[1] He had not been removed, but only temporarily suspended; he retained the supervision of the boy’s education and at a later period voluntarily resigned the guardianship for a time.
[2] See Kalischer-Shedlock, Vol. II. p. 124 et seq. The letter was dated erroneously February 1, 1818, instead of 1819.
[3] These citations are from the Conversation Books.
[4] Landshut University. It was afterward removed to Munich.
[5] As a matter of fact the boy was with Kudlich after this and remained there until Beethoven went to Mödling. At the time of this consultation he was with his mother. Kudlich was instructed not to permit any communication between him and his mother.
[6] It is undated, but to judge by its contents and the sequence of events was written in May. See Kalischer-Shedlock, Vol. II, p. 134.
[7] Kalischer-Shedlock, Vol. II, p. 149.
[8] Kalischer-Shedlock, Vol. II, p. 145.
[9] That he was not always scrupulous in preserving their integrity when they offered evidence in contradiction of his printed statements is the conviction of this editor for reasons which will appear later.
[10] Apparently in reply to a question put by Beethoven an unidentified hand writes: “Poor stuff,—empty—totally ineffective—your theme was in bad hands; with much monotony he made 15 or 20 variations and put a cadenza (fermate) in every one, you may imagine what we had to endure—he has fallen off greatly and looks too old to entertain with his acrobatics on the violin.”
Thayer’s industry in the gathering and ordering of material for this biography, let it be remarked here in grateful tribute, is illustrated in the fact that he made practically a complete transcript of the Conversation Books, laboriously deciphering the frequently hieroglyphic scrawls, and compiled a mass of supplementary material for the purpose of fixing the chronological order of the conversations. The dates of all concerts and other public events alluded to were established by the examination of newspapers and other contemporaneous records and the utility of the biographical material greatly enhanced.
[11] Madame Pessiak-Schmerling, a daughter of Nanni, recounted this incident twice in the letters to Thayer. Madame Pessiak possessed a copy of the song. Her mother had jealously preserved the original, but, together with Beethoven’s letters to Giannatasio, it was stolen. In 1861 Thayer found song and letters among the autographs owned by William Witt of the firm of Ewer and Co. in London, and obtained copies of them, but Thayer’s copy of the song was not found by this Editor among the posthumous papers of the author when he examined them in order to set aside the needful material for the completion of this biography. The music of Miss Nanni’s hymeneal ode was forty years later put to a right royal use. Transposed from C to A major it was published for the first time by Ewer and Co. as a setting to English words on the occasion of the marriage of Victoria, eldest daughter of Queen Victoria, to Frederick William of Prussia (afterwards Emperor Frederick III) on January 25, 1858. The title of this publication, which is now out of print, was “The Wedding Song, written and by gracious permission dedicated to Her Royal Highness Victoria, Princess Royal, on her Wedding Day, by John Oxenford. The music composed by L. van Beethoven. Posthumous Work.” The inscription on the original manuscript, according to Thayer, was “Am 14ten Jenner 1819—für F. v. Giannatasio de Rio von L. v. Beethoven.”
At the Editor’s request Mr. J. S. Shedlock, in 1912, kindly made an investigation and reported that so far as could be learned from the public records the song had no place in the wedding ceremonies in 1858. Messrs. Novello and Co. most courteously brought forth the old plates from their vaults and had a “pull” of them made for this Editor’s use. The music can not be said to have any other than a curious interest. A single stanza will suffice to disclose the quality of Mr. Oxenford’s hymeneal ode:
[12] Dr. F. Keesbacher, who published a history of the Laibach Philharmonic Society in 1862, thought that this was the composition sent by Beethoven; but the “Pastoral” Symphony had been published nearly ten years before—by Breitkopf and Härtel in May, 1809.
[13] On the blank leaves of an Almanac for 1819, such as used to be bound in those useful household publications for the reception of memoranda, Beethoven notes: “Came to Mödling, May 12.!!! Miser sum pauper....” “On May 14 the housemaid in Mr. came, to receive 6 florins a month.... On 29th May Dr. Hasenöhrl made his 3rd visit to K. Tuesday on the 22nd of June my nephew entered the institute of Mr. Blöchlinger at monthly payments in advance of 75 florins W. W. Began to take the baths here regularly (?) on 28th Monday, for the first (?) time daily.” Schindler adds: “On July 20 gave notice to the housekeeper.”
[14] Kalischer-Shedlock, Vol. II. pp. 138 and 139.
[15] In his draft for this chapter Thayer wrote: “In the hope of obtaining further particulars Horsalka’s attention was directed to this passage in the copy now before the writer. The result is written on the margin in Herr Luib’s hand: ‘Horsalka knows nothing of this’. This incident is doubtless true, but that Horsalka should not have remembered it if he was present, is incredible. Schindler’s queer memory has again proved treacherous in regard to his companion.”
[16] So Pohl, who wrote a history of the “Gesellschaft,” informed Thayer in a note.
[17] Kalischer-Shedlock, II, p. 144.
[18] The theme was the melody written for a song beginning “O Hoffnung, du stählst die Herzen, vertreibst die Schmerzen,” from Tiedge’s “Urania.” Nohl, without giving an authority, quotes an inscription on the autograph as follows: “Composed in the spring of 1818 by L. v. Beethoven in doloribus for H. Imp. Highness the Archduke Rudolph.” Thayer knows nothing about such an inscription, but it does not look like an invention. In one of the Conversation Books somebody (Dr. Deiters opines it was Peters) writes: “Fräulein Spitzenberger played the 40 variations by the Archduke for me yesterday. I know nothing about it, but it seems to me that they were pretty extensively corrected by you. The critics insist on the same thing.” We do not know what reply Beethoven made and it is a matter of small moment. The same comment has been called out by many a royal composition since; it was Brahms who said: “Never criticize the composition of a Royal Highness;—you do not know who may have written it!” In justice to Archduke Rudolph, however, it deserves to be mentioned that a set of variations on a melody from Rossini’s “Zelmira” composed by him shows pencil corrections in the hand of Beethoven and they are few and trifling.
[19] There is a vagueness in this passage, and especially in the words which precede it, which has exercised the minds of Köchel, Nohl and Deiters; but it is the opinion of the English Editor that the meaning has been reproduced in the above translation. As the reader may, however, wish to form his own opinion in the matter, which is certainly most interesting, the context is given in the original and what might be described as an expository rendering into English: Ich war in Wien, um aus der Bibliothek I. K. H. das mir Tauglichste auszusuchen. Die Hauptabsicht ist das geschwinde Treffen und mit der bessern Kunst-Vereinigung, wobei aber practische Absichten Ausnahmen machen, wofür die Alten zwar doppelt dienen, indem meistens reeller Kunstwerth (Genie hat doch nur der deutsche Händel und Seb. Bach gehabt) allein Freiheit, etc., that is: “I was in Vienna to seek out some things best suited to my purpose. What is chiefly needed is a quick recognition of the essential coupled with a better union of the arts [i. e., poetry and music] in respect of which practical considerations sometimes compel an exception, as we may learn in a twofold way from the old composers, where we find chiefly stress laid upon the artistically valuable (among them only the German Handel and Seb. Bach had genius) but freedom, etc.” Beethoven, presumably, was following the injunction noted in the Tagebuch and, for the purposes of the work which then engrossed him, was consulting authorities on ecclesiastical music. That his mind was full of his Mass is indicated by the somewhat irrelevant quotation from the text of the Credo. Was he not essaying a union between the technical perfection of the old masters and a more truthful, or literal, illustration of the missal text, wherefor freedom was necessary?
[20] The picture is now preserved among the rest of the relics which Schindler deposited in Berlin.
[21] See Kalischer-Shedlock, II, p. 151.
[22] “Hol Euch der Teufel! B’hüt Euch Gott!”
[23] Marx published it for the first time in facsimile in the appendix of Vol. II of his biography of Beethoven. In the Collected Works it appears on page 275, Series 25.
[24] “Two things fill the soul with ever new and increasing wonder and reverence the oftener the mind dwells upon them—the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.”—Kant’s “Criticism of Practical Reason.”
[25] The greeting was in the form of a four-part canon beginning with a short homophonic chorus, the words: “Seiner Kaiserlichen Hoheit! Dem Erzherzog Rudolph! Dem geistlichen Fürsten! Alles Gute, alles Schöne!” The autograph is preserved by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna. B. and H. Ges. Aus. Series XXIII, page 187.
[26] The reader who desires to read the documents in full is referred to the German edition of this biography for the decrees and minutes of the courts and to the Kalischer-Shedlock collection of letters for Beethoven’s pleadings.
[27] 11 Dr. Deiters remarks on this point: “No doubt Beethoven had hoped to attain his ends by general statements and thus spare himself the shame and humiliation which would have followed had he presented the truth, even in disguise, touching the lewdness and shameless life of his own sister-in-law; and her legal advisers and the members of the Magisterial Court knew how to turn this fact to their own advantage.”
[28] Made to Thayer.
[29] Here, as in several other cases, in which opinions only and not definitely ascertained facts are concerned, the present Editor is inclined to attach as much importance to Thayer’s judgment as to that of his critics and revisers. Thayer’s working copy of his “Chronologisches Verzeichniss,” which contains annotations of a much later date than Nottebohm’s publication in the “Thematisches Verzeichniss” which he edited for Breitkopf and Härtel, pays no attention to Nottebohm’s conclusion.
[30] See the letter in the Kalischer-Shedlock Coll. II, 178.
[31] Thayer.
[32] This anecdote is recorded in Thayer’s note-book as a memorandum of a conversation had with Höfel on June 23, 1860.
[33] For the music the reader is referred to Series XXIII of the Complete Edition of Beethoven’s works published by Breitkopf and Härtel.
[34] The dramatic poet Zacharias Werner, who had become a convert to Roman Catholicism and, now an ordained priest, was preaching to great crowds of Viennese. The puns on the German word Verleger and verlegen are untranslatable.
[35] The letter is preserved in the Beethoven House at Bonn. It was first published in the “Vossische Zeitung” by Dr. Kalischer on July 26, 1903. See Kalischer-Shedlock, II, 177.
[36] Dr. Kalischer refers the remark about the “Jewish publisher” to Schlesinger in Berlin; but this may be a mistake. In a later correspondence with Peters, who suggests the term, Schlesinger is thus referred to; but there is nothing to indicate that when correspondence between Schlesinger and Beethoven had scarcely begun, Brentano was called on to come to the rescue. Beethoven may mean a fling at Simrock for his action in the matter of the Louis d’ors.
[37] See the letter to Franz Brentano of December 20, 1821, and the note to his daughter dated December 6, 1821. (Kalischer-Shedlock, II, 189.)
[38] See Nottebohm, “Zweit. Beeth.,” pp. 465 and 471.
[39] Beethoven wrote, as if absentmindedly, “Ludwig Ludwig am 13ten Jenner 1822.”
[40] It is noteworthy, as shown by Nottebohm (“Zweit. Beeth.,” pp. 467, 468) that the first theme of the first movement of the C minor Sonata was originally intended for a third movement in a “second sonata” which (Op. 109 being finished) can only have been the one in C minor. It would seem as if the use of the theme in the first movement did not occur to the composer until after he had conceived the theme of the variations. But the theme had figured twenty years before in a sketchbook used when the Sonata in A major, Op. 30, was in hand. Its key then was F-sharp minor, and it may have been intended for Op. 30.
[41] Published also, together with three other songs—“Geheimniss,” “Resignation” and “So oder so”—by Sauer and Leidesdorf as Op. 113 in 1821 or 1822. Beethoven presented a copy of it to Fanny Giannatasio on April 19, 1820.
[42] For this arraignment and defence (if defence it be) of Beethoven the present Editor wishes to assume entire responsibility. Thayer’s notes fail him here, but the indictment, he is convinced, is not only demanded by historical truth but also wholly within the spirit of Thayer as manifested in the earlier volumes of this work. Dr. Deiters makes no effort to conceal the facts, though he does not marshal them so as to present the moral delinquency in the strong light in which it appears when Beethoven’s words and deeds are brought sharply into juxtaposition; nevertheless, after presenting a plea in extenuation fully and fairly, he says: “We pay the tribute of our profoundest sympathy for Beethoven under these circumstances; we know sufficiently well the noble impulses of his soul in all other fields; we are aware of the reasons which compelled him to try everything which promised to better his condition; but the conscientious reporter cannot ignore facts which lie notoriously before him, and, hard as it may be, can not acquit Beethoven of the reproach that his conduct was not in harmony with the principles of strict justice and uprightness.”
[43] This has been made possible for the editor by the courtesy of the present representatives of the venerable house in Bonn, viz.: N. Simrock G. m. b. H. in Berlin, who in 1909 issued a handsome book containing all the letters which passed between N. Simrock and Beethoven in a period beginning in 1794 and ending in 1823. Nicolaus Simrock, the reader may be reminded, was a friend of Beethoven in his childhood and a colleague in the orchestra at Bonn.
[44] Youthful works.
[45] Probably “Primo amore,” though it has orchestral accompaniment.
[46] Composed in 1814 in memory of Baroness Pasqualati.
[47] The Romances for Violin Op. 40 and 50 having been published long before, Beethoven must have had another one in mind.
[48] The Trio for wind-instruments, Op. 87, already in print. Beethoven had composed variations on “Là ci darem” from “Don Giovanni” for the same instruments and the composition was called a Terzetto when performed in 1797. This was probably in his mind.
[49] The last three sonatas as we know them being out of the question, Beethoven must have thought himself in readiness to write another if it was desired; there was no lack of material in his sketchbooks.
[50] Degen was a popular aëronaut who had long before excited the interest of Beethoven.
[51] Evidences of the second mass may be found in Nottebohm’s “Zweit. Beeth.,” pages 152 and 541-543.
[52] Beethoven indulges in his propensity for puns: “Wäre mein Gehalt nicht ganz ohne Gehalt.”
[53] A composition written for a serenade given to Hensler, Director of the Josephstädter Theatre, as will appear later.
[54] Nottebohm says that the three songs were “Opferlied,” “Bundeslied” and “Der Kuss.” Peters published none of them. The first appeared as Op. 121, the second as Op. 122, the third as Op. 128, published by Schott and Sons in 1825. This was the firm which eventually got the Mass in D.
[55] In a note to Thayer.
[56] No. 34 in Portfolio I of the Schindler papers in Berlin is a note as follows: “Mr. v. Schindler of course must not be mentioned in the presence (or by) the two persons, but I, certainly.” To this Schindler attached the following explanation: “The above lines were addressed to Police Commissioner Ungermann as an appendix to a detailed report to him. The commissioner was requested by official or other means to help him induce his brother to watch over the moral conduct of his wife, or to have it overseen by others, since her excesses had reached a pass which already subjected her and her husband to public censure. But the efforts of Beethoven and the public official were fruitless because his brother could not be persuaded to take energetic action. The excesses of the licentious woman grew greater from year to year until they led, in 1823, to open scandal in the barracks where Madame van Beethoven had visited her lovers (officers), with whom she was seen on the public promenades. Then our Beethoven took energetic steps with his brother, trying to persuade him to divorce his vicious wife, but made shipwreck on the indolence of this man, who was himself morally depraved.”
[57] Here, as in a former case, the editor of this English edition is seeking to reproduce the spirit of Thayer, who was so eager to undo some of the injustice which had been visited upon Beethoven’s brothers Karl and Johann that he undertook their defense in a brochure entitled “Ein kritischer Beitrag zur Beethovenliteratur,” published in Berlin in 1877. He also spoke with emphasis on the subject in a review of Nohl’s biography of Beethoven which he contributed to the “New York Tribune” in the spring of 1881.
[58] “King Stephen” and “The Ruins of Athens.”
[59] 300 florins.
[60] Which he had adapted to “Die Weihe des Hauses.”
[61] “Wo sich die Pulse,” which Beethoven inscribed as having been written “Towards the end of September.”
[62] Nohl, II, 50.
[63] Archduke Rudolph wrote variations on one of the melodies from the opera, which Beethoven corrected.
[64] In an article in the “Neue Freie Presse” of July 21, 1867, reprinted in “Aus dem Concertsaal,” page 594.
[65] “Aus dem Tonleben, etc.,” II, 49.
[66] Published as Op. 114, and designated as “new” by Beethoven, though not a measure had been added, but only a few lines of text, and the choral music simplified. Steiner published pianoforte arrangements for two and four hands in 1822, and the score in 1824.
[67] This anecdote was told to Thayer on October 28, 1859 by an old actor named Hopp who was present on the occasion.
[68] In a Conversation Book of 1820 we read this remark by Beethoven: “What I think of confession may be deduced from the fact that I myself led Karl to the Abbot of St. Michael for confession. But the abbot declared that as long as he had to visit his mother, confession would be of no avail.”
[69] In Vol. IV of the German edition of this biography, Dr. Deiters presents a long and extremely interesting descriptive and critical analysis of the mass from the point of view held by a devout Roman Catholic churchman; wherefore, in spite of his enthusiastic appreciation of the music, he is obliged to point out its departure from some of the dogmas of the church, as well as the rubrics which the composers had long disregarded. All this is, however, far outside the scope of this biography as originally conceived by Thayer and to which the editor has sought to bring it back in this English edition.
[70] These pieces, we learn later, were to be an offertory, a graduale and a Tantum ergo.
[71] Beethoven’s mind reverts to the choral movement of the Ninth Symphony which is occupying him.
[72] Were it not for the very general confusion which still exists touching musical terms, it might be set down as a bit singular that neither Beethoven nor Schindler seems to have known that the French equivalent of “oratorio” is “oratorio,” and nothing else. The letter, however, reads: elle se prète de même a etre executée en Oratoire. In France an oratoire is still an oratory, a room for prayer.
[73] The blanks were filled according to the formula.
[74] “Papageno” was the name applied to Schindler in his notes when Beethoven wished to enjoin silence on his factotum; the allusion, of course, being to the lip-locked bird-catcher in Mozart’s “Magic Flute.”
[75] If this note refers to the Mass, Schindler’s date must be a year too late.
[76] In view of what will have to be said later about the controversy which raged for years after Beethoven’s death about the financial dealings between Prince Galitzin and Beethoven, it was thought best to establish at this time the fact that Galitzin subscribed for the Mass and paid the fee in the manner which has been set forth.
[77] The letter is incorrectly dated July 1, by Kalischer. Thayer’s transcript and also one made by Dr. Kopfermann of the Royal Library at Berlin for Dr. Deiters give June as the month.
[78] Beethoven had a number of nicknames for Schindler besides Papageno with its various qualifications. One of these was Lumpenkerl; another Hauptlumpenkerl—Ragamuffin and Chief Ragamuffin. In this instance Schindler is a “Samothracian ragamuffin” and Schindler in a gloss tells us that the allusion was to the ancient ceremonies of Samothrace, Schindler being thus designated as one initiated into the mysteries of Beethoven’s affairs and purposes. The injunction of silence was understood, of course. Count Brunswick, Count Lichnowsky and Zmeskall were also initiates. Wocher, to whom Beethoven sends his compliments, was Prince Esterhazy’s courier. Beethoven’s second thoughts seem frequently to have been bestowed on the trombones. We have already seen how often this was the case in the alterations in the Mass in D. An interesting illustration was found by the present editor among Thayer’s papers. The biographer owned a sheet of four pages containing, in Beethoven’s handwriting, the trombone parts of the Trio in the Scherzo of the Ninth Symphony with instructions to the copyist where they were to be introduced. As the trombones do not take part in the first and third movements nor in the Scherzo outside of the Trio, but are highly important in the choral Finale, it would seem as if Beethoven had thought of the beautiful effect which they produce in the Trio after he had decided that they were necessary in the Finale.
[79] In Hetzendorf, while the negotiations with the courts are pending, Count Moritz Lichnowsky writes in a Conversation Book: “Can you not sell the Mass to publishers next year, so that it may become publicly useful?”
[80] “The Philharmonic Society of London,” by George Hogarth, London, 1862, page 31.
[81] Sic. Beethoven of course means the Embassy. The Overture was no doubt that to “The Consecration of the House,” Op. 124.
[82] Bauer was in Beethoven’s company a short time before he went to England, and the incident of the sending of the score of “Wellington’s Victory, or the Battle of Vittoria” came up for conversation between them. We read in a Conversation Book, in Bauer’s hand: “I am of the opinion that the King had it performed, but perhaps nobody reminded him that on that account he ought to answer. I will carry a letter to the King and direct it in a channel which will insure its delivery, since I cannot hand it over in person.” The story of King George’s action, or want of action, has been told in earlier pages of this work. From the opening phrase of the address to the King it is fair to surmise that it was to follow an invitation to subscribe for the Mass in D, and from the letter to Ries that Beethoven subsequently decided to strike the King of England from his list.
[83] In his letter to Zelter, Beethoven says that one of the numbers of the Mass was without accompaniment. There being no a cappella setting of any section of the missal text in the Mass in D, it is likely that Beethoven here, too, had the three additional pieces in mind. For this speculation, however, as well as the hypothesis that the settings originally contemplated for the “second” mass in C-sharp minor were transferred to the scheme of the Missa Solemnis, the present editor is alone responsible. In a Conversation Book of 1823 an unidentified friend answers several questions about the hymn “Tantum ergo” and its introduction in the service.
[84] Schindler bases his statements on alleged testimony of the Archduke’s secretary Baumeister, but there is no word of reproval in any of the letters of the two men which have been found.
[85] Sporchil’s drama bore the title “The Apotheosis in the Temple of Jupiter Ammon.” What it had to do with the new operatic project is not plain to this editor, for it was but a new text to be used to the music of “The Ruins of Athens.” Beethoven once described “The Ruins” as “a little opera” and his abiding and continued interest in it is disclosed by the fact that after he got into touch with Grillparzer he discussed the possibility of its revival with that poet.
[86] Grillparzer’s “Werke,” Vol. XVI, p. 228 et seq.
[87] Thayer saw Grillparzer on July 4, 1860, and got from him a confirmation of both incidents here narrated.
[88] The concluding paragraph of the letter betrays his growing antipathy towards Schindler: “Afternoons you will find me in the coffee-house opposite the ‘Goldene Birne.’ If you want to come, please come alone. This importunate appendix of a Schindler, as you must have noticed in Hetzendorf, has long been extremely objectionable to me—otium est citium.”
[89] Thayer copies the entry found in the Conversation Book, but doubts if the handwriting is that of Liszt fils. It is as follows: “I have often expressed the wish to Herr von Schindler to make your high acquaintance and am rejoiced to be able now to do so. As I shall give a concert on Sunday the 13th I most humbly beg you to give me your high presence.” The courtly language suggests the thought that the father may have written the words for the boy.
[90] “Beethoven, Liszt und Wagner,” p. 199.
[91] In view of the fact that Beethoven would not have been able to hear a note of the music had he been present and that, unless deeply moved, he would not have made a public exhibition of his feelings, and that even Schindler does not seem to have heard of the story of the kiss, it is very likely, in the opinion of the present editor, that the whole story is a canard invented for advertising purposes. Thayer’s note on the copy which he made of the conversation at the time of the presentation of the lad is: “B. does not appear to have attended the concert, as some one reports to him that he ‘improvised on a Hungarian-German theme.’” But there are several versions of the story (see Frimmel, “Bausteine, etc.,” p 91) and Beethoven may at another time have kissed the boy.
[92] Nohl is mistaken in saying that the canon was written in Schloesser’s album. It is printed in the B. and H. “Ges. Ausg.,” Series XXIII, No. 256.