The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume III

Footnotes

[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:

“Hail, Royal Pair, by love united;
With ev’ry earthly blessing crown’d;
A people lifts its voice delighted,
And distant nations hear the sound.
All hearts are now with gladness swelling,
All tongues are now of rapture telling,
A day of heartfelt joy is found!”

[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.

[93] A Schusterfleck, that is a cobble, or cobbler’s patch, like Vetter Michel and Rosalia in the musical terminology of Germany, is a tune largely made up of repetitions on different degrees of the scale of a single figure or motive.

[94] See the conversation, Vol. I, p. 321.

[95] Here are a few extracts from a letter written to Beethoven on July 3, 1823: “As I have been visiting him (Johann) three to four times a day ever since he took to his bed, and have entertained him by the hour, I have had an opportunity carefully to observe these two persons; hence I can assure you on my honor that, despite your venerable name, they deserve to be shut up, the old one in prison, the young one in the house of correction.... This illness came opportunely for both of them, to enable them to go their ways without trammel. These beasts would have let him rot if others had not taken pity on him. He might have died a hundred times without the one in the Prater or at Nussdorf the other at the baker’s deigning to give him a look.... He often wept over the conduct of his family and once he gave way completely to his grief and begged me to let you know how he is being treated so that you might come and give the two the beating they deserve.... It is most unnatural and more than barbarous if that woman, while her husband is lying ill, introduces her lover into his room, prinks herself like a sleigh-horse in his presence and then goes driving with him, leaving the sick husband languishing at home. She did this very often. Your brother himself called my attention to it, and is a fool for tolerating it so long.”

[96] Meaning Johann’s wife and step-daughter. Very incomprehensibly Kalischer thinks the Lump was Schindler!

[97] Schindler quotes Beethoven as remarking of “Euryanthe” that it was “an accumulation of diminished seventh-chords—all little backdoors!”

[98] The Quartet which Benedict heard was that in E-flat major, Op. 127, which had its performance on March 6, 1825, the year in which Benedict left Vienna with Barbaja. His letter to Thayer, therefore, carries us far beyond the period now under discussion. The conversation about the libretto of “Euryanthe” is said by Max Maria von Weber to have taken place at the dinner in Baden; but Benedict’s is the likelier story.

[99] It was performed for the first time at a concert of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde on April 4, 1824, but it had been completed a long time before.

[100] “Zweit. Beeth.,” p. 540 et seq.

[101] Czerny wrote in the catalogue of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde concerning this song, the “Opferlied” and “Der Kuss,” “sketched at a very early period.” The note cannot be considered seriously, as there is nothing to show that he had any information on the subject.

[102] See list of compositions in the chapter of this work devoted to 1809.

[103] B. and H., Series XXV, Nos. 120 and 287.

[104] See ante.

[105] Nottebohm’s “Zweit. Beeth.,” p. 208.

[106] Page 157 et seq.

[107] There are several stories touching the origin of the fugue-theme of the Scherzo of the D minor symphony, which may be given for what they are worth. Czerny says that the theme occurred to Beethoven while listening to the twittering of sparrows in a garden. Holz told Jahn that one evening Beethoven was seated in the forest at SchÖnbrunn and in the gloaming fancied he saw all about him a multitude of gnomes popping in and out of their hiding-places; and this stirred his fancy to the invention of the theme. Another story has it that it flashed into his mind with a sudden outbursting glitter of lights after he had long been seated in the dark.

[108] “Sinfonie at the beginning only 4 voices, 2 viol. viola, basso, amongst them forte with other voices and if possible bring in all the other instruments one by one and gradually.”

[109] Nottebohm fills the hiatus with “Trombones? Subjects?”

[110] “Abgerissene SÄtze wie FÜrsten sind Bettler u. s. w.” The phrase is probably a record of Beethoven’s imperfect recollection of the line “Bettler werden FÜrstenbrÜder,” which appeared in an early version of Schiller’s poem where now we read “Alle Menschen werden BrÜder.” The thought lies near that it was the early form of the poem, when it was still an “Ode to Freedom” (not “to Joy”), which first aroused enthusiastic admiration for it in Beethoven’s mind. In a Conversation Book of 1824 Bernard says to Beethoven: “In your text it reads,” followed by the observation, “All this is due here to the direction of the aristocracy”—which may or may not have connection with a conversation in which politics was playing a part.

[111] So Thayer remarks.

[112] For this assumption the present editor is alone responsible. Thayer, who says nothing on the subject, corrects Schindler’s date to March 20, for no obvious reason.

[113] The statement about the Kyrie was made by Holz to Jahn; that about the Symphony, by Fuchs.

[114] The incident is variously related. Schindler and FrÄulein Unger (the latter of whom told it to George Grove in London in 1869) say that it took place at the end of the concert. Thalberg, the pianist, who was present, says that it was after the Scherzo. A note amongst Thayer’s papers reads: “November 23, 1860. I saw Thalberg in Paris. He told me as follows: He was present at Beethoven’s concert in the KÄrnthnerthor Theatre 1824. Beethoven was dressed in black dress-coat, white neckerchief, and waistcoat, black satin small-clothes, black silk stockings, shoes with buckles. He saw after the Scherzo of the 9th symphony, how B. stood turning over the leaves of his score utterly deaf to the immense applause, and Unger pulled him by the sleeve and then pointed to the audience when he turned and bowed. Umlauf told the choir and orchestra to pay no attention whatever to Beethoven’s beating of the time but all to watch him. Conradin Kreutzer was at the P. F.” Did Thalberg describe Beethoven’s dress correctly? Evidently not. In a conversation just before the concert Schindler, who is to call for Beethoven, tells him to make himself ready. “We will take everything with us now; also take your green coat, which you can put on when you conduct. The theatre will be dark and no one will notice it.... O, great master, you do not own a black frock coat! The green one will have to do; in a few days the black one will be ready.”

[115] It is more than likely that Beethoven’s “credible” informant was his brother Johann. He was jealous of Schindler’s participation in the composer’s business affairs and probably took advantage of a favorable opportunity to strengthen Beethoven’s chronic suspicion and growing distrust of what the composer himself looked upon as Schindler’s officiousness. In the Conversation Book used at the meeting after the concert, Karl tells his uncle: “Schindler knows from an ear-witness that your brother said in the presence of several persons that he was only waiting for the concert to be over before driving S. out of the house.”

[116] Beethoven’s letters to Bernard were published by Alexander Hajdecki in the February number, 1909, of “Nord und SÜd”; Hajdecki found the letters in the hands of a niece of one of Bernard’s daughters to whom he had bequeathed them. They are not included in the Kalischer or Prelinger collections.

[117] Frimmel, however, placing faith in a tradition to that effect, says that the Decker drawing was made in the fall of 1825 in the Schwarzspanier House. The print issued by the “Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung” could not be found by Dr. Deiters; but Thayer, (who spells the name of the artist “Daker,”) saw one in the hands of Prof. Spatzenegger, a son-in-law of the artist, in Salzburg.

[118] This could only have been the Quartet in E-flat, which, however, was far from finished.

[119] Only the Bagatelles, Op. 119, had been published when this was written.

[120] Stumpff’s manuscript, which also covered the principal incidents of a trip through Germany, after his death came into the possession of his surviving partner, T. Martin, who permitted Thayer to transcribe all of it relating to Beethoven. Many of his observations parallel those made by Reichardt, Rochlitz, Schultz and other visitors, and their repetition here would add nothing to the story of Beethoven’s life and manners; besides, the account is too long to be inserted in full. The reader who wishes to read all of it is referred to the German edition of Thayer’s biography. Vol. V, page 122 et seq.

[121] The correspondence nowhere shows a modification of the stipulation that the Symphony was to be the exclusive property of the Society for 18 months. But Kirchhoffer, Ries’s representative, knew of the preparations for the Vienna performance.

[122] Dr. Deiters thinks Ries’s hesitation was due to fear of difficulties in the performance—a fear which was realized; it is more likely, however, as may be deduced from the context of the letter, that Ries felt that his London friends were not being treated fairly in the matter, Beethoven having entered upon an obligation with them to let them have exclusive possession of the Symphony for eighteen months after the time of delivery.

[123] Had he wholly forgotten the letter in which he offered Schlesinger the Mass in 1822 and said that it would grieve him very much if he could not give him “just this particular work”?

[124] The canons were those on Hoffmann and Schwenke.

[125] The remark is meaningless and was made only for the sake of a play on words—Rache and Rachen. Beethoven professed friendship to Haslinger to the end, though he lampooned him in private.

[126] The mark is Allegro con moto in the Complete Edition; Allo. commodo in others. Joachim’s edition gives the commodo in parenthesis.

[127] There are pitiful proofs in the Conversation Books that simple sums in addition were more than he could master and that on his deathbed he studied the mysteries of multiplication.

[128] Vol. II. p. 107 et seq.

[129] Beethoven’s table habits were thus described by Holz to Jahn: “He was a stout eater of substantial food; he drank a great deal of wine at table, but could stand a great deal, and in merry company he sometimes became tipsy (bekneipte er sich). In the evening he drank beer or wine, generally the wine of VÖslau or red Hungarian. When he had drunk he never composed. After the meal he took a walk.”

[130] See the preface to his biography.

[131] The date is Schindler’s, but a palpable error; it may have been 1834.

[132] It was among Thayer’s papers.

[133] Notes of Jahn’s interviews with Holz were among Thayer’s papers.

[134] “Aus meinem Leben,” Berlin, 1861, Vol. II, p. 24 et seq.

[135] It was probably the performance by BÖhm.

[136] Antonia Cibbini, nÉe Koeluch, was among those who attended the performance of the Quartet. In the conversation which followed, Karl tells his uncle: “The Cibbini looked to me like a bacchante when the Quartet was played; it pleased her so greatly.”

[137] By the “Characteristic Symphony” Smart meant the Ninth, which he had directed at its first performance in London on March 21, 1825. Mr. Thayer visited Sir George in February, 1861, and received from him permission to make a transcript of all the entries in his journal touching the meetings with Beethoven, also supplementing them with oral information. The journal remained in manuscript for forty years after Sir George’s death and then was edited by H. Bertram Cox and C. L. E. Cox and published by Longmans, Green and Co. in 1907, under the title: “Leaves from the Journals of Sir George Smart.” The extracts here quoted are from the book, and show signs of having been revised after Thayer copied them.

[138] Not the composer, but a pianoforte maker of Vienna.

[139] The Thayer transcript has it correctly: “at the inn Zum wilden Mann.”

[140] In the Thayer transcript: “the second of the three MSS. quartettes bought by Schlesinger.”

[141] Dr. Deiters prints in a foot-note a different version of this story from Castelli’s memoirs. According to this it was Castelli who set the theme for Beethoven, he having, after long urging, said, “Very well, in the name of the three devils; but Castelli, who has no idea of pianoforte playing, must give me a theme.” Thereupon Castelli brushed his finger up and down three adjacent keys of the pianoforte and these notes Beethoven continually wove into the music which he improvised for an hour, by the clock. Smart names the ten men who composed Schlesinger’s party; Castelli’s is not among them, and Smart’s story, noted in his journal at the time, is unquestionably correct. Schlesinger may have given another dinner, or Castelli’s imagination been livelier than his memory.

[142] When Mr. Thayer visited Sir George Smart in London in 1861 he made the following notes of the conversation: Smart spoke, or rather wrote on Beethoven’s slate;—he had been warned not to write in Beethoven’s books—in French, a language which Beethoven (as he says) spoke fluently. He (Smart) was particularly desirous of understanding Beethoven’s intentions as to the performance of the Choral Sym. and spoke with him about the recitative for instruments in the last movement. Beethoven’s reply was:

“The recitative in strict time.”

Smart objected, that so played, it was not a recitative nor had words to recite. Beethoven replied, “he called it so;” and finally closed the discussion with “I wish it to go in strict time”; which, from a composer, was of course decisive. The question of how the bass recitatives ought to be played had already been discussed when the rehearsals for the concert of 1824 were in progress, as may be seen in a Conversation Book of March: Schindler:—“How many contrabasses are to play the recitative?—All!—There would be no difficulty in strict time, but to give it in a singing style will make careful study necessary.—If old Krams were still alive we could let the matter go unconcernedly, for he directed 12 contrabasses who had to do what he wanted.—Good; then just as if words were under it?—If necessary I will write words under it so that they may learn to sing.”

[143] From Thayer’s note-book of 1857: “Circumstance related to me by the son of Mr. Molt. When Mr. Molt called upon Beethoven, December 16, 1825, (B.’s birthday) Beethoven showed him some verses he had just written complimentary to a young lady and fell into such enthusiasm talking about her that he passed entirely from his musical conversation. Verses poor enough, Mr. Molt said. Mr. Molt also described the meanness of the rooms in which B. lived.”

[144] To Thayer; from his note-book.

[145] In a memorandum for Thayer.

[146] Laudari a viro laudate—NÆvius. LÆtus sum laudari me, inquit Hector, opinor apud NÆvium, abs te, pater, a laudate viro—Cicero ad fam. XV, 6; Cum tragicus ille apud nos ait magnificum esse laudari a laudato viro, laude digno, ait.—Seneca, Epist. 102, 16.

[147] Halm’s personal explanation to Mr. Thayer.

[148] The Editor has taken the liberty of transferring the music to the treble clef and to interpret the notes which are indistinct in the autograph in accordance with Dr. Deiters’s transcript.

[149] It would scarcely be worth while to review the acrimonious controversy on this subject. There were errors and misunderstandings growing out of faulty memories and imperfect records. Mr. Thayer made a painstaking study of the subject and secured all the available correspondence from Prince George Galitzin and from other sources in 1861. His rÉsumÉ as given in Grove’s “Dictionary of Music and Musicians” (Art. “Galitzin”) doubtless sets forth the fact of indebtedness and payment correctly. He says: “These (the last two Quartets) were received by the Prince together and were acknowledged by him Nov. 22, 1826. He also received a MS. copy of the Mass in D and printed copies of the Ninth Symphony and of the two overtures in C, the one (Op. 124) dedicated to him, the other (Op. 115) dedicated to Count Radzivill. Thus the whole claim against him was—Quartets 150 ducats; Overture (Op. 115), 25 ducats; Mass, 50 ducats; loss on exchange, 4 ducats; total 229 ducats, not including various other pieces of music sent. On the other hand he appears, notwithstanding all his promises, to have paid, up to the time of Beethoven’s death, only 104 ducats. It should be said that in 1826, war and insurrection had broken out in Russia, which occupied the Prince and obliged him to live away from Petersburg, and also put him to embarrassing expenses. After the peace of Adrianople, (Sept. 14, 1829) when Beethoven had been dead some years a correspondence was opened with him by Hotschevar, Karl van Beethoven’s guardian, which resulted in 1832 in a further payment of 50 ducats, making a total of 154. Karl still urges his claim for 75 more to make up the 150 ducats for the Quartets, which Galitzin in 1835 promises to pay but never does. In 1852, roused by Schindler’s statement of the affair (ed. I. pp. 162, 163), he writes to the Gazette musicale of July 21, 1852, a letter stating correctly the sum paid but incorrectly laying it all to the account of the Quartets. Other letters passed between him and Karl Beethoven, but they are not essential to the elucidation of the transaction.”

To this the present editor adds a bit of history derived chiefly from Mr. Thayer’s papers. In the course of time Schindler’s partly erroneous statement that the debt which Galitzin owed Beethoven at the time of his death was all on account of the quartets was magnified into the statement made by Heinrich DÖring and Brendel that the Prince had “cheated” the composer out of the fee for the Quartets. Prince Nicolas Galitzin had withdrawn to his distant estates in Russia, but at his instigation the cudgels were taken up in his behalf by his son Prince George, who, stirred into indignation by DÖring’s biography in particular, sent that writer the following letter: “I can not and do not want to know anything of the past, all the less since it will certainly not be expected of me to contradict the proofs produced by him (his father). But as by the publication of your article you have made the question for me one of the day, I, as a man of honor must do my duty to put an end to these misunderstandings. I have deposited the sum of 125 ducats which you bring in question with Mr. Kaskel, banker in Dresden, for the heirs of Beethoven, and from you, my dear Sir, I expect the necessary information in this matter, since you must have acquainted yourself with the necessary facts while writing your notice. You must admit that hereafter I reserve the right to treat this question as a personal one! In case the family of Beethoven has died out there will be no other disposition of the money deposited with Banker Kaskel than to pay it over to a charity or some other cause which may be directly associated with the name and works of the famous artist. Dresden, July 15-3, 1858.” Karl van Beethoven, sole heir of the composer, had died three months previously, leaving a widow and children, who were his heirs. Prince George’s money seemed like a gift of Providence to the widow, who hastened, as soon as she read the letter in a musical journal, to write to Holz as the friend of the dead composer to collect the money for her and express her gratitude to Prince George. Holz complied with part of her request in a letter full of obsequiousness in which he accused Schindler of scandalmongering and offered to provide the Prince with evidence of that gentleman’s rascality. But he did not collect the money, which lay still untouched in the vaults of Kaskel in 1861, when Madame van Beethoven, having made a vain application to Prince George, addressed a letter to Kaskel asking whether the money was still deposited with him or had been withdrawn by Prince George. In the latter event she stated that she wanted to contradict a statement circulating by the public press that the heirs of Beethoven had received the gift. Kaskel referred her to Ad. Reichel, a musical director in Dresden and a friend of the Prince, through whom, indeed, the deposit had been made. On April 28, 1861, she wrote to Reichel, reviewing the facts in the case and stating her desire to apply the money, in case it was given to her, to the musical education of her youngest daughter, Hermine van Beethoven, then 8 years of age. Kaskel also wrote to Reichel, sending him Madame van Beethoven’s letter and saying that as he had not heard anything from Prince Galitzin for several years he intended to turn the money over to the Municipal Court of Dresden in order to spare himself all further correspondence in the matter. Kaskel wrote to the Prince on May 7, 1861, asking him to prescribe a disposition of the money, for, if Kaskel carried out his determination to send it to the court, it would be frittered away. He urged that the money be given to Madame van Beethoven. This revival of interest in the subject was evidently due to Mr. Thayer’s activity in behalf of the widow and her daughter. Mr. Thayer was in London in 1860 and evidently took up the matter with the Prince. He makes no mention of the subject in his notice written for Grove’s “Dictionary”; but among his letters the present writer found the following letter, evidently written on the eve of his departure from England in February, 1861:

“Dear Mr. Thayer. Prince Galitzin has asked me to remit to you the enclosed letters, praying you kindly to act for him in the affair, as you will soon be on the spot. He begs you, however, to bear in mind the necessity off proving that the money for these Quartets has not been paid (I fear an impossibility!); but however vexatious this may be to poor Mad. v. B. everyone must defer to the obstacle to her having the money: in the awkward light in which it places the Prince’s father. From what I can gather from his conversation he will be most satisfied to have the money appropriated for the purpose you suggested: the M. S. S. At all events Prince G. is quite content to leave the matter in your hands. Wishing you a pleasant journey and speedy return, believe me, dear Mr. Thayer, Yours sincerly Natalia Macfarren.”

The editor’s efforts to learn the ultimate disposition of the money deposited with Kaskel have been in vain. Mr. Thayer’s papers contain no hint of the steps which may have been taken after Mrs. Macfarren’s appeal to Prince George; the banking house of Kaskel is gone out of existence; Nephew Karl’s daughter, Hermine, is dead. For three years, from 1866 to 1869, she was a student in the pianoforte and harmonium classes of the Conservatory at Vienna, and it seems likely that Mr. Thayer succeeded in having the Dresden deposit applied to her education; but if so he left no memorandum of that fact amongst the papers which have come under the editor’s eyes.

[150] Under the agreement it was to be the exclusive property of the Philharmonic Society for a year and a half.

[151] This interesting letter is now owned by Dwight Newman of Chicago.

[152] Though there is no authority for doing so it seems impossible not to associate the following three-part canon, which may be found in the B. and H. Complete Edition, with this amusing anecdote:

Signor Abbate! io sono, io sono, io sono ammalato!
(Signor Abbate! I’m ailing, I’m ailing, I’m ailing, I am ailing!

Santo Padre vieni e datemi la benedizione, la benedizione.
Holy Father! hasten, hasten to me, hasten to me, hasten, and give me thy blessing!

Hol’ Sie der Teufel, wenn Sie nicht kommen, hol’ Sie der Teufel, wenn Sie nicht kommen, hol’ Sie der Teufel!
Go to the devil, unless you hasten, go to the devil, unless you hasten, go to the devil!)

[153] “The name is something like the breaking of an axletree,” wrote Beethoven to Haslinger in October.

[154] The description is based on that made by Thayer when he visited Gneixendorf in 1860.

[155] The romancing biographers who copy Schindler and Gerhard von Breuning in their accusations that Johann van Beethoven was prompted only by the meanest motives of self-interest in all his dealings with his great brother will have a difficult task to explain away the evidence to the contrary afforded by the Conversation Books. The proposition that the two make a common home in Vienna had come from Ludwig and been urged by him. After Johann had acquired the estate at Gneixendorf he made repeated efforts to persuade his brother to spend his summer vacation there. In 1823 Beethoven wrote: “He always wants me to come to his people—non possibile per me.” The obstacle was Johann’s wife, who had become one of “his people” because of the composer’s interference with Johann’s private affairs at Linz. Urged on by Ludwig, Johann had taken action against the woman and made himself master of his household. In a Conversation Book of 1824 may be read in Johann’s hand: “My wife has surrendered her marriage contract and entered into an obligation permitting me to drive her away without notice at the first new acquaintance which she makes.” Beethoven seems to have asked, “Why do you not do it!” for Johann continues: “I cannot do that. I cannot know but that some misfortune might befall me.” Then Karl takes the pencil: “Your brother proposes that you spend the four months at his place. You would have 4 or 5 rooms, very beautiful, high and large. Everything is well arranged; you will find fowls, oxen, cows, hares, etc. Moreover, as regards the wife, she is looked upon as a housekeeper only and will not disturb you. The scenery is glorious and it will not cost you a penny. There is a housekeeper; water containing iron, an individual bathroom, etc. If you do not take it he will give up five rooms and announce the fact in the newspapers.” Beethoven, obviously, brings forward his objection to Johann’s wife, for Karl writes: “That matter has come to an end. You will scarcely see the woman. She looks after the housekeeping and works. All the more since she is completely tamed. Besides, she has promised to conduct herself properly.” Other matters are discussed and then Johann writes: “It looks to me as if you did not want to come because it will not cost you anything. Who will look after our household affairs? Who will endure our humors?” In another book Karl writes that Johann had often said that his brother could have everything for nothing at Gneixendorf.

[156] Page 77 et seq. The article was based largely on information gathered by Mr. Thayer at Gneixendorf in 1860 and had been submitted to him for revision.

[157] Third class is what is talked about in the Conversation Books.

[158] Holz told Jahn that Schlesinger had bought it for 80 ducats and sent 360 florins in payment; whereupon Beethoven had said “If a Jew sends circumcised ducats he shall have a circumcised Quartet. That’s the reason it is so short.”

[159] Beethoven’s letters to his nephew are presented in the original in Vol. V of Thayer’s biography as completed by Dr. Deiters and revised by Dr. Riemann. Also copious extracts from the Conversation Books. These books, in Thayer’s transcript, have been consulted anew by the present writer in his presentation of the case which he believes to be in the spirit of Thayer, as he tried also to make the account of the legal controversy over the guardianship. Nevertheless, the editor believes it only right to assume full responsibility for his utterances. The letters may be found in translation in Vol. II of Mr. Shedlock’s edition of the Kalischer collection.

[160] It was Herbert Spencer who remarked to a young man who had beaten him at billiards that while to be able to play well was a praiseworthy accomplishment, such playing as he had just witnessed betokened an ill-spent life.

[161] The date was obtained by Thayer from the records of the hospital on September 22, 1862. F. Helm, then Director of the hospital, certified to the facts of reception, treatment and discharge, but stated that no history of the case could be found in the records.

[162] He did not live to see this wish fulfilled; but it was in the end. Therese van Beethoven, Johann’s wife, died on November 20, 1828, at Wasserhof; Johann died in Vienna on January 12, 1848, and though one of Beethoven’s sensation-mongering biographers at one time printed the monstrous falsehood that he had married his wife’s illegitimate daughter in order to keep the family possessions in his hands, and at another that he had invested his money so that he might use it up during his life and leave nothing to his heirs, the fact is that Johann made Karl his sole heir and that under the will, after paying the costs of probate and administration and a legacy to his housekeeper, over 42,000 florins passed into his nephew’s hands.

[163] Wawruch was a native of NemtschÜtz in Moravia. At OlmÜtz he was a student of theology, but before consecration to the priesthood he came to Vienna as tutor and there decided to abandon the church for medicine. In the course of time he became assistant and also son-in-law to Professor Hildebrand, the director of the General Hospital. Thence he went to Prague as professor of general pathology and pharmacology and, returning to Vienna, became professor of special pathology and medical clinics in the surgical department of the Hospital. He died in 1842. He was accused of adhering to old-fashioned theories in his practice and of having been antagonistic to the determinations of pathological anatomy, and the criticisms of von Breuning and others have pursued him through all the books devoted to Beethoven’s life; yet the scientific determinations of to-day offer justification of his diagnosis and treatment of Beethoven’s case so far as it is possible to judge at this late day.

[164] Holz’s statement on this point has already been given in an earlier chapter. To Otto Jahn Dr. Bertolini said: “Beethoven liked to drink a glass of wine, but he was never a drinker or a gourmand.”

[165] “Better from my belly than from my pen,” is another remark credited to him by Seyfried.

[166] The Royal Library acquired the autograph manuscripts of the instrumental movements of the Symphony from Schindler, and the choral part from the Artaria Collection of Vienna when it was dispersed by sale in 1901. The autograph is not intact, however, the coda of the Scherzo, consisting of four pages, having been given to Moscheles by Schindler on September 14, 1827. Moscheles in turn gave the relic to Henry Phillips. In July, 1907, it was purchased at a public sale by Mr. Edward Speyer, its owner at the present writing. The autograph of the Finale, too, had been mutilated, a page containing the five measures immediately preceding the Allegro energico, 6-4 time, with the words “Über Sternen muss er wohnen,” having been removed. It was sold by an autograph dealer of Berlin to Charles Malherbe, of Paris, who on his death bequeathed it to the Conservatoire. As published, the Allegro non tanto contains eight measures which Beethoven did not write in the autograph, but are, no doubt, an addition made by him in a revision. It would be a beautiful act of piety to assemble the autograph score and publish it in facsimile.

[167] Mr. Thayer, who has given expression in these pages to his belief that Schindler was honest, in transcribing this page of the Conversation Book writes these words: “It is to be noted, first, that the writing (‘The Old Woman,’ etc.) does not correspond with the rest, and secondly, that Die Alte was no longer in Beethoven’s service. It is evident on inspection and from the talk in these last books about Thekla and other servants that Schindler inserted these words long afterwards. The ‘Es muss sein’ can only refer here to Beethoven’s receipt for the ring.” Whether or not Thayer suspected what may have been Schindler’s purpose in making the interlineation does not appear.

[168] Schindler, impeaching Dr. Wawruch’s accuracy here, denies that Beethoven worked on oratorio of “Saul and David” during his last illness. Thayer in a note directs attention to the fact that Beethoven was confessedly deeply absorbed in Handel’s scores, which he had received only a short time before, and that before the end of December Kiesewetter sent a request through Holz for a return of the pianoforte score of “Saul” as no longer necessary, now that the scores were come.

[169] Dr. von Breuning should have said “third.”

[170] Thayer procured a copy of this letter in London along with the other Stumpff papers already mentioned. Only a fragment of the letter has been printed hitherto in the collections of Beethoven’s letters and that, in great probability, from the draft preserved by Schindler. The newspaper article referred to was printed in the “Modezeitung.”

[171] “Documents, Letters etc., relating to the Bust of Ludwig van Beethoven, presented to the Philharmonic Society of London, by Frau Fanny Linzbauer (nÉe Ponsing). Translated and Arranged for the Society by Doyne C. Bell, London: Published for the Philharmonic Society by Lamborn Cock and Co., 63 New Bond Street, W. 1871.”

[172] Schindler had accompanied Beethoven’s application to Moscheles for relief with a personal letter in which he advised that the Philharmonic Society, in case it should accede to his request, explain to Beethoven that the amount would be sent to a responsible person in Vienna from whom it might be drawn by degrees according to his requirements; and that this precautionary step was taken “because, as they well knew, some of his relations who are with him do not act quite uprightly towards him”—a fling, of course, at the composer’s brother whom he so cordially hated; the nephew was not in Vienna.

[173] Among Mr. Thayer’s papers.

[174] The third operation was performed on February 2, not January 28, as Schindler says.

[175] Wolfmayer had commissioned him years before to write a “Requiem,” and paid him for it.

[176] Letter among Mr. Thayer’s papers.

[177] Neue Folge, 1871, p. 169 et seq.

[178] “Rabelais being very sick, Cardinal du Bellay sent his page to him to have an account of his condition; his answer was, ‘Tell my Lord in what circumstances thou findest me; I am going to leap into the dark. He is up in the cockloft, bid him keep where he is. As for thee, thou’lt always be a fool: let down the curtain, the farce is done.’” ... An author (Thov. His. de Jean Clopinel) who styles Rabelais a man of excellent learning, writes, that he being importuned by some to sign a will whereby they had made him bestow on them legacies that exceeded his ability, he, to be no more disturbed, complied at last with their desires; but when they came to ask him where they should find a fund answerable to what he gave; ‘as for that,’ replied he, ‘you must do like the spaniel, look about and search’; then, adds that author, having said, ‘Draw the curtain, the farce is over,’ he died. Likewise a monk (P. de St. Romuald, Rel. Feuillant) not only tells us that he ended his life with that jest, but that he left a paper sealed up wherein were found three articles as his last will: ‘I owe much, I have nothing, I give the rest to the poor.’ The last story or that before it must undoubtedly be false; and perhaps both are so as well as the message by the page; though Fregius (Comment. in Orat. Cic., tom. I) relates also that Rabelais said when he was dying, ‘Draw the curtain,’ etc. But if he said so, many great men have said much the same. Thus Augustus (Nunquid vitÆ mimum commode peregisset) near his death, asked his friends whether he had not very well acted the farce of life? And Demonax, one of the best philosophers, when he saw that he could not, by reason of his great age, live any longer, without being a burden to others, as well as to himself, said to those who were near him what the herald used to say when the public games were ended, ‘You may withdraw, the show is over,’ and refusing to eat, kept his usual gaiety to the last, and set himself at ease. (Lucian)—From Peter Motteux’s Life of Rabelais prefaced to the English translation made by himself and Sir Thomas Urquhart.

[179] In a letter to Mr. Thayer which was found among HÜttenbrenner’s posthumous papers and printed in the “Gratzer Tagespost” of October 23rd, 1868.

[180] “Aus dem Schwarzspanierhause,” p. 108.

[181] Mr. Thayer visited HÜttenbrenner in Gratz in June, 1860. His transcript of what HÜttenbrenner told him is reprinted in “Music and Manners in the Classical Period,” by Henry Edward Krehbiel (New York, 1898). The account in the body of the text is that contained in a letter to Mr. Thayer.

[182] The transcript in Mr. Thayer’s note-book of HÜttenbrenner’s oral recital is more sententious and dramatic: “At this startling, awful, peal of thunder, the dying man suddenly raised his head from HÜttenbrenner’s arm, stretched out his own right arm majestically—‘like a general giving orders to an army’. This was but for an instant; the arm sunk back; he fell back; Beethoven was dead.”

[183] The revised edition of Grove’s “Dictionary of Music and Musicians,” 1904, says: “The cold had developed into an inflammation of the lungs, and on this dropsy supervened.” Dr. Wawruch was unquestionably correct in his diagnosis not only in regard to the inflammation of the lungs but also in regard to the diseased condition of the liver.

[184] Preserved amongst Thayer’s papers.

[185] The attested inventory of the sale of Beethoven’s effects, which, preserved by Fischoff, passed through the hands of Otto Jahn into those of Mr. Thayer, showed that his estate amounted to 9,885 florins, 13 kreutzer, silver, and 600 florins, paper (Vienna standard). The market value of the bank-shares, including an unpaid coupon attached to each, was 1,063 florins on the day of Beethoven’s death. In the item of cash is included the £100 received from the London Philharmonic Society, which, as has been stated, was found intact. The official summary was set forth as follows:

Cash	1215 fl. (C. M.) 600 fl. (W.W.)
Bank-shares	7441 fl.
Debts receivable (annuity)	144 fl. 33 k.
Jewels and silverware	314 fl. 30 k.
Clothing	37 fl.
Furniture and household goods	156 fl.
Instruments	78 fl.
Music and manuscripts	480 fl. 30 k.
Books	18 fl. 20 k.
	9885 fl. 13 k. 600 fl. (W.W.)

According to a statement by Aloys Fuchs to Jahn the sum realized from the sale of the musical compositions, autographic and otherwise, sketch-books, etc., was 1063 florins. In view of the difference in purchasing power of money in 1827 and 1913 it may be said that Beethoven’s estate amounted to the equivalent of £3,000, or about $15,000.

[186] See “Aus dem Schwarzspanierhause,” p. 113; Hiller’s “Aus dem Tonleben, etc.” p. 177 et seq.; “Der Sammler,” April 14, 1827; Seyfried’s “Beethoven-Studien,” appendix, p. 50 et seq.

[187] The Miserere sung in the court of the Schwarzspanierhaus and its complement, Amplius lava me, were arrangements for male chorus made by Seyfried of the Equale for Trombones composed by Beethoven in Linz in 1812 at the request of GlÖggl for use on All Souls’ Day. They may be found in Seyfried’s “Studien.”

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