The Life Of Ludwig Van Beethoven - free ebook by Alexander Wheelock Thayer

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The Life Of Ludwig Van Beethoven

Alexander Wheelock Thayer

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THE LIFE OF LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN VOLUME III

THE LIFE OF LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN VOLUME III

BEETHOVEN in 1814 Engraved by Blasius Höfel After a crayon sketch by Louis Latronne The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven By Alexander Wheelock Thayer Edited, revised and amended from the original English manuscript and the German editions of Hermann Deiters and Hugo Riemann, concluded, and all the documents newly translated By Henry Edward Krehbiel Volume III Published by The Beethoven Association New York SECOND PRINTING Copyright, 1921, By Henry Edward Krehbiel From the press of G. Schirmer, Inc.,

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THE LIFE OF LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN VOLUME I

THE LIFE OF LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN VOLUME I

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN After the Bust by Franz Klein 1812 The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven By Alexander Wheelock Thayer Edited, revised and amended from the original English manuscript and the German editions of Hermann Deiters and Hugo Riemann, concluded, and all the documents newly translated By Henry Edward Krehbiel Volume I Published by The Beethoven Association New York SECOND PRINTING Copyright, 1921, By Henry Edward Krehbiel From the press of G. Schirmer, Inc., New York Printed in the U. S.

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THE LIFE OF LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN VOLUME II

THE LIFE OF LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN VOLUME II

BEETHOVEN After Mähler's Portrait of 1804 From the copy in possession of Mrs. Jabez Fox The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven By Alexander Wheelock Thayer Edited, revised and amended from the original English manuscript and the German editions of Hermann Deiters and Hugo Riemann, concluded, and all the documents newly translated By Henry Edward Krehbiel Volume II Published by The Beethoven Association New York SECOND PRINTING Copyright, 1921. By Henry Edward Krehbiel From the press of G. Schirmer, In

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Chapter I

Chapter I

The Year 1803—Cherubini’s Operas in Vienna—Beethoven’s Engagement at the Theater-an-der-Wien—“Christus am Ölberg” again—Bridgetower and the “Kreutzer” Sonata—-Negotiations with Thomson—New Friends—Mähler’s Portrait of Beethoven. Kotzebue, after a year of activity in Vienna as Alxinger’s successor in the direction, under the banker Baron von Braun, of the Court Theatre, then a year of exile in Siberia (1800), whence he was recalled by that semi-maniac Paul, who was moved thereto by the delight wh

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Chapter I

Chapter I

The Contest for the Guardianship of Nephew Karl—The Conversation Books—A Wedding Song—In Travail with the Mass—The Year 1819. The key-note for much that must occupy us in a survey of the year 1819 is sounded by A New Year’s Greeting to Archduke Rudolph. Beethoven invokes all manner of blessings on the head of his pupil and patron and, begging a continuance of gracious benevolences for himself, sets forth a picture of his unhappy plight. A terrible occurrence has recently taken place in my family

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Postscript

Postscript

The breaking out, in August, 1914, of the war between Austria and Servia which eventually involved nearly all the civilized nations of the world, led the publishers, who had originally undertaken to print this Work as brought to a conclusion by the American Editor, indefinitely to postpone its publication. In the spring of 1920 the Beethoven Association, composed of musicians of high rank, who had given a remarkably successful series of concerts of Beethoven’s chamber-music in New York in the se

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Chapter I

Chapter I

The organist of the Court Chapel was Christian Gottlob Neefe, son of a poor tailor of Chemnitz in Saxony, where he was born February 5, 1748. He is one of the many instances in musical history in which the career of the man is determined by the beauty of his voice in childhood. At a very early age he became a chorister in the principal church, which position gave him the best school and musical instruction that the small city afforded—advantages so wisely improved as to enable him in early youth

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Chapter II

Chapter II

The Year 1804—The “Sinfonia Eroica”—Beethoven and Breuning—The “Waldstein” Sonata—Sonnleithner, Treitschke and Gaveaux—“Fidelio” Begun—Beethoven’s Popularity. During the winter 1803-04 negotiations were in progress the result of which put an end for the present to Beethoven’s operatic aspirations. Let Treitschke, a personal actor in the scenes, explain: [17] On February 24, 1801, the first performance of “ Die Zauberflöte ” took place in the Royal Imperial Court Theatre beside the Kärnthnerthor.

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Chapter II

Chapter II

The Years 1820 and 1821—End of the Guardianship Litigation—A Costly Victory—E. T. A. Hoffmann—Financial Troubles—Adagios and English Hymn-tunes—Arrested as a Vagrant—Negotiations for the Mass in D—The Last Pianoforte Sonatas. Almost involuntarily, in passing in review the incidents of the year whose story has just been told and projecting a glance into the near future, the question arises: Where, in these moments of doubt, ill-health, trial, vexation of spirit and torment of body were the old fr

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Chapter II

Chapter II

The Ancestral van Beethoven Family in Belgium—Removal of the Grandfather to Bonn—His Activities as Singer and Chapelmaster—Birth and Education of Johann van Beethoven—The Parents of the Composer. At the beginning of the seventeenth century a family named van Beethoven lived in a village of Belgium near Louvain. A member of it removed to and settled in Antwerp about 1650. A son of this Beethoven, named William, a wine dealer, married, September 11, 1680, Catherine Grandjean and had issue, eight c

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Chapter III

Chapter III

After the performance he went to her; his usually threatening eyes smiled upon her, he patted her cheeks, thanked her for her Fidelio and promised to compose a new opera for her—a promise which, unfortunately was never fulfilled. Wilhelmine never met the master again, but of all the evidences of homage paid to the famous woman in later years her most precious recollection were the words of appreciation which Beethoven spoke to her. The tale is amiable, and plausible enough; standing alone there

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Chapter III

Chapter III

The Year 1805—First Public Performance of the “Heroic Symphony”—The Opera “Leonore,” or “Fidelio”—A Study of the Sketchbook—The Singers and the Production. The life of an author or composer, when absorbed in the study of a great work, falls into a routine of daily labor that presents few salient points to the biographer. Thus it was with Beethoven during the first two-thirds of the year 1805. What has been preserved of his correspondence is very little in quantity and of slight value. Ries was a

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Chapter III

Chapter III

The Childhood of Beethoven—An Inebriate Grandmother and a Dissipated Father—The Family Homes in Bonn—The Boy’s Schooling—His Music Teachers—Visits Holland with his Mother. There is no authentic record of Beethoven’s birthday. Wegeler, on the ground of custom in Bonn, dates it the day preceding the ceremony of baptism—an opinion which Beethoven himself seems to have entertained. It is the official record of this baptism only that has been preserved. In the registry of the parish of St. Remigius t

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Chapter IV

Chapter IV

The Year 1806—Repetition of “Fidelio”—Changes in the Opera—Its Withdrawal—Journey to Silesia—Correspondence with Thomson—The Scottish Songs. Excerpts from a letter written on June 2, 1806, by Stephan von Breuning to his sister and brother-in-law, make a fair opening for the story of the year 1806. In it he reports on “Fidelio.” The letter, though written in the middle of the year, has reference to the period between the original performance late in 1805 and the repetition in the spring of 1806,

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Chapter IV

Chapter IV

The Solemn Mass in D—A Royal Subscription—More Negotiations with England—Opera Projects—Grillparzer’s “Melusine”—The Diabelli Variations—Summer Visitors—An Englishman’s Account—Weber and Julius Benedict—Ries and the Ninth Symphony—Franz Liszt and Beethoven’s Kiss—The Year 1823. When the year 1823 opens, the Mass in D is supposedly finished and negotiations for its publication have been carried on in a manner the contemplation of which must affect even the casual reader grievously. The work had b

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Chapter IV

Chapter IV

Beethoven a Pupil of Neefe—His Talent and Skill Put to Use—First Efforts at Composition—Johann van Beethoven’s Family—Domestic Tribulations. Christian Gottlob Neefe succeeded the persons mentioned as Beethoven’s master in music. When this tutorship began and ended, and whether or not it be true that the Elector engaged and paid him for his services in this capacity, as affirmed by divers writers—here again positive evidence is wanting. Neefe came to Bonn in October, 1779; received the decree of

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Chapter V

Chapter V

Beethoven’s Friends and Patrons in the First Lustrum of the Nineteenth Century—An Imperial Pupil, Archduke Rudolph—Count Rasoumowsky—Countess Erdödy—Baroness Ertmann—Marie Bigot—Therese Malfatti—Nanette Streicher—Zizius—Anecdotes. He who dwells with wife and children in a fixed abode, usually finds himself, as age draws on, one of a small circle of old friends; and hoary heads, surrounded by their descendants, the inheritors of parental friendships, sit at the same tables and make merry where th

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Chapter V

Chapter V

The Symphony in D Minor—Its Technical History—Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”—An Address to Beethoven—The Concerts of 1824—Laborious and Protracted Preparations—Production of the Symphony and Mass in D—Financial Failure—Negotiations with Publishers Resumed. The Symphony in D minor, familiarly known the world over as the “Ninth,” and also as the “Choral” Symphony in England and America, was completed in February, 1824. The conclusion of the work upon it, Schindler says, had a cheering effect upon Beethov

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Chapter V

Chapter V

Maria Theresia—Appearance and Character of Elector Max Franz—Musical Culture in the Austrian Imperial Family—A Royal Violinist—His Admiration for Mozart—His Court Music. Maria Theresia was a tender mother, much concerned to see all her children well provided for in her lifetime and as independent as possible of her eldest son, the heir to the throne. This wish had already been fulfilled in the case of several of them.... The youngest son, Maximilian (born in Vienna, December 8, 1756), was alread

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Chapter VI

Chapter VI

Incidents and Labors of 1824—Bernard’s Oratorio—Visitors at Baden—New Publishers—A Visitor from London—Beethoven’s Opinion of his Predecessors—The Quartet in E-flat, Op. 127. At the end of the chapter preceding the last, which recorded the doings of the year 1823, Beethoven was left in his lodgings in the Ungargasse, occupied with work upon the Ninth Symphony, which was approaching completion, oppressed with anxiety concerning his health and worried about his brother’s domestic affairs. As the s

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Chapter VI

Chapter VI

Princes as Theatrical Directors—Disappointed Expectations—Subscription Concerts at Prince Lobkowitz’s—The Symphony in B-flat—The “Coriolan” Overture—Contract with Clementi—The Mass in C—The Year 1807. A controversy for the possession of the two Court Theatres and that An-der-Wien involved certain legal questions which, in September, 1806, were decided by the proper tribunal against the old directors, who were thus at the end of the year compelled to retire. Peter, Baron von Braun, closed his twe

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Chapter VII

Chapter VII

The Year 1825—The London Philharmonic Society again—Karl Holz—The Early Biographies—Visits of Rellstab, Kuhlau, Smart and Others—Stephan von Breuning—The A Minor Quartet, Op. 132. The letter from Neate referred to at the conclusion of the last chapter brought with it an invitation from the Philharmonic Society of London which kept the thought of an English visit alive in Beethoven’s irresolute mind for a considerable space longer. Neate wrote in an extremely cordial vein. He had long wished to s

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Chapter VII

Chapter VII

The Year 1808—Beethoven’s Brother Johann—Plans for New Operas—The “Pastoral Symphony” and “Choral Fantasia”—A Call to Cassel—Appreciation in Vienna. The history of the year 1808 must be preceded by the following letter to Gleichenstein: Dear good Gleichenstein: Please be so kind as to give this to the copyist to-morrow—it concerns the symphony as you see—in case he is not through with the quartet to-morrow, take it away and deliver it at the Industriecomptoir .... You may say to my brother that

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Chapter VI

Chapter VI

Beethoven Again—The Young Organist—A First Visit to Vienna—Death of Beethoven’s Mother—Sympathetic Acquaintances—Dr. Wegeler’s “ Notizen ”—Some Questions of Chronology. Schindler records—and on such points his testimony is good—that he had heard Beethoven attribute the marvellous development of Mozart’s genius in great measure to the “consistent instruction of his father,” thus implying his sense of the disadvantages under which he himself labored from the want of regular and systematic musical

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Chapter VIII

Chapter VIII

Jerome Bonaparte’s Invitation—The Annuity Contract—Operatic Projects—Seyfried’s “Studies”—The Siege of Vienna—Increased Cost of Living—Dilatory Debtors—The Year 1809. The offer of an honorable position in Cassel—permanent, so long as Napoleon’s star might remain in the ascendant and his satellite retain his nominal kingship of Westphalia—was one no less gratifying to Beethoven, than surprising and perplexing to his friends. Knowing both the strong and the weak points of his character, they saw t

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Chapter VIII

Chapter VIII

A Year of Sickness and Sorrow: 1826—The Quartets in B-Flat, C-Sharp Minor and F Major—Controversy with Prince Galitzin—Dedication of the Ninth Symphony—Life at Gneixendorf—Beethoven’s Last Compositions. The year which witnessed the last of Beethoven’s completed labors, and saw what by general consent might be set down as the greatest of his string quartets, that in C-sharp minor, Op. 131, beheld also the culmination of the grief and pain caused by the conduct of his nephew. The year 1826 was a y

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Chapter VII

Chapter VII

The von Breuning Family—Beethoven Brought Under Refining Influences—Count Waldstein, His Mæcenas—The Young Musician is Forced to Become Head of the Family. In 1527, the year in which the administration of the office of Hochmeister of the Teutonic Order was united with that of the Deutschmeister , whose residence had already been fixed at Mergentheim in 1525, this city became the principal seat of the order. From 1732 to 1761 Clemens Augustus was Hoch- und Deutschmeister of the order; according t

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Chapter IX

Chapter IX

The Years 1807-09—A Retrospect—Beethoven’s Intellectual Attainments—Interest in Exotic Literatures—His Religion. A popular conception of Beethoven’s character, namely, that a predisposition to gloom and melancholy formed its basis, appears to the present writer to be a grave mistake. The question is not what he became in later years— tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis —but what was the normal constitution of his mind in this regard. Exaggerated reports of his sadness and infelicity during

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Chapter IX

Chapter IX

Karl van Beethoven—A Wayward Ward and an Unwise Guardian—Beethoven and His Nephew—An Ill-advised Foster-father and a Graceless, Profligate Nephew—Effect on Beethoven’s Character of the Guardianship—An Unsuccessful Attempt at Self-destruction—Karl is Made a Soldier. We are now to learn of the calamitous consequences of Beethoven’s effort to be a foster-father to the son of his dead brother Kaspar. The tale is one that has been fruitful of fiction in most of the writings which have dealt with the

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Chapter VIII

Chapter VIII

The National Theatre of Max Franz—Beethoven’s Artistic Associates—Practical Experience in the Orchestra—The “ Ritterballet ”—The Operatic Repertory of Five Years. Early in the year 1788, the mind of the Elector, Max Franz, was occupied with the project for forming a company of Hofschauspieler; in short, with the founding of a National Theatre upon the plan adopted by his predecessor in Bonn and by his brother Joseph in Vienna. His finances were now in order, the administration of public affairs

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Chapter IX

Chapter IX

Gleanings of Musical Fact and Anecdote—Haydn in Bonn—A Rhine Journey—Abbé Sterkel—Beethoven Extemporises—Social and Artistic Life in Bonn—Eleonore von Breuning—The Circle of Friends—Beethoven Leaves Bonn Forever—The Journey to Vienna. As a pendant to the preceding sketches of Bonn’s musical history a variety of notices belonging to the last three years of Beethoven’s life in his native place are here brought together in chronological order. Most of them relate to him personally, and some of them

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Chapter X

Chapter X

The Year 1810—Decrease in Productivity—Beethoven’s Project of Marriage—Therese Malfatti—Bettina von Arnim and Her Correspondence with Goethe—The Music to “Egmont”—Productions of the Year. The topics last under notice have carried us far onward, even to the last years of Beethoven. We now return to the end of 1809—to the master in the full vigor and maturity of his powers. The last months of this year had been marked by an untiring and efficient industry; his sketchbooks abounded in the noblest t

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Chapter X

Chapter X

The Last Days in Gneixendorf—A Brother’s Warning—Beethoven and his Kinspeople—The Fateful Journey to Vienna—Sickness—Schindler’s Disingenuousness—Conduct of the Physicians—Death and Burial. The Conversation Books add nothing to the picturesque side of the account of Beethoven’s sojourn in Gneixendorf as it has been drawn from other sources. They indicate that there were some days of peace and tranquility, and that not only Johann, but his wife and nephew also, were concerned with making the comp

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Chapter X

Chapter X

Beethoven’s Creative Activity in Bonn—An Inquiry into the Genesis of Many Compositions—The Cantatas on the Death of Joseph II and the Elevation of Leopold II—Songs, the “ Ritterballet ,” the Octet and Other Chamber Pieces. But for the outbreak of the French Revolution, Bonn seems to have been destined to become a brilliant centre of learning and art. Owing to the Elector’s taste and love for music, that art became—what under the influence of Goethe poetry and drama were in Weimar—the artistic ex

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Chapter XI

Chapter XI

Bettina Brentano Again—Letters Between Beethoven and Goethe—The B-flat Trio—The Theatre in Pesth—Opera Projects—Therese Malfatti—Sojourn in Teplitz. Beethoven’s intercourse with the Brentanos kept his interest in Bettina alive and to this we owe a characteristic and welcome letter which, like the first, is here taken from the Nuremberg “Athenæum”: Vienna, February 10, 1811. Beloved, dear Bettine! I have already received two letters from you and observe from your letters to your brother [“to Toni

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Chapter XI

Chapter XI

Beethoven in Vienna—Personal Details—Death of His Father—Minor Expenditures and Receipts—Studies with Albrechtsberger and Salieri. It would be pleasant to announce the arrival of Ludwig van Beethoven in Vienna with, so to speak, a grand flourish of trumpets, and to indulge the fancy in a highly-colored and poetic account of his advent there; but, unluckily, there is none of that lack of data which is favorable to that kind of composition; none of that obscurity which exalts one to write history

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Chapter XII

Chapter XII

The Year 1812—Beethoven’s Finances—The Austrian “Finanzpatent”—Beethoven and Graz—Second Sojourn in Teplitz—Beethoven and Goethe—Amalie Sebald—Beethoven in Linz—Meddles with his Brother’s Domestic Affairs—Rode and the Sonata, Op. 96—Spohr—Mälzel and his Metronome—The Canon to Mälzel. Beethoven must again, for the present, be made his own biographer. The selections from his correspondence taken for this purpose will all gain in interest and perspicuity by first giving the notes to Zmeskall and th

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Chapter XIII

Chapter XIII

The Year 1813—Beethoven’s Journal—Death of Prince Kinsky—Beethoven’s Earnings—Mälzel and “Wellington’s Victory”—The A major Symphony—The Concerts of December 8 and 12. Short as Bettina’s stay in Vienna was, it occurred at the very crisis of Beethoven’s unlucky marriage project; and her society served a good purpose in distracting his thoughts; while her known relations to her future husband prevented the growth of any such feeling on his part as some have conjectured did really awaken. Next came

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Chapter XII

Chapter XII

Music in Vienna in 1793—Theatre, Church and Concert-Room—A Music-Loving Nobility—The Esterhazys, Kinsky, Lichnowsky, von Kees and van Swieten—Composers: Haydn, Kozeluch, Förster and Eberl. The musical drama naturally took the first place in the musical life of Vienna at this period. The enthusiasm of Joseph II for a national German opera, to which the world owed Mozart’s exquisite “ Entführung ,” proved to be but short-lived, and the Italian opera buffa resumed its old place in his affections. T

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Chapter XIII

Chapter XIII

Beethoven in Society—Concerts—Wegeler’s Recollections—Compositions—The First Trios—Sonatas Dedicated to Haydn—Variations—Dances for the Ridotto Rooms—Plays at Haydn’s Concert. However quiet and “without observation” Beethoven’s advent in Vienna may have been at that time when men’s minds were occupied by movements of armies and ideas of revolution, he could hardly have gone thither under better auspices. He was Court Organist and Pianist to the Emperor’s uncle; his talents in that field were wel

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Chapter XIV

Chapter XIV

The Year 1814—Popular Performances Repeated—Revision of “Fidelio”—The Opera Succeeds—Anton Schindler Enters Beethoven’s Life—The Quarrel with Mälzel—Moscheles—The Vienna Congress—J. W. Tomaschek—Count Rasoumowsky’s Palace Burned—Compositions of the Year. On the last day of 1813, the “ Wiener Zeitung ” contained this public notice: Musical Academy The desire of a large number of music-lovers whom I esteem as worthy of honor, to hear again my grand instrumental composition on “Wellington’s Victory

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Chapter XIV

Chapter XIV

The Years 1796 and 1797—Beethoven in Prague and Berlin—King Frederick William II and Prince Louis Ferdinand—Himmel, Fasch and Zelter—Compositions and Publications. The narrative resumes its course with the year 1796, the twenty-sixth of Beethoven’s life and his fourth in Vienna. If not yet officially, he was de facto discharged from his obligations to the Elector Maximilian and all his relations with Bonn and its people were broken off. Vienna had become his home, and there is no reason to suppo

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Chapter XV

Chapter XV

The Year 1815—New Opera Projects—Beethoven Before Crowned Heads—End of the Kinsky Trouble—Death of Karl van Beethoven—The Nephew—Dealings with England. Beethoven might well have adopted Kotzebue’s title: “The most Remarkable Year of my Life” and written his own history for 1814, in glowing and triumphant language; but now the theme modulates into a soberer key. “Then there is the matter of a new opera,” says a letter to the Archduke early in December. The “ Sammler ” of the 17th explains the all

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Chapter XVI

Chapter XVI

The Year 1816—Guardianship of the Nephew—Giannatasio del Rio—Beethoven’s Works in London—Birchall and Neate—New Distinctions. Compared with the years immediately preceding, the year 1816 is comparatively barren of large incidents in the life of Beethoven; its recorded history, therefore, is to be found to a still larger extent than before in the composer’s extended correspondence together with explanatory annotations. Some of the letters, especially those written to his English friends, are like

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Chapter XV

Chapter XV

General Bernadotte—His Connection with the “Heroic” Symphony—Rival Pianists—J. Wölffl—Dragonetti and Cramer—Compositions of the Years 1798 and 1799. Early in the year 1798, a political event occurred which demands notice here from its connection with one of Beethoven’s noblest and most original works—the “Sinfonia Eroica.” The singular tissue of error which, owing to carelessness in observing dates, has been woven in relation to its origin may be best destroyed by a simple statement of fact. The

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Chapter XVI

Chapter XVI

Beethoven’s Social Life in Vienna—His Friends: Vogl, Kiesewetter, Zmeskall, Amenda, Count Lichnowsky, Eppinger, Krumpholz—Schuppanzigh and His Quartet—Hummel—Friendships with Women—His Dedications. The chronological progress of the narrative must again be interrupted for a chapter or two, since no picture of a man’s life can be complete without the lights or shades arising from his social relations—without some degree of knowledge respecting those with whom he is on terms of equality and intimac

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Chapter XVII

Chapter XVII

The Year 1817—Beethoven and the Public Journals of Vienna—Fanny Giannatasio’s Diary—The Philharmonic Society of London—Cipriani Potter—Marschner—Marie Pachler-Koschak—Beethoven’s Opinion of Mälzel’s Metronome. Beethoven’s splenetic remarks to strangers in his last years upon the music, musicians and public of Vienna have given rise to widely diffused but utterly false conceptions as to the facts. Thus William Henry Fry, a leading American writer on music in the middle of the nineteenth century,

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Chapter XVII

Chapter XVII

Beethoven’s Character and Personality—His Disposition—Love of Nature—Relations with the Opposite Sex—Literary Tastes—His Letters—Manner of Composing—The Sketchbooks—Origin of His Deafness. The year 1800 is an important era in Beethoven’s history. It is the year in which, cutting loose from the pianoforte, he asserted his claims to a position with Mozart and the still living and productive Haydn in the higher forms of chamber and orchestral composition—the quartet and the symphony. It is the year

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Chapter XVIII

Chapter XVIII

The Year 1818—A Broadwood Pianoforte—Commission for an Oratorio—Conception of the Mass in D—The Nephew; A Mother’s Struggle for Her Son—The Pianoforte Sonata in B-flat, Op. 106. An entry in an old “Porter’s Book” of John Broadwood and Sons, manufacturers of pianofortes in London, offers an agreeable starting-point for the story of Beethoven’s life in 1818. In this book the porter of the firm signs his name, Millet, to the record that on December 27, 1817, he took from the warehouse “A 6 octave G

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Chapter XVIII

Chapter XVIII

Beethoven’s Brothers—His First Concert on His Own Account—Punto and the Sonata for Horn—Steibelt Confounded—E. A. Förster and the First Quartets—The Septet and First Symphony—Beethoven’s Homes—Hoffmeister—Compositions and Publications of 1800. It is not easy to conceive upon what ground the opinion became current, as it did, that Beethoven in the year 1800 and for several years to come was still burdened with the support of his brothers—young men now respectively in their 26th and 24th years. Th

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Chapter XIX

Chapter XIX

The Year 1801—Concerts for Wounded Soldiers—Vigano and the Ballet “Prometheus”—Stephan von Breuning—Hetzendorf—“ Christus am Ölberg ”—Compositions and Publications of the Year—The Funeral March in the Sonata, Op. 26—The “Moonlight” Sonata—The Quintet, Op. 29. The tone of Beethoven’s correspondence and the many proofs of his untiring industry during the winter 1800-1 and early part of the succeeding spring, suggest a mind at ease, rejoicing in the exercise of its powers, and a body glowing with v

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Chapter XX

Chapter XX

Letters of 1801—The Beginning of Beethoven’s Deafness—The Criticisms of a Leipsic Journal—Bonn Friends in Vienna—Reicha, Breuning, Ries, Czerny—Chronology Adjusted. Let us now turn back to the important letters written in the summer of 1801, beginning with two written to his friend Amenda, which were first published in the “Signale” of 1852, No. 5. The first, without date or record of place, is as follows: How can Amenda doubt that I shall always remember him [109] because I do not write or have

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(Postscript by the Editor of the English Edition.)

(Postscript by the Editor of the English Edition.)

There are other candidates than the Countesses Guicciardi and Brunswick for the honor of having been the object of what, it must be admitted, was Beethoven’s supreme love;—or, at least, there are other women for whom writers have put in pleas. Though Dr. Kalischer professed to believe that he had effectually disposed of the Thayer hypothesis, it is significant that by far the most notable champions who fought for their respective lady-loves are those who entered the lists for the Countess Theres

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Chapter XXII

Chapter XXII

The Year 1802—The Heiligenstadt Will—Beethoven’s Views on Arrangements—A Defence of Beethoven’s Brothers—The Slanders of Romancers and Unscrupulous Biographers—Compositions and Publications of the Year. The impatient Beethoven, vexed at the tardy improvement of his health under the treatment of Vering, made that change of physicians contemplated in his letter to Wegeler. This was done some time in the winter 1801-1802, and is all the foundation there is for Schindler’s story of “a serious illnes

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