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diff --git a/37996-8.txt b/37996-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..59fb490 --- /dev/null +++ b/37996-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6443 @@ +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: ISO-8859-1 + +*** 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 _résumé_ 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 Abbé 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")--"Adelaïde" 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 æsthetic +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 æsthetic 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 +littérateurs 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 Mæcenas 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 æsthetic 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 fêtes 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 + MARIÆ JOSEPHÆ POLL, + + Et + + MARIAM MAGDALENAM KEFERICH, viduam LEYM, ex Ehrenbreitstein, filiam + HENRICI KEFERICH et ANNÆ MARIÆ 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 Quatremère 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 Grétry and Gluck. + +The operas were varied by dramatic representations, and these must have +had an immense influence on the observant, reflective boy; for the +_répertoire_ 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 Molière, 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 Abbé 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, Bürger, 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 iniquæ 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 Abbé +Sterkel, one of the greatest living pianists. + +They were very graciously received, and the Abbé, 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 Abbé 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 +_protégé'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 +masqué_, 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 Fräulein 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 _desolé_ 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'hôte_ is composed of a circle of habitués, 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 habitués 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:-- + + "Glück und langes Leben + Wünsch' ich heute Dir, + Aber auch daneben + Wünsch' ich etwas mir! + Mir in Rücksicht Deiner + Wünsch' ich Deine Huld, + Dir in Rücksicht meiner + Nachsicht und Geduld! + + "Von Ihrer Freundin und Schülerin, + + "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 Cæsar 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 "Jägerhorn" (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 Türk, 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 Förster, 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 Abbé 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 Fräulein 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 +_recherché_ style of their musical entertainments, it may easily be +imagined how, in such a state of society, Beethoven was lionized, +petted, and fêted. + +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 Maccabæus," 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 _protégé_ 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 _éclat_ 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 _protégé_, +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 Jäger, 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 _attaché_, 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 Förster, 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 Sérieuses 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 naïvely, "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 più 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 _bâton_ 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")--"Adelaïde." + + +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 _forté_; 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 Hofräthin[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 +Schönbrunn. 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 +Fétis, 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 _bâton_ 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, wär' 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. Clärchen'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 Schröder-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 +"Adelaïde" 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 'Adelaïde' 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 'Adelaïde,' 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 'Adelaïde,' 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 Füger, 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 Académie Joséphine, 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 Schönbrunn Allée 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 bedränget 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 + _rôle_. 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, naïvely 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, Fräulein 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 Erdödy, 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 +_ménage_, 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 personæ_ 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 +Olmütz) 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 _déjeuner_ 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 bâton 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 fêtes 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 _exposé_ 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 +Olmütz; 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, "_Donné, par le roi, à 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. +Fräulein 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 +£1,200; 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 £100 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 Hüttenbrenner 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, + Ruhestätt 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 Pathétique played with a _naïveté_ 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 (_Pathétique_). + 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 Pathétique_ 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, _née_ 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. _Adelaïde_: 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, Bürger, + 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 Mädchen oder Weibchen_," from Mozart's "_Zauberflöte_;" + 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 Erdödy; 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 Glück 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 Erdödy; 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 Thèmes variés_ 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 Thèmes variés russes, écossais, 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 Fräulein 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 glückliche 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 caractérisstique_; "_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 è più + bello_;" pub. 1796. + + 3_a_. _Six Variations_ for piano; Theme: "_Nel cor più non mi sento_;" + composed 1795. + + 3_b_. _Two Minuets_ for piano, for four hands. + + 4. _Twelve Variations_ for piano, in C major; Theme: "_Menuet à la + Vigano_;" pub. 1796. + + 5_a_. _Twelve Variations_ for piano, in A major; Theme from the ballet + of the "_Waldmädchen_;" 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 Grétry'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: "_Tändeln 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 stählst 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 Hüttchen 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 "_Blümchen der Einsamkeit_:"-- + + 1. "_Sehnsucht_," in E major. + 2. "_Krieger's Abschied_," in E flat. + 3. "_Der Jüngling 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 Süd._" + + _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._ "_Zärtliche 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 Bürger._" + _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."--_Athenæum._ + +"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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEETHOVEN: A MEMOIR (2ND ED.) *** + +***** This file should be named 37996-8.txt or 37996-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/9/9/37996/ + +Produced by David E. 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