heart pretty much in the right
+    place, like us all.
+
+    "I have very pleasant rooms now close to the Ramparts,[19] which is
+    doubly advantageous for my health. I think I shall be able to manage
+    so that Breuning may come to me.
+
+    "Your Antiochus[20] you shall have, together with plenty of music
+    from me,--that is, if you do not fear its costing you too much.
+    Honestly, your love of art rejoices me greatly. Only let me know how
+    to set about it, and I shall send you all my works, which now amount
+    to a pretty number, and are daily added to.
+
+    "Instead of the portrait of my grandfather (which I beg you to send
+    me as soon as possible with the mail), I send you that of his
+    grandson, your ever loving and affectionate Beethoven. It has been
+    brought out here by Artaria, who, as well as other publishers, has
+    often begged me for it. I shall write next to Stoffeln[21], and read
+    him a lecture about his peevish temper. I shall sound our old
+    friendship well in his ears, and get him to promise sacredly not to
+    annoy you again in your present sad position.
+
+    "Never have I forgotten one of you, my dear, good friends, although
+    I may not have written often to you; but writing, as you know, was
+    never my _forte_; even my best friends have not heard from me for
+    years. I live only in my music; and, no sooner is one thing
+    completed, than another is begun. In fact, as at present, I am often
+    engaged on three or four compositions at one time.
+
+    "Write me now frequently; I shall make a point of finding time to
+    write you occasionally. Give my kind regards to all, especially to
+    the good Frau Hofraethin[22], and tell her that even now I sometimes
+    have a 'raptus.'
+
+    "With regard to K----, I am not at all surprised at the change.
+    Fortune rolls on like a ball; and naturally, therefore, does not
+    always stop at what is noblest and best. One word for Ries,[23] to
+    whom remember me cordially. With regard to his son,[24] I shall
+    write you more particularly, but I believe that Paris offers a
+    better field for his exertions than Vienna, which is so overstocked
+    that even people of the greatest merit find it a hard matter to
+    maintain themselves. By autumn or winter I shall see what I can do
+    for him, for then everybody will have returned to town.
+
+    "Farewell, my good, faithful Wegeler. Rest assured of the love and
+    friendship of your
+
+    "BEETHOVEN."
+
+
+    _Vienna, November, 16th, 1801._
+
+    "MY DEAR WEGELER,--For this fresh proof of your solicitude about me,
+    I must thank you the more, that I deserve it so little. You want to
+    know how I am progressing, and what remedies I use; however
+    unwilling I am in general to refer to this subject, I do so with the
+    least reluctance to you.
+
+    "For several months past, Vering has ordered me to apply blisters
+    constantly to both arms, made of a certain kind of bark, which you
+    doubtless know. This is a most disagreeable remedy, inasmuch as
+    (without taking the pain into consideration) I am deprived of the
+    free use of my arms for a few days, until the blisters have drawn
+    sufficiently. It is true, and I cannot deny it, that the buzzing and
+    ringing are somewhat less than formerly, especially in the left ear,
+    that in which my malady first commenced--but my hearing is certainly
+    not a whit better. I dare not say positively that it has not rather
+    grown worse.
+
+    "My digestion is better, especially after using the tepid baths,
+    when I feel tolerably well for eight or ten days. Tonics I very
+    seldom take, but follow your advice now with regard to the
+    herb-plasters. Plunge baths Vering will not hear of. On the whole, I
+    am not at all pleased with him; he has far too little solicitude or
+    indulgence for a malady such as mine; if I did not go to him, and
+    this I cannot do without great difficulty, I should never see him.
+    What do you think of Schmidt?[25] I am unwilling to make a change,
+    but it seems to me that Vering is too much of a practitioner to gain
+    fresh ideas by reading. With regard to this, Schmidt appears a very
+    different sort of man, and might also, perhaps, not be quite so
+    negligent of my case.
+
+    "I hear wonders of galvanism--what say you to it? A medical man told
+    me that he had known a deaf and dumb child whose hearing was fully
+    restored by it (in Berlin), and also a man who, after having been
+    deaf for seven years, recovered his hearing. They tell me that your
+    friend Schmidt is making experiments on the subject.
+
+    "I lead a somewhat more agreeable life now that I mingle more with
+    other people. You can hardly realize what a miserable, desolate life
+    mine has been for the last two years. Like a ghost did my deafness
+    haunt me everywhere, till I fled society, and must have appeared a
+    misanthrope--yet this is so little my character.
+
+    "This change has been brought about by a lovely and fascinating
+    girl,[26] who loves me, and whom I love. After the lapse of two
+    years I have again enjoyed some blissful moments, and now for the
+    first time I feel that marriage can bestow happiness; but, alas! she
+    is not in the same rank of life as myself; and at present, certainly
+    I could not marry: I must first bestir myself actively. Were it not
+    for my deafness, I would long ago have travelled half round the
+    world, and I must do it yet. For me there is no greater pleasure
+    than to follow and promote my art. Do not believe that I could be
+    happy with you. What would there be, indeed, to make me happier?
+    Even your solicitude would pain me; every moment I should read
+    sympathy on your faces, and should find myself only the more
+    wretched.
+
+    "Those lovely scenes of my Fatherland, what part had I in them?
+    Nothing but the hope of a better future, which would have been mine,
+    were it not for this affliction! Oh! once free from this, I would
+    span the world! My youth, I feel it, is only beginning; have I not
+    always been a sickly creature? For some time past my bodily strength
+    has been increasing more than ever, and my mental power as well.
+    Every day I approach nearer the goal which I feel, but cannot
+    describe. Only in this can your Beethoven live. No rest for me! I
+    know of none other than Sleep, and sorry enough I am to be obliged
+    to give up more time to it than formerly. Let me be only half
+    delivered from this malady, and then--a more perfect, mature man--I
+    shall come to you, and renew the old feelings of friendship.
+
+    "You shall see me as happy as I am destined to be here below,--not
+    unhappy. No, that I could not bear. I will grasp Fate by the throat,
+    it shall not utterly crush me. Oh! it is so glorious to live one's
+    life a thousand times! For a quiet life, I feel it, I am no longer
+    made.
+
+    "Pray do write me as soon as possible. Persuade Steffen to decide
+    upon seeking an appointment somewhere from the Teutonic Order.[27]
+    His position here is too fatiguing for his health, and besides, he
+    leads such an isolated life, that I do not see how he is ever to get
+    on. You know how things are here. I will not positively say that
+    society would lessen his depression, but we cannot persuade him to
+    join in it at all. A short time ago I had some music in my house,
+    but our friend Steffen stayed away. Advise him to be more calm and
+    composed. I have already tried all my powers on him,--without this
+    he can never be either happy or in good health. Tell me in your next
+    letter if there is any objection to my sending you my music, even
+    though there should be a quantity of it. What you don't require, you
+    can sell, and thus get back what you paid for carriage,--and my
+    portrait into the bargain.
+
+    "Say all that is kind and obliging to Lorchen, as well as to her
+    mamma and Christoph. Have you still a little love for me? Be
+    convinced of the love as well as of the friendship of
+
+    "Your
+    BEETHOVEN."
+
+The year 1800 found Beethoven already busy with his "Mount of Olives,"
+which, however, was not produced till 1803. This, the master's first and
+last attempt at oratorio writing, "is a striking instance of the
+insufficiency of even the highest powers to accomplish that to which the
+special call has not been given. It was impossible for Beethoven to feel
+himself so inspired by his task as the composer of a time when the mind
+of the people was almost exclusively occupied by religious convictions;
+the man of the revolutionary period could not see or think out a Christ
+like that of Bach and Handel before him. Even the pure spring, out of
+which we Protestants of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries draw
+our ideas of Christ--the Bible--flowed not for him; his Christ must
+first be poetically made for him. And how? The poet had no other aim but
+that of making verses for a composer; the latter no other motive than
+the ordinary creative impulse prompting him to try his powers in a
+different and important sphere. The result on both sides could not,
+therefore, be other than _Phrases_, although the better of the two
+proceeded from the composer, and that composer was Beethoven. To conceal
+or palliate this would be derogatory to the reverence which we all owe
+to Beethoven,--he stands too high to be in need of extenuation."
+
+So far Marx; but in addition to the miserable libretto (which imparted
+unreality, artificiality, to the whole work, and especially gave to the
+part of the Saviour a theatrical air which Beethoven afterwards
+deplored) many peculiarities of the oratorio--with all deference to the
+able critic just quoted--may be traced to the period in which it was
+composed. The very choice of subject reveals the convulsion that was
+taking place in Beethoven's _volcanic_ nature. It is a question whether
+Beethoven would ever have asserted his sovereignty in this branch of
+composition; it may be, as Marx hints, that the peculiar tone of thought
+and feeling necessary to the successful treatment of sacred subjects was
+wanting in him; but there can be no doubt that had the master's
+attention been devoted to the subject in happier days, when his
+tempest-tossed natures had attained to some degree of peace and
+serenity, the result would have been very different. Let him who would
+see Beethoven as a _devotional_ writer, turn to his Gellert songs, which
+breathe the very depths of true religious feeling.
+
+The greater part of the oratorio, and also of "Fidelio," was composed at
+Hetzendorf, a pretty little village near the imperial summer palace of
+Schoenbrunn. Here Beethoven passed several summers in the greatest
+retirement--wandering all day long, from early dawn to nightfall, amid
+the leafy glades of the park. His favourite seat was between two immense
+boughs of an old oak, which branched out from the parent stem about two
+feet from the ground. This memorable tree, endeared to Beethoven as the
+birthplace of many a thought, was afterwards visited by him, in
+Schindler's company, in 1823.
+
+In 1802 a gleam of hope dawned upon the sufferer; his deafness was for a
+time cured by the skilful treatment of Dr. Schmidt (to whom, out of
+gratitude, he dedicated his Septet arranged as a Trio), by whose advice
+he went for the summer to the village of Heiligenstadt, in the hope that
+the calm, sweet influence of nature, to which he was at all times most
+sensitive, might act beneficially upon his troubled mind.
+
+This spot--this _consecrated town_--must always be an object of
+veneration to those who cherish the name of Beethoven, for here it was
+that he wrote his remarkable will, or promemoria, a document which
+excites our warmest sympathy, revealing, as it does, the depths of that
+great heart.
+
+    "TO MY BROTHERS, CARL AND ---- BEETHOVEN.[28]--O ye who consider or
+    represent me as unfriendly, morose, and misanthropical, how unjust are
+    you to me! you know not the secret cause of what appears thus to you.
+
+    "My heart and mind have been from childhood given up to the tender
+    feeling of benevolence, and I have ever been disposed to accomplish
+    something great. But only consider that for six years I have been
+    afflicted by a wretched calamity, which was aggravated by unskilful
+    physicians--deceived from year to year by the hope of amendment--now
+    forced, at length, to the contemplation of a _lingering disease_ (the
+    cure of which will, perhaps, last for years, if indeed it be not an
+    impossibility).
+
+    "Born with a passionate, lively temperament, keenly susceptible to the
+    pleasures of society, I was obliged at an early age to isolate myself,
+    and to pass my life in loneliness.
+
+    "When I at times endeavoured to surmount all this, oh, how rudely
+    was I thrust back again by the experience--the doubly painful
+    experience--of my defective hearing! and yet it was impossible for me
+    to say to people, Speak louder, shout; for I am deaf! Alas! how could
+    I proclaim the weakness of a sense which ought to have been with me in
+    a higher degree than with others--a sense which I once possessed in
+    the greatest perfection--and to an extent which few of my profession
+    enjoy, or ever have enjoyed! Oh, this I cannot do! Forgive me,
+    therefore, when you see me turn away where I would gladly mingle with
+    you. My misfortune is doubly painful to me, inasmuch as it causes me
+    to be misunderstood. For me there can be no relaxation in human
+    society, no refined conversations, no mutual outpourings of thought.
+    Like an exile must I live. Whenever I come near strangers, I am seized
+    with a feverish anxiety from my dread of being exposed to the risk of
+    betraying my condition.
+
+    "Thus it has been with me during these last six months which I have
+    spent in the country. The orders of my sensible physician, to spare my
+    hearing as much as possible, were quite in accordance with my present
+    disposition; although often, overcome by my longing for society, I
+    have been tempted into it. But what humiliation, when any one by my
+    side heard from afar a flute, and I heard _nothing_, or when any one
+    heard _the shepherd singing_, and I again heard _nothing_!
+
+    "Such occurrences brought me nigh to despair; but little was
+    wanting, and I should myself have put an end to my existence.
+    _Art_--art alone--held me back! Ah! it seemed impossible for me to
+    quit the world before I had done all that I felt myself destined to
+    accomplish. And so I prolonged this miserable life; a life so truly
+    wretched that a sudden change is sufficient to throw me from the
+    happiest condition into the worst.
+
+    "_Patience!_ it would seem that I must now choose her for my guide! I
+    have done so. I trust that my resolve to persevere will remain firm,
+    until it shall please the inexorable Fates to cut the thread of life.
+    Perhaps I may get better; perhaps not. I am prepared. Compelled to be
+    a philosopher in my twenty-eighth year![29] This is not easy--for the
+    artist harder than for any one else. O God! Thou lookest down upon my
+    heart, Thou seest that love to man and beneficent feelings have their
+    abode in it!
+
+    "O ye who may one day read this, reflect that you did me injustice,
+    and let the unhappy be consoled by finding one like himself, who, in
+    defiance of all natural obstacles, has done all that lay in his power
+    to be received into the ranks of worthy artists and men.
+
+    "My brothers, Carl and----, as soon as I am dead, if Professor Schmidt
+    be still alive, beg him in my name to describe my disease, and then
+    add these pages to the history of my malady, that at least, so far as
+    possible, the world may be reconciled to me after my death.
+
+     "I also hereby declare you both heirs of my little fortune (if so it
+    may be called). Divide it honestly, bear with and help one another.
+    What you did against me I have, as you know, long since forgiven. I
+    thank you in particular, brother Carl, for the attachment which you
+    have shown me of late. My wish is, that your life may be happier, and
+    more free from care, than mine has been. Recommend _Virtue_ to your
+    children; it is she alone, and not money, that can confer happiness. I
+    speak from experience; for it was Virtue who raised me when in
+    distress. I have to thank her, in addition to my art, that I did not
+    put an end to my life through suicide. Farewell, and love one another!
+    I thank all my friends, especially Prince Lichnowski and Professor
+    Schmidt. I should like the instruments of Prince L. to be preserved by
+    one of you; but let no dispute arise between you on this account. As
+    soon as you perceive that it will be more to your advantage, you have
+    only to sell them. How shall I rejoice, if even in the grave I can
+    serve you!
+
+    "Thus has it happened:--with joy I hasten to meet Death. Should he
+    come before I have had opportunity to develop all my artistic powers,
+    he will have come too soon, notwithstanding my hard fate, and I shall
+    wish that he had tarried a little longer; but even then I shall be
+    content, for he will set me free from a state of endless suffering.
+    Come when thou wilt--I go courageously to meet thee!
+
+    "Farewell, and do not quite forget me even in death. I have deserved
+    this of you, since in my life I often thought of you, and wished to
+    make you happy.
+
+    "So be it!
+
+    "LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN."
+
+    _Heiligenstadt, 6th October, 1802._"
+
+
+    "_Heiligenstadt, 10th October, 1802._
+
+"Thus I bid farewell to thee, mournfully enough. Even the dearest hope
+that I brought hither with me, the hope of being to a certain degree
+restored, has utterly forsaken me. As the leaves of autumn fall and
+wither, so has my hope faded. Almost as I came do I depart; even the
+lofty courage which inspired me during the lovely days of summer has
+vanished. Oh, Providence! vouchsafe to me one more day of pure
+happiness! The responsive echo of pure joy has been so long a stranger
+to my heart. When, when, O God! shall I again feel it in the temple of
+nature and man? Never? Ah! that would be too hard!"
+
+(On the outside.)
+
+    "For my brothers Carl and----, to be read and fulfilled after my
+    death."
+
+Several writers have maintained that the consequences of Beethoven's
+deafness are plainly discernible in his compositions; that he lost all
+idea of harmonic relations, that his later works are mere incongruous,
+erratic fancies, devoid of form and melody, and, in short, compared to
+his former productions, what the second part of "Faust" is to the first.
+
+Happily, such ideas--promulgated by theorists of the old school like
+Fetis, and dilettanti of the Mozart-Italian school like
+Oulibicheff--have now exploded, and the service rendered to Art by
+Beethoven's latest works--especially his pianoforte sonatas--is fully
+recognised. It is these which have brought the pianoforte to its
+present eminence as the most intellectual and ideal of all instruments,
+and which, by their depth of thought and loftiness of aim, have raised
+an insuperable barrier between the dilettante who trifles with music for
+amusement, and the artist who devotes his life to its cultivation as a
+God-appointed means of developing the divine in man.
+
+At the same time we come upon passages here and there which Beethoven
+would, perhaps, have written otherwise, had his ear, as well as his
+mind, been sensitive to their effect.
+
+It is not posterity that has been the loser by Beethoven's deafness; we,
+at least, ought to appreciate the "precious jewel" which his adversity
+carried within it, and has handed down to us. His contemporaries,
+however, had cause to lament, for in a few years it put a stop to all
+improvising and playing in public. We read, indeed, of a plan for an
+artistic tour with his pupil Ries, when the latter was to make all
+arrangements for concert-giving, and to play the pianoforte Concertos
+and other works, while Beethoven conducted and improvised--but the
+project never came to maturity. It was, in fact, impossible. Beethoven
+entirely lost the sensitiveness of touch which had once distinguished
+his playing from that of all contemporaries; and, in his efforts to
+extract some nourishment for his hungering ear, used to hammer the
+pianoforte so unmercifully as generally to break several strings. Nor
+could it be obviated by a special instrument constructed for himself,
+nor by a sound-conductor invented for him by the ingenious Graff.
+
+A curious feature of his deafness was the gradual manner in which the
+auricular nerve decayed; he first lost the power of catching the higher
+notes of singers or instruments, as we have seen, while deep, low sounds
+were long audible to him; this may account for the prevalence of those
+deep-lying tones in almost all his later works, especially the Second
+Mass and the Ninth Symphony.
+
+As a natural consequence of his affliction, he soon became unable to
+conduct his own orchestral works. This, however, was no great loss, for
+he had never possessed either the self-possession or the experience
+necessary to wield the _baton_ satisfactorily. Knowing thoroughly as he
+did what every instrument had to say, he listened excitedly for each in
+detail--without calmly attending to the effect of the whole; at each
+_crescendo_ he would rise as if about to fly, gesticulating so rapidly
+and energetically that the members of the orchestra (who had enough to
+do to follow such new and peculiar music) were often more bewildered
+than guided by his directions. At the same time be it distinctly
+understood that, however low the performance might fall beneath his
+"ideal," however vexatious the mistakes of individual performers might
+be, he never lost his temper so far as to act in the manner related by
+Ries in his Notices, of which the following is a specimen:--
+
+"Beethoven was present at the first performance of his Fantasia for
+pianoforte, orchestra, and chorus. The clarinettist, in a passage where
+the beautiful subject of the finale has already entered, made by mistake
+a repetition of eight bars. As very few instruments are heard at this
+point, the error in the execution was torturing to the ear. Beethoven
+rose furiously, turned round, and insulted the musicians in the grossest
+manner, and so loudly that it was heard by the whole audience. Then,
+resuming his seat, he exclaimed, "From the beginning!" The movement was
+recommenced, and this time all went well, and the success was brilliant.
+But when the concert was over, the artists recollected only too well the
+honourable titles by which Beethoven had publicly addressed them; and,
+as if the matter had but that moment occurred, became excessively angry,
+and vowed never to play again when Beethoven was in the orchestra, &c.,
+&c."
+
+That the clarinettist did make a mistake is true, but that Beethoven
+behaved in the outrageous way described was most positively denied by
+all who were present on the occasion, including the conductor, Franz
+Clement. Where Ries got the story from is difficult to imagine, since he
+was himself in St. Petersburg at the time. On the contrary, the members
+of the orchestra were all on excellent terms with Beethoven, who prized
+their approval far more than that of the general public; and was wont,
+when particularly pleased with a performance, to turn round, his face
+beaming with delight, and exclaim, "Bravi, tutti!" But woe betide those
+who dared to question the effect of the new and somewhat startling
+combinations which he introduced! Ries found this out to his cost. At
+the unexpected entrance of the horn in the Allegro of the Eroica, he--as
+usual, beside his master in the orchestra--exclaimed, "How abominably
+wrong!" for which outburst he was nearly rewarded by a box on the ear.
+
+Pianoforte playing, improvisation, and orchestral conducting were given
+up one after the other--not suddenly, for Beethoven was resolved to defy
+his fate as long as possible,--but henceforth it is with Beethoven the
+composer alone that we have to do.
+
+The autumn of 1802 saw him so far restored as to be able to commence his
+great work on Napoleon, which, however, on account of many
+interruptions, was not finished until the year 1804.
+
+In 1802 he writes thus to his publisher, Hofmeister, who had requested
+him to compose a sonata of a revolutionary tendency:--"Are you riding to
+the devil in a body, gentlemen, that you propose to me to write _such a
+sonata_? At the time of the revolutionary fever it might have done, but
+now, when everything is once more in the beaten track, when Bonaparte
+has signed the Concordat with the Pope--now such a sonata! If it had
+been a _missa pro Sancta Maria a tre voci_, or a _Vesper_, I would
+immediately have taken pen in hand and written in ponderous notes a
+_Credo in unum_,--but, good heavens! such a sonata in these fresh,
+dawning Christian times! Ho! ho! I'll have nothing to do with it!" and
+yet at this very time he must have been busy with a work destined to the
+honour of the great Disturber of the Peace of Europe. The idea for this
+emanated originally from General Bernadotte, the French Ambassador at
+Vienna--a great admirer of the composer,--and was in reality warmly
+entered into by Beethoven, who, with his red-hot Republicanism and love
+for Plato, was an enthusiastic supporter of the First Consul, and
+imagined nothing less than that it was Napoleon's intention to remodel
+France according to the Platonic method, and inaugurate a golden age of
+universal happiness. With the news of the empire came the destruction of
+this elysian prospect,--Beethoven in a fury tore to pieces the
+title-page of his symphony on which was written simply,--
+
+    "BONAPARTE.
+
+    "LUIGI V. BEETHOVEN;"
+
+and stamping it under foot, showered a volley of imprecations on the
+head of the tyrant who had played so false a game.
+
+No persuasion could induce him at first to publish the work, but after
+the lapse of some years this masterpiece of ideal writing was given to
+the world under the title of "Sinfonia Eroica per festegiare il
+sovvenire d'un grand' uomo." Great man as Napoleon had been in
+Beethoven's estimation, he never could think of him otherwise than with
+detestation, till the sudden collapse of the Napoleonic idea in 1815,
+and the death of its promoter in 1821, changed his wrath into a kind of
+grim commiseration, which he showed by remarking that he had "seventeen
+years before composed the music suited to this catastrophe!" meaning
+the Funeral March in the Eroica.
+
+This, the first great manifesto of the Sovereign of the World of Sound,
+was a wonderful advance on the first two symphonies, produced somewhere
+about the years 1800-1802. In these he took up the art where Haydn and
+Mozart had left it; but, "though he could dally and tarry awhile with
+them, he would not remain with them;" his greater earnestness impelled
+him on to realms unknown to them, to conquest compared with which theirs
+faded into comparative insignificance.
+
+In 1805 Ferdinand Ries left Vienna, after having enjoyed Beethoven's
+instruction for five years. He was, in fact, the only one whom Beethoven
+recognised as his pupil (with the exception of the Archduke Rudolph),
+and to him he entrusted the playing of his concertos, &c., for the first
+time, when no longer able to do so himself. The impressions which Ries
+has left in his Notices, of Beethoven as an instructor, are like his
+other statements, somewhat contradictory. In one place he declares that
+during the lessons the master was engaged in composition or some similar
+work at one end of the room, while he was playing at the other, and that
+he seldom sat down by him for half an hour at a time. Again, he says
+that Beethoven took extraordinary pains with him--sometimes extending
+the lesson over two hours, and making him repeat ten times--nay,
+oftener--any passage with which he was not quite satisfied. Probably the
+truth lies between these two extremes. Beethoven, who had no settled
+order in his life, could not be expected to be systematic in tuition;
+hence the impression of desultoriness left upon the mind of the pupil. A
+characteristic anecdote of this period is worth quoting.
+
+"Beethoven," says Ries, "had given me the manuscript of his third
+concerto, that I might appear in public with it for the first time as
+his pupil; Beethoven conducted and turned over the pages for me. I had
+begged him to compose a cadenza for me, but he directed me to write one
+myself. He was satisfied with my composition, and altered little; but
+one brilliant and very difficult passage, which seemed to him too
+hazardous, I was to change. The easier one did not please me, and I
+could not make up my mind to play it in public. The critical moment
+arrived--Beethoven had seated himself quietly--but when I boldly
+attacked the difficult cadence, he gave his chair a violent push. The
+cadenza, however, succeeded, and Beethoven was so delighted that he
+exclaimed, 'Bravo!' which electrified the audience."
+
+In 1805 Beethoven produced his solitary opera, "Leonora" (afterwards
+known as "Fidelio"), amid a series of annoyances and vexations such as
+probably no operatic writer, either before or since, has ever had to
+contend against. What between troubles arising out of the libretto, the
+overture, the singers, the critics, and the theatrical cabals, our poor
+Beethoven was well-nigh driven distracted.
+
+The story on which the opera is founded (originally taken from the
+French, and so well known as to require no repetition here) is almost
+too slight for dramatic purposes, inasmuch as there is but one really
+powerful situation--that of the grave scene--in the entire piece, and
+the whole interest, therefore, is concentrated on the one figure,
+Leonora. What Beethoven has made out of these slender materials; how he
+has depicted, in all its intensity and tenderness, that love which he
+was doomed never to experience, needs no description from us.
+
+What was Beethoven's object in choosing this theme for his labours? Was
+it a foreshadowing of bliss that might be his? or was it the delineation
+of a character which, in its earnestness and purity, should be the
+reverse of that "Don Juan" of Mozart, of which he once said, "The divine
+art ought never to be lowered to the folly of such a scandalous
+subject"?
+
+The little byplay and domestic "asides" cost our soaring Beethoven
+infinitely more trouble than the most impassioned scenas, and he was
+obliged to write the little air of Marcelline, "O, waer' ich schon mit
+Dir vereint," no less than thrice before he could attain the requisite
+lightness.
+
+The composition of the four "Leonora" overtures is without a parallel in
+musical annals. When Beethoven had finished No. 1, in C major, he
+consented to its being first tried over by a small orchestra at Prince
+Lichnowski's, in the presence of a select number of critics and
+connoisseurs, by whom it was condemned as being light and almost flimsy
+in structure, and as affording no clue to the contents of the opera. It
+was therefore withdrawn, and not published till after the composer's
+death.
+
+But may not the light-heartedness which distinguishes this overture have
+been intentional on the part of Beethoven? may he not have wished to
+represent his heroine before the shadow of grief had fallen upon her, in
+the enjoyment of the highest wedded bliss?
+
+Marx takes this view of "Leonora" No. 1, adducing in support of it the
+following extract from one of the manuscript books in which Beethoven
+was accustomed to hold intercourse with his friends:--
+
+"Aristotle, when he speaks of tragedy, says that the hero ought first to
+be represented as living in the greatest happiness and splendour. Thus
+we see him in 'Egmont.' When he is in the enjoyment of felicity, Fate
+comes and throws a noose over his head from which he is not able to
+extricate himself. Courage and Defiance appear upon the scene, and
+boldly look Destiny--aye, and death--in the face. Claerchen's fate
+interests us, like that of Gretchen in 'Faust,' because she was once so
+happy. A tragedy which begins as well as continues gloomily, is
+tedious."
+
+"Leonora" No. 2 was condemned on account of the predominance of the wind
+instruments, and No. 3 ultimately, because the stringed instruments had
+so much to do that precision was out of the question.
+
+When, at length, the composer was satisfied with his creation; when the
+singers (pacified by the friendly intervention of Seyfried) had agreed
+to give the music as it was written; when all difficulties were
+apparently overcome, the unlucky composer's annoyances reached a climax
+in the reception accorded to his work by the public.
+
+With great want of judgment (purposely to annoy him, as Beethoven
+thought) the opera was produced a few days after the French troops had
+entered Vienna; when all his friends and patrons, including Lichnowski,
+had sought refuge at their country seats till the storm had blown over;
+and the theatre was filled with French officers and soldiers, an
+audience utterly incapable of appreciating the master. As might have
+been anticipated, the work was coldly received, and, after three
+representations, withdrawn. In 1806 it met with the same fate, and not
+till 1814 did this, the grandest work of the German school--a work which
+has fought its way to every stage in Europe, and has been brought home
+to every heart by a Malibran, a Schroeder-Devrient, or a
+Tietjens,--obtain a favourable hearing.
+
+During the time the opera was in progress, Beethoven (like Mozart in
+producing his "Seraglio") suffered keenly from the jealousy of some of
+his opponents, and his brothers took care that every barb should find
+its way home to his sensitive mind. Even his friend Stephan Breuning, in
+his great desire to help the composer, aggravated the evil by the very
+warmth of his partisanship,--and thus, by constant dwelling upon them,
+many little slights assumed a disproportionate magnitude, and annoyed
+our poor Beethoven intensely.
+
+But enough of darkness and despondency; life now begins, by one of
+those sudden and apparently inexplicable changes, to wear a rosier hue
+for the composer. Reserving our inquiry into the cause of this, we close
+this chapter with the beautiful letter to the poet Matthison, whose
+"Adelaide" he had set to music some time previously.
+
+    "MOST ESTEEMED FRIEND,--You will receive, together with this, a
+    composition of mine which has already been printed for several
+    years, but of which, to my shame, you perhaps know nothing yet.
+
+    "I may, perhaps, be able to excuse myself, and to explain why I
+    dedicated anything to you, which came so warmly from my heart, and
+    yet did not make you acquainted with it,--by the plea that, at
+    first, I did not know where you resided, and then my diffidence led
+    me to think that I had been somewhat hasty in dedicating anything to
+    you without knowing if it had your approval. And, indeed, even now I
+    send you the 'Adelaide' with some timidity. You yourself know what
+    changes a few years produce in an artist who is constantly
+    progressing; the more one accomplishes in art, the less is one
+    satisfied with former works.
+
+    "My most fervent wish will be realized if you are not altogether
+    dissatisfied with the music to your heavenly 'Adelaide,' and if you
+    are incited by it to compose a similar poem soon, and (should my
+    request not seem too bold) to send it to me forthwith, when I shall
+    put forth all my strength to approach your lovely poetry in merit.
+
+    "Consider the dedication as a mark of my esteem and gratitude for
+    the exquisite pleasure which your poetry has always afforded, and
+    will still afford me.
+
+    "When playing the 'Adelaide,' remember sometimes
+
+    "Your sincere admirer,
+
+    "BEETHOVEN."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 16: Surgeon-in-Chief to the army.]
+
+[Footnote 17: Eleanore von Breuning.]
+
+[Footnote 18: Stephan von Breuning.]
+
+[Footnote 19: Probably in the house of Baron Pasqualati.]
+
+[Footnote 20: A painting by Fueger, Director of the Vienna Academy.]
+
+[Footnote 21: Christoph Breuning.]
+
+[Footnote 22: Madame von Breuning.]
+
+[Footnote 23: Franz Ries, the violinist.]
+
+[Footnote 24: Ferdinand, afterwards Beethoven's pupil.]
+
+[Footnote 25: Professor of Medicine at the Academie Josephine, and
+author of several works.]
+
+[Footnote 26: Undoubtedly the Countess Julia Guicciardi.]
+
+[Footnote 27: The Breuning family had long been in possession of one of
+the most honourable posts in the Teutonic Order, four members had
+successively filled the office of Chancellor, and Stephan himself was
+afterwards appointed to the government of Mergentheim. He was generally
+esteemed, and died a short time after Beethoven.]
+
+[Footnote 28: The omission of the name of Johann van Beethoven from this
+document is somewhat unaccountable. It may have been caused through
+Beethoven's irritation at his conduct. The original of the Promemoria is
+now in the possession of Madame Jenny Lind-Goldschmidt.]
+
+[Footnote 29: Beethoven was at the time in his thirty-second year; but
+he never knew precisely his age.]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+LOVE.
+
+    The Fourth Symphony--Julia Guicciardi--Letters to her--To Bettina
+    Brentano--Beethoven's Attachments--Domestic Troubles--Frau Nanette
+    Streicher--Daily Life--Composing _im Freien_.
+
+    "In love with an Ideal,
+    A creature of his own imagination,
+    A child of air, and echo of his heart;
+    And like a lily on a river floating,
+    She floats upon the river of his thoughts."
+
+
+Whence comes it that after a storm of darkness and gloom--after the
+disappointment of his "Leonora"--the next offspring of the poet's fancy
+should be a symphony (No. 4), the most delicately finished and bright in
+colouring which we possess?
+
+The mystery is not easily solved. Former biographers have at once come
+to the conclusion that this was the period in which Beethoven's love for
+Julia Guicciardi, alluded to in a letter to Wegeler, had reached its
+climax. This hypothesis has, however, been put to flight by the
+discovery of Alexander Thayer that the lady was married to Count
+Gallenberg (afterwards the Keeper of the Archives of the Imperial Opera)
+in 1803--that is, three years before the composition of the work.
+
+Is the B flat major Symphony, after all, as much the exponent of the
+master passion as is, in another way, the C sharp minor Sonata? Or is
+it, with its troubled, gloomy opening, expanding into glorious warmth
+and sunshine, another evidence of Beethoven's resolution to set fate at
+defiance, and to keep at bay the monster Grief which threatened to
+annihilate him? Who can tell? When the traveller, suddenly emerging from
+some mist-hung mountain gorge, steps out upon the rocky platform, he
+beholds in the distance, beneath his delighted gaze, a landscape bathed
+in sunshine; so to the poet's excited fancy there must have been present
+some bright vision, one of those "loftier spirits, who sported with him
+and allotted to him nobler tasks," drawing a veil over the troubled
+Past, and pointing him onwards to a glorious Future.
+
+Let the Reader take which interpretation he will.
+
+We propose briefly to present to him the two sets of letters which show
+us Beethoven in two different aspects as a lover--the first _pur et
+simple_, the second Platonic.
+
+Nothing is known with certainty of Beethoven's "immortal beloved," whose
+name vibrates throughout the Adagio of the Moonlight Sonata. The letters
+to her (of date unknown, written from some baths in Hungary, whither he
+had been ordered for his health) breathe the very intensity of
+passion--a passion at times too deep for words.[30]
+
+    "_Morning, 6th July._
+
+    "My Angel! my All! my Second Self!
+
+    "Only a few words to-day, written with a pencil (with thine). My
+    residence will not be definitely fixed before to-morrow. What a
+    ruinous waste of time!--Why this deep sorrow where Necessity speaks?
+    can our love exist otherwise than by sacrifices, than by our not
+    expecting everything? Canst thou alter the fact that thou art not
+    wholly mine, that I am not wholly thine?--Alas! look into the
+    beauties of Nature, and calm thy mind for what must be endured. Love
+    demands all, and with perfect right, and thus _I feel towards thee_
+    and _thou towards me_, only thou forgettest so easily that I have to
+    live _for myself_ and _for thee_,--were we perfectly united, thou
+    wouldst feel this trial as little as I do.
+
+    "My journey was terrible. I only arrived yesterday at four o'clock
+    in the morning, owing to the want of horses. The driver chose
+    another route, but what a fearful one! At the last station they
+    warned me not to travel by night, and tried to terrify me by a
+    forest, but this only stimulated me, though I was wrong. The
+    carriage broke down on that dreadful road, a mere rough, unmade
+    country lane, and had not my postillions been what they were, I
+    should have been obliged to remain there by the wayside.
+
+    "Esterhazy, on the usual route, had the same fate with eight horses
+    that I had with four, and yet I felt a certain degree of pleasure,
+    as I always do when I overcome anything happily.--Now, in haste,
+    from the outer to the inner man! We shall probably soon see each
+    other again. I cannot communicate to thee to-day the reflections I
+    have been making, during the last few days, on my life--were our
+    hearts ever near to one another, I should make none such. My heart
+    is full of much that I have to say to thee. Ah! there are moments in
+    which I feel that language is absolutely nothing. Take courage!
+    continue to be my true, my only treasure, my All, as I am thine. The
+    gods must send the rest--that which is ordained to be, and shall be
+    for us.
+
+    "Thy faithful
+
+    "LUDWIG."
+
+
+    "_Monday evening, 6th July._
+
+    "Thou grievest--thou--the dearest of all beings!--I have just
+    learned that the letters must be sent off very early. Mondays and
+    Thursdays are the only days on which the post goes to K---.--Thou
+    grievest! Ah! where I am, there thou art with me--with our united
+    efforts I shall attain my object--I shall pass my life with
+    thee--what a life!!! whereas now!!! without thee--persecuted at
+    times by the kindness of others, a kindness which I neither deserve
+    nor wish to deserve. Servility from man to his fellow-creature pains
+    me; and, when I consider myself in relation to the universe, what am
+    I? what is he who is called the greatest? and yet even here is
+    displayed the Divine in man!--I weep when I think that thou wilt
+    probably receive no tidings of me before Saturday. However much thou
+    mayest love me, I love thee more fervently still--never hide thy
+    feelings from me.--Good night! as a patient here I must now go to
+    rest. Ah, God! so near!--so far apart! is not our love a true
+    celestial mansion, enduring as the vault of heaven itself!"
+
+
+    "_7th July._
+
+    "Good morning!
+
+    "Even before I rise my thoughts throng to thee, my immortal beloved,
+    at times with joy, then again mournfully, waiting to hear if fate be
+    favourable to us. I can only live entirely with thee, or not at all.
+    Yes! I am resolved to wander apart from thee until the moment shall
+    arrive when I may fly into thine arms, may feel my home in thee, and
+    send my soul encompassed by thine into the world of spirits. Yes,
+    alas! it must be so! Thou wilt be prepared, for thou knowest my
+    faithfulness. Never can another possess my heart; never, never. Oh
+    God! why must I fly from what is so dear to me?--and yet my life in
+    V---- is, as at present, a sorrowful one. Thy love made me at once
+    the happiest and the most miserable of men. At my age I require a
+    uniformity, an evenness of life; and can this be possible in our
+    relations?--Angel! I have just heard that the post goes out every
+    day; and must stop that thou mayest receive this letter soon.--Be
+    calm; only by calmly viewing our existence can we attain our aim of
+    passing our lives together. Be calm; love
+    me--to-day--yesterday--what longing, what tears for thee--for
+    thee--for thee--my Life! my All! Farewell! Oh! continue to love
+    me--never misjudge the faithful heart of thy lover.
+
+    L.
+
+    "Ever thine,
+
+    "Ever mine,
+
+    "Ever each other's."
+
+
+It was indeed the case that no other love ever did "possess his heart"
+in the same way. This was, if not his first, at least his only _real_
+love. Such letters as these Beethoven wrote to no one else; the contrast
+between them and the three following (addressed to Bettina Brentano,
+afterwards Madame von Arnim) will be at once apparent:--
+
+    "_Vienna, August 11, 1810._
+
+    "DEAREST FRIEND,--Never has there been a more beautiful spring than
+    this year; I say so, and feel it too, because in it I first made
+    your acquaintance. You have yourself seen that in society I am like
+    a fish on the sand, which writhes, and writhes, and cannot get off
+    until some benevolent Galatea throws it back into the mighty ocean.
+    I was, indeed, quite out of my element, dearest friend, and was
+    surprised by you at a time when discouragement had completely
+    mastered me--but how quickly it vanished at your glance! I knew at
+    once that you must be from some other sphere than this absurd world,
+    in which, with the best will, one cannot open one's ears. I am a
+    miserable being, and yet I complain of others!!--But you will
+    forgive me for this with that good heart which looks out of your
+    eyes, and that intelligence which is hidden in your ears,--at least
+    they know how to flatter by the way in which they listen.
+
+    "My ears are, alas! a partition wall through which I cannot easily
+    have any friendly intercourse with men. Otherwise!--perhaps!--I
+    should have felt more assured with you; but I could only understand
+    the full, intelligent glance of your eyes, which has so taken hold
+    of me, that I shall never forget it. Dear friend, dearest
+    girl!--Art! who understands her? with whom can I discuss this great
+    goddess?... How dear to me are the few days in which we chatted
+    together, or, I should say, rather corresponded! I have preserved
+    all the little notes with your witty, charming, most charming
+    answers, and so I have to thank my defective hearing that the best
+    part of those hasty conversations is written down. Since you left I
+    have had vexatious hours--hours of shadow in which I can do nothing.
+    I wandered in the Schoenbrunn Allee for about three hours after you
+    left, but no angel met me who could have taken possession of me as
+    you did, _my Angel_.
+
+    "Pardon, dearest friend, this deviation from the original key, but
+    such intervals I must have as a relief to my heart. So you have
+    written about me to Goethe, have you not? I could bury my head in a
+    sack, so that I might not hear or see anything of all that is going
+    on in the world, because I shall not meet you again, dearest angel,
+    but I shall receive a letter from you soon. Hope sustains me, as she
+    does half the world; through all my life she has been my companion.
+    What would otherwise have become of me?--I send you 'Kennst du das
+    Land,' written with my own hand, as a remembrance of the hour in
+    which I first knew you. I send you also another, which I have
+    composed since I took leave of you; my dearest _Herz_!"
+
+    Herz, mein Herz, was soll das geben,
+      Was bedraenget dich so sehr;
+    Welch ein neues, fremdes Leben,
+      Ich erkenne dich nicht mehr.
+
+    "Answer me at once, dearest friend; write and tell me what is to
+    become of me since my heart has turned such a rebel. Write to your
+    most faithful friend,
+
+    "BEETHOVEN."
+
+
+    "_Vienna, 10th February, 1811._
+
+    "DEAR, BELOVED FRIEND,--I have already had two letters from you, and
+    see from those to Tonie that you still remember me, and even too
+    kindly. Your first letter I carried about with me the whole summer,
+    and it has often made me very happy. Although I do not write to you
+    frequently, and you see nothing at all of me, yet in thought I write
+    you a thousand times a thousand letters. How you must feel in Berlin
+    amongst all the frivolous, worldly rabble, I could imagine, even
+    though you had not written it to me yourself,--mere prating about
+    Art without any results!! The best description of this is to be
+    found in Schiller's poem, 'The River,' in which the Spree
+    speaks.--You are about to be married, dear friend, or are so
+    already, and I have not been able to see you even once previously.
+    May all the felicity with which marriage blesses those who enter
+    into her bonds be poured upon you and your husband! What shall I say
+    to you about myself? I can only exclaim with Johanna, 'Compassionate
+    my fate!' If I am but spared for a few years longer, I will thank
+    Him who embraces all within Himself--the Most High--for this as well
+    as for all other weal and woe.--If you should mention me when
+    writing to Goethe, strive to find all those words which can express
+    to him my deepest reverence and admiration. I am just about to write
+    to him myself regarding 'Egmont,' to which I have composed the
+    music, solely out of love for his poetry, which always makes me
+    happy;--but who can sufficiently thank a Poet, the most precious
+    jewel of a Nation! Now no more, my dear, good friend. I only
+    returned this morning from a _Bacchanale_ where I laughed too
+    heartily, only to weep nearly as much to-day; boisterous joy often
+    drives me violently back upon myself. As to Clemens, many thanks for
+    his courtesy; with regard to the Cantata, the subject is not
+    important enough for us, it is very different in Berlin. As for my
+    affection, the sister has so large a share of it that not much is
+    left for the brother--will he be content with this? Now farewell,
+    dear, dear friend. I imprint a sorrowful kiss upon your forehead,
+    thus impressing, as with a seal, all my thoughts upon it. Write
+    soon, soon, often, to your Brother,
+
+    "BEETHOVEN."
+
+
+    "_Toeplitz, 15th August, 1812._
+
+    "MY MOST DEAR, KIND FRIEND,--Kings and princes may indeed be able to
+    create professors and privy councillors, and to bestow titles and
+    decorations, but great men they cannot make. Spirits that tower
+    above the common herd, these they cannot pretend to make, and
+    therefore they are forced to respect them. When two men like Goethe
+    and myself come together, these grandees must perceive what is
+    accounted great by such as we.
+
+    "On our way home yesterday we met the whole imperial family; we saw
+    them coming in the distance, when Goethe immediately dropped my arm
+    to place himself on one side; and say what I would, I could not get
+    him to advance another step. I pressed my hat down upon my head,
+    buttoned up my great-coat, and made my way with folded arms through
+    the thickest of the throng. Princes and courtiers formed a line,
+    Duke Rudolph took off his hat, the Empress made the first
+    salutation. The great ones of the earth _know me_! To my infinite
+    amusement, I saw the procession file past Goethe, who stood by the
+    side, hat in hand, bending low. I took him to task for it pretty
+    smartly, gave him no quarter, and reproached him with all his sins,
+    especially those against you, dearest friend, for we had just been
+    speaking about you. Heavens! had I been granted a time with you such
+    as _he_ had, I should have produced many more great works! A
+    musician is also a poet, and can feel himself transported by a pair
+    of eyes into a more beautiful world, where nobler spirits sport with
+    him, and impose great tasks upon him. What ideas rushed into my mind
+    when I first saw you in the little observatory during that glorious
+    May shower, which proved so fertilizing to me also! The loveliest
+    themes stole from your glances into my heart,--themes which shall
+    enchant the world when Beethoven can no longer direct. If God grant
+    me a few years more, I must see you again, my dearest friend; the
+    voice which ever upholds the right within me demands it. Spirits can
+    also love one another; I shall ever woo yours; your applause is
+    dearer to me than aught else in the world. I told Goethe my opinion
+    of the effect of applause upon men like us--we must be heard with
+    intelligence by our peers; emotion is very well for women (pardon
+    me), but music ought to strike fire from the souls of men. Ah!
+    dearest child, how long is it since we were both so perfectly agreed
+    upon all points! There is no real good but the possession of a pure,
+    good soul, which we perceive in everything, and before which we have
+    no need to dissemble. _We must be something if we would appear
+    something._ The world must recognise us, it is not always unjust;
+    but this is a light matter to me, for I have a loftier aim.
+
+    "In Vienna I hope for a letter from you; write soon, soon and fully;
+    in eight days I shall be there. The court goes to-morrow; to-day
+    they are to play once more. Goethe has taught the Empress her
+    _role_. His duke and he wished me to play some of my own music, but
+    I refused them both, for they are both in love with Chinese
+    porcelain. A little indulgence is necessary, for understanding
+    seems to have lost the upper hand; but I will not play for such
+    perverse tastes, neither do I choose to be a party to the follies of
+    princes who are for ever committing some such absurdity. Adieu,
+    adieu, dear love; your last letter lay for a whole night next to my
+    heart, and cheered me there. Musicians allow themselves everything.
+    Heavens! how I love you!
+
+    "Your most faithful friend and deaf brother,
+
+    "BEETHOVEN."
+
+
+These letters were first published in Bettina's book, "Ilius Pamphilius
+und die Ambrosia," but the style is so unlike Beethoven's simple mode of
+expression, that it is difficult to discover what the composer really
+wrote to Bettina, and what has been supplied by the latter's rather too
+vivid imagination. The reiterated _dear_, _dearest_, and the _write
+soon_, _soon_, _often_, are very feminine and very _un-Beethovenish_.
+This strange, inexplicable little being, who fascinated not only
+Beethoven, but every one else with whom she came in contact, has also
+published an account of her interviews with Beethoven. This is so highly
+coloured that we may be excused for doubting the perfect truth of the
+recital, especially as we know what a gloss--nay, what falseness--she
+contrived to give to all that related to her intercourse with Goethe.
+She herself tells us, naively enough, that when she showed Beethoven one
+morning her account of what he had said the previous day, he was quite
+surprised, and exclaimed, "Did I really say that? I must have had a
+_raptus_!"
+
+Bettina was, however, of some service to him, as it was doubtless she
+who paved the way to his acquaintance with Goethe, and their meeting in
+1812 at Toeplitz; and her family remained true, warm friends of the
+composer long after the great minister had forgotten his very existence.
+
+Beethoven was most unfortunate in his attachments, the objects of which
+were always of much higher social standing than himself. Constantly
+associating with people of rank and culture, it was natural that to the
+sensitive nature of our poet, the young girl nobly born, with all the
+intuitive, nameless fascinations of the high-bred aristocrat, should
+present a great contrast to the plebeian, every-day graces of the
+_bourgeoise_. Beethoven used to say that he had found more real
+appreciation of his works amongst the nobility than in any other circle,
+and we can hardly wonder at the infatuation with which he stakes all his
+chances of happiness on a love which he knows can never be gratified.
+
+The following little scrap in his handwriting has been preserved:--"Only
+love--yes, only that--has power to give me a happier life. Oh, God! let
+me at length find her--her who destined to be mine, who shall strengthen
+me in virtue!" Schindler imagines that these words have reference to a
+well-known dilettante of great talent, Fraeulein Marie Pachler, whom
+Beethoven admired exceedingly. He never summoned up courage enough to
+propose to her however, and she afterwards married an advocate in Gratz.
+This lady may also be the subject of the allusion in a letter to Ries,
+1816:--"Say all that is kind from me to your wife; I, alas! have none. I
+found only one with whom I could have been happy, and she will probably
+never be mine. But I am not on this account a woman-hater!"
+
+Another love of Beethoven's was the Countess Marie Erdoedy, to whom he
+dedicated the two splendid Trios, Op. 70, but this seems to have been
+entirely a Platonic affection.
+
+Who can exaggerate the immense benefit that a loving, tender wife would
+have been to Beethoven--a wife like Mozart's Constance? The
+consciousness of one ever by his side to whom he might safely confide
+all that wounded or annoyed him, would have more than neutralized the
+chilling, exasperating effects of the calamity that had overtaken him,
+would have been a fresh impetus to great achievements. But fate had
+willed it otherwise.
+
+In nothing was the want of a wife so apparent as in Beethoven's domestic
+_menage_, which certainly was the _non plus ultra_ of discomfort. One
+great cause of this was his habit of frequently changing his abode. He
+had long since left the Lichnowski Palace, his infirmity rendering it
+desirable that he should have a home of his own, but he was extremely
+difficult to please in the choice of a residence. One house he would
+leave because the sun did not shine into his apartment; another because
+the supply of water was deficient (a serious drawback to him, as he was
+accustomed to lave his head and face profusely while composing), and for
+even less cogent reasons he would pack up and leave at an hour's notice,
+so that it soon became a difficult matter to find a suitable abode for
+him. It may easily be imagined that this constant removal was not
+effected without considerable outlay, and so badly did he manage that at
+one time he had no less than four houses on his hands. When all other
+resources failed, he would take refuge in the fourth story of his friend
+Baron Pasqualati's house, which was constantly reserved for him. The
+summer he always spent in the country, generally in a hired lodging. On
+one occasion a suite of apartments in the villa of Baron Pronay had been
+placed at his disposal, and as the house stood in the midst of a superb
+park, it was thought that Beethoven would be fully satisfied. In a few
+days, however, the bird had flown, alleging as his reason that he could
+not endure to listen to the ceremonious salutation with which his host
+accosted him every morning in his ramble--much less to return it!
+
+Oulibischeff's amusing description of our composer's surroundings is
+worth repeating:--
+
+"In his room reigned a confusion, an organized chaos, such as can hardly
+be imagined. Books and music lay on every article of furniture, or were
+heaped up like pyramids in the four corners. A multitude of letters
+which he had received during the week or the month covered the floor
+like a white carpet with red spots. On the window-sill were displayed
+the remains of a succulent breakfast, by the side or on the top of
+proof sheets awaiting correction. There a row of bottles, partly sealed,
+partly empty; further on an _escritoire_, and on it the sketch of a
+quartet; on the pianoforte a flying sheet of note-paper with the embryo
+of a symphony; while to bring so many directly opposite things into
+harmony, everything was united by a thick layer of dust.
+
+"It may easily be imagined that amidst such a _well-arranged whole_, the
+artist had often no small trouble to find what he required. He used to
+complain bitterly about this, and always put the blame on other people's
+shoulders, for he fancied that he was extremely systematic in the way in
+which he kept his things, and used to declare that in the darkest night
+he could find even a pin belonging to him, if people 'would but put
+things back in their proper places'!
+
+"On one occasion an important paper was missing--neither a sketch nor a
+loose sheet, but a thick, clearly copied score from the Mass in D. At
+last it was found; but where, think you? In the kitchen, where it had
+been used to wrap up eatables! More than one _Donnerwetter_! and more
+than one bad egg must have flown at the head of the devoted cook, when
+this was discovered; for Beethoven liked fresh eggs too well to use them
+as missiles.... Once, when he had dismissed his housekeeper, a very good
+orderly person (and soon received into favour again), he resolved to
+make himself independent, and to keep no more servants, since they only
+'worked mischief in the house.' And why should he not wait upon
+himself, and look after the kitchen himself? Could it be more difficult
+to prepare a dinner than to compose a C minor symphony? Charmed with
+this glorious idea, Beethoven hastens to put it into execution. He
+invites some friends to dinner, buys the necessary provisions in the
+market, and carries them home himself; ties on the business-like white
+apron; adjusts the indispensable nightcap on his head; grasps the cook's
+knife, and sets to work. The guests arrive, and find him before the
+fire, whose scorching flame seems to act like the fire of inspiration
+upon him. The patience of the Viennese appetites was put to an unwonted
+trial. At length the dishes were placed on the table, and the host
+proved that it was worth while waiting for him. The soup might have
+challenged the _soupe maigre_ given in charity; the boiled meat,
+scarcely cooked, presupposed in individuals of the human race the
+digestion of an ostrich; the vegetables swam in a sea of fat and water;
+the roast meat, splendidly burned to a cinder, looked as though it had
+found its way down the chimney; in short, nothing was fit to eat. And
+nobody did eat anything except the host, who by word and example
+encouraged his guests to fall to. In vain; Beethoven's
+_chefs-d'oeuvre_ of cookery were not appreciated, and the guests made
+their dinner on bread, fruit, and sweetmeats, adding plenty of wine to
+prevent any bad effects from their enforced abstinence. This remarkable
+feast convinced even the great Maestro that composing and cooking are
+two very different things, and the unjustly deposed cook was speedily
+re-established in her rights."
+
+It was very fortunate for Beethoven that after some years passed in this
+erratic way, a sensible lady-friend at length came to the rescue, and by
+her feminine tact and adroitness, succeeded in persuading him to abandon
+his nomadic habits to some extent, and to mingle a little more in
+society. This was Frau Nanette Streicher, the amiable wife of the
+celebrated instrument maker, and early friend of Schiller. She began by
+putting the wardrobe of the composer to rights (as might be imagined, it
+was in a deplorable plight), and afterwards, in conjunction with her
+husband, hired a respectable house for Beethoven, furnished it suitably,
+and engaged a man (a tailor by trade) and his wife to wait upon him. In
+this quiet haven our tempest-tossed Beethoven came to anchor for a
+while, and might have been seen busy over his pianoforte, or among his
+papers, while his cross-legged knight of the Goose stitched away
+comfortably in the adjoining anteroom.
+
+When fairly domiciled, Beethoven's mode of life was very regular. His
+habit was to rise every morning, winter and summer, at daybreak, when he
+at once proceeded to his desk, where he wrote till about two o'clock
+without any interruption, except the necessary interval for breakfast,
+and--if his ideas did not flow rapidly enough--an occasional run of half
+an hour or longer into the open air. Between two and three he dined,
+after which it was his invariable custom to make the circuit of the
+town twice or three times; and no weather could keep him within
+doors--summer heat or winter frost, thunder, hail, rain, sleet,--nothing
+prevented this afternoon ramble. It was, in fact, his time for
+composition; he never ventured out without his note-book to preserve any
+fugitive thoughts that might flit across his mind, and used laughingly
+to apply to himself Johanna's words, "I dare not come without my
+banner!" Necessarily, therefore, he was a very silent companion, but in
+_one_ sense only, as the whole way he continued humming (or rather
+growling) in a manner peculiar to himself any thema on which he was
+mentally at work. Ries relates that on one occasion when they were
+walking together, Beethoven suddenly exclaimed, "A theme has occurred to
+me!" They hurried onwards in silence, and on arriving at home the master
+went at once to the pianoforte (without even removing his hat), where he
+thundered like an inspired giant for more than an hour, during which the
+beautiful finale to the Sonata Op. 54 (in F major) struggled into
+existence.
+
+Beethoven generally returned from his promenade only when warned by the
+shadows that evening was coming on; then alone in the darkening twilight
+he loved to breathe to his best, his only friend, his _Clavier_,[31] the
+thoughts which met with no response in human sympathy. During the
+evening he very seldom worked, but would smoke his pipe, and play
+occasionally on his viola or violin, both of which must always be
+placed ready for him on the pianoforte.
+
+Our poor deaf Beethoven had, too, his little coterie of sincere and
+attached friends, among whom his real nature could show itself without
+restraint or distrust, and who clung to him through life in spite of the
+unceasing efforts of the two brothers to dislodge them. These
+were--naturally Prince Lichnowski and his brother Count Moritz, who
+cherished a love and admiration for Beethoven which the latter warmly
+reciprocated, dedicating to the Count his Variations, Op. 35, and the
+beautiful Idyl, Op. 90. To these must be added the worthy Baron von
+Zmeskall, a Hungarian State Secretary, to whom the composer addressed
+many a humorous epistle; his old friend Stephan Breuning; the Baron von
+Gleichenstein; his secretary Schindler; and last, but not least, Franz,
+Count von Brunswick, to whom he dedicated the Sonata Appassionata, and
+who had more influence over him than anybody else.
+
+One proceeding Beethoven never omitted, viz., the reading of the evening
+paper. In these stirring times the newspaper was an absolute necessity,
+and our musician would never retire to rest without previously
+ascertaining the state of the political horizon. He used to frequent a
+coffee-house which boasted another means of exit besides the general
+one, and taking up his position in the background, he would steadily
+peruse the _Gazette_ (not a very long task in those days, when "our own"
+correspondents were as yet undreamt of), and as soon as the last word
+of the last page had been scanned, beat a hasty retreat through the
+private door, and wend his solitary way homewards. Ten o'clock rarely
+found him out of bed. Such was his simple, innocent day! It was no mere
+phrase, that declaration of his, "_I live only in my art_,"--it was
+indeed the one connecting link between him and others.
+
+What he produced in suffering and loneliness stirred, like a mighty wind
+among the forest branches, the noblest feelings of a thousand hearts,
+bidding them grapple with Destiny as he had done, and prove themselves
+_men_ and heroes!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 30: In translating these letters we have thought it best to
+keep to the original pronoun,--the simple _thou_ being more suited to
+Beethoven's ideal love than the coarser _you_.]
+
+[Footnote 31: Beethoven could not endure the foreign word _pianoforte_.]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+VICTORY AND SHADOW.
+
+    Period of Greatest Intellectual Activity--Hummel--The Battle of
+    Vittoria--Congress of Vienna--Maelzel--Pecuniary
+    Difficulties--Adoption of Nephew--The Philharmonic Society--The
+    Classical and Romantic Schools--The Ninth Symphony--His Nephew's
+    Conduct--Last Illness.
+
+
+The period between the years 1805 and 1814 may be considered that of
+Beethoven's greatest creative energy. It is almost impossible to keep
+pace with the stream of colossal works which flowed without intermission
+from his pen. To this period belong the G major and E flat pianoforte
+concertos, without exception the most poetical and the noblest
+compositions of the kind which we possess; the fantasia for pianoforte,
+orchestra, and chorus; the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth
+symphonies; the "Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage" on Goethe's short but
+suggestive poem, "_Tiefe Stille herrscht im Wasser_; _ohne Regung ruht
+das Meer_;" the First Mass; the music to "Egmont;" the overtures to
+Collin's tragedy of "Coriolanus," and to "King Stephen," and the "Ruins
+of Athens,"--each of which, from its intellectual grasp of subject,
+wonderful ideality, and highly finished detail, would merit a volume to
+itself. Nor do these Titanic orchestral productions occupy the whole of
+his attention. They are accompanied by a mass of works for the
+pianoforte, which, if in one sense slighter than those we have named,
+yet, in another, stand equally high; the soliloquies and dialogues (if
+we may be allowed the expression) contained in the pianoforte sonatas
+breathe thoughts as noble and as deep as those expressed by the more
+varied _dramatis personae_ of the orchestra or the quartets. Truly, a
+perfect acquaintance with Beethoven would claim the devotion of the
+highest powers, and the study of a lifetime. Any attempt, however, to
+depict these great works briefly in words would be futile, and we
+therefore pass on to the consideration of the poet's outer life. This
+was almost monotonous--certainly not varied. Beethoven, as we have seen,
+lived wholly in his art, and the changes which occurred, most momentous
+to him, were not those of outward circumstance, but of inner,
+intellectual development.
+
+In the year 1809 he was offered the post of Kapellmeister to the King of
+Westphalia, with a salary of six hundred ducats; and this, his great
+desire of possessing a fixed income made him ready to accept; although
+he would certainly have been miserable in such a position, as Jerome was
+not the man to understand either him or his works. Happily, this ordeal
+was spared him. It was thought derogatory to the dignity of Austria that
+her greatest composer, the one of whom she had most reason to be proud,
+should be allowed through pecuniary considerations to quit her bounds;
+and as the Emperor would do nothing for Beethoven (his abhorrence of
+etiquette and well-known republican sentiments having prevented his ever
+getting into favour at Court), an agreement was ultimately entered into
+by the Archduke Rudolph (Beethoven's pupil, afterwards Archbishop of
+Olmuetz) and the Princes Lobkowitz and Kinsky, to pay the composer
+annually the sum of four thousand guldens, on condition of his
+continuing to reside in Vienna. In two years' time this was reduced
+one-fifth, owing to changes in the Austrian Finance, and subsequently it
+dwindled down to a mere nothing, from the death and bankruptcy of two of
+the contracting parties--but Beethoven could get no redress, although he
+religiously fulfilled his part of the compact.
+
+In drawing the money from the executors of Prince Kinsky he was obliged
+always to send in a proof that he was still in existence. This annoyed
+him excessively, and he generally had the affair transacted for him by a
+friend, which on one occasion produced the following laconic voucher to
+Schindler:--
+
+"CERTIFICATE OF LIFE.--The Fish lives! _vidi_ Pastor Romualdus,"--an
+allusion to his eccentric use of water when composing.
+
+In this year also occurred the bombardment of Vienna, out of which Ries
+has contrived to bring forward an implied accusation of cowardice
+against the composer, in his statement that Beethoven hid himself in a
+cellar, burying his head among cushions that he might not hear the
+firing.
+
+The explanation of this lies on the surface; if he did take refuge
+underground it was only what every other inhabitant of the city, whose
+duty did not call him elsewhere, was doing; and as for the cushions--the
+vibration of the cannonade heard in that vault must have been agony to
+his diseased nerve. Had Beethoven really been alarmed he might easily
+have quitted Vienna. Cowardice in any form is the last vice that could
+be attributed to him; resolute and firm, he feared no danger.
+
+In 1810 the Mass in C was performed for the first time at Eisenstadt,
+the residence of Prince Esterhazy, the grandson of Haydn's patron, in
+whose service Hummel was at the time as Kapellmeister. Esterhazy,
+accustomed only to the simple services and masses of the Haydn-Mozart
+school, did not know what to make of a production so totally different.
+Accordingly, at the _dejeuner_ afterwards given in the palace to the
+artists and dilettanti who had assembled for the occasion, he said, with
+a smile, to our composer, "Now, dear Beethoven, what is this that you
+have been about again?" The susceptible musician, not a little irritated
+at hearing his work so lightly spoken of, glanced towards Hummel, who
+happened to be standing by the Prince's side, wearing a peculiar smile,
+which seemed to Beethoven full of malicious pleasure. This was too
+much--the opinion of a fashionable worldling like Esterhazy was nothing
+to Beethoven, but that a brother in art should so misunderstand
+him--should rejoice at an apparent failure!--he rose abruptly, and
+quitted the palace.
+
+Such is the correct account of the rupture between Beethoven and Hummel,
+which lasted until a few days before the death of the former, when
+Hummel, hearing of his precarious state, hastened to Vienna to effect a
+reconciliation before it was too late.[32] Another version of the story
+is that the two composers were rivals for the hand of the same lady, and
+that Hummel, owing to Beethoven's deafness and his own better position
+as Kapellmeister, was the favoured suitor! The practice of tracing every
+event in our composer's life to a love affair is just as ridiculous as
+the opposite extreme of denying his capability for the tender passion.
+
+A more interesting incident in connection with the First Mass is that
+related by Schindler of the effect produced upon Beethoven by the
+reading of the German text composed for it by some poet, who, though
+unknown to fame, seems to have translated the master's thoughts from the
+language of Tones into that of Words, with power and truth. When
+Beethoven came to the "_Qui tollis_" his eyes overflowed with tears (the
+first and last time that he was ever seen so affected) as he exclaimed,
+"Thus I felt while composing this!"
+
+The tide of Beethoven's earthly renown and glory, which had been slowly
+rising for years, reached its height in 1813-14.
+
+In the former year took place the two celebrated concerts on behalf of
+the Austrian and Bavarian soldiers wounded in the battle of Hanau, when
+the Seventh Symphony, and "Wellington's Victory, or the Battle of
+Vittoria," were performed for the first time. We can easily imagine,
+from the sensation excited even now by the latter work, how intense must
+have been the enthusiasm which greeted its performance at a time when
+popular feeling was strung up to the highest pitch. Beethoven himself
+directed, regulating the movements of his baton by those of
+Schuppanzigh's bow. In a notice of the concert written by himself he
+says: "It was an unprecedented assembly of distinguished artists, every
+one of whom was inspired by the desire of accomplishing something by his
+art for the benefit of the Fatherland; and all worked together
+unanimously, accepting of subordinate places without regard to
+precedence, that a splendid _ensemble_ might be attained.... My part was
+the direction of the whole, but only because the music happened to be of
+my composition. Had it been otherwise, I would have stationed myself as
+readily at the great drum, like Herr Hummel; for our only motives were
+Love to the Fatherland, and the joyful devotion of our powers to serve
+those who had sacrificed so much for us."
+
+In 1814 occurred the great Congress, when Vienna was for a season the
+abode of kings, princes, and delegates from every Court in Europe, and
+the glittering capital was well-nigh intoxicated by its own
+magnificence. The magistrates of the city invited Beethoven to compose a
+Cantata for the occasion, which produced the "Glorreiche Augenblick,"
+perhaps the composer's most neglected work, and deservedly so, as it is
+not worthy of him. It won for him, however, the presentation of the
+freedom of the city, the only distinction which Beethoven valued. Nor
+was this his only triumph. His genius began to be universally
+recognised; he was created an honorary member of Academies and Societies
+in London, Paris, Stockholm, and Amsterdam; and the Philharmonic Society
+in London presented him with a superb grand pianoforte of Broadwood's
+manufacture. In short, from every nation in Europe, and even from
+America, he received striking proofs of the love and admiration in which
+he was held. Stimulated by these manifestations, excited by the
+splendour around him, and the stirring, momentous events which were
+taking place, Beethoven was induced to depart for the time from his
+usual solitary habits, and to mingle for a few weeks in society. In the
+apartments of Prince Rasoumowski, the well-known Russian dilettante, he
+was introduced to many of the illustrious visitors, and long retained a
+lively recollection, half comical, half gratified, of the manner in
+which he had been idolized;--how the grand seigneurs had paid court to
+him, and how admirably he had played his part in receiving their homage!
+He was most deeply affected by his interview with the gentle Empress
+Elizabeth of Russia, with whom he conversed in his customary frank, open
+way, completely setting aside all etiquette; while she, on her part,
+expressed the highest veneration for the composer, and at her departure
+left him a gift of two hundred ducats, which he acknowledged after his
+own fashion by dedicating to her his brilliant Polonaise, Op. 89. This
+was the only substantial result to our poverty-stricken Beethoven of the
+attachment professed by the whole of the gay throng!
+
+The bright episode of the Congress, with its fetes and triumphs, soon
+flitted past, bringing out in sterner and darker contrast the days which
+followed.
+
+Beethoven had dedicated his "Battle of Vittoria" to the Prince Regent of
+England (George IV.), but to his great chagrin, no notice was taken of
+it. He alludes to this in a letter to Ries, and referring to the
+Prince's well-known character of _gourmand_, says, "He might at least
+have sent me a butcher's knife or a turtle!"
+
+Another vexation in connection with the symphony, causing him infinite
+annoyance, arose out of the despicable conduct of Maelzel, afterwards
+the inventor of the metronome. In the year 1812 he had made the
+acquaintance of the latter, who had promised to construct for him a
+sound-conductor, in return for which Beethoven composed a kind of
+warlike piece for the mechanician's new instrument, the panharmonica,
+which he was on the point of taking to England for exhibition. The
+effect of Beethoven's work was so marvellous, that Maelzel urged him to
+arrange it for the orchestra, and the result was--the "Battle of
+Vittoria." Maelzel meanwhile went on constructing four machines, only
+one of which was found available, and Beethoven, without the slightest
+suspicion of any underhand dealing, allowed him to take the entire
+management of the concerts for the relief of the wounded. In his hermit
+life he did not hear much of what was going on around him, and his
+consternation may therefore be imagined when informed that his false
+friend was announcing the symphony everywhere as his own property,
+stating that it had been given to him by Beethoven in return for his
+machine, and the sum of four hundred guldens which he professed to have
+lent him! He had actually contrived to have many of the orchestral parts
+copied out, and those that were wanting supplied by some low musician,
+and with this mutilated work he was on his way to England. The matter
+was at once placed in the hands of the law; but it was long before
+Beethoven recovered from the effects of this fraud; it made him, in
+fact, suspicious ever after towards copyists. The loan of four hundred
+guldens proved to have been _fifty_, which Beethoven accepted from him
+at a time when, as he states in his instructions to his lawyers, he was
+"in dire necessity; _deserted by every one in Vienna_."
+
+This Maelzel had the impudence subsequently to write to Beethoven,
+requesting his patronage for the metronome, and pretending that he was
+busily engaged in preparing a sound-conductor which would enable the
+master to direct in the orchestra. The latter never made its appearance,
+but Beethoven, who at first approved of the metronome, did all in his
+power to have it introduced. Afterwards, when he saw the confusion of
+_tempo_ which it had occasioned, he used to say, "Don't let us have any
+metronome! He that has true feeling will not require it, and for him who
+has none, it will not be of any use."
+
+This affair with Maelzel gives us a glimpse into the pecuniary
+difficulties which harassed Beethoven throughout his life, assuming
+greater prominence towards the end. He was always in want of money, and
+yet (according to the notions of the times) he was handsomely paid for
+his compositions. What, then, was the cause of it? Were his means
+swallowed up by his frequent removals? Did the perplexity arise simply
+from his unbusiness-like habits? To these questions we must add a third,
+which may, perhaps, afford a clue to the mystery,--What became of the
+valuable presents, the watches, rings, breast-pins, snuff-boxes, &c.,
+&c., of which Beethoven had received so many? When asked where such a
+gift was, he would look bewildered, and say after a moment's reflection,
+"I really don't know!" The matter would then pass entirely from his
+thoughts; but there were those about him who were not equally
+indifferent!
+
+In 1815 the cloud which for two years had been threatening, burst upon
+him in those troubles and sorrows which encompassed him until the end.
+He lost his old friend and staunch supporter, Prince Lichnowski, and, a
+few months after, his brother Carl, who in dying bequeathed to him as a
+legacy the care of his only child. It seemed as if the annoyance which
+this man had caused our Beethoven in his life were to be perpetuated and
+continually renewed in the person of his son. Not so, however, did the
+master regard the fresh call upon him. After having done all that
+kindness could suggest, or money procure, to relieve his brother's
+sufferings and cheer his last days, he took home the orphan child to his
+heart with a love and tenderness that could not have been greater had
+the boy been his own.
+
+His first step was to remove him from the care of his mother, a woman of
+lax morals and low habits. In this Beethoven was actuated by the purest
+and best motives; but, unfortunately, his zeal went too far. He forgot
+that the fact of his sister-in-law's having been a bad wife did not
+necessarily imply that she had lost a mother's heart; and in insisting
+upon the total separation between the two, he roused all the bitterest
+feelings of a woman's nature, and prepared much sorrow for himself. The
+"Queen of Night," as he nicknamed her, sought redress through the law,
+and for four years a suit for the possession of the lad was pending. In
+his appeal Beethoven thus nobly expresses the sentiments which dictated
+his conduct:--"My wishes and efforts have no other aim than that of
+giving the best possible education to the boy, his talents justifying
+the greatest expectations; and of fulfilling the trust reposed in my
+brotherly love by his father. The stem is now pliable; but if it be for
+a time neglected, it will become crooked, and outgrow the gardener's
+training hand; and upright bearing, knowledge, and character will be
+irretrievably lost. I know of no duty more sacred than that of the
+training and education of a child. The duty of a guardian can only
+consist in the appreciation of what is good, and the adoption of a right
+course; and only then does he consult the welfare of his ward; whereas
+in obstructing the good he neglects his duty."
+
+Misled by the prefix _van_, his advocate unfortunately carried the case
+to the Aristocratic Court; and, as it went on, Beethoven was called upon
+to show his right to this proceeding. Pointing with eloquent emphasis to
+his head and heart, the composer declared that in these lay his
+nobility; but, however true in the abstract, the law could not admit
+this plea, and after a decision had been given in his favour, the case
+had to be re-tried before the ordinary Civil Court. This occurrence
+wounded Beethoven more than can be described; he felt his honour
+tarnished as a man and as an artist, and for several months no
+persuasion could induce him to show himself in public. In addition to
+this, the evidence necessarily brought forward to strengthen his plea
+revealed only too plainly the loose life of his sister-in-law, and such
+an _expose_ of one so nearly related to himself was, for his pure and
+reserved nature, the height of misery.
+
+The Civil Court reversed the decision of the Aristocratic, and the boy
+was given over to his mother; while Beethoven, determined to gain his
+end, brought the case before the High Court of Appeal, where he was
+finally successful. Let the reader imagine the effect of all this
+painful publicity, following upon the annoyances with Maelzel, to a mind
+constituted like Beethoven's. No Stylites on his pillar could have
+suffered more than did our composer in his loneliness until the cause
+was gained. And what return did he meet with from the object of his
+solicitude?--The basest ingratitude.
+
+About this time he began seriously to think of visiting London; the
+Philharmonic Society made him the most handsome offers; and his own
+inclinations prompted him to quit Vienna. He had at all times cherished
+the greatest love and admiration for England and the English nation, our
+free institutions harmonizing with his political views; and a commission
+coming from this quarter was always welcome to him, not only on account
+of the unwonted _honoraire_ which usually accompanied it, but also
+because of the high esteem in which he held the English as artists and
+appreciators of art. During the latter years of his life, therefore,
+this visit to London was his favourite scheme, and he intended _en
+route_ to pass through the Rhine provinces, that he might once more see
+the home and the friends of his boyhood;--but it was destined never to
+take place.
+
+The four years of the lawsuit were almost barren of creative result, but
+in the winter of 1819-20 he began his Mass in D. This colossal work,
+written more for future generations than for us, was originally
+intended for the installation of the Archduke Rudolph as Archbishop of
+Olmuetz; but as the work went on, our composer grew more and more in love
+with his task, which gradually assumed such proportions that it was not
+completed till 1823--two years after the event it was meant to
+celebrate! A copy of the Mass, which Beethoven regarded as his most
+successful effort, was offered to every court in Europe for the sum of
+fifty ducats. It was, however, accepted only by France, Prussia, Saxony,
+Russia, and by Prince Radziwill, Governor of Posen, and a musical
+society in Frankfort. The King of Prussia sent to inquire, through his
+Ambassador, if the master would not prefer a decoration to the fifty
+ducats. Beethoven's answer was prompt--"Fifty ducats!" If his work were
+worthy of a decoration, why not have given it in addition to the paltry
+sum asked for it? Louis XVIII. acted differently; he sent the composer a
+valuable gold medal, on one side of which was his bust, and on the
+reverse the inscription, "_Donne, par le roi, a M. Beethoven_." An
+application of Beethoven's to Goethe requesting him to draw the
+attention of Karl August to the Mass met with no answer, although Goethe
+might have been able, at very trifling inconvenience to himself, to
+render material assistance to the master. His self-love had probably not
+recovered from the shock it had received during a walk with Beethoven on
+the Bastei at Vienna, when, struck by the profound respect and deference
+manifested by every one whom they encountered, Goethe exclaimed, "I
+really had no idea that I was so well known here!" "Oh!" replies our
+brusque composer, "the people are bowing to me, not to you!" This was in
+reality the case, for the circumstance occurred in Beethoven's palmy
+days, when he was, as Marx observes, a "universally beloved and popular
+character, a part of Vienna itself."
+
+The circumstance which more than any other casts a gloom over the
+master's last days is, that he was doomed (apparently) to outlive his
+fame, and to have the inexpressible mortification of witnessing that
+rupture in the musical world which has lasted down to our days, and will
+probably never be healed, viz., the separation of the classical from the
+so-called romantic school. Hitherto, the followers of Art had been
+united; naturally, individual tastes and predilections had occasionally
+predominated--some admiring one master and some another,--but on the
+whole, the lovers of music had been unanimous in their adherence to the
+pure and good. With the appearance of Rossini (that clever
+scene-painter, as Beethoven called him), this state of affairs underwent
+a complete revolution. His gay, light-hearted melodies, extravagant
+roulades, and inexhaustible vivacity took the public by storm--Beethoven
+and his immortal masterpieces were forgotten. And yet, perhaps, this is
+only what might have been expected,--the divine in Art is not for all,
+nor are all for the divine. Beethoven might have known, like Goethe,
+that he was too profound ever to be popular in a wide sense. The mass of
+mankind look upon Art simply as a means of relaxation. So, indeed, it
+ought to be to all; but never should it stop there. Art, in its highest
+and best forms, has power not only to provide the weary and careworn
+with temporary self-forgetfulness, and to dissipate grief, but--and
+herein lies its true, its God-given strength--to renew the energies and
+brace the mind for higher and nobler efforts in the future. Whenever it
+stops short of this, satisfied with fulfilling its first and lower
+function, there is developed a tendency to abdicate its real position,
+and to degenerate into the mere panderer to man's follies, to his vices.
+Who could have felt this more keenly than Beethoven? Not the mere loss
+of his own popularity was it that made him turn away so deeply wounded
+from grand displays in which snatches of his own works were performed,
+along with meaningless arias, and shallow, noisy overtures of the new
+Italian school. So deeply did he take the change to heart, that he
+resolved to have his Mass in D and the Ninth Symphony performed for the
+first time in Berlin. The announcement of this intention produced a warm
+remonstrance (in the form of an Address) from his attached little circle
+of friends; and the master, touched by the feeling which called out this
+manifestation, was induced to forego his determination, and to consent
+to the two works being brought out in Vienna, provided a hall suitable
+for the purpose could be obtained.
+
+This was no easy matter, and the difficulties in connection with it gave
+rise to a half-comical little incident. His enemies were in power, and
+demanded an absurd sum for the use of the building, to which Beethoven
+could not be induced to agree. As neither party would yield, the project
+seemed on the point of shipwreck, when the faithful Schindler, alarmed
+for the success of the enterprise on which he had set his heart,
+persuaded Count Moritz Lichnowski and the violinist Schuppanzigh to meet
+him as if by accident at Beethoven's house, and press the latter to
+yield to what was inevitable. The plan succeeded, and the necessary
+papers were signed; but the composer's suspicions were roused, and the
+three devoted friends received for their pains the following autocratic
+mandates:--
+
+    "TO COUNT MORITZ LICHNOWSKI,--
+
+    "Duplicity I despise. Visit me no more. There will be no concert.
+
+    "BEETHOVEN."
+
+
+    "TO HERR SCHUPPANZIGH,--
+
+    "Come no more to see me. I shall give no concert.
+
+    "BEETHOVEN."
+
+
+    "TO HERR SCHINDLER,--
+
+    "Do not come to me until I send for you. No concert.
+
+    "BEETHOVEN."
+
+This did not in the least deter them, however, from doing what they
+believed necessary for his benefit: the concert took place, and was the
+scene of a triumph such as few have experienced. The glorious Jupiter
+Symphony seemed to act upon the immense mass of human beings that
+thronged the building in every part, like ambrosial nectar; they became
+intoxicated with delight, and when the refrain was caught up by the
+choir, "_Seid umschlungen Millionen!_" a shout of exuberant joy rent the
+air, completely drowning the singers and instruments. But there stood
+the master in the midst, his face turned towards the orchestra, absorbed
+and sunk within himself as usual,--he heard nothing, saw nothing.
+Fraeulein Unger, the soprano, turned him gently round, and then what a
+sight met his astonished gaze,--a multitude transported with joy! Almost
+all were standing, and the greater number melted to tears, now for the
+first time realizing fully the extent of Beethoven's calamity.--Probably
+in all that great assembly the master himself was the most unmoved.
+Simply bowing in response to the ovation, he left the theatre gloomy and
+despondent, and took his homeward way in silence.
+
+Verily, he, like a Greater, knew what was in man. In eight days from
+this eventful epoch he was completely forgotten; a second concert proved
+an utter failure, and Rossini's star was again in the ascendant. Nor did
+the flighty Viennese public cast another thought upon our Beethoven
+until the news of his death came upon them like the shock of an
+earthquake, and they hastened, when it was too late, to repair the past.
+
+But if it was painful to meet with ingratitude from the public, how much
+harder must it have been for the master to endure the same from one
+nearly related to him! We have said that he adopted his brother's
+orphan child. This nephew, also a Carl Beethoven, was at his father's
+death about eight years of age, and a boy of great talent and promise.
+The four succeeding years, during which the lawsuit dragged its weary
+length, were extremely detrimental to him, as he seems to have been
+tossed about from one person to another--now with his mother, and again
+with his uncle--in a manner very prejudicial to any good moral
+development. Events showed him only too plainly the character of his
+mother, but nature--stronger still--urged him to take her part in the
+contest so far as he dared; and, incited by her evil counsels, he soon
+began secretly to despise his uncle's authority, and openly to follow a
+path he had laid down for himself,--the path of self-will and sensual
+indulgence. Expelled from the University where he was attending the
+Philosophical Course, his more than father received the repentant
+prodigal with open arms, and placed him in the Polytechnic School to
+study for a mercantile career, that he might be under the supervision of
+Herr Reisser, Vice-President of the Institute, and co-guardian with
+himself over Carl. In the summer of 1825 the composer wrote no fewer
+than twenty-nine letters to his erring nephew, every one of which
+exhibits his character in the most beautiful light. They breathe the cry
+of a David, "Oh! Absalom! my son! my son!"--but it is a living Absalom
+who has to be lamented, and the most energetic appeals, the most loving
+remonstrances are invoked to move that stony heart. In vain,--Carl went
+from bad to worse, and in 1826 the master was compelled to give up the
+habit which had been his only solace for years--that of spending the
+summer in the country--and to remain in Vienna to watch over the young
+man. Matters soon came to a crisis,--Carl, urged to pass an examination
+which he had long neglected, attempted, in a fit of despair, to put an
+end to his own life. Here the law stepped in, and after he had been
+treated in an asylum where his spiritual as well as his bodily condition
+was cared for, the miserable youth was restored to his no less wretched
+uncle, with orders to quit Vienna within four-and-twenty hours.
+Beethoven's old friend, Stephan Breuning, exerted himself to procure a
+cadetship for the lad, and he was at length permitted to join the
+regiment of the Baron von Stutterheim, to whom the composer gratefully
+dedicated one of his last quartets. Pending this arrangement the unhappy
+uncle and nephew took refuge at Gneixendorf, the estate of Johann v.
+Beethoven, who had offered them a temporary asylum. A few days here,
+however, were enough for the composer; irritated by the unjust
+reproaches and low taunts of his brother, he determined at once to
+return to Vienna, taking his nephew with him. It was a raw, cold,
+miserable day in December; Johann refused to lend his close carriage to
+him to whom he owed all his prosperity, and Beethoven was obliged to
+perform a long journey in an open conveyance, with no shelter from the
+keen wind and pitiless rain. His health, which had long been failing,
+sank under this exposure, and he arrived in Vienna with a severe attack
+of inflammation of the lungs, which ultimately caused his death.
+
+As soon as they arrived at home, Carl was charged instantly to procure a
+physician for his uncle, one Dr. Wawruch; but this loving nephew's whole
+thoughts were for his old companions and his old haunts. He went to play
+billiards, entrusting his commission to the tender mercies of a servant
+of the establishment, who, in his turn, let the affair pass entirely
+from his memory until two days after, when he happened to be taken ill
+himself, and to be carried _by chance_ to the same hospital in which the
+doctor practised. At the sight of the physician his instructions flashed
+upon his memory, and he besought him to go at once to the great
+Beethoven. Horror-struck, Dr. Wawruch, who was an enthusiastic admirer
+of the composer, hastened to his house and found him lying in the most
+precarious state, completely alone and neglected. His unwearied efforts
+so far succeeded that Beethoven rallied for a time, when his first care
+was--to appoint his worthless nephew sole heir to all his effects! Soon
+symptoms of dropsy showed themselves, he had to be tapped four times,
+and it became evident that the master spirit would soon leave its
+earthly tabernacle for a better and more enduring habitation. He was
+always resigned and patient, remarking, with a smile, when a painful
+operation was being performed, "Better water from my body than from my
+pen!"
+
+The Philharmonic Society sent him a magnificent edition of Handel, and
+the greatest pleasure of his last days consisted in going through the
+works of his favourite composer.
+
+His illness, however, lasted some time; in the meanwhile he was making
+nothing, and his small resources began to fail him. The money he had
+recently made by his works he had added to the fund which he sacredly
+kept for his nephew, and which no persuasion could induce him to touch;
+he had been disappointed in a sum owing to him by the Russian
+dilettante, Prince Galitzin; and in great distress the question arose,
+what was he to do? to whom could he turn? He bethought him of the offer
+made by the Philharmonic Society in London to give a concert for his
+benefit, and after much hesitation, finally applied to them, through
+Moscheles and Sir George Smart, for the fulfilment of the promise. His
+countrymen have never been able to forgive Beethoven for this step,
+especially as it was found after his death that he had left about
+L1,200; but this, as we said before, he looked upon as his nephew's
+property, and would not appropriate any of it to his own use--therefore,
+what was he to do? _Forsaken by the whole world in Vienna_, was he to
+starve? The society rejoiced in the opportunity of showing the gratitude
+of England to him who has placed the whole human race under an eternal
+obligation, and immediately despatched L100 to Vienna, with the
+intimation that if this were not sufficient more would be forthcoming.
+
+Alas! more was not required; a few days after the gift arrived the great
+musician breathed his last. We leave the description of the closing
+scene to Schindler:--
+
+"When I went to him on the morning of the 24th of March, 1827, I found
+him with distorted face, and so weak that only by the greatest effort
+could he utter a few words. In a short time the physician entered, and,
+after looking at him in silence, whispered to me that Beethoven was
+advancing with rapid steps towards dissolution. As we had fortunately
+provided for the signing of the will some days previously, there
+remained to us but _one_ ardent wish--that of proving to the world that
+he died as a true Christian. The physician, therefore, wrote a few
+lines, begging him in the name of all his friends to allow the holy
+sacrament to be administered to him, upon which he answered calmly and
+collectedly, 'I will.' The physician then left, that I might arrange for
+this; and Beethoven said to me, 'I beg you to write to Schott, and send
+him the document, he will require it; write to him in my name, I am too
+weak; and tell him that I beg him earnestly to send the wine he
+promised. If you have time to-day, write also to England.' The pastor
+came about twelve o'clock, and the holy office was performed with the
+greatest solemnity.
+
+"Beethoven himself now began to believe in his approaching end; for
+hardly had the clergyman gone than he exclaimed, '_Plaudite amici,
+comedia finita est_; have I not always said that it would come thus?' He
+then begged me again not to forget Schott, and to thank the Philharmonic
+Society once more for their gift, adding that the society had cheered
+his last days, and that even on the verge of the grave he thanked them
+and the whole English nation. At this moment the servant of Herr von
+Breuning entered with the little case of wine sent by Schott. I placed
+two bottles of Rudesheimer on the table by his side; he looked at them
+and said, 'What a pity!--too late!' These were his last words. In a few
+moments he fell into an agony so intense that he could no longer
+articulate. Towards evening he lost consciousness, and became delirious.
+This lasted till the evening of the 25th, when visible signs of death
+already showed themselves. Notwithstanding, he lingered till the evening
+of the 26th, when his spirit took flight, while without a violent storm
+of thunder and lightning seemed to reflect his death struggle in Nature
+herself--his best friend."
+
+The last agonies of the master were soothed by but _one_ friendly touch,
+that of Anselm Huettenbrenner from Gratz, who had hurried into Vienna to
+press the loved hand once more. He was borne to his last resting-place
+by an immense concourse, exceeding twenty thousand; composers, poets,
+authors, artists, surrounded his coffin with lighted torches, while the
+choristers sang to one of his own melodies the words of Grillparzer:--
+
+    "Du, dem nie im Leben,
+    Ruhestaett ward, und Heerd und Haus,
+    Ruhe nun im stillen
+    Grabe, nun im Tode aus,"--
+
+Thou, who ne'er in life hadst resting-place, nor hearth, nor home--rest
+thee now in the quiet grave--in death. Amen.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 32: Of those last interviews between the two great composers,
+Dr. Ferdinand Hiller, the veteran composer and probably the last link
+between the "classical" period and our own, has published an interesting
+account. He was at the time a pupil of Hummel, whom he accompanied to
+Beethoven's residence. His description of the Master in his helplessness
+is most touching.]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+THE PIANOFORTE SONATAS.[33]
+
+
+From Domenico Scarlatti down to Frederic Chopin a succession of
+cembalists, clavecinists, and pianists rich in talent, art, and genius,
+have created a series of select works, the counterpart of which, in
+number, variety, and lasting fame, can probably be displayed by no other
+branch of musical literature. Two collections, however, take precedence
+of all this wealth of tone-poetry; these are the Fugues and Preludes
+(the "Wohl-temperirte Clavier") of Johann Sebastian Bach, and the
+Sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven. Both works have been so much discussed,
+have been analyzed in so many different ways, have had such multifarious
+constructions put upon them, have been praised and extolled from so many
+different standpoints, that the conviction must be impressed upon every
+observer--_they are inexhaustible_. This is really the case--they are an
+ever-flowing spring of study for the composer and the pianist, and of
+enjoyment for the educated hearer. At present, however, we have only to
+do with the Sonatas of Beethoven, and must therefore direct our
+attention to them.
+
+Most of the German composers have become great at the pianoforte. They
+learned to command the technicalities of this compendium of sound,
+song, harmony, and polyphony, and it became to them a voice, a second
+tongue, a part of themselves. Upon it they could express every
+whispering musical emotion, and lend words, we may even say, to every
+passing mood which stirred their sensitive souls; the utterances which
+Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven confided to their pianoforte in lonely hours
+may have surpassed in beauty (if not in perfection of form) what they
+committed to writing. In no other master, however, does this familiar
+intercourse between the tone-poet and his instrument present itself to
+our minds with such wondrous clearness as in Beethoven. In his mighty
+symphonies he speaks to the crowd like an ideal world's orator, raising
+them to the highest emotions of purified humanity; in his quartets he
+strives to impart to each instrument an almost dramatic individuality;
+but in his Pianoforte Sonatas he speaks to himself; or, if you will, to
+the instrument, as to his dearest friend. He relates his most secret
+joys and sorrows, his longing and his love, his hope and his despair. An
+entire, full, real, inner human life is revealed to us--sound, energetic
+(_kernig_), manly. Whether he gives himself up to passionate outpourings
+or to melancholy laments, whether he jests, plays, dreams, laughs, or
+weeps; he continues always simple and true. We find no straining after
+effect, no oddity, no coquettishness, no sentimentality; the greatest
+depth of thought appears unadorned and unpretentious. There are a few
+great men who can express the noblest sentiments without a wish that
+they should be heard, and who yet have no cause to dread listeners for
+the most trifling thing that they have uttered; and such is Beethoven in
+his Pianoforte Sonatas.
+
+We frequently encounter the impression that Beethoven, in
+contradistinction to the other loftiest tone-poets, is specially the
+singer of melancholy and sorrow--of the most intense, passionate
+soul-suffering. Nothing can be less true. Certainly he depicted the
+night side of the human mind as no one had done before him. But when we
+view his compositions as a whole, there speaks to us out of them
+all--even the last, so deeply furrowed--a predominating vigorous
+cheerfulness, a sympathetic joy, a loving meditativeness, an earnest,
+resolute, fresh life. How often he sinks into blissful dreams, or gives
+himself up to childlike merriment! A mature man, yet seized at times by
+the extravagance of youth, while the battle of life makes him earnest,
+sometimes gloomy, but never faint-hearted or misanthropic
+(_weltschmerzlich_). "He was a _man_, take him for all in all;" we have
+not looked upon his like.
+
+The special application of what has been said to the separate Sonatas
+would lead to nothing. Although it is indisputable that the emotions and
+frames of mind portrayed in them are almost infinite in compass, yet it
+would be proportionally difficult to express the same with regard to
+each single piece in words, the very definiteness of which would
+conclusively prove their inadequacy to the task. It is no empty phrase,
+however often it may have been repeated, that Music begins where
+Language ends,--of course with the proviso that the former content
+herself with the sovereignty in the domain assigned to her. How many
+tone-poems should we be compelled to characterize by words not only
+analogous to each other, but having the very same purport, even though a
+Goethe's wealth of language were at our command! and what a
+dissimilarity in the tone-forms would notwithstanding be apparent even
+to the most uninitiated listener!
+
+Far more important than the invention of characteristic expressions is
+it, for those who would devote themselves to the study of Beethoven's
+pianoforte sonatas, to get a clear idea of them in _outline_ as well as
+in _detail_. The comprehension of them is facilitated by this, with the
+natural result of a higher intellectual enjoyment. Is it not elevating
+to see how the most daring fancy, after having been nourished by deep
+thought, becomes the willing, submissive subject of the all-regulating
+mind? Beethoven never lost the reins, even in what seem the wildest
+flights of his genius: his Pegasus may spring up into highest space--he
+is able to direct and guide it.
+
+No earnest, conscientious teacher should neglect to explain to those
+entrusted to him the essential nature of the laws which for centuries,
+by a kind of natural necessity, have developed themselves in the forms
+of instrumental music. They are so simple that their principal features
+may be made clear to the most childish comprehension, and every step in
+advance will bring with it a deeper insight. That Beethoven, in the
+closest relation to his great predecessors, submitted to these laws,
+makes his appearance doubly great: he did not come to destroy, but to
+fulfil the law.
+
+O that our art, the most spiritual of all, were not bound by so many and
+such rigorous ties to matter! O that Beethoven's sonatas were within the
+reach of all educated minds, like the lyrics of our great poets! But not
+this alone does Nature deny to our art; she withholds from the greater
+number of those even who are striving as musicians and as pianists the
+full enjoyment of these lofty works, at least in their totality. They
+make demands upon the executants which are not easily met. Here and
+there we find the necessary talent. Were it but accompanied by the
+indispensable earnestness and diligence!
+
+Beethoven's pianoforte music demands (apart from the consideration of
+the extraordinarily difficult works) sound and solid execution. The
+first conditions of this are also the rarest, viz., a powerful and yet
+gentle touch, with the greatest possible independence of finger.
+Beethoven never writes difficulties merely to win laurels for those
+executants who shall overcome them, but neither is he deterred by any
+technical inconvenience, if it be necessary to give firm and clear
+expression to an idea. Thus we meet, in works reckoned amongst the
+easiest, with passages which presuppose a pretty high degree of
+technical skill; and since a pure style properly demands that there
+shall be at least the _appearance_ of ease on the part of the
+performer,--with compositions of the intellectual depth of Beethoven's
+this is an indispensable qualification. Therefore it is not advisable to
+take or place the sonatas of our master in hands which are not educated
+for their reception. When that degree of progress has been attained
+which will insure the mastery of the technical difficulties, the
+enjoyment and advantage to be derived from their thorough study will be
+doubled, and the effort to grasp them intellectually unhindered.
+
+The most essential figures which Beethoven employs are built upon the
+scale and the arpeggio. They belong, therefore, to that style which is
+specially designated the Clementi-Cramer school. The studies of these
+noble representatives of pure pianoforte playing will always be the best
+foundation for the performance of Beethoven's works, and the practice of
+them ought to accompany without intermission the study of the master.
+Happily, the rich productions of Beethoven's imagination offer fruits
+for every epoch of life and of--pianoforte-playing. We can reward the
+diligence of the studious child by allowing him to play the two
+sonatinas published after the master's death, which sound to us rather
+as if they had been written _for_ than _by_ a beginner. But we should
+carefully guard against giving to immature young minds pieces which,
+though easy in a technical point of view (and this, after all, is
+sometimes only _apparent_), require a power of conception and of
+performance far beyond the demands made upon the fingers. Who, for
+example, with any experience in musical life, does not remember having
+heard the Sonata Pathetique played with a _naivete_ of style which might
+prove the narrowness of the boundary line between the sublime and the
+ridiculous? And similar misconceptions are met with every day.
+
+We give below a list of the sonatas in the order in which they ought to
+be studied, arranged with a view to the demands made upon the heart and
+mind, as well as upon the hand and finger of the performer. It is
+evident, however, that this cannot be done with mathematical precision,
+and that individual views and capability must, after all, decide; since
+_difficulty_ and _ease_ are but relative terms, and depend in each case
+upon other and pre-existing conditions. If, however, our attempt succeed
+so far as to render the selection easier to the student, and prevent his
+making any great mistakes, we shall not consider our trouble thrown
+away.
+
+_May Beethoven speedily find a home in every house--in every heart!_
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 33: From an edition of the Sonatas published in Breslau.]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CLASSIFICATION OF BEETHOVEN'S PIANOFORTE SONATAS.
+
+
+    1. Op. 49, No. 2, in G major.
+    2. Op. 49, No. 1, in G minor.
+    3. Op. 14, No. 2, in G major.
+    4. Op. 14, No. 1, in E major.
+    5. Op. 79, in G major.
+    6. Op. 2, No. 1, in F minor.
+    7. Op. 10, No. 1, in C minor.
+    8. Op. 10, No. 2, in F major.
+    9. Op. 10, No. 3, in D major.
+    10. Op. 13, in C minor (_Pathetique_).
+    11. Op. 22, in B flat major.
+    12. Op. 28, in D major (_Pastorale_).
+    13. Op. 2, No. 2, in A major.
+    14. Op. 2, No. 3, in C major.
+    15. Op. 78, in F sharp major.
+    16. Op. 7, in E flat major.
+    17. Op. 26, in A flat major.
+    18. Op. 31, No. 3, in E flat major.
+    19. Op. 31, No. 1, in G major.
+    20. Op. 90, in E minor.
+    21. Op. 54, in F major.
+    22. Op. 27, No. 2, in C sharp minor (_Moonlight_).
+    23. Op. 31, No. 2, in D minor.
+    24. Op. 53, in C major.
+    25. Op. 27, No. 1, in E flat major.
+    26. Op. 81, in E flat major (_Les Adieux_).
+    27. Op. 57, in F minor (_Appassionata_).
+    28. Op. 110, in A flat major.
+    29, Op. 109, in E major.
+    30. Op. 101, in A major.
+    31. Op. 111, in C minor.
+    32. Op. 106, in B flat major (_The Giant_).
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF BEETHOVEN'S WORKS.
+
+_Compiled from_ MARX _and_ THAYER.
+
+
+I.--COMPOSITIONS DESIGNATED AS _Opus_.
+
+    1. _Three Trios_ for pianoforte, violin, and violoncello, in E flat, G
+    major, and C minor; ded. to Prince Lichnowski; composed 1791-92.
+
+    2. _Three Sonatas_ for piano, in F minor, A major, and C major; ded.
+    to Joseph Haydn; pub. 1796.
+
+    3. _Trio_ for violin, viola, and violoncello, in E flat; composed in
+    Bonn in 1792.
+
+    4. _Quintet_ for two violins, two violas, and violoncello, in E flat
+    (from the octet for wind instruments, Op. 103); pub. 1797.
+
+    5. _Two Sonatas_ for piano and violoncello, in F major and G minor;
+    ded. to Frederic William II. of Prussia; composed in Berlin in 1796.
+
+    6. _Sonata_ for piano, for four hands, in D major; pub. 1796-97.
+
+    7. _Sonata_ for piano, in E flat; ded. to the Countess Babette von
+    Keglevics; pub. 1797.
+
+    8. _Serenade_ for violin, viola, and violoncello, in D major; pub.
+    1797.
+
+    9. _Three Trios_ for violin, viola, and violoncello, in G Major, D
+    major, and C minor; ded. to the Count von Browne; pub. 1798.
+
+    10. _Three Sonatas_ for piano, in C minor, F major, and D major; ded.
+    to the Countess von Browne; pub. 1798.
+
+    11. _Trio_ for piano, clarionet (or V.), and violoncello, in B flat;
+    ded. to the Countess von Thun; pub. 1798.
+
+    12. _Three Sonatas_ for piano and violin, in D major, A major, and E
+    flat major; ded. to F.A. Salieri; pub. 1798-99.
+
+    13. _Sonata Pathetique_ for piano, in C minor; ded. to Prince
+    Lichnowski; pub. 1799.
+
+    14. _Two Sonatas_ for piano, in E major and G major; ded. to the
+    Baroness Braun; pub. 1799.
+
+    15. _First Concerto_ for piano and orchestra, in C major; ded. to the
+    Princess Odescalchi, _nee_ Countess von Keglevics; composed 1795.
+
+    16. _Quintet_ for piano, clarionet, oboe, bassoon, and horn, in E flat
+    major; ded. to the Prince von Schwarzenberg; performed 1798.
+
+    17. _Sonata_ for piano and horn in F major; ded. to the Baroness
+    Braun; composed 1800.
+
+    18. _Six Quartets_ for two violins, viola, and violoncello, in F
+    major, G major, D major, C minor, A major, and B flat major; ded. to
+    Prince Lobkowitz; pub. 1800-1801.
+
+    19. _Second Concerto_ for piano and orchestra, in B flat major; ded.
+    to M. von Nickelsberg; composed 1798.
+
+    20. _Grand Septet_ for violin, viola, violoncello, horn, clarionet,
+    bassoon, and double-bass, in E flat; performed 1800.
+
+    21. _First Symphony_ for orchestra, in C major; ded. to the Baron van
+    Swieten; performed 1800.
+
+    22. _Grand Sonata_ for piano, in B flat; ded. to the Count von Browne;
+    composed 1800.
+
+    23. _Sonata_ for piano and violin, in A minor; ded. to Count Moritz
+    von Fries; pub. 1801.
+
+    24. _Sonata_ for piano and violin, in F major; ded. to Count Moritz
+    von Fries; pub. 1801 (originally together with Op. 23).
+
+    25. _Serenade_ for flute, violin, and viola, in D major; pub. 1802.
+
+    26. _Sonata_ for piano, in A flat; ded. to Prince Lichnowski; composed
+    1801.
+
+    27. _Two Sonatas_, quasi Fantasia, for piano, No. 1 in E flat major;
+    ded. to the Princess Liechtenstein; No. 2 in C sharp minor; ded. to
+    the Countess Julia Guicciardi; composed 1801 (?).
+
+    28. _Sonata_ for piano, in D major; ded. to M. von Sonnenfels;
+    composed 1801.
+
+    29. _Quintet_ for two violins, two violas, and violoncello, in C
+    major; ded. to Count von Fries; composed 1801.
+
+    30. _Three Sonatas_ for piano and violin, in A major, C minor, and G
+    major; ded. to the Emperor Alexander I. of Russia; composed 1802.
+
+    31. _Three Sonatas_ for piano, in G major, D minor, and E flat major;
+    composed 1802 (?).
+
+    32. "_To Hope_," words from the "_Urania_" of Tiedge; pub. 1805 (first
+    setting, _see_ Op. 94).
+
+    33. _Bagatelles_ for piano; composed 1782.
+
+    34. _Six Variations_ for piano, in F major, on an original theme; ded.
+    to the Princess Odescalchi; composed in 1802 (?).
+
+    35. _Fifteen Variations_, with a _Fugue_; for piano, on a theme from
+    "_Prometheus_," ded. to Count Moritz Lichnowski; composed 1802.
+
+    36. _Second Symphony_ for orchestra, in D major; ded. to Prince
+    Lichnowski; composed 1802.
+
+    37. _Third Concerto_ for piano and orchestra, in C minor; ded. to
+    Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia; composed 1800.
+
+    38. _Trio_ for piano, clarionet (or V.), and violoncello (from the
+    Septet, Op. 20); published 1805.
+
+    39. _Two Preludes_ through all the major and minor keys, for piano or
+    organ; composed 1789.
+
+    40. _Romance_ for violin and orchestra, in G major; composed 1802 (?).
+
+    41. _Serenade_ for piano and flute (or V.), in D major (from Op. 25);
+    pub. 1803.
+
+    42. _Notturno_ for piano and violoncello, in D major (from Op. 8);
+    pub. 1804.
+
+    43. _Ballet_: "_The Men of Prometheus_;" composed 1800.
+
+    44. _Fourteen Variations_ for piano, violin, and violoncello, on an
+    original theme; composed 1802 (?).
+
+    45. _Three Marches_ for piano, for four hands, in C major, E flat
+    major, and D major; ded. to the Princess Esterhazy; composed 1802 (?
+    1801).
+
+    46. _Adelaide_: words by Matthison; composed 1796.
+
+    47. _Sonata_ for piano and violin, in A major; ded. to the violinist
+    Rudolph Kreutzer; composed 1803.
+
+    48. _Six Spiritual Songs_, by Gellert; pub. 1803.
+
+    49. _Two Easy Sonatas_ for piano, in G minor and G major; composed
+    1802 (?).
+
+    50. _Romance_ for violin and orchestra, in F major; composed in 1802
+    (?).
+
+    51. _Two Rondos_ for piano: No. 1 in C major; pub. 1798 (?); No. 2 in
+    G major: ded. to the Countess Henriette von Lichnowski; pub. 1802.
+
+    52. _Eight Songs_: words by Claudius, Sophie von Mereau, Buerger,
+    Goethe, and Lessing; partly composed in Bonn before 1792.
+
+    53. _Grand Sonata_ for piano, in C major; ded. to Count Waldstein;
+    composed in 1803 (?).
+
+    54. _Sonata_ for piano, in F major; composed 1803 (?).
+
+    55. _Third Symphony_ (Eroica) for orchestra, in E flat; ded. to Prince
+    Lobkowitz; composed 1803-4.
+
+    56. _Triple Concerto_ for piano, violin, and violoncello, with
+    orchestra, in C major; composed 1804-5.
+
+    57. _Grand Sonata_ for piano, in F minor; ded. to the Count von
+    Brunswick; composed 1804.
+
+    58. _Fourth Concerto_ for piano and orchestra, in G major; ded. to the
+    Archduke Rudolph; composed 1806 (?).
+
+    59. _Three Quartets_ for two violins, viola, and violoncello, in F
+    major, E minor, and C major; ded. to Prince Rasoumowski; composed
+    1806.
+
+    60. _Fourth Symphony_ for orchestra, in B flat; ded. to Count
+    Oppersdorf; composed 1806.
+
+    61. _Concerto_ for violin and orchestra, in D major; ded. to Stephan
+    von Breuning; composed 1806.
+
+    62. _Overture_: "_Coriolanus_," in C minor; ded. to the dramatist
+    Heinrich von Collin; composed 1807.
+
+    63. _Sonata_ for piano, violin, and violoncello (from the Octet, Op.
+    103); pub. 1807.
+
+    64. _Sonata_ for piano, violin, and violoncello (from the Trio, Op.
+    3); pub. 1807.
+
+    65. _Scena and Aria_: "_Ah, perfido!_" for soprano voice and
+    orchestra; ded. to the Countess Clari; composed 1796.
+
+    66. _Twelve Variations_ for piano and violoncello, in F major, on the
+    theme, "_Ein Maedchen oder Weibchen_," from Mozart's "_Zauberfloete_;"
+    pub. 1798.
+
+    67. _Fifth Symphony_ for orchestra, in C minor; ded. to Prince
+    Lobkowitz and Count Rasoumowski; composed 1808 (?).
+
+    68. _Sixth Symphony_ (_Pastorale_) for orchestra, in F major; ded. to
+    Prince Lobkowitz and Count Rasoumowski; composed 1808 (?).
+
+    69. _Sonata_ for piano and violoncello, in A major; ded. to Baron von
+    Gleichenstein; pub. 1809.
+
+    70. _Two Trios_ for piano, violin, and violoncello, in D major and E
+    flat major; ded. to the Countess Marie Erdoedy; composed 1808.
+
+    71. _Sextet_ for two clarionets, two flutes, and two bassoons;
+    performed 1804-5.
+
+    72. "_Fidelio_" ("_Leonora_"), opera in two acts; composed 1804-5.
+
+    73. _Fifth Concerto_ for piano and orchestra, in E flat; ded. to the
+    Archduke Rudolph; composed 1809.
+
+    74. _Quartet_ (tenth) for two violins, viola, and violoncello, in E
+    flat; ded. to Prince Lobkowitz; composed 1809.
+
+    75. _Six Songs_: words by Goethe and Reissig; ded. to the Princess
+    Kinsky; composed 1810.
+
+    76. _Variations_ for piano, in D major, on an original (?) theme,
+    afterwards employed as the "_Turkish March_" in the "_Ruins of
+    Athens_;" ded. to his friend Oliva; pub. 1810.
+
+    77. _Fantasia_ for piano, in G minor; ded. to the Count von Brunswick;
+    composed 1809.
+
+    78. _Sonata_ for piano, in F sharp major; ded. to the Countess von
+    Brunswick; composed 1809.
+
+    79. _Sonatina_ for piano, in G major; pub. 1810.
+
+    80. _Fantasia_ for piano, orchestra, and chorus, in C minor;
+    words--"_Schmeichelnd hold und lieblich klingen_"--by Kuffner; ded. to
+    Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria; performed 1808.
+
+    81_a_. _Sonata_ for piano--"_Les Adieux_,"--in E flat; ded. to the
+    Archduke Rudolph; composed 1809.
+
+    81_b_. _Sextet_ for two violins, viola, violoncello, and two horns
+    (_obbligato_), in E flat; pub. 1810.
+
+    82. _Four Ariettas_ and a _Duet_, with pianoforte accompaniment; words
+    of Nos. 2, 3, and 5 by Metastasio; pub. 1811.
+
+    83. _Three Songs_; words by Goethe; ded. to the Princess Kinsky;
+    composed 1810.
+
+    84. _Overture and incidental Music to "Egmont;"_ composed 1809-10.
+
+    85. "_The Mount of Olives_," an oratorio; text by Franz Xaver Huber;
+    composed 1800 (?).
+
+    86. _First Mass_, for four voices and orchestra, in C major; ded. to
+    Prince Esterhazy; composed 1807.
+
+    87. _Trio_ for wind instruments, in C major; performed 1797.
+
+    88. "_Das Glueck der Freundschaft_," for voice and piano; pub. 1803.
+
+    89. _Polonaise_ for piano, in C major; ded. to the Empress Elisabetha
+    Alexiewna, of Russia; composed 1814.
+
+    90. _Sonata_ for piano, in E minor; ded. to Count Moritz Lichnowski;
+    composed 1814.
+
+    91. "_The Battle of Vittoria_," for orchestra; ded. to the Prince
+    Regent of England; composed 1813.
+
+    92. _Seventh Symphony_ for orchestra, in A major; ded. to Count Fries;
+    composed 1812.
+
+    93. _Eighth Symphony_ for orchestra, in F major; composed 1812.
+
+    94. "_To Hope_;" words from the "_Urania_" of Tiegde (second setting,
+    _see_ Op. 32); composed 1816.
+
+    95. _Quartet_ for two violins, viola, and violoncello, in F minor;
+    ded. to Secretary Zmeskall; composed 1810.
+
+    96. _Sonata_ for piano and violin, in G major; ded. to the Archduke
+    Rudolph; composed 1810.
+
+    97. _Trio_ for piano, violin, and violoncello, in B flat; ded. to the
+    Archduke Rudolph; composed 1811.
+
+    98. "_An die ferne Geliebte_," a _Liederkreis_; words by Jeitteles;
+    ded. to Prince Lobkowitz; composed 1816.
+
+    99. "_Der Mann von Wort_," for voice and piano; words by Kleinschmid;
+    pub. 1815.
+
+    100. "_Merkenstein_," for one or two voices and piano; words by
+    Rupprecht; composed 1814.
+
+    101. _Sonata_ for piano, in A major; ded. to the Baroness Erdmann;
+    composed 1815.
+
+    101. _Two Sonatas_ for piano and violoncello, in C major and D major;
+    ded. to the Countess Erdoedy; composed 1815.
+
+    103. _Octet_ for wind instruments, in E flat major; composed in Bonn
+    before 1792.
+
+    104. _Quintet_ for two violins, two violas, and violoncello, in C
+    minor (from the Trio No. 3 of Op. 1); pub. 1819.
+
+    105. _Six Themes varies_ for piano, with violin _ad libitum_; composed
+    for George Thomson, 1818-19.
+
+    106. _Sonata_ for piano, in B flat; ded. to the Archduke Rudolph;
+    composed 1818.
+
+    107. _Ten Themes varies russes, ecossais, tyroliens_, for piano, with
+    violin _ad libitum_; composed for George Thomson, 1818-20.
+
+    108. _Twenty-five Scotch Melodies_ for one or two voices and chorus
+    (_obbligato_), violin, viola, and 'cello.
+
+    109. _Sonata_ for piano, in E major; ded. to Fraeulein Brentano;
+    composed 1821 (?).
+
+    110. _Sonata_ for piano, in A flat major; composed 1821.
+
+    111. _Sonata_ for piano, in C minor; ded. to the Archduke Rudolph;
+    composed 1822.
+
+    112. "_Meeresstille und glueckliche Fahrt_," for four voices and
+    orchestra; ded. to "the Author of the Poem, the immortal Goethe;"
+    composed 1815.
+
+    113. _Overture_: "_The Ruins of Athens_," composed 1811-12.
+
+    114. _Marches and Choruses_ from "_The Ruins of Athens_."
+
+    115. _Overture_: "_Namensfeier_," in C major; ded. to Prince
+    Radziwill; composed 1814.
+
+    116. _Terzetto_ for soprano, tenor, and bass, with orchestral
+    accompaniment; composed 1801.
+
+    117. _Overture and Choruses_: "_King Stephen_;" performed 1812.
+
+    118. _Elegy in memory of the Baroness Pasqualati_: "_Sanft wie du
+    lebtest hast du vollendet_;" ded. to the Baron Pasqualati; composed
+    1814.
+
+    119. _Twelve Bagatelles_ for piano; composed 1820-22.
+
+    120. _Thirty-three Variations_ on a waltz by Diabelli; ded. to Madame
+    Brentano; composed 1823.
+
+    121_a_. _Adagio, Variations, and Rondo_, for piano, violin, and
+    violoncello, in G major; theme, "_Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu_;" pub.
+    1824.
+
+    121_b_. "_Opferlied_" for solo, chorus, and orchestra; words by
+    Matthison; composed 1822.
+
+    122. "_In allen guten Stunden_," for solo and chorus, with two
+    clarionets, two horns, and two bassoons, words by Goethe; composed
+    1822.
+
+    123. _Missa Solemnis_ for four voices, chorus, and orchestra, in D
+    major; ded. to the Archduke Rudolph; composed 1818-1822.
+
+    124. _Overture_: "_Weihe des Hauses_," in C major; ded. to Prince
+    Galitzin; composed 1822.
+
+    125. _Ninth Symphony_ (_Jupiter_), with final chorus on Schiller's
+    "_Ode to Joy_," for orchestra, four voices, and chorus, in D minor;
+    ded. to Frederick William III. of Prussia; composed 1822-3.
+
+    126 _Six Bagatelles_ for piano; composed about 1821.
+
+    127. _Quartet_ for two violins, viola, and violoncello, in E flat;
+    ded. to Prince Galitzin; composed 1824.
+
+    128. "_The Kiss_;" Arietta for voice and piano; composed 1822.
+
+    129. _Rondo capriccioso_ in G major.
+
+    130. _Quartet_ for two violins, viola, and violoncello, in B flat;
+    ded. to Prince Galitzin; composed 1825.
+
+    131. _Quartet_ fr two violins, viola, and violoncello, in C sharp
+    minor; ded. to the Baron von Stutterheim; composed 1826.
+
+    132. _Quartet_ for two violins, viola, and violoncello, in A minor;
+    ded. to Prince Galitzin; composed 1825.
+
+    133. _Grand Fugue_ for two violins, viola, and violoncello, in B flat;
+    ded. to the Cardinal Archduke Rudolph; composed 1825.
+
+    134. _Grand Fugue_ (Op. 133 arranged for piano for four hands).
+
+    135. _Quartet_ (the sixteenth) for two violins, viola, and 'cello, in
+    F major; ded. to Herrn Wolfmeier; composed 1826.
+
+    136. "_Der Glorreiche Augenblick_," cantata for four voices and
+    orchestra; text by Dr. Weissenbach; ded. to Franz I., Emperor of
+    Austria, Nicholas I., Emperor of Russia, and Frederick William III.,
+    King of Prussia; composed 1814.
+
+    137. _Fugue_ for two violins, two violas, and 'cello, in D major;
+    composed 1817.
+
+    138. _Ouverture caracterisstique_; "_Leonora_" No. 1, in C major.
+
+
+II. COMPOSITIONS DESIGNATED SIMPLY BY _Numbers_.
+
+    No. 1_a_. _Twelve Variations_ for piano and violin, in F major; Theme:
+    "_Se vuol ballare_," from Mozart's "_Figaro_;" ded. to Eleanore von
+    Breuning; pub. 1793.
+
+    1_b_. _Thirteen Variations_ for piano, in A major; Theme: "_Es war
+    einmal ein alter Mann_;" pub. 1794.
+
+    2. _Nine Variations_ for piano, in A major; Theme: "_Quant e piu
+    bello_;" pub. 1796.
+
+    3_a_. _Six Variations_ for piano; Theme: "_Nel cor piu non mi sento_;"
+    composed 1795.
+
+    3_b_. _Two Minuets_ for piano, for four hands.
+
+    4. _Twelve Variations_ for piano, in C major; Theme: "_Menuet a la
+    Vigano_;" pub. 1796.
+
+    5_a_. _Twelve Variations_ for piano, in A major; Theme from the ballet
+    of the "_Waldmaedchen_;" pub. 1797.
+
+    5_b_. _Twelve Variations_ for piano and violoncello, in G major;
+    Theme: "_See, the Conquering Hero comes!_" pub. 1804.
+
+    6. _Twelve Variations_ for piano and violoncello, in F major. (_See_
+    Op. 66.)
+
+    7. _Eight Variations_ for piano in C major; Theme from Gretry's
+    "_Richard Coeur de Lion_;" pub. 1798.
+
+    8. _Ten Variations_ for piano in B flat major; Theme: "_La stessa, la
+    stessissima_;" pub. 1799.
+
+    9. _Seven Variations_ for piano, in F major; Theme: "_Kind willst du
+    ruhig schlafen_;" pub. 1799.
+
+    10_a_. _Eight Variations_ for piano, in F major; Theme: "_Taendeln and
+    Scherzen_;" composed 1799.
+
+    10_b_. _Seven Variations_ for piano and violoncello, in E flat; Theme
+    from the "_Magic Flute_;" composed 1801 (?).
+
+    11. _Six very easy Variations_ on an original Theme; composed 1801.
+
+    12. _Six easy Variations_ for piano or harp, in F major; Theme: "_Air
+    suisse_;" pub. 1799 (?).
+
+    13. _Twenty-four Variations_ for piano, in D major, on a Theme by
+    Righini; composed about 1790.
+
+    14-23. _Wanting._
+
+    24. "_Der Wachtelschlag_," for voice and piano; words by Sauter; pub.
+    1804.
+
+    25. _Seven Variations_ for piano, in C major; Theme: "_God save the
+    King_;" pub. 1804.
+
+    26. _Five Variations_ (favourite) for piano, in D major; Theme:
+    "_Rule, Britannia_;" pub. 1804.
+
+    27. _Six Variations_ for piano, for four hands, in D major, on an
+    original Theme; composed 1800.
+
+    28. _Minuet_ for piano.
+
+    29. _Prelude_ for piano, in F minor; pub. 1805.
+
+    30, 31. _Wanting._
+
+    32. "_To Hope_," by Tiedge (_see_ Op. 94).
+
+    33, 34. _Wanting._
+
+    35. _Andante_ for piano in F major (originally in the Sonata, Op. 53),
+    composed 1803 (?).
+
+    36. _Thirty-two Variations_ for piano, in C minor, on an original
+    Theme; pub. 1807.
+
+    37. _Wanting._
+
+    38. "_Die Sehnsucht_:" four Melodies for voice and piano; text by
+    Goethe; pub. 1810.
+
+
+III. COMPOSITIONS DESIGNATED BY _Letters_.
+
+A. INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.
+
+    _a._ _Trio_ for piano, violin, and violoncello (in one movement), in B
+    flat; ded. to "my little friend, Maximiliana Brentano, for her
+    encouragement in pianoforte playing;" composed 1812.
+
+    _b._ _Rondo_ for piano and violin, in G major; pub. 1800.
+
+    _c._ _Andante_ for piano, in G.
+
+    _d._ _Sonata_ for piano, in C major (_incomplete_); composed 1796.
+
+    _e._ _Two easy Sonatinas_ for piano, in G major and F major; composed
+    in Bonn.
+
+    _f._ _Three Sonatas_ for piano, in E flat major, F minor, and D major;
+    ded. to the Elector Max. Friedrich; composed at the age of eleven.
+
+    _g._ _Rondo_ for piano, in A major; pub. 1784.
+
+    _h._ _Andante_ on the text: "_Oh Hoffnung, du staehlst die Herzen_"
+    (Ex. for the Archduke Rudolph).
+
+    _i._ _Favourite March_ of the Emperor Alexander.
+
+    _k._ _Eight Variations_ for piano in B flat; Theme: "_Ich habe ein
+    kleines Huettchen nur_."
+
+    _l._ _Variations_ for piano, on a March by Dressler; composed at the
+    age of ten.
+
+    _m._ _Variations_ for piano, for four hands, on an original theme.
+
+    _n._ _Variations_ for piano, for four hands, in A major.
+
+    _o._ _Triumphal March for orchestra_, in C major; performed 1813.
+
+    _p._ _Second and Third Overtures to "Leonora"_ ("_Fidelio_"), in C
+    major.
+
+    _q._ _Overture to "Fidelio"_ ("_Leonora_" No. 4), in E major.
+
+    _r._ _Triumphal March_ for orchestra, in G major.
+
+    _s._ _Three Duos_ for clarionet and bassoon, in C major, F major, and
+    B flat; composed about 1800.
+
+    _t._ _Minuet_ for piano (from the Septet, Op. 20).
+
+    _u._ _Quintet_ (MS.), for two violins, two violas, and violoncello, in
+    F major.
+
+
+B. DANCE MUSIC.
+
+    Twelve Contre danses.
+    Twelve Minuets for orchestra.
+    Six Minuets for piano.
+    Twelve _Danses Allemandes_ for two violins and bass.
+    Seven Country Dances for piano.
+    Six Country Dances for piano.
+    Twelve _Ecossaises_ for piano.
+    Six _Allemandes_ for piano and violin.
+    Twelve Waltzes with Trios for orchestra.
+    Six Waltzes for two violins and bass.
+    Two Minuets for piano, for four hands.
+    Six Country Dances for piano.
+    Two Favourite Waltzes for piano, in B flat major and E minor.
+
+
+C. VOCAL MUSIC.
+
+    _a._ _Six Songs_ from Reissig's "_Bluemchen der Einsamkeit_:"--
+
+    1. "_Sehnsucht_," in E major.
+    2. "_Krieger's Abschied_," in E flat.
+    3. "_Der Juengling in der Fremde_," in B flat.
+    4. "_An den fernen Geliebten_," in G major.
+    5. "_Der Zufriedene_," in A major.
+    6. "_Der Liebende_," in D major.
+
+    _b._ _Three Songs:_--
+
+    1. "_An die Geliebte_," in B flat.
+    2. "_Das Geheimniss_," in G major.
+    3. "_So oder so! Nord oder Sued._"
+
+    _c._ _Italian and German Songs:_--
+
+    1. "_La Partenza_" ("_ecco quel fiore_").
+    2. "_Trinklied._"
+    3. "_Liedchen von der Ruhe._"
+    4. "_An die Hoffnung._"
+    5. "_Ich Liebe dich, so wie du nich._"
+    6. "_Molly's Abschied._"
+    7. "_Ohne Liebe._"
+    8. "_Wachtelgesang._"
+    9. "_Marmotte._"
+    10. "_Maigesang._"
+    11. "_Feuerfarbe._"
+    12. "_Ecco quel fiori istanti._"
+
+    _d._ _Songs_, for one or more voices, from Shakspere, Byron, and Moore.
+    _e._ "_Der Glorreiche Augenblick_," for four voices and orchestra.
+    _f._ "_Lied aus der Ferne._"
+    _g._ _Three Songs_ from Tiedge.
+    _h._ _Three Songs._
+    _i._ _Three Songs._
+    _k._ "_Oh! dass ich dir vom stillen Auge._"
+    _l._ "_Sehnsucht nach dem Rhein._"
+    _m._ "_Die Klage._"
+    _n._ _Three Andantes._
+    _o._ "_Ruf vom Berge._"
+    _p._ "_Der Bardengeist_."
+    _q._ "_Als die Geliebte sich trennen wollte._"
+    _r._ _Elegy_ on the death of a Poodle.
+    _s._ _Arietta_ in A flat major.
+    _t._ _Canon_ in E flat major.
+    _u._ "_Zaertliche Liebe._"
+    _v._ "_Resignation_," "_Lisch' aus_," in E major.
+    _w._ _Canon_ for six voices.
+    _x._ _Canon_ for four voices.
+    _y._ _Canon_ for three voices.
+    _z._ _Canon_ written in the album of Director Neide.
+    _tz._ _Song of the Monks_, from Schiller's "_Wilhelm Tell_."
+    _a^{2}._ "_Song of the Nightingale._"
+    _b^{2}._ "_Germania's Wiedergeburt_," for four voices and orchestra.
+    _c^{2}._ "_Abschiedsgesang an Wien's Buerger._"
+    _e^{2}._ Final songs from (1) "_Die Ehrenpforte_," in D major; (2)
+    "_Die gute Nachricht_."
+    _f^{2}._ "_Andenken von Matthison_"--allegretto.
+    _g^{2}._ Three-part _Song_.
+
+
+IV. COMPOSITIONS WHICH APPEARED AFTER BEETHOVEN'S DEATH, WITHOUT BEING
+DESIGNATED AS _Op._ OR _No._
+
+    _a._ "_Beethoven's Heimgang_," for voice and piano.
+    _b._ "_An Sie_," Song, in A flat major.
+    _c._ _Two Songs_:--
+
+        1. "_Seufzer eines Ungeliebten._"
+        2. "_Die laute Klage._"
+
+    _d._ "_Die Ehre Gottes in der Natur_," for four voices and orchestra,
+           in C major.
+    _e._ _Cantata: "Europa steht."_
+    _f._ _Song, "Gedenke mein."_
+    _g._ "_Empfindungen bei Lydia's Untreu_," in E flat.
+    _h._ "_Equali_," two pieces for four trombones.
+    _i._ _Allegretto_ for orchestra.
+    _k._ _Three Quartets._
+    _l._ _Rondo_ for piano and orchestra.
+    _m._ _Octet_ for wind instruments (now Op. 103.)
+    _n._ _Rondino_ for eight-part harmony.
+    _o._ _Two Trios_ for piano, violin, and 'cello.
+    _p._ _Military March_ for piano.
+    _q._ "_Lament at Beethoven's Grave._"
+    _r._ "_The Last Musical Thought._"
+
+J. AND W. RIDER, PRINTERS, LONDON.
+
+
+
+
+A NOVEL WITH TWO HEROES.
+
+BY ELLIOTT GRAEME,
+
+AUTHOR OF "BEETHOVEN; A MEMOIR," &C.
+
+_In Two Vols. Post 8vo._
+
+OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
+
+"We can sincerely congratulate Mr. Graeme on having achieved a decided
+literary success.... The story is written in a lively and agreeable
+style ... the simple life of the worthy Director is charmingly told....
+Several of the portraits are evidently taken from life.... The interest
+of the story centres in Mala, the beautiful girl, who inherits her
+father's genius.... The characters of Mr. Chesney, the stately and
+somewhat pompous rector, and of his anti-type, a parson of quite another
+school, are drawn with singular truthfulness and freedom from
+exaggeration."--_Athenaeum._
+
+"Above the average even of good novels ... clever and amusing ... free
+from sensationalism, though full of interest, and of interest which
+touches many of the deeper chords of life. Mr. Graeme's delineation of
+character is remarkably good.... After all, the English rector is the
+gem of the book; the crust of his character so hard, but the ring of the
+metal itself, though harsh, so true.... Mr. Graeme's canvas is so
+crowded, that it is really difficult to select figures for illustration.
+When we have given the notice their prominence demands to some of the
+leading characters, we find our heartiest admiration and our keenest
+dislike really reserved for the subordinate actors, who yet are very
+real in the byplay on which so much of the story turns, as it would turn
+in actual life."--_Spectator._
+
+"In 'A Novel with Two Heroes,' Mr. Graeme has produced a story of deep
+interest, and something more,--he has given us a love-story, or rather,
+two or three love-stories, without the least frivolity of the kind that
+most of the novel-writers of the day seem to think is the necessary
+accompaniment of love-making. He has shown intimate knowledge of the
+springs of human nature, and a power of description which is not the
+less admirable that it is quiet and unpretentious. There are some
+domestic scenes which, for their simplicity and their obvious
+reproduction from real life, have not often been excelled; while, again,
+there are dramatic scenes powerful almost to painfulness in their
+intensity, without being in the least disfigured by big or strong words.
+Womanly beauty and natural scenery Mr. Graeme touches with a light hand,
+contriving to tell more about them in a few words or lines than most
+people could do in as many pages.... Sir Robert Chesney is a good,
+plucky English lad, without a serious flaw in him, but not fond of
+learning, though full of humour. His experiences with his uncle are
+delightful.... It would be easy to go through the novel and pick out
+passages of high excellence.... Abundant merit of a high order is shown
+throughout, alike in construction, plot, and treatment."--_Scotsman._
+
+"We can only point out some of the beauties of this fresh and
+interesting production.... One of its great charms is its singular
+purity.... In drawing his characters Mr. Graeme brings out strongly, yet
+without the least effort, the pathetic side of most lives; and he
+brightens them up at the same time with many a touch of genuine
+humour.... Mr. Graeme is no surface painter.... 'A Novel with Two
+Heroes' may safely be recommended to all who can appreciate delicacy of
+sentiment, combined with clever portraiture and thorough knowledge of
+life."--_Morning Post._
+
+"One of the most promising works of fiction which it has been our lot to
+encounter of late years. Not for a long time have we read a more
+pleasant and enjoyable story, full of poetry and life and music, rich in
+subtle delineation of character, vigorous word-painting, and graphic
+portraitures, all steeped in that delightful dreaminess and mystic
+beauty with which German tales are so often and so richly flavoured....
+We have been led to dwell at length on the defects of Mr. Graeme's work
+because it is one of those productions which can stand, and, we shall
+add, deserve severe criticism. Were the faults a hundred times more
+numerous and grave than we have indicated, the novel would still be a
+remarkable production. The pictures of German life--the St. Cecilian
+festival, the _Fastnacht_, or annual Saturnalia at Lent, the Procession
+of St. Agnes, the sails on the river, &c., &c., are all painted with a
+fidelity and power not often met with but in Scott. Even more remarkable
+are the humour and pathos, as well as the variety and originality of the
+portraitures. Every character is full of life and
+individuality."--_Glasgow Herald._
+
+"This work has sterling merits."--_Saturday Review._
+
+"Better worth reading than five out of six of the novels of the
+day."--_Examiner._
+
+"Will be heartily welcomed by all lovers of a good story."--_Graphic._
+
+"Uncommon scenes and characters uncommonly well
+described."--_Illustrated London News._
+
+"Mr. Graeme has an eye for colours. He seizes upon the telling points of
+a story, and paints in the picturesque details of a passing
+scene."--_Westminster Review._
+
+"Very lifelike; displays depth and originality of thought."--_John
+Bull._
+
+"Superior in all respects to the common run of novels."--_Daily News._
+
+"A novel with some delightfully fresh characters; ... not a page but is
+attractive."--_Daily Telegraph._
+
+"This eminently readable novel ... displays an acquaintance with human
+nature, and a power of description of the happiest kind."--_Leeds
+Mercury._
+
+LONDON: CHARLES GRIFFIN AND COMPANY.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Beethoven: A Memoir (2nd Ed.), by Elliott Graeme
+
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