BY LOUIS NOHL TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN BY JOHN J. LALOR. “ Our age has need of vigorous minds. ” CHICAGO: JANSEN, McCLURG & COMPANY. 1881....

Music is the most popular of the arts. It fills man’s breast with a melancholy joy. Even the brute creation is not insensible to its power. Yet, at its best, music is a haughty, exclusive being, and not without reason are training, practice, talent, and the development of that talent, required for the understanding of her secrets. “One wishes to be heard with the intellect, by one’s equals; emotion becomes only women, but music should strike fire from the mind of a man.” In some such strain as t

Birth and Baptism—His Family—Young Beethoven’s Character—His Brothers Karl and Johann—Early Talent for Music—Appears in Public at the Age of Seven—Error as to His Age—Travels in Holland—Studies the Organ in Vienna—His Fame Foretold—His Personal Appearance—Meets Mozart—Mozart’s Opinion of Him—Maximilian, Elector of Cologne, and Mozart—Beethoven’s Intellectual Training—Madame von Breuning—First Love—Beethoven and Haydn—Compositions written in Vienna. Ludwig van Beethoven was baptized in Bonn on th

Music in Vienna—Society in Vienna—Beethoven’s Dedications—Lichnowsky—The Eroica and Fidelio—Beethoven’s First Great Exploits—Plans for Future Work—Decides to Remove to the North—New Compositions—His Improvisations—Disappointment in North Germany—Prince Louis Ferdinand—Makes His Home in Austria—Neglects His Health—His Deafness—Origin of the Eroica—Napoleon I—Bernadotte—The Symphony in C Minor—His Deafness Again—Thoughts of Marriage—The Guicciardi Family—Meaning of His Music—His “Will”—Disappointm

The Pastorale—Its Composition—Meaning of the Apassionata—Its History—Beethoven’s Letter to His “Immortal Loved One”—His Own Opinion of the Apassionata—New Acquaintances—Thinks of Writing Operas—Court-theater Composer—Overture to Coriolanus—The Mass in C., op. 86—His Sacred Music—The Fidelio in Prague—Music for Goethe’s Faust—“Power, the Moral Code”—Power Expressed in Beethoven’s Music—Character of His Works about this Period—Intercourse with the Malfattis—The Cello Sonata, op. 69—Other Compositi

Resignation—Pecuniary Distress—Napoleon’s Decline—The Battle-Symphony—Its Success—Beethoven’s Own Estimate of It—Wellington’s Victory—Strange Conduct—Intellectual Exaltation—His Picture by Letronne—The Fidelio Before the Assembled Monarchs—Beethoven the Object of Universal Attention—Presents from Kings—Works Written in 1814 and 1815—The Liederkreis—Madame von Ertmann—His Nephew—Romulus and the Oratorio—His “Own Style”—Symphony for London—Commission from London—Opinion of the English People—His S

Berlioz on the Lot of Artists—Beethoven Misunderstood—The Great Concert of May, 1824—Preparation for It—Small Returns—Beethoven Appreciated—First Performance of the Missa Solemnis and of the Ninth Symphony—The Quartets—An “Oratorio for Boston”—Overture on B-A-C-H—Influence of His Personal Experience on His Works—His Brother Johann—Postponement of His Journey to London—Presentiment of Death—The Restoration of Metternich and Gentz—His “Son”—Troubles with the Young Man—Debility—Calls for Dr. Malfat