BEETHOVEN'S FAMILY

The roots of the Beethoven family can be found in Flanders and Brabant (both of these regions
are today a part of Belgium). Their earliest ancestors can be traced back as far as to the year
1500.

The Beethovens worked mainly as tradesmen and artisans. During the 17th century, Beethoven's
direct ancestors lived in and around the city of Malines (Mecheln). Beethoven's great-grandfather
was a baker and branched out into selling lace and other luxury items and would ultimately go
bankrupt through that sideline business.

Grandfather Ludwig van Beethoven, who was born in 1712, had a beautiful voice and was very
musical. His parents sent him to the church choir school for boys at the Cathedral of Malines.
Later, he also learned how to play the organ. One of his first positions was that of a baritone
singer and choir leader at the Cathedral of Liege (Lüttich). That is where the Elector of Bonn, who
was not only the Cardinal of Cologne, but also Bishop of Liege, heard him sing in 1733 and
invited him to come and work at his Bonn court. Once Ludwig van Beethoven senior was
established there, his destitute parents also fled to Bonn.

At that time, the sleepy city of Bonn had a population of not quite 10,000. It served as the
residence of the Elector and Cardinal of Cologne. With respect to the particular form of state and
government of a German "Electorate" whose "Elector" was also a bishop or Cardinal, it would be
helpful to mention the following:

• An "Electorate" was the territory of a ruler who, along with other

aristocratic rulers or "Electors", was eligible to take part in the "election" of the
Emperor of the so-called "Holy Roman Empire" (at that time a long-time German
remnant of the European empire created by Charlemagne);

• An Elector who was also a bishop or cardinal ruled over a territory that
was owned by the Roman Catholic church. The rulers of such "ecclesiastical" or
"church" states were, again, selected by the Emperor and a close circle of
powerful regional German rulers from the ranks of their own families;

• Both of these traditions had their origins in the feudal system of the
Middle Ages.

Most of these "ecclesiastical" Electors spent far less time at attaining their priesthood than
ordinary priests, and they also had a "grace period" of ten years from the time they became rulers
of a church state until they had to become priests. During this time, many of them went on merrily
enjoying their lives with their mistresses and their flock of illegitimate children. Some of them even
continued this life style after they had taken their priestly vows of celibacy.
 Grandfather
Louis or Ludwig
van Beethoven

Grandfather Ludwig van Beethoven worked for the Electorate of Bonn for forty years: as baritone
singer from 1733 until 1761, and in this function as well as that of a Kapellmeister until his
December 25th, 1773, death (from a stroke). Soon after his arrival in Bonn, he married a local girl,
Marie Poll. The couple had to mourn the loss of several children and were left with only one
surviving son, Johann*, who was born either in late 1739 or in early 1740. The Fleming Ludwig
van Beethoven, in addition to his position as a Court musician, also had a side line business of
exporting Rhine and Mosel wine to his native Flanders.

His wife Marie, who might not have been able to deal easily with the loss of her infant children,
took to the readily available bottles of wine. By the time that her son Johann had become a
mediocre tenor singer at the Bonn court, her alcoholism had become so severe that she had to
live in confinement in a cloister of nuns in Cologne. Ludwig van Beethoven senior and his young
adult son Johann lived alone as bachelors.
 Presumably
Johann
van Beethoven

"Johann der Läufer" or "Johann the runner", as the Kapellmeister nick-named his son*, loved to
wander through the countryside around Bonn. During summer, when the Elector stayed at his
Münster residence in Westphalia, some of the court musicians did not have to come along.
Johann used his free time to wander as far as Koblenz or even to Ehrenbreitstein across the river
Rhine.

(*More recent Beethoven research has brought forth the contention (by Canisius) that Ludwig van
Beethoven senior might not have been the biological father of Johann. If that were the case,
indeed, Marie Poll's later behavior and addiction might also have to be viewed in the light of that
possibility.)

On one of his wanderings, Johann met a young widow in an Ehrenbreitstein tavern. Her name
was Maria Magdalena Laym, nee Kewerich. Her father used to be chief cook at the Court of the
Elector of Treves (Trier) who held court at Ehrenbreitstein. When she was sixteen years old, she
married a valet of this Elector. The young couple had one child who died in infancy. Mr. Laym
also died soon after.

Johann van Beethoven and Maria Magdalena Laym, nee Kewerich, were married in Bonn in
1767. Grandfather Ludwig van Beethoven initially did not approve of this marriage. He thought
that a court musician should marry someone better than a servant's daughter. We know of this
through the so-called "Fischer manuscript", a collection of memories the Fischer family, long-time
landlords of both Ludwig van Beethoven senior and of Johann van Beethoven, later put together
of the family of their most famous tenant. The two Beethoven bachelors lived right above the
Fischer family, and the Fischers could thus overhear the conversation when Johann told his
father of his marriage plans.
 The young couple's brief marital bliss might have received its first blow when their first child,
Ludwig Maria, born in the spring of 1769, died after only six days.

One could say that the fate of the Beethoven family in Bonn was shaped by few triumphs and
many tragic events. Ludwig van Beethoven found professional success in his new residence, he
was well-respected as a musician and as a man by Bonners of all walks of life: by his aristocratic
employer, his fellow court musicians, and by the burghers of Bonn. In his private life, the "normal"
course of marriages of his day, namely that of a couple's having several children of whom some
did not survive, cast a shadow over his marriage and sent his wife into alcoholism.

While his son Johann was far less talented as a singer than he was and also had less self-
respect, and while he may have received his position as a tenor singer at the Bonn court mainly
due to his father's excellent reputation, Barry Cooper does point out that Johann van Beethoven
was at least very active during the first years of his marriage, namely as tenor singer and as voice
and piano teacher. Nevertheless, father Ludwig van Beethoven knew how to stand up for his
rights and how to address his superiors with dignity, while Johann van Beethoven, in petitioning
for his first permanent position at age 16, referred to "my insignificant self" in describing himself
towards the Elector. This tendency to either wind his way through or to, on the other hand,
becoming over-confident to the point of embarrassment would remain one of his traits throughout
his entire life.

Presumably
Maria Magdalena
van Beethoven
The young widow Maria Magdalena, nineteen years old when she married Johann, was a serious
young woman who had already suffered the loss of an infant and of her first husband. The loss of
her second child in her second marriage did not help her cheerful disposition.

This was the family into which Ludwig van Beethoven would be born.

BEETHOVEN'S CHILDHOOD
1770 - 1881

Ludwig van Beethoven was baptized in the Catholic parish church of St. Remigius in Bonn on
December 17th, 1770. His exact date of birth is not known*. It may have been December 15th or
16th, 1770. At that time, the family lived in an attic apartment in a building in the Bonngasse**.

The Beethovenhaus in Bonn

*On this point, we might wish to look at the contentions of two Beethoven biographers, Maynard
Solomon and Barry Cooper. The Beethoven scholar Maynard Solomon contends that
Beethoven's own uncertainty about his year of birth, his so-called birth year delusion, has at its
roots the fact of his having been born after his first-born brother Ludwig Maria, whose loss might
still have been felt strongly by his parents, and that their pain overshadowed his own early
childhood. To this might have been added the fact that both infants had the same first name,
Ludwig. (Solomon: 3-4, 21, 23, 155, 276-77). Barry Cooper, on the other hand, is stressing that
the date of birth should in all likelihood have been December 16th, and the time of birth later in
the day rather than earlier, taking into account the tradition of this age of baptizing children within
24 hours of their births (Cooper: 3).

**Today, the entire building in which Beethoven was born serves as Bonn's Beethovenhaus with
a collection of memorabilia that is open for viewing to the public, and the Beethoven Archives
which are engaged in serious research and which house an extensive collection of research
material.

Beethoven would grow to have fond memories of his grandfather and would cherish them all his
life. His mother built up in his mind an extremely positive image of the Kapellmeister, in contrast
to the image of his less talented, strict father.

The boy's earliest music instructions were the piano lessons his father started to give him when
he was four or five years old***.

***Beethoven's Bonn friend, Franz Gerhard Wegeler, recalled watching "the doings and sufferings
of our Louis" from the window of a friend's house. The stout, stocky little boy with unruly black
hair and expressive grayish eyes would stand on a stool so that his fingers could reach the piano
and would thus go through the exercises his father had given him, sometimes crying in the
process.

The goal Beethoven's father appeared to pursue in training his son was, at first, to turn him into a
second Wunderkind like Mozart. From Johann van Beethoven's advertisement of March 26th,
1778, for a concert in Cologne in which one of his adult students, the singer Helene Averdonk
performed as well as his son, we learn that he described Ludwig as his "little son of six years".
 Johann van Beethoven's Advertisement
of the March 26, 1778 Concert in Cologne

We also learn that, prior to this concert, he had his son play the piano before the Bonn court.
From the fact that no further such concerts were held, we can deduct two things:

The novelty of piano Wunderkinder had worn off by that time;

Little Ludwig may have been a talented young pianist, but not a Wunderkind such as Mozart.

Before we discuss Beethoven's further musical training, we should look at his family life and at his
schooling. Wegeler reports that he was attached to his gentle, yet serious mother, but that he had
less of a bond with his strict father. He attended school for all of four years: the so-called
Tirocinium, at which pupils were taught the basics of arithmetic, German language, and some
Latin. Mr. Wurzer, the later President of the County Court of Koblenz, was Beethoven's classmate
and recalled that the latter did not pay any attention to the instruction but was engrossed in his
own daydreams and that he frequently appeared unkempt and dirty. Beethoven is also reported
by the Fischer family, in whose house the family lived off and on, as not having spent much time
in playing with other boys of his age, but as sticking to his musical studies, an activity he did not
allow anyone to make fun of. Yet, Mrs. Fischer also found him involved in boyhood pranks with
his brother Caspar Carl, stealing her rooster and laughing heartily when caught.

When Beethoven was eight years old, his father felt that he needed further musical training from
other teachers. We soon find the lad Ludwig in a variety of different training scenarios:

At first, Johann had arranged for his tuition by the old Court organist, the Fleming van den Eeden.
The latter was too old, however, to provide much training to Ludwig;

As far as organ practice was concerned, Ludwig soon made his own arrangements with various
Bonn parishes and began, on a daily basis, to play the organ at the six o'clock mass in one or the
other Bonn church*.

The tenor singer Tobias Friedrich Pfeiffer, who came to Bonn with the Grossmann and Hellmuth's
theatrical company in 1779 and soon befriended Johann van Beethoven, was also a skilled
pianist. It was decided that he should give Ludwig lessons. These took place mostly late at night,
after Pfeiffer and Johann van Beethoven would return home from the tavern, drunk and
boisterous, waking the boy up from his sleep and dragging him to the piano**.

A more suitable instructor, as far as ethics and morals was concerned, was Beethoven's maternal
uncle, the young Court violinist Franz Rovantini. He taught Ludwig violin playing. This ended
abruptly when the only 24-year-old died from an infection in September, 1781***.

*To this end, he had to be up and out of the house by not later than five-thirty. Could not his state
of uncleanness in school at around seven-thirty have had its roots in his "slipping through his
mother's fingers" at that early hour?

**At least by this time, if not earlier, Johann van Beethoven had started to drink excessively.

***On the occasion of his death, another cousin who worked as a domestic servant in Rotterdam,
later came to visit the family. (In our next section, we will discuss new finding with respect to
Beethoven's visit to Holland which, as has been found out after the publication of
Thayer/Forbes in 1964, did not, as Thayer contends, take place in 1781 but later).

To sum up the course of Beethoven's musical training during his childhood, one can deduct that
Johann van Beethoven, after he realized that he could not make money off his boy by passing
him around as a child prodigy, he changed his focus to training his son to become a musical
breadwinner to augment the family income, as soon as possible. Solomon contends that
Beethoven not only resented his father for it, but at a deeper, hidden level, also his mother who
passively suffered through her marriage and did not put up any active resistance against her
husband. To her defense it must be mentioned that she was of weak health, possibly already
suffering from consumption (tuberculosis), bore several children of whom, by this time, in addition
to Ludwig, only his brothers Caspar Carl (born in 1774) and Nikolaus Johannes (born in 1776)
had survived, and that she augmented the family income with some needlework.

What we can observe with respect to the length of Beethoven's childhood is that it practically
ended when ye left the Tirocinium and became an apprentice musician at the Bonn court at age
ten or eleven, at the latest.

BEETHOVEN AS COURT APPRENTICE

 (1781 - 1784)

From approximately 1781 on, when Beethoven around ten or eleven years old, Christian Gottlob
Neefe*, the new Bonn court organist who replaced the Fleming van den Eeden, took over his
training on the piano and on the organ.

Christian Gottlob Neefe

*As the American historian Alexander Wheelock Thayer explains in his book, The Life of
Beethoven, this musician came to Bonn to join the theater company as its musical director in
1779. Born 1748 in Chemnitz, Saxony, this graduated jurist turned away from law and studied
music in a process of self-study of the theoretical works of C.P.E. Bach and of Marpurg, but he
also received support from Johann Adam Hiller, Director of the Gewandhaus concerts in Leipzig,
who also gave him his position in Dresden as musical director of Seyler's company in 1777.
Although Neefe composed several operettas, he considered himself not as fully trained in
counterpoint. Once in Bonn, he was also actively involved in Masonic activities as local head of
the Bavaria-based Illuminati and, after its voluntary dissolution in 1784, in the newly formed,
tamer Reading Society.

Already during the Elector's usual retreat to Münster in the summer months of 1782, for which
Neefe had to accompany him, he trusted his young apprentice to take over his duties as court
organist. According to Thayer, his duty was "no sinecure".
Not only did Neefe trust Beethoven to perform admirably as his replacement, he also recognized
his student's genius. Since he frequently wrote articles for musical publications, it should not
come as a surprise to find his following March 2nd, 1783, article which he submitted to Cramers
Magazin der Musik:

"Louis van Beethoven, son of the above-noted tenor singer, a boy of 11 years, and of most
promising talent. He plays the piano very skillfully, and with power, reads at sight very well, and--
to put it in a nutshell: he mainly plays the well-tempered clavier by Sebastian Bach which Mr.
Neefe has put into his hands. Whoever knows this collection of preludes and fugues in all the
keys (which one could almost call the non plus ultra of our art), will know what that means. As far
as his other duties allowed him, Mr. Neefe also provided him with instruction in thoroughbass.
Now he is training him in composition, and for his encouragement he had 9 variations for the
pianoforte written by him on a march (by Dressler) engraved in Mannheim. The young genius
deserves to be supported so that he could travel. He would surely become a second Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart, were he to continue as he has begun."

This article describes to us in detail how Neefe trained and furthered his student's talents from the
time when Beethoven first began his apprenticeship in late 1781, through 1782 and into the
spring of 1783.

With respect to the "9 variations for the pianoforte written by him on a march (by Dressler)", which
Beethoven had written in 1782, let us look at what Barry Cooper writes about them:

"It may seem unreasonable to expect anything that is not derivative in the work of an eleven-year-
old, yet several signs of truly Beethovenian originality are evident. First is the high level of
technique demanded. . . . If this really was Beethoven's first composition, it is an extremely
impressive beginning. . . ." (Cooper: 7).

Cooper mentions as the work's weakness a "lack of proper continuity" and that it was based on a
funeral march that Beethoven might have composed it as "a fitting memorial" for cousin Franz
Rovantini who had died in the fal l of 1781.

On the strength of the confidence Neefe had in the by now twelve-year old boy, it should not
surprise us to learn that Beethoven also took over the duties of a harpsichordist towards the end
of the 1782/1783 theater season when Kapellmeister Lucchesi was granted a leave of absence
for professional travels and when Neefe had to take over his duties. He turned to his apprentice
as his replacement as the rehearsal conductor for the theater company. This gave Beethoven
also a chance to increase his already formidable sight-reading skills which would remain with him
also in later years. He filled this position from April to June, 1783.

With the end of the theater season and the Elector's departure for Münster in June, 1783, the
harpsichordist's duties ended. Once again, Beethoven had time to compose. In addition to some
minor efforts such as a song and a rondo for pianoforte, he also composed three piano sonatas
which he dedicated to his Elector, Maximilian Friedrich, and which were published by Bossler in
Speyer in October, 1783.

With respect to these Sonatas, Cooper writes:

"These are full-sized, three-movement sonatas, and impressive by any standards; for a twelve-
year-old they are astonighing. . . . The three sonatas are not without their weaknesses, chief of
whic is, once again, insufficient sense of continuity . . . " (Cooper: 10 and 11).
 Here, we should discuss the fact that Beethoven's journey to Holland did not, as Thayer
had assumed, take place in late 1781, but rather in late 1783. Let us quote from Barry
Cooper's 2000 Beethoven biography:

"By the end of 1783, Neefe's desire that Beethoven should travel had been fulfilled, but the
journey to Holland was essentially a private one and there is no evidence that it was subsidized
by the Elector. The circumstances surrounding the trip are related by Fischer.(14) Franz
Rovantini had a sister, Anna Maria Magdalena, who was emplyed by a rich widow as a governess
in Rotterdam. When Beethoven's mother informed her of Rovantini's death in 1781, she became
anxious to visit his grave in Bonn, and evenually did so in autumn 1783. . . . A return visit by the
Beethovens was arranged; Johann was unable to go, and so Beethoven went with his mother.
During the journey down the Rhine, the weather was so cold that his mother reportedly held his
feet in her lap to prevent frostbite. They stayed in Rotterdam for some time, and Beethoven
played in several great houses there, astonishing people with his ability. He also performed on
the piano at the Royal Court in The Hague, some ten miles away, on 23 November, and was paid
63 florins--far more than anyone else listed at the event. Nevertheless, he returned dissatisfied
with the rewards, describing the Dutch as penny-pinchers and vowing not to go to the
Netherlands again" (Cooper: 11; The details of Beethoven's November, 1783, performance at the
Royal Court in The Hague, are derived from a payroll document of the Court of Prince Willem V of
Orange-Nassau, dated November 26, 1783, which refers to a 'Funded Concert' on November 23,
1783, which lists as first performer the soloist, "Mons. Beethoven, forte-piano, 12 y[ears] 63.--",
quoted from "Letters to Beethoven and Other Correspondence", Translated and Edited by
Theodore Albrecht, Volume I: 1771-1812, University of Nebraska Press, in association with the
American Beethoven Society and the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, San Jose, San
Jose State University, 1996, page 3).

The 1783/1784 theater season started out hectic in fall, as Neefe was still replacing Lucchesi and
delegating many of his duties to his young apprentice. The usual time for such an apprenticeship
or probation without pay (it must be mentioned, however, that Beethoven's upkeep was paid by
the court since his father could no longer pay for it) was one year, out of which had become two
by this time, and Beethoven's skills must have well exceeded what was usually expected of a
young musician.

On the strength of his teacher's confidence in his abilities and perhaps, as Cooper argues, also
on the strength of his recent travels to Holland, Beethoven petitioned to the court in February,
1784, to he hired on as a court musician.

While he handed in his petition, Bonn experienced a great flood of the river Rhine. More
tribulations would follow which would delay the end of Beethoven's apprenticeship: Elector
Maximilian Friedrich passed away on April 15th, 1784, and his Minister Belderbusch soon followed
him to the grave.

During the course of 1784, the new Elector Maximilian Franz, Empress Maria Theresia of
Austria's son, established his residence and reviewed all of his court staff, including his
musicians, with a view to saving money.
 Elector Maximilian Franz

He requested reports on all of them. The Calvinist court organist Neefe seemed expendable. First
of all, before the closing of the year, Neefe's annual salary of 400 florins was reduced to 200
florins, and Ludwig van Beethoven, not yet fourteen years old, was hired on as assistant court
organist at an annual salary of 150 florins. This situation was reviewed once more in early 1785.
Neefe's true merits had been recognized by that time, and his salary was restored. Beethoven's
salary was adjusted to 100 florins annually. From then on, the young musician was at last no
longer an apprentice without an official salary, but a wage earner and breadwinner for his family
and earned half of the salary of the court tenor Johann van Beethoven, namely 200 florins
annually. Due to the decline of his father's tenor voice, Ludwig would soon also have to find
additional sources of income to assist his family. This will be discussed in the next section.

BEETHOVEN'S GROWTH
AND MATURATION
(1784 - 1787)

In the previous section we looked at the growth of Beethoven's self-confidence as a musician

while we also began to anticipate the next step he would take to help increase the income of his
family. While Franz Gerhard Wegeler*, in his Biographical Notes, points out that he first met
Beethoven when the latter was twelve years old, research determined that this first meeting might
most likely have taken place in 1784.

*Wegeler, as the son of a poor Alsatian immigrant to Bonn, took his high school and later his
medical studies very seriously. Ultimately, he found his place in life as a highly respected
physician. His earnest striving may have been what impressed the widow Helene von Breuning
and her brother-in-law, so that Wegeler was accepted into the family circle as an older friend of
her children.

Frau von Breuning was looking for a piano teacher for two of her children, Eleonore and Lenz.
This need opened the doors of this generous house to the thirteen-to- fourteen-year-old Ludwig
van Beethoven whom Wegeler introduced to the family. Beethoven would earn some much-
needed extra money in teaching Eleonore and Lenz piano, but he soon also became friends with
all of the von Breuning children, in addition to Wegeler. The relaxed atmosphere of this congenial
family helped him to develop his interaction skills in a highly appropriate environment. Frau von
Breuning and her brother-in-law, a teacher who moved in with the family to tutor the children,
were both in favor of instilling in their young people a love of literature, the liberal arts, and of
music. It was in this circle that Beethoven was first introduced to the works of contemporary
German literature such as the works of Klopstock, Lessing, Wieland, Herder, Goethe and Schiller,
as well as to the works of writers of the established world literature (such as the works of
Shakespeare, Plutarch and other classical writers). The positive influence Frau von Breuning
exercised over Beethoven would become ever more important in years to come. While
Beethoven accepted the von Breuning household as his second home in which he spent many
nights as a guest, improvising on the piano to the delight of the company into all hours, his
entrenched inability to let go of his reservations, haughtiness and stubbornness would surface on
occasion. The von Breuning children would then not know what to do with him. Frau von Breuning
would ask for their understanding, excusing the young genius as having his raptus again.
Beethoven also began to tutor children of other well-to-do Bonn families. While this was a
tremendous financial help to his family, we can also imagine that the contrast between the
atmosphere in his parental home and that in the homes he entered as a piano teacher who had
only his highly developed skills to offer but who could not match their worldly sophistication,
would cause him, the fiery introvert, endless embarrassment. On many occasions he was found
to loathe going to the houses of some families. Once Frau von Breuning insisted and watched
him cross the Marktplatz to enter another house. He soon returned, confessing to her that he
could not teach that day. He promised to make up for it the next day by giving two lessons.

While we now have before our eyes a vivid picture of Beethoven's social activities, we should not
miss to draw a comparison between the lively interest in the von Breuning circle in matters of
contemporary art and the overall climate in Bonn that the new Elector Maximilian Franz created.

From a musical viewpoint it should be mentioned that he was one of Empress Maria Theresia's
children with whom the six-year-old Mozart might have played during his first visit to Vienna and
that the elegant outfit Wolfgang Amadeus would be seen with on a painting was Maximilian Franz'
before it was given to Mozart.

In adult life, Maximilian Franz became a fervent admirer of Mozart who might even have
considered calling him to Bonn as Kapellmeister, had he not had to consider that he already had
an able man in this position whom he could hardly dismiss without just cause. Moreover, the new
Elector felt that he had to "clean house" in the finances of his state before he could set a new
tone. In eventually doing so, his influence on the cultural life of Bonn was very positive. He raised
the local academy to university status and appointed able lecturers to it. He also began to
introduce similar reforms in the spirit of enlightened absolutism which his brother, Emperor
Joseph II, implemented in Vienna after the 1780 death of his mother. The citizens of the Bonn
Electorate thus began to feel that sciences, culture, and the education of his subjects was more
important to their Elector than keeping up the clerical traditions of this church state as they had
been entrenched.

During the 1784/85, 1785/86 and 1786/87 theater seasons, Maximilian Franz brought different
opera companies to Bonn. Beethoven was thus able to become acquainted with the works of
Gluck (such as his operas Alceste and Orpheus), but also his later teacher and Mozart's rival
Salieri's opera Armida. With this, Maximilian Franz tried to create a bit of Viennese musical
atmosphere in Bonn. Kapellmeister Lucchesi having returned and having a new assistant, Anton
Reicha from Bohemia at his side, court organist Neefe was once again relegated to his organist
duties. This left Beethoven, apart from his substituting duties, ample time for composing and for
his social activities. Wegeler has this to report about Beethoven's growing confidence as a
performing musician:

"In the Catholic church the lamentations of Jeremiah are sung on three days of holy week . . .
Since the organ must remain silent during those three days, the singer received only an
improvised accompaniment from a pianist. Once when it was Beethoven's turn to perform this
duty, he asked the singer Heller who was very secure indeed in his intonation, whether he could
throw him off, and he used the rather rashly given permission to wander about so much in the
accompaniment that the singer was completely bewildered and could no longer find the closing
cadence, even though Beethoven kept striking the note to be chanted in the treble with his little
finger."

The Elector is reported as having been secretly amused but as also having requested a more no-
nonsense accompaniment in future.

Silhouette of
Ludwig van Beethoven
at the age of 16
van Beethoven

We do not know for certain who in particular supported Beethoven's spring 1787 journey to
Vienna and how it was precisely financed, but we must conclude that Beethoven at least had the
Elector's permission and some letters of reference along with him. Records show that Beethoven
arrived in Vienna in early April, 1787. Since we do not have any first-hand reports of Beethoven's
activities during his brief stay in Vienna, we have to very cautiously look at the existing reports of
his having played and improvised before Mozart and as possibly having received a few lessons
from him.

Mozart scholars generally advise that there is no direct evidence of such lessons having taken
place. Anecdotal recollection also created the much-told story of Beethoven first playing a well-
rehearsed piece which Mozart praised coldly and politely; realizing this, Beethoven supposedly
asked him to give him a theme on which he then improvised so astonishingly well that Mozart ran
out into the adjoining room and is supposed to have commented to his friends, "keep an eye on
this one. Some day, he will give the world something to talk about." More reliable fact is that
Beethoven could not stay even for two weeks, since a letter reached him from his father in Bonn,
urging him to return home immediately as his mother had fallen seriously ill.

Beethoven returned home as fast as he could via Munich and Augsburg. There he met the piano
maker Stein and also a lawyer by the name of von Schaden. When he returned home, he arrived
just in time to witness his mother's final suffering from tuberculosis. She died in July, 1787.

The first letter we have of Beethoven is that of October, 1787, to Councillor von Schaden in
Augsburg.

In it he apologizes for not returning some money that gentleman had evidently advanced him so
that he could continue his journey. He also describes his emotional state during the ordeal of his
return journey, his mother's death and his following grief. A few passages are highlighted here:

"I must confess to you that from the time I left Augsburg, my joy and with it my health began to
vanish. . . . I found my mother still alive, but in such a very deplorable state of health. She had
consumption and passed away seven weeks ago after much pain and suffering. She was to me
such a good, loving mother, and my best friend. Ah, who was happier than I, when I could still
utter the sweet name mother and it was heard? And to whom can I say it now? To the images of
her only, which my imagination calls up..."

Let us look at some key words and phrases in these sentences: Joy, Pain, Suffering, Images
which my imagination calls up...

...are these not the key words that would describe the entire life of Beethoven?

BEETHOVEN'S LATER
BONN YEARS
(1787 - 1792)

From Beethoven's letter to Councillor von Schaden in Augsburg we know that he went through a
period of intense grief over the loss of his mother. In his letter, he also relates that he feared he,
too, might have become infected with consumption, describing his shortness of breath and his
melancholy over the situation. We can not be certain as to whether Beethoven had been in any
way directly infected during his mother's final illness in 1787. Medical research, however, knows
of various forms of tuberculosis, so that not necessarily the lungs become directly infected. This is
pointed out in an attempt at having the reader investigate such issues further by reading up on
Beethoven's illnesses in appropriate literature, as we have to entirely reserve our judgment on
this issue, here. What we can learn from records, however, is that Maria Magdalena's terminal
illness and the medical expenses related to it put the family in dire financial straits. The Bonn
court musician and violinist Franz Anton Ries was the one who stood by Beethoven and his
family the most. Of Johann van Beethoven it can be safely said that he literally "fell apart" after
the death of his wife. His singing voice deteriorated more and more, and the more it did, the more
he drowned his sorrows in wine. Ludwig had to take charge of household affairs as best as he
could. With the help of some of his friends he struggled along for nearly two years in trying to
keep things together so that his brothers would have food on the table wich a hired housekeeper
prepared. His baby sister whom Frau van Beethoven had given birth to about a year before her
death, did not flourish under these conditions and died in the fall of 1787. So Beethoven was left
with having to see to his brothers' Caspar Carl and Nikolaus Johannes' further education and
training. Caspar Carl aimed at becoming a piano teacher, and Nikolaus Johannes entered an
apprenticeship as pharmacist at the Bonn Court pharmacy.

Out of the fact that hardly any sketches and scores of Beethoven's compositions during the years
1787 to 1789 have survived, there grew a general contention that Beethoven might have stopped
composing during this difficult period. If this was, indeed, the case, he might have gone through
an emotional trauma that hindered him from expressing himself in his own compositions.
However, in his 2000 Beethoven biography, Barry Cooper contends that:

". . . It is, of course, possible that he virtually abandoned composition during this period, for his
everyday cares increased considerably, as we shall see, and he is known to have gone through a
number of silent phases during his life when he felt unable to commit much to paper. But to be
silent for so long, and at such an early age, seems improbable. Far more likely, he simply
abandoned or mislaid most of his compositions from this period in later years, and they gradually
disappeared. . . . " (Cooper: 21-22).

[Cooper does, however, not merely state his opinion here but tries to, as counter-argument
against the 'general contention', present his readers with details of traces of works that
Beethoven was contemplating during this period, one of which is a single draft with the heading
'Sinfonia' in which Beethoven came as far as near the end of the exposition. Cooper writes, "Its
date is uncertain, but the handwriting is in a transitional form that strongly suggests it comes from
this dark age between 1786 and 1790" (Cooper: 23; as source, he lists Johnson, Beethoven's
Early Sketches, i. 222). Cooper also refers to Beethoven's new concerto that he appears to also
have begun in this period and traces this back to a single sheet of paper, with the handwriting
suggesting that it belongs to the same period (Source: Johnson, Beethoven's Early Sketches, i.
366; ii. 71-3, listed in Cooper: 23). He also suggests that this early sketch might later have been
incorporated into his Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 19. As additional works from this period, Cooper
refers to various Preludes (one in F minor, WoO 55, two in C major, Op. 39), and perhaps also
'some of the eight songs that later appears in Beethoven's Op. 52 collection (Cooper: 23).}

While we can not attain absolute certainty with respect to this issue, we may safely assume that
Beethoven did go through a difficult period of adjusting to the loss of his mother, of which we
know that he kept attending to his duties as a court musician, music teacher and virtual head of
his family's household. What helped him to slowly heal was not in the least the positive influence
Madame von Breuning had over him. In many ways, she appears to have filled the role of a
second mother to Beethoven. Her family may also have favorably intervened in an embarrassing
incident involving his alcoholic father whom police was about to arrest one night for disturbing the
peace. Ludwig's desperate pleading with them to let his father go may have driven his own
patience to the utmost so that he, too, momentarily lost his temper. Discreet intervention on the
part of the von Breuning family subsequently ensured that this was not also turned into an issue
by the local authorities.

Another fast friend of Beethoven became Count Waldstein [Cooper places his arrival into "late
January 1788" (Cooper: 25)], an Austrian nobleman who was appointed by the Elector to manage
certain aspects of Court ceremonies. This young man was also a friend and admirer of Mozart. In
time, he became Beethoven's first noble patron.

By November, 1789, Johann van Beethoven's state had become so deplorable that Ludwig felt
himself forced to petition to the Court to receive half of his father's salary so that he, himself,
could take control of his family's finances. This petition was granted in the following manner:

• Johann van Beethoven was retired from his post as Court tenor;

• Half of his annual salary of 200 florins was to be paid quarterly directly to
his son Ludwig;

• Johann was to leave Bonn and to live in a village of the Electorate;

• Ludwig was also to receive two measures of grain annually as a food

supplement for his family.

To all appearances, the financial part of this settlement was carried out while Johann van
Beethoven was never actually removed from Bonn.

If we were to, on the one hand, follow the 'general contention' that Beethoven had stopped
composing altogether from 1787 to 1789, we might consider that this "settlement" of his family
matters would have set his energies free again so that he returned to composing. On the other
hand, if we were to follow Cooper's argument that Beethoven might not have entirely given up
composing, altogether, we would also have to give weight to a further argument of his that we will
be discussing shortly.

What appears certain, in any event, is that Beethoven also returned to increasingly taking part in
the cultural life of Bonn. During the 1789-1790 semester, he enrolled at the University of Bonn as
a lay student, along with some of his young fellow court musicians. He also socialized with the
members of the Bonn Reading Society of which Waldstein became a member, as well. This circle
of the Bonn intelligentsia also frequented the Bonn restaurant Zehrgarten which the widow Koch
owned. A bookshop was part of this facility. In his duties as a court musician, Beethoven now not
only acted as assistant court organist, but also as a viola player in the orchestra.

What can surely be considered Beethoven's most important composition of the year 1790 leads
us back to Cooper's argument that arose out of his contention that Beethoven had not stopped
composing, entirely, during the period of 1787 to 1789.

The 1790 death of Emperor Joseph II prompted the Bonn Reading Society to commission from
Beethoven a funeral cantata. With respect to this commission, Cooper argues:

"The choice of composer is significant, for it provides further evidence that his talent had been
recognized, and that he must therefore have written far more in the previous three years than
now survives, for otherwise someone else such as Neefe or Reicha would surely have been
chosen" (Cooper: 27).

This cantata, however, was not finished on time for their purposes. In it, as musicologists explain,
Beethoven found an opportunity to turn his previous personal grief into an expression of grief over
the loss of an enlightened ruler. Beethoven also wrote a cantata for the coronation of the new
Emperor Leopold.
His continued interaction with Count Waldstein led to one of the compositions Beethoven
embarked on during the 1790/1791 season. He wrote a Ritterballet which Waldstein had his
permission to present as his own for the festivities. This carnival's theme were the medieval times
and the lives of the nobles during that period.

The late summer and fall of 1791 brought with it for Beethoven a joyful trip, the memory of which
he would cherish all his life. The Elector, as Grand Master of the Teutonic Order (an institution
that dated back to the feudal medieval times of the Crusades) had to preside over its fall 1791
session at its Mergentheim headquarters at the Main river upstream from Frankfurt.

His musical entourage followed him up the rivers Rhine and Main in two boats. On Beethoven's
boat, the court musicians also took over the task of managing their daily needs. Beethoven was
relegated to kitchen duty and in Rüdesheim he received a diploma for his heroic efforts. His friend
Wegeler observed that he later carefully kept his diploma in his lodgings in Vienna. At
Mergentheim, the orchestra rehearsed his cantatas but found them too difficult to perform.

At a prior stopover at Aschaffenburg, Beethoven met the then famous pianist, Abbé Sterkel,
whose elegant manner of playing he imitated to perfection after only briefly watching him, but it
also brought with it an incident which lets us, for the first time, look at the issue of Beethoven and
women. When the court musicians had dinner at a restaurant, they wanted to tease the lifeblood
out of their serious and shy colleague Beethoven. They convinced the pretty young waitress who
was serving them to play her charms on him. He, however, only showed her his cold shoulder.
Urged on by his fellow musicians, she tried it again and received a smart box on her ears from
Beethoven.

In connection with this incident, it is also appropriate and interesting to look at Wegeler's
recollection of his later famous friend's youthful infatuations with two young ladies of noble birth:
Jeanette d'Honrath of Cologne who stayed at the von Breuning house and, on observing his shy
admiration for her, openly teased him about it in insisting on singing the farewell song If I must be
separated from you already today, that would be too cruel, and his infatuation with Fräulein von
Westerholt, whom he admired in a Werther-like fashion. Wegeler, however, also insisted on
maintaining that these romantic notions were of an entirely adolescent nature, while Beethoven
also maintained a fine friendship with his own later wife, Eleonore von Breuning.

On his return from England, Franz Joseph Haydn, Europe's foremost composer after the
December 5th, 1791, death of Mozart, stopped over in Bonn to visit the Elector in the summer of
1792 (Cooper: 38).

It is generally believed that Beethoven may have shown him his cantatas on this occasion and
that due to this meeting, the plan was forged that he should go to Vienna to study with Haydn.
This plan was then turned to reality in the fall of 1792. From the entries in the customary farewell
album Beethoven received from his friends, it becomes clear that he must have left Bonn around
November 1st - 3rd, 1792. Let us quote here a passage of the most prophetic entry which Count
Waldstein made:
 "You are gong to Vienna in fulfillment of your long-frustrated wishes. Mozart's genius is still
mourning over the death of its pupil. With the inexhaustible Haydn, it has found a refuge, but no
occupation. Through arduous labor you (shall) receive Mozart's spirit from Haydn's hands."

BEETHOVEN'S STUDY YEARS

IN VIENNA
(1792 - 1795)

Beethoven probably did not have an inordinate amount of luggage when he set out on his journey
to Vienna. Extensive research, however, over time provided us lay readers with various sources
on the basis of which we can begin to imagine the inordinate amount of emotional baggage he
left Bonn with. Of these sources, Maynard Solomon's writings on Beethoven provide us with the--
do date--most understandable and comprehensive overview of these issues. A brief outline of the
writer's understanding of this overview is provided here:

• Beethoven was the oldest son of an alcoholic father who used him to
gain a second breadwinner for the family as soon as possible;

• Beethoven's mother did not fight any of these circumstances; rather, she
endured them. She was reported by her neighbors as never having smiled.
 Habitually, she would allow herself to build up a glorified image of grandfather
Ludwig van Beethoven in her son Ludwig's mind. She was also overheard by the
Fischer family, on the occasion of their daughter's marriage plans, to have
uttered "warnings about marriage" (Solomon: 14);

• That Beethoven overtly cherished the memory of his mother, yet also, at
some level, rejected her for not standing up for her and her children's rights. His
rejection of her found its expression in several ways:

• he continually insisted that he was two years younger than he actually

was;

• based on this "different birth date", there opened itself the possibility that
his father was not his real father;

• based on this possibility, he later never took much pains to contradict

rumors that he was the illegitimate son of one of the kings of Prussia. Only in his
fall 1826 letter to his lifetime friend Wegeler did he finally stand up for the moral
integrity of his mother;

• that he, after he had moved to Vienna, left room for the public and the
nobility to believe that the van in his Flemish name might be the equivalent to the
German von (which native speakers of the Dutch and Flemish languages could
certainly contradict from a language-point-of-view) and that he was, therefore,
also of noble birth. This was, in effect, also a rejection of his real family.

This is discussed here so as to let us try to understand why Beethoven, after settling in Vienna
after his arrival, did not return to Bonn when his father died of dropsy of the heart in December,
1792. We must also look at the possibility that Johann van Beethoven was already seriously ill
when his son Ludwig left Bonn. Beethoven's inner driving force to free himself from Bonn may
have been based on the psychological truth that he had already died numerous emotional deaths
that were inflicted on him by his father--and that his father, in his alcoholism, had committed
countless acts of suicide in the eyes of his family. Moreover, Beethoven can also be considered
as having closed an emotional door on these issues in his 1789 petition to the Bonn court.

We should conclude this issue by looking at the aftermath of his father's death. Franz Ries of
Bonn would again assist the family while Beethoven petitioned to the Bonn court to ensure that
his brothers' upkeep would be paid from his salary. These matters were eventually settled in early
1793. The petition to the Elector also records a startling fact: After the 1789 court decree, Ludwig
van Beethoven had allowed that it was not enforced, as his father pleaded with him that he
should let him receive the pension directly and that out of it he would give his oldest son the
"decreed" share of 100 florins for the household. Solomon considers it a sign of Beethoven's
integrity towards his father that he agreed to this.

By re-focusing on the possibility that Beethoven had "closed the door" on relying on his father in
1789, we can understand that he was aware that only freedom from this burden would set his
creative powers free, and that, once he was in Vienna, he pursued the development of his
creative powers with the full force of his personality in the various ways in which his creativity and
eagerness to perfect himself expressed themselves:

• Soon, he moved from the attic room he first rented to a room on the main
floor of a building in the Alserstraße (his new patron, Prince Lichnowsky, had his
 city apartment there) and devoted the major part of his time to the study of
counterpoint with Haydn, and

Joseph Haydn

• in becoming soon acquainted with new patrons such as Prince

Lichnowsky and Baron van Swieten, son of the personal physician of Empress
Maria Theresia, a patron of the old masters Bach and Handel and a friend of
Mozart, Beethoven could soon prove his capabilities as a pianist in their midst as
they and their peers would begin to open their salons to the newcomer.

With respect to Beethoven's counterpoint studies with and relationship to Haydn, we should take
careful note of what Barry Cooper, in his new Beethoven biography, has to report with respect to
certain aspects of it. The first important comment is that on Beethoven's counterpoint exercises
and the, up to this point, not conclusively contested widely held belief of his secret study under
Schenk:

"Beethoven's main purpose in visiting Vienna had been to study composition with Haydn, and he
began shortly after arrival, continuing throughout 1793. Haydn's teaching was based mainly on
Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum, and his customary method was to teach the rules of counterpoint
(such as those concerning parallel fifths) before making the student work through exercises in
each species of counterpoint in two voices, then each species in three voices, then in four,
resulting in about 300 exercises altogether. Beethoven's copy of the rules is lost, but about 245 of
his exercises survive, some with corrections probably in Haydn's hand. (7) It has sometimes
been assumed that such a large number of exercises was spread through most of the
year. However, it has not hitherto been noted that the ink used in these exercises is
absolutely and strikingly consistent, while other Beethoven manuscripts from the same
year show a variety of inks, mostly of a darker shade. (8) The conclusion must be, therefore,
that these exercises were written rapidly, in perhaps less than six weeks. Beethoven's numerous
errors also suggest a certain hastiness in his completion of the exercises. Haydn marked a few of
the errors, but he did not pedantically annotate every one; many were probably just discussed
orally, and it cannot be assumed from the unmarked ones, as many writers have done, that he
took insufficient care with his pupil's work. One notable feature of the exercises is that they were
based in the church modes, enabling Beethoven to become thoroughly acquainted with
composing in the modal system--a sound he was to return to in some of his late works.

According to a well-known and widely believed account written by Johann Schenk in 1830,
Beethoven grew dissatisfied with Haydn's teaching after about six months, and from then on
Schenk secretly helped Beethoven with his counterpoint exercises, without payment; Beethoven
had to write out each exercise after Schenk had corrected it, so that Haydn would think it was
Beethoven's own work. There are, however, inaccuracies and inconsistencies in Schenk's
account, and it cannot be reconciled with the 245 counterpoint exercises in Beethoven's hand.
This manuscript can hardly be the fair copy incorporating Schenk's corrections, since it contains a
large number of grammatical errors but no obvious copying errors. It could be the version
presented initially to Schenk (since the annotations have not been confirmed as being in Haydn's
hand); but if so, Schenk overlooked a surprisingly large number of errors, and it would be odd that
Beethoven preserved this version rather than the corrected one. Coupled with numerous other
inaccuracies in Schenk's account, however, these problems indicate that the entire story was
probably invented by Schenk in an attempt at selff-aggrandizement. (9)" (Cooper: 43-44; bolding
and italics mine; with respect to Coopers notes (7) refers to Nottebohm, Beethovens Studien, 21-
43, and he mentions that the 'original MS is in Vienna, Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde', (8) to
Cooper's own essay 'Ink': 'The ink in the counterpoint exercises for Haydn appears to match type
C, which is found on three 'Kafka' leaves on the same paper type, but never at the beginning of
the leaf', and (9) refers to Webster, 'Haydn and Beethoven', 10-14).

Let us, however, also look at Thayer's quotation of Schenk's account which the standard
biography reports as having been conveyed to Thayer by Otto Jahn of Bonn:

"In 1792, His Royal Higness Archdike Maximilian, Elector of Cologne, was pleased to send his
charge Louis van Beethoven to Vienna to study musical composition with Haydn. Towards the
end of July, Abbe Gelinek informed me that he had made the acquaintance of a young man who
displayed extraordinary virtuosity on the pianoforte, such, indeed, as he had not observed since
Mozart. In passing he said that Beethoven had been studying counterpoint with Haydn for more
than six months and was still at work on the first exercise; also that His Excellency Baron van
Swieten had earnestly recommended the study of counterpoint and frequently inquired of him
how far he had advances in his studies. As a result of these frequent incitations and the fact that
he was still in the first stages of his instruction, Beethoven, eager to learn, became discontented
and often gave expression to his dissatisfaction to his friend. Gelinek took the matter much to
heart and came to me with the question whether I felt disposed to assist his friend in the study of
counterpoint. I now desired to become better acquainted with Beethoven as soon as possible. . . .
The first thing that I did the next day was to visit the still unknown artist who had so brilliantly
disclosed his masterhship. On his writing desk I found a few passages from his first lesson in
counterpoint. A cursory glance disclosed the fact that, brief as it was, there were mistakes in
every mode. Gelinek's utterances were thus verified. Feeling sure that my pupil was unfamiliar
with the preliminary rules of counterpoint; I gave him the familiar textbook of Joseph Fux, Gradus
ad Parnassum, and asked him to look at the exercises that followed. Joseph Haydn, who had
returned to Vienna towards the end of the preceding year [July 24, 1792, noted by this online
writer] was intent on utilizing his muse in the composition of large masteworks, and thus laudably
occupied could not well devote himself to the rules of grammar. I was now eagerly desirous to
become the helper of the zealous student. But before beginning the instruction I made him
understand that our cooperation would have to be kept secret. In view of this I recommended that
he copy every exercise which I corrected in order that Haydn should not recognize the
handwriting of a stranger when the exercise was submitted to him. . . . I began my honourable
office with my good Louis in the beginning of August, 1792, and filled it uninterruptedly until May,
1793, by which time he finished double counterpoint in the octave and went to Eisenstadt. If His
Royal Highness had sent his charge at once to Albrechtsberger his studies would never have
been interrupted and he would have completed them. . . . About the middle of May he told me
that he would soon go with Haydn to Eisenstadt and stay there till the beginning of winter; he did
not yet know the date of his departure. I went to him at the usual hour in the beginning of June
but my good Louis was no longer to be seen. He left for me the following little billet which I copy
word for word: 'Dear Schenk! It was not my desire to set off to-day for Eisenstadt. I should like to
have spoken with you again. Meanwhile rest assured of my gratitude for the favors shown me. I
shall endeavor with all my might to requite them. I hope soon to see you again, and once more to
enjoy the pleasure of your society. Farewell and do not entirely forget your Beethoven.' It was my
intention only briefly to touch upon my relations with Beethoven; but the circumstances under
which, and the manner in which I became his guide in musical composition constrained me to be
somewhat more explicit. For my efforts (if they can be called efforts) I was rewarded by my good
Louis with a precious gift, viz: a firm bond of friendship which lasted without fading till the day of
his death." (Thayer: 140 - 142).

While already Thayer-Forbes entertains a discussion of the pro's and con's of Schenk's story, this
1964 edition did not have at its disposal, yet, the argument set forth above by Cooper on the
basis of the consistency of Beethoven's ink in his exercises, which appear to lend strong support
to Cooper's contentions.

In his discussion of Beethoven's relationship with Haydn, Cooper brings forth a further argument
in favor of not describing it as controversial and difficult as has traditionally been done:

"In November 1793 Beethoven assembled some recently completed works to send to Maximilian
Franz as evidence of his progress, and wrote a slightly apologetic letter indicating that he had
spent much of the year studying music rather than composing, and expressing the hope that he
would be able to send something better the following year as a result. Haydn wrote to the Elector
at the same time, commenting briefly on the works being sent:

I am taking the liberty of sending to your Reverence . . . a few pieces of music--a quintet, an
eight-voice 'Parthie', an oboe concerto, a set of variations for the piano and a fugue, composed
by my dear pupil Beethoven who was so graciously entrusted to me. They will, I flatter myself, be
graciously accepted by your Reverence as evidence of his diligence beyond the scope of his own
studies. On the basis of these pieces, expert and amateur alike cannot but admit that Beethoven
will in time become one of the greatest musical artists in Europe, and I shall be proud to call
myself his teacher. (16)

The copies sent to the Elector do not survive, but the first four works on Haydn's list correspond
exactly to the four that Beethoven is believed to have completed in Vienna that year. The quintet
is almost certainly Hess 19, the eight-voice Parthie must be the Octet (the autograph of which is
headed 'Parthia'); and the oboe concerto is the lost Hess 12. The set of variations for piano is
more puzzling, since Beethoven's earlier sets had been written in Bonn (Simrock had copies) and
no more are known before 1795; but Haydn was probably referring to the Figaro Variations for
piano and violin. Indeed it would be surprising if this work were not sent to the Elector, since it
was the only one yet published in Vienna. Moreover the printed title page describes it as
variations 'pour le clavecin ou piano-forte', with the violin part 'ad lib'. (17) Haydn's loose
description of 'variations for piano' is therefore compatible with it. The one item unidentified is the
fugue. This may be completely lost, but it could be one of the fugues now associated with
Beethoven's studies with Albrechtsberger in 1794. Of these, the most likely candidate is the
Fugue in E minor for string trio (Hess 29). . . . The Elector's reply, dated 23 December, must have
been a shock to Haydn:

the music of young Beethoven which you sent me I received with your letter. Since, however, the
music, with the exception of the fugue, was composed and performed here in Bonn before he
departed on his second journey to Vienna, I cannot regard it as progress made in Vienna. . . . I
very much doubt that he has made any important progress in composition and in the
development of his musical taste during his present stay, and I fear that, as in the case of his first
journey to Vienna, he will bring back nothing but debts. (18)

If taken at face value these comments are damning, suggesting that Beethoven deceived Haydn
and tried to deceive the Elector. The manuscript material for the works in question, however,
paints a very different picture. The only one of the four for which extensive sketches survive on
Bonn paper is the Figaro Variations; but there are further substantial sketches for this on Vienna
paper, indicating that the work did not reach its final version in Bonn. The other three works are
unequivocally Viennese; extensive sketches for the second movement of the Concerto and the
third of the Octet, and the autographs of the Octet and the Quintet, were all written on Vienna
paper; the remaining manuscript sources are lost, and the only sign of any pre-Vienna activity on
these works is a tiny four-bar motif from the Octet, written on a Bonn leaf but perhaps not until the
autograph was being written out in Vienna.[19, Johnson, Beethoven's Early Sketches, passim]
Although it is conceivable that all four works had been completed in Bonn and were merely
revised (though rather thoroughly) in Vienna, there is no evidence, apart from the Elector's letter,
that this was the case. Moreover, if Beethoven were submitting works merely revised, why did he
not include the impressive and newly revised B-flat Piano Concerto? And why would he write to
Simrock in August 1794, 'Have you performed my Parthie yet?' [20 Albrecht 12] it the Octet were
w work already hear in Bonn before his departure? Thus the Elector or his advisers must have
confused these four works with others wrrten by Beethoven before he left Bonn, and Haydn was
fully justified in sending him them as evidence of Beethoven's progress" (Cooper: 47 - 48).

As we can see, Cooper mainly bases his arguments on his findings as to what compositions
Beethoven had worked on extensively in Vienna in 1792 - 1793. This would show his relationship
to Haydn in a less unfavorable light, and the reasons for Beethoven not joining his teacher on his
second journey to England in the winter of 1794 appear to--if indeed, both Beethoven and Haydn
were sure to have sent genuine 1793 compositions to Bonn--have been based on other
considerations than those of a cooling off of their relationship due to this apparent
embarrassment. After Haydn's departure, the esteemed composer Albrechtsberger took over the
role of completing Beethoven's tuition in counterpoint.

Cooper (50 - 52) reports of those studies and mentions as their basis Albrechtsberger's
Anweisung zur Composition, which lasted 'for a little over a year' and refers to almost two
hundred pages of exercises that have survived. He also quotes Ferdinand Ries who reported that
Albrechtsberger's opinion of Beethoven was that he was "'always so stubborn and so bent on
having his own way that he had to learn many things through hard experience which he had
refused earlier to accept through instruction'" and features Ex. 4.2 of the Fugue in D minor with
Beethoven's draft and Albrechtsberger's corrections. Perhaps, we can listen to a good midi file of
this part of the Fugue in D minor:

Returning to Beethoven's role as an outstanding piano virtuoso, we can report that he took the
musical scene by storm as a performer and that, even a virtuoso and composer of variations as
astute as Abbé Gelinek, openly admitted that Beethoven's talent to improvise on a given theme
was unsurpassed at this time and may even have been more passionate in its expression than
that of Mozart.

Having conquered the salons of Vienna by storm as a pianist and been seriously devoted to his
studies, Beethoven also saw himself being re-joined by his friend Wegeler and his brother Caspar
Carl in 1794 and, for a brief period, also by some of his other Bonn friends, due to Bonn having
been taken over by the French revolutionary army. The Elector also eventually returned to
Vienna. The Court organist who, according to Bonn court records, had been "in Vienna without
pay until recalled", no longer could be recalled to serve as a court musician in his native city.

Beethoven would soon make his debut in a series of concerts at the end of March, 1795. His
official and formal music studies came to an end at that time.

SUCCESS AS A YOUNG COMPOSER

(1795 - 1801)

Beethoven burst onto the public scene as a composer at the end of March, 1795. This is the
series of activities that kept him busy for the remainder of that year:

• Benefit performances at the Burgtheater on March 29th, 30th and 31st,

namely for:

• The widows of the Tonkünstlergesellschaft (Society of Tone Artists) on

March 29th and 30th, whereby Thayer assumes, that he played his Piano
Concerto No.1, Op. 19, and improvising on the piano, and for

• A concert organized by Konstanze Mozart, at which Thayer assumes that

he played Mozart's Piano Concerto in D minor, but which Cooper describes as
'unspecified' (Cooper: 55);

• Signing a contract with the Viennese publisher Artaria for the publication
by subscription of his Trios Op. 1/1 -3. With 123 subscribers, he may have made
a good profit;

• Throughout the year, completing various smaller compositions;

• Performing at the ball of the Gesellschaft der Bildenden Künstler

(Society of Fine Artists)on November 22nd; Haydn had written a set of 12 minuets
and 12 German dances for this event in 1792. In 1795, the dances for the larger
room were

"Written by the Imperial Kapellmeister Süßmayr, for the smaller room by the master hand of Hr.
Ludwig van Beethoven out of love for the artistic fraternity" (Thayer: 177);

• His last appearance in 1795 at the December 18th grand musical concert
at the Redoutensaal given by Haydn who had returned from England in August.
Beethoven played a "piano concerto of his composing". While Cooper had had a
chance to clarify some of the traditional bases of our notion of Beethoven's
difficult relationship with Haydn, he still refers to the fact that Beethoven often
expressed that he had not learned much from his teacher (Cooper: 49). At this
particular point we should mention that Beethoven is reported as having felt that
Haydn meant to set limits to his creativity when he advised him not to publish the
third of his Trios Op. 1, which he considered too advanced for the public to
understand.
While Beethoven was also reunited with his brother Nikolaus Johannes who came to Vienna
towards the end of 1795 (he soon found a position as a pharmacist), he also made plans for a
journey to Prague and Berlin in 1796. His most important patron, Prince Lichnowsky, with whom
he had lodged since soon after his settling in Vienna, traveled with him to Prague (as the Prince
had done before with Mozart in 1789). From Beethoven's letter to Nikolaus Johannes van
Beethoven of February 17th, 1796, we learn that his stay in Prague was very successful and that
he found new friends there. While Prince Lichnowsky at some point returned to Vienna,
Beethoven went on to Dresden towards the end of April, stayed there for about a week, played for
the Elector and received a golden snuff box as a gift, and then made his way to Berlin. His stay
there could be considered as the most successful part of this journey. He played before the Court
of King Frederick William II the two Grand Sonatas with obbligato violoncello, Op. 5, which he had
written for Duport, the King's first violoncellist. Beethoven may have received an invitation by the
King to stay permanently which he did not take up on the grounds that he considered the
Prussian nobles "spoilt children" who sobbed and cried during his moving improvisations. He
made one exception in his appraisal by considering Prince Louis Ferdinand's piano playing as
"professional".

Later in the year, Beethoven appeared successfully in Pressburg and Pesth where he also tried
to promote the piano made by his piano maker friend Johann Andreas Streicher, a Stuttgarter
who had previously joined his friend Friedrich Schiller in 1782 when the poet fled to Mannheim,
and who later married piano maker Stein of Augsburg's daughter Nanette and moved the
business to Vienna. For a period of two to three months between his return from Berlin and his
journey to Hungary, Beethoven's whereabouts are unaccounted for. Researchers ponder as to
whether the infection Beethoven was reported by the Salzburg physician, Professor Weissenbach
(who met Beethoven in 1814) as having suffered from and which supposedly may have led to his
loss of hearing occurred in 1796 or, more likely, in 1797 (Cooper: 72). It is also not certain what
kind of infection he might have had or not.

The years 1797 - 1801 inclusive were years of Beethoven's cementing his success as a young
composer and as an experienced performer in Vienna which saw the creation of his still popular
early works in the classical tradition established by Haydn and Mozart, yet also increasingly being
imbued with his own spirit. (During this period, Beethoven undertook two more journeys, of which
the first took him to Prague in the fall of 1798 and a journey to Hungary in the spring of 1800, to
perform in Budapest with Wenzel Stich (Giovanni Punto) and to visit the Bunsvik estate nearby.)

They also saw his growing confidence in himself and the haughty manner in which he treated
those who did not share his confidence, as well as his hiding behind this haughtiness his extreme
artistic sensitivity, all at once basking in the devotion shown to him by his patrons but also
rejecting it if it became too much to bear.

His growing popularity as a teacher of young ladies of the noble class attached to his name that
of several young ladies; Beethoven's friend Wegeler, who left Vienna in 1796 to return home,
would later consider the matter of the young composer's romantic interests who, in his opinion,
"was never out of love." To this, Maynard Solomon has to comment that the 1795 rejection of his
marriage proposal Beethoven received from the singer Magdalena Willmann (in total described
as unreliable, second-hand recollection by Cooper) as well as his Kantian code of ethics in mainly
driving himself to serve society with his art, and his over-idealization of women did not entirely fit
Wegeler's description of this issue.

Beethoven also made friends among certain musically active noblemen such as Baron Zmeskall
(who used to sharpen Beethoven's quills) and musicians he worked with such as Johann
Nepomuk Hummel or Ignaz Schuppanzigh. The closest personal friends of that period, however,
were Lenz von Breuning who stayed in Vienna in 1797 (he died in 1798) and Carl Amenda, a
Baltic theologian and violin player who stayed in Vienna from 1797 to 1799.
 Carl F. Amenda

To these friends and acquaintances can be added the von Brunsvik family of Hungary who visited
Vienna in the summer of 1799. Beethoven gave piano lessons to Josephine and Therese von
Brunsvik. Josephine was immediately married off to Count von Deym, 49 years old and owner of
a curiosity shop. (Beethoven's mentioning, in a letter to his parting friend Carl Amenda, in the
summer of 1799, his "lacerated heart" was previously often connected with his failed marriage
proposal to Magdalena Willmann. Maynard Solomon's placing this event into 1795 as well as
Beethoven's later, 1804/1805 passionate, (really only one-sided?) love for Josephine von
Brunsvik and her arranged 1799 marriage would invite further inquiry into this issue.
 Josephine
von Brunsvik

Therese
von Brunsvik

In the summer of 1801, however, Beethoven's transition from a successful young composer and
pianist who was passionately revered by his patrons while also contending with certain
competitors such as Cramer, Woelfl and Steibelt, to a man who was haunted by the shocking
possibility of his pending loss of hearing would become apparent. We will discuss this issue in the
next section.

REVELATIONS OF SILENCE
(1801 - 1803)
 The Heiligenstadt Will

"For my brothers Carl and _______ Beethoven

O you men who consider or declare me hostile, obstinate or misanthropic, how wrong you do me.
You do not know the secret cause of that which appears thus to you. My heart and my mind have
been inclined towards the tender feeling(s) of affection from childhood on; to accomplish great
deeds myself, I have always been disposed towards. But just consider that for six years, I have
been inflicted with an incurable condition, aggravated by incapable physicians, deluded year after
year by the hope of improvement, finally forced to the realization of a lasting infliction (the cure of
which may take years or even prove impossible); born with a fiery, lively temperament, even
susceptible to the distractions of society, I had to isolate myself early and spend my life in
loneliness; and when I, on occasion, wanted to surmount everything, o, how cruelly have I been
repelled by the doubly sad experience of my bad hearing; and, yet, I was still not able to say to
people: speak louder, shout, for I am deaf. O, how could I possibly admit to the (my) weakness of
a sense which should be present in me to a more perfect degree than in others, a sense which I
once possessed to the greatest (degree of) perfection, to a degree of perfection which surely few
in my profession have or had had--O I cannot do it; therefore, forgive me, when you see me
retreating there where I used to enjoy to mingle with you; doubly hurt am I by my misfortune as I
 will be misjudged because of it; for me, relaxation in human company, refined conversation,
mutual exchange of thought, cannot take place; almost completely isolated, I may only venture
into society when dire necessity requires it, I have to live like an exile; when I approach company,
I am assailed by a terrible fear, for I am afraid to run into the danger of letting my condition be
noticed--thus it was during the half year which I spent in the countryside; urged on by my sensible
physician to spare my hearing as much as possible, he almost anticipated my present disposition,
although, sometimes, compelled by the urge for company, I let myself be drawn into it; but what a
humiliation when someone stood next to me and heard a flute from afar and I heard nothing, or
when someone heard a shepherd sing and I heard nothing, again; such events drove me to the
brink of despair and I was not far from ending my own life--only it, my art, kept me back. O, I felt
that it was impossible to leave the world before I had brought forth all that I felt that I had to, and
thus I continued this miserable life, truly miserable, such an irritable body, that a somewhat quick
change can transport me from the best condition into the worst--patience--that is, what I have to
choose as my guide, steadfast, I hope, will be my resolve to persevere until it pleases the
inexorable parcae to break the thread. Maybe, it (my condition) will improve, maybe not, I am
resolved.--Already in my 28th year forced to become a philosopher! It is not easy, harder for the
artist than for anyone.--Godhead, thou lookest (down) into my innermost, thou knowest that love
of man and inclination towards good deeds dwell in it;--O men, when you read this some day then
consider that you have done me wrong, and the unfortunate console himself to have found a
kindred being who, in spite of all obstacles of nature still did everything in is power to be accepted
among the ranks of worthy artists and men.--You my brothers Carl and __________ , as soon as
I am dead and, if Professor Schmidt is still alive, ask him in my name to describe my affliction and
add these sheets of writing to the history of my affliction, so that, as far as is possible, the world
may become reconciled with me after my death--at the same time I declare you both as the heirs
of my small fortune (if one can call it that). Divide it honestly and get along and help one another;
that what you have done to me has, as you know, been forgiven a long time ago; you, brother
Carl, I thank particularly for your affection which you have shown me lately. It is my wish that you
may have a better life, free of sorrows, than I had; recommend virtue to your children. It alone can
make (one) happy, not money, I speak from experience; it was that which lifted me up even in my
misery. I have to thank it and my art that I did not end my life by suicide.--Farewell and love one
another--all friends I thank, particularly Prince Lichnowski and Professor Schmidt--The
instruments from Prince L. I wish that they will be kept by one of you, but do not let an argument
develop among you; as soon as they, however, may be of better use to you, just sell them, how
glad am I to still be of use to you in my grave. Thus it is done;--Joyfully I rush towards death--if it
comes sooner than I will have had the opportunity to develop all of my skills in my art, it will even
then come too soon, in spite of my hard fate--but even then I shall be content, will it not free me
from an endless state of suffering?--and do not entirely forget me after my death. I deserve this
much from you, as I have often thought of you my in my life and how to make you happy. Be
thus--

Heilgnstadt [Heiligenstadt]

The 6th of October Ludwig van Beethoven

1802 [Black Seal}

[on the fourth page of the testament]

Heilgnstadt on the 10th of October, 1802. Thus I take leave of thee--and that sadly;--yes, the
cherished hope which I took here with me, to at least be cured to a certain degree, it must leave
me now entirely; as the leaves are falling in autumn and are withering, thus it has withered for
me, too; almost as I have arrived here, I am leaving--even the high courage which dwelt in my
soul during the beautiful summer days--it has vanished--O providence, let once appear a pure
day of joy for me-- for so long, the resounding of pure joy has been alien tome!--O when, o when,
 o Godhead--can I feel it again in the temple of nature and of men--never-no-that would be too
cruel--"

This is Beethoven's outcry in the fall of 1802. It speaks louder and clearer than any second-hand
description of the despair into which his worsening condition had thrown him. What we can do,
however, is to trace the history of this development which culminated in the years 1801 - 1803. In
order to do so, we should again take a brief look at Beethoven's own correspondence in which
he, in 1801, poured out his heart to two of his closest friends with respect to his growing loss of
hearing, Franz Gerhard Wegeler and Carl Amenda. He initially wrote letters to each of them in the
summer of 1801, and both friends he asked to keep this news a secret. His letter to his Courland
friend Amenda is, of course, of a more general nature, while in that to Wegeler he not only
speaks to a friend but also to a physician whom he trusts.

While we need not repeat the content of these letters in every detail, we should extract from them
some particulars that provide a framework for us in which we can perceive this development.

In his June 1st, 1801, letter to Carl Friedrich Amenda, Beethoven refers to his deafness most
expressively in these passages:

-- "Your Beethoven is living very unhappily in battle with nature and its creator";

-- "My noblest part, my hearing, has deteriorated very much"; he continues by mentioning that
already back in 1798-1799, he could feel the first traces of it, kept silent about it while it has
become worse and worse in the meantime;

--He leads the cause for his deafness back to the wretched condition of his abdomen and
expresses his fear that his loss of hearing can not be healed;

-- He explains that he is leading a sad life, avoiding all company;

-- As already mentioned, he asks Amenda to keep the news a secret.

-- In his June 29th, 1801, letter to Dr. med. Franz Gerhard Wegeler, Beethoven

-- First shares memories of his youth with him, talks of their homeland, of his successes, of
Lichnowsky's 600 florin annuity which he has begun to set out for him in 1800, his joy of being
able to share his earnings with friends in need, his living more economically than before, while he

-- ventures on to talk of the "jealous demon, my wretched health, has put a spoke in my wheel,
namely my hearing has been growing worse for the last three years" and that it goes back to his
abdomen which had already "back then" (this could refer to two points in time: Wegeler helped
Beethoven with simple remedies in a colic attack during his stay in Vienna from 1794 to 1796, but
it could also refer to Beethoven's youth in Bonn) been "wretched", complains of terrible diarrhea,
weakness;

-- He describes the treatment he had received which stopped his diarrhea, but did not help his
loss of hearing, and that his ears are "ringing day and night";

-- He explains that he is terrified of what this will do to him as a musician, and that he fears the
reaction of his enemies;

-- He describes how the loss of hearing affects him in particular:

 -- He has to move very close to the stage to understand actors in plays;

-- He can not hear the high notes of instruments and singing voices from farther away;

-- He wonders why people have not noticed his condition, yet, in conversation and gives as
possible reason for this his well-known absentmindedness;

-- He can not hear someone who speaks softly--he can hear the vowels but not make out the
words. However, when someone yells, he cannot bear it, either.

-- He talks of resignation, of his knowledge of Plutarch as his teacher in it; he wants to defy his
fate though he fears there will be moments when he will be "the most unhappy of God's
creatures";

-- He asks Wegeler not to tell anyone of this, not even "Lorchen" (Eleonore von Breuning);

-- He asks him to correspond with his friend in Vienna, the Rhenish physician, Dr. Vering;

-- He reports that Stephan von Breuning has arrived and how they interact, asks Wegeler for the
portrait of his grandfather Ludwig van Beethoven and sends greetings to Madame von Breuning,
telling her that he still has a Raptus now and again, and finally discusses Ferdinand Ries' pending
arrival in Vienna and that he wants to see what he can do for him.

Ferdinand Ries

Beethoven's second letter to Wegeler of this year, namely that of November 15th, 1801, contains
the following particulars:
-- A description of the treatment Dr. Vering is giving him, which consists of bark leaves being put
on his arm to keep on for days and how annoying and painful this is to him;

-- That the "ringing" in his ears is a bit less prevalent, especially in his left ear where it had
started;

-- That his hearing, however, has not improved, but that it might rather have grown worse;

-- That his abdomen was better now, but that he was not happy with Dr. Vering and that he does
not have confidence in him, any more; he asks Wegeler about Dr. Schmidt, also mentioning
galvanism and asks Wegeler's opinion about that kind of treatment;

-- The letter continues by describing his improved social life, his mentioning of a "dear,
enchanting girl who loves me and whom I love; after two years there are again moments of bliss,
and it is for the first time that I feel that marriage could make one happy", but that the girl is not of
his class. (This might refer to Giulietta Guicciardi);

-- Beethoven explains that he does not want to visit his homeland as he does not want to be
subjected to his friends' pity;

-- Beethoven expresses that his youth is just beginning, that he feels his strength returning, as
well as his mental powers, and that his goal is ahead of him but that he can not describe it;

-- Beethoven also writes of wanting to "take fate by the throat, it shall surely not crush me
entirely."

If we compare the references to his deafness in these letters to the particulars mentioned in the
Heiligenstadt Will, we may note the following:

In the "Will", the start of his loss of hearing is dated back to "six years ago", which would mean
that it might have begun in 1796, while in the letters in 1801, Beethoven dates the onset of his
troubles to about 1798/1799;

The person who "heard the shepherd sing" was his new pupil, Ferdinand Ries, who came to
Vienna in late 1801. In the Biographische Notizen, Ries reports that

"Beethoven's hearing began to suffer as early as 1802, but the trouble disappeared for a time. He
was so sensitive to the onset of his deafness that one had to be very careful not to make him feel
the disability by talking loudly. If he had not understood something, he usually blamed it on his
absent-mindedness which was indeed a strongly developed trait. Much of the time he lived in the
country, where I often went to take a lesson from him. Occasionally, he would say at eight in the
morning after breakfast, 'Let us go for a little walk first.' So we would go for a walk, often not
returning until three or four o'clock, after we had eaten something in one of the villages. On one of
these outings Beethoven gave me the first startling proof of his loss of hearing, which Stephan
von Breuning had already mentioned to me. I called his attention to a shepherd in the forest who
was playing most pleasantly on a flute from lilac wood. For half an hour Beethoven could not hear
anything at all and became extremely quiet and gloomy, even though I repeatedly assured him
that I did not hear anything any longer either (which was, however, not the case) . . . "
(Wegeler/Ries: 86-87).

During these years, Beethoven, nevertheless, composed the works you can trace in the complete
listing of Beethoven works which is now also included in our site.
 When we look ahead to what impact the onset of his loss of hearing might have had on
Beethoven, we might ask ourselves how Beethoven would "take fate by the throat". We will begin
to explore this in the next section.

THE TRIUMPHANT GENIUS

(1803 - 1815)

The yet little explored dynamics between the "natural laws" that may or may not come into force
whenever a creative individual is faced with fighting for his or her survival in the face of a disability
that outwardly threatens to prevent the individual's survival as a creative force and that
individual's own personal strength of endurance and character shaped Beethoven's "prime of
life". At the same time, his psychological "pre-conditioning" with respect to his ability or inability to
find personal happiness is evidenced in the many, as Maynard Solomon called them, "romantic
pretense" affairs with women Beethoven yearned for but could not make "his own".

Beethoven around 1803

On that personal level, the years 1803 - 1804 saw Beethoven's outward ease in "letting go" of his
infatuation with Giulietta Guicciardi, the cousin of the von Brunsvik sisters. In January 1804, she
married Count von Gallenberg, a mediocre composer of ballet music. They moved to Italy.
Beethoven's later personal secretary, Anton Schindler, preserved the conversation book of 1823
in which he discussed this subject with Beethoven in a sidewalk cafe.
 Giulietta Giucciardi

Quite another matter was his following passionate yearning for Giulietta's cousin, Josephine von
Brunsvik-Deym. We may recall that this young lady was married off to the 49-year-old Count von
Deym in the summer of 1799. He passed away in 1803 and left Josephine behind with several
children and pregnant with their last child. After her delivery, she went through a nervous
breakdown. Beethoven's playing his music for her on his almost daily visits gave her a great deal
of comfort so that she was able to slowly recuperate. Evident is that she certainly felt very grateful
to him for his personal attention to her. The general impression that has been created by the
review of the 1804 - 1805 correspondence between Beethoven and Josephine is that she may
not have shared his "sensual" feelings. We do not know for certain, however, as to whether she
had feelings for him or not and whether she followed her own dictates on the basis of her not
sharing his feelings or the dictates of her family who discussed this issue in their correspondence
with each other, such as in Therese von Brunsvik's letter to her younger sister Charlotte, "she
must have the courage to say no". A draft letter of Josephine's that was found later lists some of
the excuses she may have used on her own accord or been persuaded to use in evading
Beethoven's courting her. She tried to express that she, as a widow and mother of several
children, felt bound by a vow of chastity. {Cooper lists as main stumbling block in a possible union
of Josephine von Brunsvik-Deym with Beethoven "the laws and customs of the time, which made
it exceedingly difficult for a noblewoman to marry a commoner, especially if she had children. . . .
Were she to marry Beethoven, she would lose her title and, far worse, the guardianship of her
 children, whose future would be unsure and unsafe, since Beethoven would hot have been
granted the guadianship" (Cooper: 147, referring back to Tellenbach, 'Psychoanalsysis', 125).] At
least outwardly, Beethoven appeared to have been willing to lay his passion for her to rest in the
period between 1805 and 1808 while, in his last letter to her of 1808, he still maintained that he
would always remain "ergeben" to her. Many translators bring this word over into English as
"loyal", it may, however, also take on the meaning of "devoted".

The creative outburst of Beethoven's new, so-called heroic style of composition is evidenced in
the Third Symphony, the so-called Eroica. [With respect to the widely cherished concept of an
entirely "clean break" between Beethoven's first creative period and his second creative period,
Barry Cooper cautions us that this might be "an oversimplification, and the idea is now frequently
challenged. But it is undeniable that there was in a short space of time a dramatic change in his
style, both in terms of new genres and new approaches to old ones, and the notion that this
change markd in broad terms the beginning of the second great period of his oeuvre is likely to
survive" (Cooper: 123).] We need not venture here into exploring in detail the presence or
absence of his initial intentions to dedicate this symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte and his
abandoning that concept in 1804 on hearing of Napoleon's self-coronation as Emperor in Rome.
These years also saw the painful creation of his only opera, Fidelio, based on a French text by
J.N. Bouilly.

It had its roots in the actual incident during the French Revolution of a wife's rescuing her
husband from prison by infiltrating it in the disguise of a man. Beethoven's thirty-year fascination
with the text of Schiller's Ode to Joy found its reflection in the lines of the opera's final chorus,
"Wer ein holdes Weib errungen". The work was not very successfully staged in the half-empty
theater before an audience of Beethoven friends and French military personnel. In an exhausting
soiree at Prince Lichnowsky's residence, the revision of the work was initiated.

Spring 1806 saw the re-staging of Fidelio which was received somewhat more politely this time,
but it would not yet capture the audience as it would later in yet another revision.

Beethoven's visit of the von Brunsviks at Martonvasar during the summer of 1806 may be as
fictional as the evidently false diary notes with respect to Therese von Brunsvik's secret, platonic
engagement that might have referred to this occasion.

Beethoven certainly visited Prince Lichnowsky at his estate in Troppau in Silesia during this late
summer and fall. Lichnowsky reportedly asked Beethoven to play for the French military officials
who were present. Beethoven refused and left "on the spot" and made his way back to Vienna by
coach from the nearest town or village. [With respect to this, Cooper mentions that on his three-
day journey back to Vienna, Beethoven encountered a severe storm in which "water penetrated
his trunk, damaging the 'Appassionata' manuscript" (Cooper: 159).] Back in Vienna, he reportedly
smashed Prince Lichnowsky's bust.

This incident, as characteristic as it may seem to us of Beethoven's passionate, violent outbursts,

bears a more factual significance due to its financial consequence: His falling-out with this
important patron may well have cut him off from the 600 florin a year annual allowance he used to
receive from him and gave way to his insecure financial status in Vienna during the years 1806 -
1809, in spite of the many astounding works he put before the Viennese audience in his
occasional academy concerts.

Another question the musical lay person and the Beethoven enthusiast might ask her or himself is
what precisely happened to the continuity of the Schuppanzigh Quartet which used to practice
and perform Haydn's and Beethoven's works at Prince Lichnowsky's residence. (We know that
eventually, Prince Razumovsky's palace took over that function).
 The years 1897 - 1808 saw the completion of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies while Beethoven
found yet another substitute family in the Erdödys. By this time, the young member of the Imperial
family, Archduke Rudolph of Austria, was also Beethoven's pupil.

On March 27th, 1808, Beethoven was present at the final concert of the Liebhaber Concerts at
which Haydn, turning 76 on March 31st, was honored. [As Solomon reports, "it is said that
Beethoven knelt down before Haydn and fervently kissed the hands and forehead of his old
teacher" (Solomon: 76).]

In late 1808/early 1809, in spite of his December 22nd, 1808 academy concert in the Theater an
der Wien, which premiered his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, Op. 67 and Op. 68 and the Choral
Fantasy Op. 80, Beethoven considered to take Jerome Bonaparte's (whom his brother Napoleon
Bonaparte had installed as King of Westphalia) offer as First Kapellmeister to Kassel for an
annual salary of 600 ducats.

With Countess Erdödy's and Baron Ignaz von Gleichenstein's help, an annuity contract was
negotiated for Beethoven with three of his most influential patrons, Archduke Rudolph, Prince
Kinsky and Prince Lobkowitz, for 4,000 florins annually, in the spring of 1809.

Archduke Rudolph
Prince Kinsky
Prince Lobkowitz

An argument over a servant matter may have caused a temporary rift between Countess Erdödy
and Beethoven. On account of the ensuing French occupation of Vienna, most of the nobility left
the city.

Late spring and summer (Haydn died in May) saw Beethoven during the bombardment of Vienna
by the French in the basement of his brother Caspar Carl's house when he covered his sensitive
ears with pillows.

In 1809/1810, Beethoven joined a new circle of friends in the company of Baron von
Gleichenstein, the Malfattis. Beethoven became infatuated with Therese von Malfatti, then
eighteen years old, and even wrote to Wegeler and asked him to obtain for him his baptismal
certificate. Stephan von Breuning advised Wegeler subsequently that Beethoven's marriage
plans "fell through".

The years 1810 - 1812 are characterized by Beethoven's friendship with the Brentano family, his
relationship with the Immortal Beloved of his famous July 1812 letter to her (Solomon research
favors Antonie Brentano, Kaznelson's, Harry Goldschmidt's and Marie-Elisabeth Tellenbach's
Josephine von Brunsvik, and Gail S. Altman's Countess Erdödy), his ultimately not taking up or
 not being able to take up her offer to live with him, his summer 1811 and 1812 stays in Teplitz
and his meeting there of an interesting circle of artists which, in the second year, also included his
encounter with Goethe, his retreat from the company of the Brentanos (with whom he vacationed
in Karlsbad from late July to the beginning of September) to Teplitz in a state of renewed illness
and the comforting company of the Berlin singer Amalie Sebald, his October 1812 interference in
Linz into his pharmacist brother Johann's common-law living arrangements with his later wife
Therese, and his return to Vienna in late fall, by which time his grieving process over the already
pending(?) loss of the (in any event married) Immortal Beloved had him in its grip.

The year 1813 saw the continuation of Beethoven's grieving process over the loss of his Immortal
Beloved. In this context, Solomon reports of Beethoven's increasing discussions between Baron
Zmeskall and himself of either only Zmeskall's or their mutual frequenting, of the so-called
Fortresses (which should be looked at very cautiously due to the fact that the proper translation of
Beethoven's original letters carries with it the burden of Beethoven's unclear punctuation and, let
us say his, at least 'unusual', use of German syntax), and his possible flight from the scene at
Countess Erdödy's Jedlersee estate in the summer, in an attempt to end his life {for which
Cooper finds no convincing base].

In the spring of 1813, Beethoven's brother Caspar Carl had his first serious bout with
consumption. At its dramatic peak, Caspar Carl signed a declaration to the effect that he wished
his older brother Ludwig to take over the guardianship of his son Carl in case of his death. Caspar
Carl recovered once more. Beethoven's own pecuniary situation had worsened with the 1812
accidental death of Prince Kinsky, as well as due to the decline in the actual value of the
Viennese currency and due to the "non-payment of the Kinsky and Lobkowitz subscription to his
annuity" (Thayer: 552).

Whether or not, as reported in Thayer-Forbes, the Streichers found Beethoven in a very

deplorable state in the summer of this year, whether or not Nanette Streicher took it upon herself
to replenish Beethoven's wardrobe and to straighten out his household affairs, and whether or not
the Streichers also urged Beethoven to set aside some money for the future, can neither be
confirmed nor entirely ruled out. In the event that we can follow Thayer-Forbes in this respect, this
would have allowed Beethoven to re-direct his energy towards improving his lot, and it would not
come as a surprise that Beethoven should have let himself be "inspired" by the idea of the
Regensburg musician and musical mechanic Johann Nepomuk Mälzel (he invented the musical
metronome, developed a new and improved panharmonicum, and also built some very effective
ear drums for Beethoven's use) to write the Battle Symphony in celebration of Wellington's June
21st, 1813 victory at Vittoria over Napoleon. The orchestra version was first performed at the
December 8 and 12 University Hall benefit concerts for the Austrian and Bavarian veterans, at
which time the Seventh Symphony was also first performed. The concerts were a resounding
success and cemented Beethoven's popularity as a composer. For ardent Mozart lovers it may be
of interest to note that Antonio Salieri was found supervising the drum section of the orchestra.....
In 1814, Beethoven's and Mälzel's plans to take the Battle Symphony to England did not
materialize. An argument arose as to the exact authorship of each part of this work which led to a
law suit Beethoven commenced. It lasted for several years before a mutual settlement was
reached.

Beethoven's new popularity led, however, to the performance of this long forgotten and recently
more often played work at various benefit concerts and concerts for Beethoven's own benefit
throughout 1814. His popularity also led the directors of the Imperial Opera to select Fidelio to be
staged at performances for their own benefit. Beethoven and the theater poet Treitschke
thoroughly revised the work. A new overture was also planned. Beethoven had begun to write this
piece but could not finish it. On the morning of the premiere at which he was supposed to lead the
final rehearsal, he had to be fetched from his home, where he was found sound asleep in bed,
with the score to the unfinished overture strewn around on the bed and on the floor, and a casket
of red wine with a biscuit in it on his bedside table.....
 Beethoven in 1814

The opera was performed sixteen times during this year and also contributed to Beethoven's
success as a composer. Whatever financial gain Beethoven made during this year was set aside.
He bought bank shares, the use of which he would not find himself to have permission due to
certain upcoming circumstances.

The Congress of Vienna brought Europe's nobility to Vienna. They also "inspected" Beethoven at
Count Razumovsky's palace, at which occasion Beethoven, as he later admitted, "held himself
admirably" (Thayer). On December 30, the Razumovsky palace burned down. In early 1815, for
the remainder of the Congress of Vienna, Beethoven mingled with the dignitaries at Archduke
Rudolph's premises.

The year also saw the renewal of his friendship with the Erdödys in whose company he spent
many hours at Jedlersee during the summer. Countess Erdödy left Jedlersee and Vienna in
October, 1815. In his letter to her of October 19, Beethoven expressed his anxiety about her
travel plans which she had formed by herself. He was afraid that she might experience ill health
as she usually did when she traveled. Rather than carrying on in this vein, however, he tried to
comfort her and himself with these words:

"We mortals with immortal minds are only born for sufferings and joys, and one could almost say
that the most excellent receive joy through sufferings."
 On November 15th, 1815, Beethoven's brother Caspar Carl died from his second bout with
consumption. The deceased had appointed Beethoven, together with his widow Johanna, as co-
guardians of his son Carl who was nine years old.

TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS

(1815 - 1820)

Scholars have often debated the significance of Beethoven's composing, at this particular point in
his life, the song cycle An die ferne Geliebte (To the Distant Beloved), which he began in the fall
of 1815 and which was completed in April of 1816. We could, however, venture as far as
considering the departure of his best lady friend, Countess Erdödy, as the departure in
Beethoven's life of a positive feminine influence which may have provided the outward occasion
to his artistic motivation.

Beethoven petitioned to the Landrecht on November 20th, 1815, and was granted sole
guardianship of his nephew Carl on January 9th, 1816. He was sworn in on January 10th.

In February, he enrolled Carl in the boarding school of Cajetan Giannatasio del Rio. He also
socialized with the Giannatasios to stay in close contact with Carl. An interesting source of
information is the diary of Giannatasio's oldest daughter Fanny. She, whose fiancé had recently
died, became infatuated with Beethoven. He in turn tried to discourage her notions by calling her
mother superior.

Carl van Beethoven

 The composer's former pupil, Ferdinand Ries, now lived in London, England, and acted for his
former teacher as agent there. Various correspondences went back and forth between them as
well as between Beethoven and Birchall, Sir Charles Smart and Mr. Neate, all with the aim of
enticing the Philharmonic Society to buy his works. Unfortunately, the English were disappointed
to receive only occasional works such as overtures. Beethoven's subjectively felt need to market
his works extensively so that he could provide for his charge may have been behind these
ultimately disappointing endeavors.

This is a good occasion to invite the reader of this brief overview of Beethoven's life to explore for
him or herself the complex issue of Beethoven's creative slowdown which had already begun
during his grieving process over the Immortal Beloved. The fact that his hearing deteriorated
dramatically after that event, the emotional impact it certainly must have had on him, as well as all
the trials and tribulations of his struggle for the guardianship of his nephew and the responsibility
for his care appears to have formed a powerful combination of facts to "facilitate" this process. On
an artistic level, the dramatic change in the political situation of Europe with Napoleon's defeat
may have removed all incentive for Beethoven to continue to explore the creative possibilities this
style may once have held for him, on the one hand, while, on the other hand, he may have
considered that he had already exhausted all creative possibilities of this style.

Beethoven spent the summer in Baden and, on returning to the city, tried to re-arrange his
domestic affairs so that he could raise Carl at home. This was not realized due to his problems
with his servants. Carl remained at the boarding school.

The year also brought forth Piano Sonata Op. 101, the so-called Ertmann Sonata. While it was
usually believed that the creative source of this work may have been the sad occasion of his
acquaintance, Baroness Ertmann's loss of her child, this concept would invite further exploration
as to its veracity. This 'creative legend' assumed that the baroness had sought out Beethoven in
his lodgings where he was to have improvised for her and comforted her with his music.

During the winter of 1816/1817, Beethoven was suffering from the effects of a severe cold he had
in October, 1816. The winter months also saw the negotiations between him and Johanna van
Beethoven with respect to her financial contribution to Carl's education.

Beethoven spent the summer of 1817 in Nußdorf. In his June 9 letter, Ferdinand Ries conveyed
to Beethoven the invitation to London for the following winter by the Philharmonic Society.
Beethoven was requested to write two symphonies for that purpose. Negotiations went on, but
nothing came of the entire project. Rather than working on the requested symphonies, Beethoven
began to write his Op. 106, the Hammerklavier Sonata. Amongst its sketches can be found early
sketches for the Scherzo of the Ninth Symphony.

One of the underlying reasons for Beethoven's "dragging his feet" with the travel plans for
England may have been his increasing deafness. Thayer (690) mentions Czerny's recollections
that by 1817, Beethoven could barely hear music, anymore. Evidence of this may be seen in
Beethoven's July 7, 1817 letter to Madame Streicher, asking her to have her piano maker
husband comply with the following:

" . . . Now I have to ask a big favor of Streicher; ask him in my name that he kindly tunes one of
your pianos more for my weakened hearing. It should be tuned to produce an as loud as possible
sound for my use."

Mälzel returned to Vienna to get positive endorsements for his metronome. The lawsuit with
Beethoven was amicably settled. Beethoven once again joined forces with those who endorsed
Mälzel's metronome.
 Beethoven's letter of November 1st to the Giannatasios indicated that he once again aimed at
taking Carl home.

In early 1818, a Broadwood Piano was sent by Beethoven's friends to the composer in Vienna.
Beethoven thanked Broadwood in his letter of February 3 (written in French). Stumpff of London
tuned the piano for him when he was in Vienna during that year. Thayer reports that, after
Beethoven's death, the Broadwood Piano was bought by the music publisher Spina "for 181
florins; Spina gave it to Liszt, in whose house at Weimar it was up to his death. In 1887, Princess
Hohenlohe, the daughter of Liszt's friend, Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein, presented it to the National
Museum in Buda-Pesth" (Thayer: 696).

Carl was to leave Giannatasio's school at the end of January. Beethoven engaged a tutor for Carl
to prepare him for the gymnasium entry exams. This experiment was not successful.

With respect to Beethoven's health is to report that from March 1818 on, he could only
communicate through the conversation books.

Beethoven spent the summer at Mödling, leaving on May 17th with Carl. Johanna van Beethoven
bribed Beethoven's servants so that she could see her son. Carl attended the Reverend Father
Froehlich's class.

August Kloeber, a young Breslau artist studying in Vienna, had Beethoven "sit for him" at Mödling
for his charcoal sketch to a painting which has been lost. The charcoal sketch of Beethoven's
head i

Beethoven Sketch by Kloeber

 Johanna van Beethoven petitioned to obtain custody of her son Carl. Proceedings began and
were temporarily dismissed by the Landrecht on September 18th. Carl was at that time a student
of the Grammar Class. Beethoven took up socializing with the Giannatasios again. Around
December 3rd - 5th, Carl ran away from Beethoven to his mother, as Fanny Giannatasio's diary
entry shows. With the help of the Giannatasios, Carl was returned to Beethoven by the police.
Johanna van Beethoven applied to the Court again on December 11th. The Landrecht dismissed
the case on December 18th and referred it to the Magistrate, due to the fact that Beethoven was
not a member of the nobility, as the van in his name generally led the Viennese to believe and
which Beethoven never actively tried to clarify, either.

Beethoven completed his Op. 106 in 1818 and also worked on his first sketches for the Ninth
Symphony again. His notes from the summer in Mödling also show first ideas on a new mass.
This should be quoted here to bear testimony to what went on in Beethoven's mind rather than
only in his "outer life":

"In order to write church music . . . Look through all the monastic church chorals and also to the
strophes in the most correct translations and perfect prosody in all Christian Catholic psalms and
hymns generally."

"Sacrifice again all the pettiness of social life to your art. O God above all things! For it is an
eternal providence which directs omnisciently the good and evil fortunes of human men."

"Tranquilly will I submit myself to all vicissitudes and place my sole confidence in Thy unalterable
goodness, o God! My soul shall rejoice in thy immutable servant. Be my rock, my light, forever my
trust!" (Thayer: 715).

With respect to the new mass, an actual occasion to write it arose in 1819: Archduke Rudolph
had been appointed as Cardinal and Archbishop of Olmütz. The date of the installation was to be
March 20th, 1820. In his letter of early June, Beethoven congratulated the Archduke and declared
that he wanted to have his new Mass ready for the festive occasion. He had actually begun first
sketches for the Missa in the late fall of 1818; more preliminary work was underway in the early
part of 1819.

In early 1819, the Magistrate suspended Beethoven's guardianship of Carl, who went to stay with
his mother for a few weeks. On February 11th, Beethoven submitted to the Magistrate in writing
his plan for Carl's education and upbringing. At the end of March, however, it was felt prudent that
Beethoven should temporarily resign from his guardianship. On March 26th, the Magistrate
appointed Magisterial Councillor von Tuscher as Carl's Guardian (Thayer: 722).

Beethoven went to Mödling on May 12th. Carl was sent to the institute of Mr. Blöchlinger, a
follower of Pestalozzi's educational methods. On July 5th, von Tuscher applied to be relieved of
Carl's guardianship. On September 17th, the Magistrate awarded guardianship of Carl to Johanna
van Beethoven, with the Municipal Official Leopold Nussboeck as co-guardian. The Magistrate
disposed of Beethoven's protest on November 4th and issued a decree to that effect on December
20th.

With respect to musical events in Beethoven's life is to report that on January 17th, Beethoven
appeared as conductor at a benefit concert of the widows and orphans of the Vienna Law
Faculty, that he was elected honorary member of the Philharmonic Society of Laibach, and
honorary member of the Mercantile Association on October 1st. Ferdinand Schimon portrayed
Beethoven while he was writing on the Missa Solemnis.
 Beethoven Portrait by Schimon

In October, Beethoven returned to Vienna. During the year, he worked on the Mass with
occasional excursions to the Ninth Symphony, and on early sketches for the Diabelli Variations.

The close of the year saw the return to Vienna of his good friend Countess Erdödy. Her staff were
questioned by the Vienna police with respect to the 1816 death of her son August. These
intrigues were instigated by her sister-in-law.

The legal proceedings with respect to Carl continued. Beethoven filed a petition with the Court of
Appeals on January 7th. He asked for the appointment of a co-guardian because of his
"somewhat bad hearing". He suggested Herr Peters, the private tutor of Prince Lobkowitz'
children. Part of his appeal reads as follows:

" . . . My will and my striving is only aimed at providing the best education for the boy, since his
talents would allow the highest hopes, and at fulfilling his blessed father's hopes which the latter
based on my brotherly love. The young tree can still be bent, but if more time will be lost, it will
grow into a crooked shape out of the hands of the gardener, and the building of an upright
character and the instilling of knowledge will be lost forever. I know of no duty more sacred than
the care that is to be taken in the raising and education of a child. The purpose of the supervision
of this guardianship should only be to appreciate the good [of these high aims] and to ordain the
necessary. Only then will it have dedicated its proper care to the benefit and well-being of the
child. To prevent the good, however, would mean that it has neglected its duty."

On April 8th, the Appellate Court decided in Beethoven's favor and Peters was appointed co-
guardian. Johanna's counter-appeal to the Emperor failed. The Magistrate advised all parties of
this.
These ongoing proceedings may have delayed Beethoven's progress in the writing of the Mass. It
was not ready for the Archduke's Ceremony on March 20th. However, Beethoven continued to
work on it. At about the same time, we can see the beginning of the process of Beethoven's
"marketing" of his work. He wrote to his old Bonn friend and music publisher Nikolaus Simrock
about it.

Beethoven spent the summer once again in Mödling. In addition to his writing the Mass, he now
also projected the Piano Sonatas, Op. 109 - 111. Op. 109 clearly belongs to 1820. He dedicated
this work to Antonie Brentano's daughter Maximiliane. Beethoven also appears to have been
concerned with the publication of his complete works. He is reported as having discussed this
with his friends.

The closing in 1820 of the guardianship proceedings may have allowed Beethoven's attention to
be returned to his artistic endeavors, the fruits of which we shall see unfold in the next section.

CONNECTIONS
(1821 - 1824)

In contrast to his final piano works, the sonatas Op. 109, 110 and 111, as well as the Diabelli
Variations, the completion of Beethoven's last major public works during these years, the Missa
Solemnis and the Ninth Symphony, would provide a last occasion for Beethoven to personally,
yet also almost hesitantly, connect with the Viennese audience.

During the early part of 1821, Beethoven still lived at his Landstraße lodgings and was working as
hard as his health permitted. Soon, however, namely according to a January 10 report in the
Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, Beethoven suffered from a rheumatic fever which would last
until March (Thayer: 775-776).

His former love interest and old friend, Josephine von Stackelberg, née von Brunsvik, widowed
von Deym, died on March 31st.

While he moved to Unterdöbling at the beginning of summer, jaundice set in. For his
convalescence, he went to Baden in September.

On July 18th, he wrote to Archduke Rudolph and apologized for the Mass not being completed,
yet, due to health reasons.

For the remainder of the year, he continued to write on the Piano Sonatas, Op. 110 and Op. 111,
which were completed by January 13th, 1822.

Early 1822 saw Beethoven living at No. 224, Hauptstraße Landstraße. His election as an
honorary member of the Musikverein of Steiermark was dated January 1st, while January 13th was
the date he put on the autograph manuscript of Piano Sonata 32, Op. 111. His old Bonn friend
and colleague, Bernhard Romberg, was in Vienna to give concerts with his children. In his letter
to Romberg of February 12th, Beethoven apologized to him for not attending his concerts on
account of his "usual earache" of the season.

The Missa Solemnis was completed in sketch form by the beginning of 1822, while the autograph
score was ready by the end of the year (Thayer: 784).
Correspondence during this year with respect to the Mass occurred with Simrock of Bonn, Franz
Brentano as an intermediary in Frankfurt, Schlesinger in Berlin, Peters in Leipzig and Artaria in
Vienna.

Thayer lists as reasons for Beethoven's "multi-level marketing":

• The need for cash to pay for his nephew Carl's schooling and his own
health care;
• and Beethoven's stress of his diminished health in view of financial
demands,

while not "exonerating" the composer; rather, it is pointed out that the composer may not have
entirely lived up to his own standards of conduct in this case [Cooper also contends that
Beethoven's behavior in this instance does him "little credit"].

Beethoven spent the summer in Oberdöbling, while he visited Archduke Rudolph trice a week.
During the course of this year, he could welcome the Italian opera composer Rossini and
Friedrich Rochlitz of Leipzig as visitors. Rochlitz conveyed the music publishers' Breitkopf &
Härtel's request of Beethoven to write music to Goethe's Faust I.

While in Baden in September, Beethoven wrote occasional music for the opening of the
Josephstadt-Theater. Meisl re-vamped Kotzebue's text of Die Ruinen von Athen into Die Weihe
des Hauses. It was performed on October 3rd.

In the fall, Beethoven changed his lodgings from the Landstraße to the Windmühle Vorstadt to
live next to his brother Johann's lodgings. Johann began to play a part in the management of his
brother's business affairs. The Linz pharmacist had by now acquired the Wasserhof in
Gneixendorf near Krems, where he spent his summers.

Fidelio was performed again on November 3rd. Beethoven wanted to direct the performance with
the help of Umlauf. However, his deafness had gone too far for that. Repeat performances of
Fidelio occurred on November 4th and 26th, December 2nd and 17th, as well as on March 3rd and
18th, 1823.

While the Mass received its finishing touches and while progress was made on the Ninth
Symphony towards the close of the year, Prince Gallitzin of Russia commissioned one to three
string quartets from Beethoven on November 22nd. The composer replied on January 25th, 1823,
and accepted the offer.

Thayer reports that by early 1823, the Missa Solemnis was finished and that work continued on
the Ninth Symphony (Thayer: 818). The score of the Mass was handed over to Archduke
Rudolph on March 19th.

By the end of 1822, Beethoven had finally decided not to publish the Missa, yet, but to sell
manuscript copies by subscription from various European courts for a price of 50 ducats each.
Beethoven began his invitation to the courts by the end of January, 1823. Here, it should suffice
to mention that ten courts accepted the invitation (Thayer: 822).

Beethoven's silent hopes for being appointed as R.I. Court composer, after the November 1822
death of Court composer Anton Tayber, were not fulfilled. No new Court composer was
appointed.
On July 6th, 1822, Beethoven had written to his former pupil Ferdinand Ries in London to see if
the Philharmonic Society would buy the Ninth Symphony. Beethoven accepted their November
15th offer through Ries on December 20th, 1822, and apologized to Ries in his letter of February
5th, 1823, for the delay in sending the score.

In a letter of March 6th, 1823, to his lawyer, Dr. Bach, Beethoven declared his nephew Carl his
sole heir and appointed Dr. Bach as his curator, authorizing him to find a guardian for Carl, to the
exclusion of Johanna van Beethoven.

Beethoven in 1823

Franz Liszt, 11, was presented to Beethoven. Thayer (846-847) goes as far as featuring the
Hungarian composer's later (entirely correct?) recollection that Beethoven actually attended the
concert and was supposed to have lifted the 11-year-old up and kissed him.

Schuppanzigh returned to Vienna after an absence of seven years. He gave a concert on May 4th.
By June 14th, the quartet meetings were resumed with Holz, Weiss and Linke (Thayer: 853).

Beethoven spent the summer in Hetzendorf. During his stay there in the villa of Baron Müller-
Pronay, while he worked on the completion of the Ninth Symphony, he also battled with ill health
again, complaining of eye soreness.

Fidelio had been produced by Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden. Beethoven received a fee of 40
ducats from it. Weber also visited Beethoven in Baden in September and was, perhaps
surprisingly, in light of the usual animosity between the two composers, received very cordially.
 By this time, the management of Beethoven's financial affairs was in the hands of Anton
Schindler and Johann van Beethoven, with Count Moritz Lichnowsky also giving advice here and
there. In order to overcome financial difficulties in paying monies Beethoven still owed the Vienna
music publisher Steiner & Co., he sold off one of his bank shares. These difficulties are
mentioned in Thayer as an impetus for the Missa Solemnis subscription plan.

This year ended with Beethoven working on the completion of the Ninth Symphony, while his
eyes continued to bother him (which would last until late March 1824). The completion date of the
Ninth Symphony that was given by Schindler is February 1824 (Thayer: 886).

To complete the recordings for the year 1823, we should first return to Beethoven's creative plans
and activities besides the completion of the Ninth Symphony:

-- He spoke again of a "second mass";

-- He also had plans for a new opera and wanted a subject from the antique world. The most
likely co-operation on this project emerged with the Viennese playwright, Franz Grillparzer.
Subjects discussed were the Bohemian legend of Drahomira and Melusine. Grillparzer and
Beethoven held several conferences, also in Hetzendorf. Beethoven would ultimately not pick up
on this idea, while Grillparzer later had the honor of writing the famous and insightful oration for
Beethoven's 1827 funeral;

-- Another "creative idea" that was realized in 1823 were the 33 variations to a waltz by Anton
Diabelli. They were completed by March or April, 1823, and dedicated to Antonie Brentano.

In completing this section of Beethoven's life, we will only trace the events of 1824 up to and
including the premiere of the Ninth Symphony and parts of the Missa Solemnis as well as the
after-effect of that premiere on the composer and his "associates" in this project. Anton Schindler,
who was not only a witness but an active agent in the first performance of the Ninth Symphony, is
the main narrator of its history.

Beethoven is reported as having had little confidence in the Viennese audience who at that time
adored Rossini's operas. The following conversation between him and the ultimate two female
lead singers, Karoline Unger and Henriette Sontag, on January 25th, was noted down in one of
the conversation books, in which Beethoven's answers were verbal and not recorded:

Karoline Unger: "When are you going to give your concert? When one is once possessed by the
devil, one can be content.

--------"On a regular day in lent, when 3 or 4 take place, would be best."

--------"If you give the concert, I will guarantee that the house will be full."

--------"You have too little confidence in yourself. Has not the homage of the whole world given
you a little more pride? Who speaks of opposition? Will you not learn to believe that everybody is
longing to worship you again in new works? O obstinacy!"

At his lowest point, Beethoven even sought to have the two works performed in Berlin. On
hearing of this, his Viennese friends and admirers addressed a lengthy memorandum to him,
urging him to perform his works in Vienna, soon. The declaration was signed by many Viennese
dignitaries. However, rumors were spread that Beethoven himself had instigated this appeal.
Beethoven was, of course, disgusted and dismayed. When the appeal was presented to him in
person, however, it did sway him to allow the works being premiered in Vienna.
During the decision-making process as to which theater should be chosen, Beethoven was at first
hesitant and, when urged on to decide, became obstinate again and saw a plot against him
developing behind his back. By April, the Kaertnerthor-Theater was finally decided on with Umlauf
and Schuppanzigh directing. May 7th was then formally confirmed as the date for the premiere. To
be played were the new Overture, Op. 124, the Mass in D and the new Symphony. Realizing that
this was too long, the Gloria and Sanctus were omitted from the Mass. One more obstacle was
the church authorities' opposition to a Mass being performed in a theater. Beethoven wrote to the
censor, Sartorius, that the three pieces from the Mass were to be listed as Hymns (Thayer: 906).
Although this failed, by appealing to the Police President (with the help of Count Lichnowsky), the
performance was finally approved.

Kärtnertor-Theater

During the rehearsals in Beethoven's apartment, Unger pleaded with him to ease the strain on the
high female voices, but to no avail. Her laconic reply to Henriette Sontag: "Well, then we must go
on torturing ourselves in the name of God!" (Thayer: 907).

At the final rehearsal on May 6th, Beethoven was "dissolved in devotion and emotion" at the
performance of the Kyrie, and after the Symphony " . . . Embraced all the amateurs who had
taken part" (Thayer: 907).

While the theater was crowded on May 7th, the Imperial Box was empty. The Emperor's family
was not in Vienna, and Archduke Rudolph was in Olmütz. Thayer reports that:

"The performance was far from perfect. There was a lack of homogenous power, a paucity of
nuance, a poor distribution of lights and shades. Nevertheless, as strange as the music must
have sounded to the audience, the impression which it made was profound, and the applause
which it elicited enthusiastic to a degree. . . . At one point in the Scherzo, the Ritmo di battate, the
listeners could scarcely restrain themselves, and it seemed as if a repetition then and there would
be insisted upon. To this Beethoven, no doubt engrossed by the music which we was following in
his mind, was oblivious. Either after the Scherzo or at the end of the Symphony, while Beethoven
was still gazing at his score, Fräulein Unger, whose happiness can be imagined, plucked him by
the sleeve and directed his attention to the clapping hands and waving hats and handkerchiefs.
Then he turned to the audience and bowed" (Thayer: 909).

Subsequent conversation book entries of those who attended the concert confirm the tenor of the
above:

"Never in my life did I hear such frenetic and yet cordial applause."

--------"Once the second movement of the Symphony was completely interrupted by applause . . .
And there was a demand for repetition."

-------"The reception was more than imperial."

--------" . . . For the applause burst out in a storm four times. At the last there were cries of Vivat!"

--------"When the parterre broke out in applauding cries the fifth time, the Police Commissioner
yelled 'Silence!'"

"Court only 3 successive times but Beethoven 5 times."

--------(Beethoven): "My triumph is now attained. For now I can speak from my heart. Yesterday I
still feared secretly that the Mass would be prohibited because I heard that the Archbishop had
protested against it. After all, I was right in at first not saying anything to the Police Commissioner,
by God, it would have happened!"

Beethoven's nephew Carl was to go to the box office to receive the money in the presence of his
uncle, as Beethoven wanted him as a witness to the transaction. The profit for Beethoven was
meager: only 420 florins remained of the receipts after all costs, from which some petty expenses
were yet to be paid. Beethoven vented his anger at all those who had helped in staging the event
at the dinner he had invited them to. Umlauf, Schuppanzigh and Schindler walked out of it.

A second concert was held on Sunday, May 23rd. As the weather was very warm and nice, the
theater was only half full. Duport, the organizer, had to suffer a deficit of 800 florins, while
Beethoven had been guaranteed 500 florins.

In the meantime, Beethoven had sent a copy of his Symphony to the Philharmonic Society in
London and had, on April 24th, 1824, receipted the sum of fifty British Pounds.

Financial gain and re-affirmation of old friendship ties not having been the ultimate outcome of
Beethoven's efforts of composing and staging his two latest public masterpieces, we may wish to
return in our minds to the composer's own notions on the presence or absence of joy in his life. It
appears, then, that Beethoven had appeased his outcry in the Heiligenstadt Will,

"When, O Godhead, will I be able to feel it again in the temple of nature and men--never--no--that
would be too cruel",

himself by the only means available to him, as he already hinted at his capacity to bring joy to
himself and to others:

"O blissful moment, how fortunate I consider myself that I can summon you, create you myself",
 in his 1801 letter to Wegeler, thereby creating his very own day of joy at the May 7th, 1824,
premiere of his works.

In this context, the words Friedrich Schiller, the writer of the Ode to Joy, had put into the mouth of
Marquis Posa in his play Don Carlos, which he wrote at the same time as the Ode, come to mind:

"To me, however, virtue has a value of its own. This happiness . . . I would create it myself, and
joy would be to me and my own choice, what should only be my duty."

TRANSCENDING TO BEYOND
(1824 - 1827)

Much has been written about the spiritual quality of Beethoven's Late String Quartets. A brief
biographical overview of Beethoven's life such as this can not dare to endeavor to even slightly
touch the meaning of these masterworks. What it can do, however, is to provide a faithful
chronological account of the outer events as well as of the basic history of the creation of these
works during that period. It might, at least, provide to that friend of Beethoven music who is still a
"beginner" in the enjoyment of those works a "road map" to all of the events surrounding their
creation.

During the spring of 1824, while preparations for the premiere of his last two great public works in
May were underway, Beethoven also negotiated with the publishers Schott & Sons in Mainz for
the publication of these two works. These as well as the first Gallitzin String Quartet, Op. 127,
would eventually be published by this company.

By the summer of 1824, Beethoven's nephew Carl was continuing his classical language studies
at the University of Vienna. In one of the conversation book entries of that time he expressed his
wish to become a soldier. Beethoven was continually worried about as to whether Carl put forth
all possible efforts in his studies. With respect to Carl and to his Will, Beethoven wrote the
following letter to his lawyer, Dr. Bach, on August 1st:

"Most worthy friend!

My heartfelt thanks for your kind recommendation here; I am really well taken care of--I must
remind you of the part of my Will concerning Carl. I think that I might have a stroke some day, like
my worthy grandfather whom I take after. Carl is and remains the sole heir of all that I have and
that may be found after my death. However, since one must leave something to one's relatives,
even when they are quite uncongenial, my brother is to receive my French piano from Paris.- . . .
" (Thayer: 918).

In September 1824, Andreas Streicher, out of concern for his friend Beethoven's financial
security, suggested a plan of action for Beethoven: He should hold six high-class subscription
concerts during the next winter which, on the basis of 600 subscribers, should have yielded him a
total of 4,800 florins, and that Beethoven's plans of having his collected works published, should
now be realized, hopefully resulting in a profit of 10,000 florins. Moreover, he suggested that
piano and organ transcriptions of the Missa Solemnis be sold to Singing Societies.

To a friendly visitor from London, the Thuringian-born Johann Andreas Stumpff (not the Stumpff
who tuned his Broadwood Piano), Beethoven admitted that he revered Handel above all other
composers. Stumpff made a secret vow to find and send Beethoven the complete works of
Handel. He would fulfill this secret promise two years later.

Beethoven's concern over his nephew Carl's conduct never abated, as is evidenced in his letter
to Tobias Haslinger of October 6th and in some conversation book entries from Baden.

On his return to Vienna, Beethoven had trouble in that his life-style as a deaf composer
(excessive piano noise!) and his quarrels with Carl affected his stay at the first apartment he
moved to. It is not clear, however, if he had to move or if he could stay there. Gerhard von
Breuning, in his Memories of Beethoven: From the House of the Black-Robed Spaniards,lists
another residence, namely Krügerstraße 1009, for the winter of 1824/25.

With respect to his state of health, Beethoven mentioned in his November 18th, 1824 letter to his
pupil, Archduke Rudolph, that he had returned to Vienna in ill health.

Beethoven's main composition of 1824 was the Quartet in E-flat, Op. 127. We know that Prince
Gallitzin requested this work from Beethoven in the fall of 1822, while Beethoven must already
have had ideas for a quartet in his mind when he mentioned these to Peters of Leipzig in June,
1822. Work on it began after May 1824. In the meantime, Prince Gallitzin had also subscribed to
the Mass and paid Beethoven 50 ducats for it.

Gallitzin's letter of April 8th, 1824, described to Beethoven the first full performance of the Mass in
St. Petersburg on April 7th. Gallitzin's opinion was that the work's beauties would only be fully
understood in the future. The composer sent the completed quartet to Gallitzin at the end of the
year, who, in turn, acknowledged its receipt in his letter to Beethoven of April 29th, 1825, after he
had already performed it several times.

Charles Neate of London, in his letter to Beethoven of December 20th, 1824, extended an
invitation by the Philharmonic Society for him to visit London. Beethoven replied on January 15th
and 27th, 1825, basically accepting the offer and asking for an advance which, according to
Neate's letter of February 1st, could not be extended by the Philharmonic Society. Neate promised
to extend it in person. Beethoven's friends urged him to go to England, but his fears about his
health and his concerns over Carl prevented him from making up his mind in favor of this journey.

Beethoven's former pupil Ries had, in the meantime, bought an estate at Godesberg and settled
there, from where he continued to correspond with Beethoven, inviting him to Godesberg. Ries
reported to Beethoven on the successful performance on May 23rd, 1825, of the Ninth Symphony
in Aix-a-Chapelle. He sent Beethoven 40 Louis d'Or as a fee.

In March and April, Beethoven and Carl were also "at it again". Beethoven wanted Carl to
continue his studies of classical Greek, having the lofty goal of a Professor of languages in mind
for Carl who, if Beethoven was not willing to let him become a soldier, wanted to at least change
his studies to a business course at the Polytechnicum. In the end, after consulting his friend and
co-guardian of Carl, Peters, Beethoven gave in to this. Carl entered the Polytechnical institute
around Easter of 1825. Beethoven tried to continue to monitor Carl's leisure hours to ensure
himself of his moral conduct and of his diligence as a student. This put, of course, a new strain on
their difficult relationship. A passage of Beethoven's June 9th letter to Carl reveals some of his
frustration with Carl:

" . . . I would have liked not to have spent so much in order to have given the world an ordinary
man . . . " (Thayer: 952).

Ignaz Schuppanzigh was anxious to have his quartet, consisting of himself and Holz playing the
violin, Weiss the viola and Linke the violoncello, performing Beethoven's new String Quartet in a
new subscription series of quartets and concerts. Since the new quartet was not ready, yet,
Schuppanzigh had to substitute Op. 95 for it. A letter of Beethoven to Schuppanzigh from early
March indicates that Beethoven allowed Schuppanzigh to have the Quartet for about a week. It
was, with little rehearsal time, performed on March 6th. Beethoven then gave the work to Boehm
for his performance (Boehm had led the Viennese String Quartet performances during
Schuppanzigh's absence). Beethoven watched the rehearsals and was able to detect the
slightest change in tempo or rhythm, but on observing that the quartet did not carry out his
indication of meno vivace on the score, he allowed Boehm to leave it, by saying, "Let it remain
so", going to his desk and crossing out meno vivace on the scores for all four instruments. This
performance received enthusiastic applause. Actually, three performances were held around
March 23rd and one for Boehm's benefit in April. On April 15th and in late April, it was also
performed by Joseph Mayseder.

Here we should also note the Berlin poet Rellstab's recollection of his visits with Beethoven in
early April. Rellstab apparently told him that he was moved by the performance of Op. 127 which
he had just heard.

"Beethoven read and remained silent, we looked at each other mutely, but a world of emotions
surged in my breast. Beethoven, too, was unmistakably moved. He arose and went to the
window" (Thayer: 948).

Thayer mentions that Holz had, by this time, already made the personal acquaintance of
Beethoven and that he shortly thereafter began to fill the void Schindler's 1824 departure as
personal secretary had left. He even advised the composer on his choice of publishers and
assisted the composer in monitoring the activities of Carl.

Coming back to the early spring of 1825, we can note that Beethoven, having felt encouraged by
the successful performance of Op. 127 by Boehm, gladly continued to work on the next Quartet,
Op. 132, with sketches for the first two movements in good progress when a severe illness befell
him. We may quote his April 18th letter to Dr. Anton Braunhofer:

"My honored friend,

I am feeling poorly and hope you will not deny me your help since I am suffering great pain. Is it
possible for you to visit me as early as today, this I beg of you from the bottom of my heart--with
everlasting gratitude and respect, your

Beethoven" (Thayer: 945).

Dr. Braunhofer's orders for a strict diet were: no wine, no coffee, no spices of any kind. By the
beginning of May, Beethoven's condition had improved to the point that he could set out for
Baden. By May 17th he confirmed to Carl that he was composing again on the A minor Quartet,
Op. 132. In a conversation book in use during May and June, Beethoven wrote: "Hymn of
Thanksgiving to God of an invalid on his convalescence. Feeling of new strength and
reawakened feeling." This was to be the "theme" for his third movement of the new work.

The new work was written down by the end of July. Beethoven's anxiety over the first
performance of this work and of his agitation and exhaustion is documented in this letter to his
nephew Carl:

"Baden on Aug. 11 [1825]

Dear Son!
I am worried to death about the quartet, namely the third, fourth, fifth and sixth movements. Holz
has taken them along. The first measures of the third movement have been left here, that is to
say, thirteen in number . . . I hear nothing from Holz--I wrote him yesterday. Usually he writes.
What a terrible misfortune if he should have lost it. Just between us, he is a hard drinker. Give me
reassurance as quickly as possible--you can find out Linke's address at Haslinger's. Haslinger
was here, yesterday, was very friendly, brought out the periodicals and other things and begged
for the new quartets. Don't engage in idle talk, it leads to vulgarities--but for God's sake give me
some peace of mind concerning the quartet: what a terrible loss, the main ideas have been
written on nothing but small scraps of paper, and I shall never be able to write out the whole thing
again in the same way.

Your true Father" (Kolodin: 294).

On October 15th, a Saturday, Beethoven moved back to Vienna into a spacious apartment in the
Schwarzspanierhaus, his last lodgings in Vienna, and thereby became an immediate neighbor of
his lifetime Bonn friend, Stephan von Breuning. Actually, they had met in Vienna in August on
occasion, and Stephan von Breuning's wife assisted Beethoven in hiring, for a change, reliable
household staff which would remain with him until the end, namely his housekeeper Sali. Stephan
von Breuning's son, Gerhard von Breuning, about 12 - 14 years of age during these years, to
whom the composer took a great liking, vividly described his memories of Beethoven in his book,
Erinnerungen aus dem Schwarzspanierhause, which has been edited by Maynard Solomon in its
first publication in the English language.
 Depiction of Beethoven's Study
at the Schwarzspanierhaus

The Quartet in a minor was first performed publicly on November 6th in the Music Society's room
at the Roter Igel in a benefit concert for Josef Linke. This concert, which also featured a Carl
Maria von Bocklet as pianist, playing the Trio in B-flat major, was a great success. Schuppanzigh
received permission to perform the Quartet again on November 20th.

During late summer and fall of 1825, Beethoven also wrote the next Quartet in B-flat, Op. 130,
which was completed in November. This work was sold to Artaria and did not appear until May,
1827. It was first performed publicly in March, 1826, with the Great Fugue as its original finale.

The year 1826 would see the creation of Beethoven's greatest String Quartet, the Quartet in c-
sharp minor, Op. 131, that of his last String Quartet, Op. 135, as well as a new last movement to
Op. 130, all of which took place in the midst of Beethoven's constant worries over and arguments
with Carl about his conduct. To this, Thayer has to say: "That he could continue to write amidst all
the disturbing circumstances of this year in the higher and purer regions of chamber music was a
source of admiration and wonder to his friends." (Thayer: 973).

Those who were in closest contact with Beethoven during this time were, of course, Holz as his
private secretary, Stephan von Breuning and his family, Schindler here and there as a partly
jealous observer (of Holz) and advisor, and last, and maybe least, his brother Johann. There
were also conversation book entries to be found of Schuppanzigh, Kuffner, Grillparzer, Abbé
Stadler and Matthias Artaria.

Near the end of January, Beethoven's old abdominal complaints returned. He also complained
about his eyes. He was told to refrain from alcohol and coffee. He appeared to have improved
during March.

At this time, Beethoven also became interested in the first performance of his Leibquartett,Op.
130. It was performed on March 21st. Most of the movements, particularly the moving Cavatina
and the Danza alla Tedesca, were immediately liked by the audience. The second and fourth
movements had to be repeated. The Great Fugue, its finale, however, was not understood. Of the
Cavatina, Holz reported that "it cost the composer tears in the writing and brought out the
confession that nothing he had written had so moved him; in fact merely to revive it afterwards in
his thoughts and feelings brought forth renewed tributes of tears." With respect to the Great
Fugue, Beethoven agreed to write a new ending for the quartet and to let the Fugue stand as a
separate work, Op. 133.

With respect to Dembscher's desire to have this Quartet performed at his house, Beethoven
refused to give him the score as the former had not attended Schuppanzigh's premiere. A
"compensation" of 50 florins was arrived at with Dembscher asking, "Must it be?", and Beethoven
humorously supplying the canon, "Es muss sein!" (It must be). Out of this joke arose the finale of
his last quartet, Op. 135.

In May, Beethoven suffered from anxiety in not receiving from Prince Gallitzin payment for his
second and third quartets of the series that he had already sent to Russia. It took until November
to receive an informative reply from Russia in which Gallitzin explained that he had suffered great
losses from several bankruptcies but that he would send the payment, soon. Beethoven was
made to sign one last letter of appeal for his money on his deathbed and did not see it arriving
during his life.

In his ongoing negotiations with respect to Op. 131 with Artaria, Beethoven finally turned about
and gave it to Schott & Sons in Mainz.

With respect to the history of the creation of Op. 131, Thayer mentions first notes of it appearing
in a December 1825 conversation book, while Beethoven was busy writing the work during the
first part of 1826. It is not known for certain if the work was ever publicly performed during
Beethoven's lifetime. On March 28th, the composer asked of Schott 60 Gold Ducats for it. The
score was finally given to Schott's agents in Vienna on August 12th, and published in June, 1827.
In a letter of Beethoven to Schott of February 22nd, 1827, mention was made that the work was
originally to be dedicated to Beethoven's friend and admirer, Johann Wolfmayer, but in his March
10th , 1827, letter to Schott, Beethoven asked them to change the dedication to Baron Joseph von
Stutterheim, Lieutenant Field-Marshal, whose significance in Beethoven's and his nephew Carl's
lives would become apparent in late 1826.

In the midst of Beethoven's plans to finally spend the rest of the warm season either in Ischl or in
Baden, an event took place which turned his life upside down: his nephew Carl's failed suicide
attempt. In order to trace the development leading up to this event, we have to "track back" to a
certain extent.

While Carl's spring 1825 beginnings at the Polytechnicum showed some promise, he also needed
a tutor to catch up for having entered the term late. It appears that he may never have been able
to entirely achieve that. Beethoven estimated that he would spend 2,000 florins a year for Carl's
schooling, lodging and tuition, and wanted to see some positive results for it, while Carl's real
occupational aim was that of becoming a soldier. His change from classical language studies to
business studies was a compromise that did not work to either his or Beethoven's advantage.

Beethoven had Schlemmer, at whose house Carl lodged, confirm to him as to whether Carl spent
his evenings there, studying, or if he went out. Schlemmer confirmed that Carl was always at his
lodgings after classes and at night and that any of his amusements, such as playing billiards,
must have taken place in lieu of his going to classes. During the carnival season of 1826,
Beethoven was almost anxious enough to personally supervise Carl's attendance of a ball,
should he decide to go to one. Holz agreed to observe Carl in Beethoven's stead. Beethoven also
wanted Carl to move back in with him and only reluctantly agreed to his staying at Schlemmer's
house. Their conversations now seemed to mainly consist of Beethoven's sermons and
reproaches and Carl's self-defenses. Johann van Beethoven also tried to intervene, on the one
hand speaking for the boy, on the other strongly advising Beethoven to see to Carl's immediate
employment on completion of his course in summer. Beethoven also mistrusted Carl in money
matters and wanted to see receipts for his expenses. Beethoven visited and reproached Carl at
Schlemmer's several times, on which occasion, at least once, Carl appears to have grabbed his
uncle in a violent reaction which Holz' entering interrupted. As if Beethoven could foresee the
outcome of this development, he urged Carl on thus in a letter to him:

"If for no other reason than that you obeyed me, at least, all is forgiven and forgotten; more today
by word of mouth. Very quietly--do not think, that I am governed by anything but thoughts of your
well-being, and from this point of view judge my acts--do not take a step which might make you
unhappy and shorten my life--I did not get to sleep until 3 o'clock, for I coughed all night long--I
embrace you cordially and am convinced that soon you will no longer misjudge me; I thus judge
your conduct yesterday--I expect you without fail today at one o'clock--Do not give me cause for
further worry and apprehension--meanwhile farewell!
 Your real and true father."

"We shall be alone for I shall not permit Holz to come--the more so since I do not wish anything
about yesterday to be known--do come--do not permit my poor heart to bleed any longer"
(Thayer: 994).

Beethoven's monitoring of Carl went as far as coming to pick him up from school. Schindler
reports of Carl's reply to the rebuke by his teachers: "My uncle! I can do with him what I want,
some flattery and friendly gestures make things all right, again, right away." Alas, during the last
days of July, Beethoven received news that Carl had vanished and intended to take his life. The
reasons Carl gave for this step were his debts. Beethoven had Holz go after Carl to detain him,
but Carl gave him the slip. Carl pawned his watch on Saturday, July 29th. He bought two pistols,
powder and balls. He drove to Baden, spending the night with writing letters to his uncle and to
his friend Niemetz. On Sunday he climbed up the ruins of Rauhenstein in the Helenenthal and
fired both pistols at his left temple. The first bullet missed, and the second only ripped his flesh
and grazed the bone, but did not go into his skull. A coach rider found Carl and brought him to his
mother's house in Vienna, where Beethoven found him. Holz, who went with Beethoven, reported
the matter to the police and Beethoven went home, while a doctor already looked after Carl.
Police transported Carl from his mother's house to the general hospital on August 7th. As was
usual in such cases, a priest was ordered to provide religious instruction to the suicide candidate
and to extract a conversion. Holz reported to Beethoven that Carl had grown tired of life which he
perceived differently from his uncle, and to the Police Magistrate Carl said that Beethoven
"tormented him too much" and that "I got worse, because my uncle wanted me to be better."

While the event began to pave the way for Carl's personal career choice, it had a devastating
effect on Beethoven which soon had him, aged fifty-five, according to Schindler, look like a man
of seventy. A decision had to be reached as to Carl's future. Stephan von Breuning, a court
councillor in the war department, advised on a military career and also suggested that Beethoven
relinquish his guardianship. In the meantime, Beethoven had already begun to work on the last
String Quartet, Op. 135. The question arose as to where Carl should recuperate after his
dismissal from the hospital, while Stephan von Breuning arranged for Carl to enter the regiment
of Baron von Stutterheim as a cadet on his full recovery, and he also agreed to act as co-
guardian of Carl in lieu of Professor Reisser of the Polytechnicum who had laid it down.

Finally it was decided that Beethoven and Carl should spend the time Carl needed to recuperate
at Johann van Beethoven's estate in Gneixendorf. Johann was in Vienna at that time and offered
them that choice. On September 28th, they set out for there. It was only to be a short visit, but
turned into a two-month-stay.
 Beethoven's Room
at Gneixendorf

Beethoven arrived in Gneixendorf already in a serious state of health. He did also not enjoy the
company of his brother and sister-in-law. A servant named Michael was assigned to him whom
he grew to trust. On the occasion of Michael's falling out of graces with Therese van Beethoven,
the composer urged her to re-hire the just fired Michael. From then on, Beethoven stayed in his
room for his meals. He also walked through the fields around Gneixendorf, gesticulating,
humming, beating tact to the music in his "inner ear". Thus Op. 135 was completed in
Gneixendorf as well as the new last movement of Op. 130. The date on the autograph of Op. 135
is October 30th, on which Johann took it to Vienna. The new finale for Op. 130 was delivered by
Haslinger to Artaria on November 25th. Beethoven's relationship with Carl was still as touchy as
could be expected, with both acting "in character", as usual.

Beethoven's health worsened in Gneixendorf. Soon, he could only eat soup and soft-boiled eggs,
but still drank wine and contracted diarrhea. Towards the end of November, he had lost his
appetite, altogether, complaining of thirst. He also developed edemous feet. All of this pointed to
a serious liver disease. Johann now also became concerned with Carl's future and urged
Beethoven to take him back to Vienna so that he could join his regiment soon, but did so in a
letter and not in a personal argument. Beethoven's state of mind was in such a disarray at that
time that he even asked his brother to leave his entire estate to their nephew Carl, thereby cutting
out Therese. As for the vehicle in which they returned to Vienna, one should not rely on
Schindler's biased interpretation that Johann had denied Beethoven the use of his carriage.
Nevertheless, it can be assumed that they traveled in an open wagon, as Beethoven later stated
to his physician, Professor Wawruch.

They arrived back in Vienna on Saturday, December 2nd, with Beethoven in a fever from a chill he
had caught in their overnight stay in an unheated room. The circumstances of Carl's delayed
summoning of a doctor for his uncle are anything but clear so that we have to refrain from laying
the blame on Carl. Dr. Braunhofer and Dr. Staudenheim apologized for not being able to attend
on Beethoven. On the third day of his fever, Professor Wawruch of the General Hospital took
Beethoven on as a patient. He treated the inflammation and lowered his fever. On the seventh
day, Beethoven could get up and read and write. Now he found time to answer Wegeler's letter of
a year ago. On the eight day, however, Wawruch found his patient worse after a severe colic
attack. Dropsy developed from then on. The illness progressed to nightly suffocation attacks in
the third week. Johann, who had come to Vienna on December 10th, attended to his brother as
did Carl as long as he was still in Vienna. Stephan von Breuning also attended, as did Holz and
Schindler. On December 20th, Beethoven's abdomen had to be tapped to release the water. This
was performed by Dr. Seibert, chief surgeon at the General Hospital. Present were also Johann
and Carl, as well as Schindler. Dr. Seibert's comment on Beethoven's endurance was, "You bore
yourself like a knight." One joyful occasion in this gloom was the arrival of the collected works of
Handel Stumpff had now sent Beethoven. Gerhard von Breuning vividly recalls this event in his
book. The boy was now a daily visitor who cheered Beethoven up.

Stephan von Breuning had finalized the arrangement for Carl to enter von Stutterheim's regiment.
Carl left Vienna on January 2nd, 1827, and would never see his uncle again. On January 3rd,
Beethoven wrote yet another letter to his lawyer, Dr. Bach, in which he reiterated his declaring
Carl as his sole heir. On January 8th, Beethoven was tapped a second time. The patient had by
now grown impatient with Wawruch. When he entered the room, Beethoven would turn around in
his bed towards the wall, commenting, "Oh, the ass!" He requested that Dr. Malfatti, his former
physician, be called in. The composer had had a falling-out with Malfatti ten years prior to that.
They were finally reconciled after initial hesitation by Malfatti. The latter prescribed ice punch and
the rubbing of Beethoven's abdomen with ice. While this treatment brought some relief at first, its
abuse by Beethoven led to a "violent pressure of the blood on the brain . . . Began to wander in
his speech . . . And when . . . Colic and diarrhea resulted, it was high time to deprive him of this
precious refreshment" (Thayer: 1031). Malfatti did not take over from Wawruch as Beethoven's
main physician, however. Beethoven had to be tapped a third time on February 2nd.

The conversation book entries of February show the names of Haslinger, Streicher, the writer
Bernard and the singer Nanette Schechner. A letter from Wegeler arrived on February 1st.
Beethoven replied on February 17th. On February 18th, he also replied to his old bed-ridden friend,
Baron Zmeskall's inquiry. In his letter of Feburary 8th, Beethoven thanked Stumpff of London for
the gift of the Handel edition. He also mentioned his writing to Charles Smart and Ignaz
Moscheles for financial aid from London. On Stumpff's initiative, the Philharmonic Society sent
Beethoven the sum of 100 pounds in financial support during his illness.

During February, Beethoven became very melancholic over the outcome of his illness, over
financial worries, and over the neglect of Carl's writing to him. Friends visited to take his attention
away from his melancholy.

The fourth tapping took place on February 27th. To Wawruch's attempt at cheering him up,
Beethoven replied, "My day's work is finished. If there were a physician who could help me 'his
name shall be called wonderful'" (Thayer: 1038). On March 1st, Beethoven wrote to Schott in
Mainz and also asked for a delivery of Moselle wine. On March 18th, he gratefully acknowledged
the receipt of the 100 lb. From London.

In March, no-one denied Beethoven the simple pleasures of wine and good food, anymore, as the
outcome of his illness was clear by now. Baron Pasqualati, von Breuning and Streicher sent their
gifts of that kind. During those days, in addition to Handel's works, Beethoven also studied those
of his young Viennese colleague, Franz Schubert, crying out, "truly a divine spark dwells in
Schubert" (Thayer: 1043). With his friend, Anselm Hüttenbrenner, as Thayer reports, Schubert
allegedly visited Beethoven eight days before his death. Johann Nepomuk Hummel also visited
on March 8th.

It was now time to bring his affairs into order. His last written statement with respect to his Will
reads as follows:
 "My nephew Carl shall be sole heir, but the capital of the estate shall fall to his natural or
testamentary heirs.--

Vienna on March 1827

Ludwig van Beethoven" (Thayer: 1048).

All other signatures for more particular documents with respect to his estate that had been drawn
up before had to be obtained with great difficulty, as from about March 20th on, Beethoven was
already very weak. Schindler reports that on March 23rd, after the signing of his Will, Beethoven is
to have said, "plaudite, amici, comoedia finita est", implying that nothing could be done for him,
anymore.

As to Beethoven's submitting to and receiving the last rites, Anselm Hüttenbrenner recalled that
"Beethoven was asked in the gentlest manner by Herr Johann Baptist Jenger and Frau van
Beethoven, wife of the landowner, to strengthen himself by receiving Holy Communion . . . On the
day of her brother-in-law's death, Frau van Beethoven told me that after receiving the viaticum he
said to the priest, 'I thank you, ghostly sir! You have brought me comfort!" (Thayer: 1049).

Around one o'clock on March 24th, the shipment of Moselle wine had arrived. Beethoven, looking
at the bottles, mumbled, "pity, pity, too late!" These were his last reported words. He was given
spoonfuls of the wine. Later that day, he fell into a coma which would last for two days. Anselm
Hüttenbrenner, who was present when Beethoven died on March 26tharound five-thirty in the
evening, recalls:

"There came a flash of lightning accompanied by a violent clap of thunder, which garishly
illuminated the death-chamber . . . Beethoven opened his eyes, lifted his right hand and looked
up for seconds with his fist clenched and a very serious, threatening expression . . . When he let
the raised hand sink to the bed, his eyes closed half-way. My right hand was under his head, my
left rested on his breast. Not another breath, not a heartbeat more!" (Thayer: 1051).

While Hüttenbrenner was present during Beethoven's last moments, Schindler and von Breuning
had gone to make arrangements for his burial in the nearby Währing cemetery. The day after,
von Breuning, Schindler, Johann van Beethoven and Holz gathered in the apartment to look for
Beethoven's papers and for the seven bank shares. Johann van Beethoven insinuated that the
search was a sham. In a rage, von Breuning left the house and returned later. The shares were
then found in a secret drawer of Beethoven's cabinet, along with his letter to the Immortal
Beloved.

Beethoven's funeral took place at three o'clock in the afternoon, on March 29th. A crowd of
possibly over 10,000 (and maybe not quite 20,000, as Gerhard von Breuning reports) had
gathered in front of the Schwarzspanierhaus to bid farewell to him.
 Funeral Procession

Eight Kapellmeisterwere the pallbearers, among which were Hummel and Seyfried. Among the
torchbearers were the actor Anschütz, the journalist and Beethoven friend Bernard, his former
pupil Carl Czerny, Grillparzer, Haslinger, Franz Schubert, Andreas Streicher, Schuppanzigh,
Wolfmayer and others.

Anschütz read Grillparzer's funeral oration in front of the gate to the Währing Cemetery. Part of it
reads as follows:

"He was an artist, but a man as well. A man in every sense--in the highest. Because he withdrew
from the world, they called him a man-hater, and because he held aloof from sentimentality,
unfeeling. Ah, one who knows himself to be hard of heart, does not shrink! The finest points are
those most easily blunted and bent or broken. An excess of sensitiveness avoids a show of
feeling! He fled the world because, in the whole range of his loving nature, he found no weapon to
oppose it. He withdrew from mankind after he had given them his all and received nothing in
return. . . . Thus he was, thus he died, thus he will live to the end of time."