The Ancestral van Beethoven Family in Belgium--Removal
of the Grandfather to Bonn--His Activities as Singer and
Chapelmaster--Birth and Education of Johann van Beethoven--The
Parents of the Composer.
THE COMPOSER’S BELGIAN ANCESTRY
At the beginning of the seventeenth century a family named van
Beethoven lived in a village of Belgium near Louvain. A member of it
removed to and settled in Antwerp about 1650. A son of this Beethoven,
named William, a wine dealer, married, September 11, 1680, Catherine
Grandjean and had issue, eight children. One of them, baptized
September 8, 1683, in the parish of Notre Dame, now received the name
Henry Adelard, his sponsors being Henry van Beethoven, acting for
Adelard de Redincq, Baron de Rocquigny, and Jacqueline Grandjean. This
Henry Adelard Beethoven, having arrived at man’s estate, took to wife
Maria Catherine de Herdt, who bore him twelve children--the third named
Louis, the twelfth named Louis Joseph. The latter, baptized December 9,
1728, married, November 3, 1773, Maria Theresa Schuerweghs, and died
November 11, 1808, at Oosterwyck. The second daughter, named like her
mother Maria Theresa, married, September 6, 1808, Joseph Michael Jacobs
and became the mother of Jacob Jacobs, in the middle of the nineteenth
century a professor of painting in Antwerp, who supplied in part the
materials for these notices of the Antwerp Beethovens, although the
principal credit is due to M. Léon de Burbure of that city.[5]
The certificate of baptism of Louis van Beethoven, third son of Henry
Adelard, is to this effect:
Antwerp, December 23, 1712--_Baptizatus_, Ludovicus.
Parents: Henricus van Beethoven and Maria Catherine de Hert.
Sponsors: Petrus Bellmaert and Dymphona van Beethoven.
It is a family tradition--Prof. Jacobs heard it from his mother--that
this Louis van Beethoven, owing to some domestic difficulties
(according to M. Burbure they were financial), secretly left his
father’s house at an early age and never saw it again, although in
later years an epistolary correspondence seems to have been established
between the fugitive and his parents. Gifted with a good voice and
well educated musically, he went to Louvain and applied for a vacant
position as tenor to the chapter ad Sanctum Petrum, receiving it
on November 2, 1731.[6] A few days later the young man of 18 years
was appointed substitute for three months for the singing master
(_Phonascus_), who had fallen ill, as is attested by the minutes of the
Chapter, under date November 2, 1731.[7]
The young singer does not seem to have filled the place beyond the
prescribed time. By a decree of Elector Clemens August, dated March,
1733 (the month of Joseph Haydn’s birth), he became Court Musician
in Bonn with a salary of 400 florins, a large one for those days,
particularly in the case of a young man who only three months before
had completed his 20th year. Allowing the usual year of probation
to which candidates for the court chapel were subjected, Beethoven
must have come to Bonn in 1732. This corresponds to the time spent at
Louvain as well as to a petition of 1774, to be given hereafter, in
which Johann speaks of his father’s “42 years of service.” There is
another paper of date 1784 which makes the elder Beethoven to have
served about 46 years, but this is from another hand and of less
authority than that written by the son.
OTHER BEETHOVEN FAMILIES IN BONN
What it was that persuaded Ludwig van Beethoven to go to Bonn is
unknown. Gottfried Fischer, who owned the house in the Rheingasse in
which two generations of Beethovens lived, professed to know that
Elector Clemens August learned to know him as a good singer at Liège
and for that reason called him to Bonn. That is not impossible,
whether the Elector went to Louvain or Ludwig introduced himself to him
at Liège. But it is significant that another branch of the Beethoven
family was already represented at Bonn. Michael van Beethoven was born
in Malines in February, 1684. He was a son of Cornelius van Beethoven
and Catherine Leempoel, and beyond doubt, as the later associations
in Bonn prove, closely related to the Antwerp branch of the family.
Michael van Beethoven married Maria Ludovica Stuykers (or Stuykens)
on October 8, 1707. His eldest son also bore the name of Cornelius
(born in September, 1708, in Malines) and there were four other sons
born to him during his stay in Malines, among them two who were named
Louis, up to 1715. At a date which is uncertain, this family removed
to Bonn. There Cornelius, on February 20, 1734, married a widow named
Helena de la Porte (née Calem), in the church of St. Gangolph, Ludwig
van Beethoven, the young court singer, being one of the witnesses.
In August of the same year Cornelius was proxy for his father (who,
evidently, had not yet come to Bonn), as godfather for Ludwig’s first
child. Later, after his son had established a household, he removed to
Bonn, for Michael van Beethoven died in June, 1749, in Bonn, and in
December of the same year Maria Ludovica Stuykens (_sic_), “the Widow
van Beethoven.” Cornelius became a citizen of Bonn on January 17, 1736,
on the ground that he had married the widow of a citizen, and in 1738
he stands alone as representative of the name in the list of Bonn’s
citizens. He seems to have been a merchant, and is probably the man
who figures in the annual accounts of Clemens August as purveyor of
candles. He lost his wife, and for a second married Anna Barbara Marx,
_virgo_, on July 5, 1755, who bore him two daughters (1756 and 1759),
both of whom died young and for both of whom Ludwig van Beethoven was
sponsor. Cornelius died in 1764 and his wife in 1765, and with this
the Malines branch of the family ended. Which one of the two cousins
(for so we may in a general way consider them) came to Bonn, Ludwig
or Cornelius, must be left to conjecture. There is evidence in favor
of the former in the circumstance that Cornelius does not appear as
witness at the marriage of Ludwig in 1733. If Ludwig was the earlier
arrival, then the story of his call by the Elector may be true; he was
not disappointed in his hope of being able to make his way by reason of
his knowledge of music and singing.
The next recorded fact in his history may be seen in the ancient
register of the parish of St. Remigius, now preserved in the town
hall of Bonn. It is the marriage on September 7, 1733, of Ludwig van
Beethoven and Maria Josepha Poll, the husband not yet 21 years of age,
the wife 19. Then follows in the records of baptisms in the parish:
1734, August 8.
_Parents_:
Ludwig van Beethoven,
Maria Josepha Poll.
_Baptized_:
Maria
Bernardina
Ludovica.
_Sponsors_:
Maria Bernardina Menz,
Michael van Beethoven;
in his place Cornelius van
Beethoven.
The child Bernardina died in infancy, October 17, 1735. Her place was
soon filled by a son, Marcus Josephus, baptized April 15, 1736, of
whom the parents were doubtless early bereaved, for no other notice
whatever has been found of him. After the lapse of some four years
the childless pair again became parents, by the birth of a son, whose
baptismal record has not been discovered. It is supposed that this
child, Johann, was baptized in the Court Chapel, the records of which
are not preserved in the archives of the town and seem to be lost; or
that, possibly, he was born while the mother was absent from Bonn.
An official report upon the condition and characters of the court
musicians made in 1784, however, gives Johann van Beethoven _born in
Bonn_ and aged forty-four--thus fixing the date of his birth towards
the end of 1739 or the beginning of 1740.
The gradual improvement of the elder Beethoven’s condition in respect
of both emolument and social position, is creditable to him alike as
a musician and as a man. Poorly as the musicians were paid, he was
able in his last years to save a small portion of his earnings; his
rise in social position is indicated in the public records;--thus, the
first child is recorded as the son of L. v. Beethoven “musicus”; as
sponsor to the eldest daughter of Cornelius van Beethoven, he appears
as “Dominus” van Beethoven;--to the second as “Musicus Aulicus”; in
1761 he becomes “Herr Kapellmeister,” and his name appears in the
Court Calendar of the same year, third in a list of twenty-eight
“Hommes de chambre honoraires.” Of the elder Beethoven’s appointment
as head of the court music no other particulars have been obtained
than those to be found in his petition and the accompanying decree
printed in Chapter I. From these papers it appears that the bass singer
has had the promise of the place from Clemens August as successor to
Zudoli, but that the Elector, when the vacancy occurred, changed his
mind and gave it to his favorite young violinist Touchemoulin, who
held the position for so short a time, however, that his name never
appears as chapelmaster in the Court Calendar, he having resigned on
account of the reduction of his salary by Belderbusch, prime minister
of the new Elector who just at that period succeeded Clemens August.
The elevation of a singer to such a place was not a very uncommon
event in those days, but that a chapelmaster should still retain his
place as singer probably was. Hasse and Graun began their careers
as vocalists, but more to the point are the instances of Steffani,
Handel’s predecessor at the court of Hanover, and of Righini,
successively chapelmaster at Mayence and Berlin. In all these cases the
incumbents were distinguished and very successful composers. Beethoven
was not. Wegeler’s words, “the chapelmaster and bass singer had at an
earlier date produced operas at the National Theatre established by
the Elector,” have been rather interpreted than quoted by Schindler
and others thus: “it is thought that under the luxury-loving Elector
Clemens August, he produced operas of his own composition”--a
construction which is clearly forced and incorrect. Strange that so few
writers can content themselves with exact citations! Not only is there
no proof whatever, certainly none yet made public, that Chapelmaster
van Beethoven was an author of operatic works, but the words in his own
petition, “inasmuch as the Toxal must be sufficiently supplied with
_musique_,” can hardly be otherwise understood than as intended to
meet a possible objection to his appointment on the ground of his not
being a composer. Wegeler’s words, then, would simply mean that he put
upon the stage and conducted the operatic works produced, which were
neither numerous nor of a very high order during his time. His labors
were certainly onerous enough without adding musical composition. The
records of the electoral court which have been described and in part
reproduced in the preceding chapter, exhibit him conducting the music
of chapel, theatre and “Toxal,” examining candidates for admission
into the electoral musical service, reporting upon questions referred
to him by the privy council and the like, and all this in addition to
his services as bass singer, a position which gave him the principal
bass parts and solos to sing both in chapel and theatre. Wegeler
records a tradition that in Gassmann’s operetta “L’Amore Artigiano”
and Monsigny’s “Déserteur” he was “admirable and received the highest
applause.” If this be true it proves no small degree of enterprise on
his part as chapelmaster and of well-conserved powers as a singer; for
these two operas were first produced, the one in Vienna, the other in
Paris, in 1769, when Beethoven had already entered his fifty-eighth
year.
The words of Demmer in his petition of January 23, 1773, “the bass
singer van Beethoven is incapacitated and can no longer serve as such,”
naturally suggest the thought that the old gentleman’s appearance
as _Brunoro_ in Lucchesi’s “L’Inganno scoperto” in May, 1773, was a
final compliment to his master, the Elector, upon his birthday. He did
not live to celebrate another; the death of “Ludwig van Beethoven,
Hoffkapellmeister,” is recorded at Bonn under date of December 24,
1773--one day after the sixty-first anniversary of his baptism in
Antwerp.
CHAPELMASTER VAN BEETHOVEN’S TRIALS
At home the good man had his cross to bear. His wife, Josepha, who with
one exception had buried all her children, and possibly on that very
account, became addicted to the indulgence of an appetite for strong
drink, was at the date of her husband’s death living as a boarder in a
cloister at Cologne. How long she had been there does not appear, but
doubtless for a considerable period. The son, too, was married, but
though near was not in his father’s house. The separation was brought
about by his marriage, with which the father was not agreed. The house
in which the chapelmaster died, and which he occupied certainly as
early as 1765, was that next north of the so-called Gudenauer Hof,
later the post-office in the neighboring Bonngasse, and bore the number
386. The chapelmaster appears, upon pretty good evidence, to have
removed hither from the Fischer house in the Rheingasse, where he is
said to have lived many years and even to have carried on a trade in
wine, which change of dwelling may have taken place in 1767.
When one recalls the imposing style of dress at the era the short,
muscular man, with dark complexion and very bright eyes, as Wegeler
describes him[8] and as a painting by Courtpainter Radoux, still in
possession of his descendants in Vienna, depicts him, presents quite an
imposing picture to the imagination.
Of the early life of Johann van Beethoven there are no particulars
preserved except such as are directly or indirectly conveyed in the
official documents. Such of these papers as came from his own hand, if
judged by the standard of our time, show a want of ordinary education;
but it must not be forgotten that the orthography of the German
language was not then fixed; nor that many a contemporary of his, who
boasted a university education, or who belonged to the highest ranks
of society, wrote in a style no better than his. This is certain:
that after he had received an elementary education he was sent to the
_Gymnasium_, for as a member of the lowest class (_infima_) of that
institution he took part in September, 1750, as singer in the annual
school play which it was the custom of the _Musæ Bonnenses_ to give.
It would seem, therefore, that his good voice and musical gifts were
appreciated at an early period. Herein, probably, is also to be found
the reason why his stay at the gymnasium was not of long duration.
The father had set him apart for service in the court music, and
himself, as appears from the statements already printed, undertook his
instruction; he taught him singing and clavier playing. Whether or not
he also taught him violin playing, in which he was “capable,” remains
uncertain. In 1752, at the age of 12, as can be seen from his petition
of March, 1756, and his father’s of 1764, he entered the chapel as
soprano. According to Gottwald’s report of 1756 he had served “about
2 years”; the contradiction is probably explained by an interruption
caused by the mutation of his voice. At the age of 16, he received his
_decretum_ as “accessist” on the score of his skill in singing and his
experience already acquired, including his capability on the violin,
which was the basis of the decree of April 24, 1764, granting him a
salary of 100 rth. per annum.
So, at the age of 22, the young man received the promise of a salary,
and at 24 obtained one of 100 thalers. In 1769, he received an increase
of 25 fl., and 50 fl. more by the decree of April 3, 1772. He had,
moreover, an opportunity to gain something by teaching. Not only did
he give lessons in singing and clavier playing to the children of
prominent families of the city, but he also frequently was called on to
prepare young musicians for service in the chapel. Thus Demmer, says
the memorandum heretofore given, “paid 6 rth. to young Mr. Beethoven
for 3 months”; and a year later the following resolve of the privy
council was passed:
_Ad Suppl._ Joan Beethoven
The demands of the suppliant having been found to be correct, the
Electoral Treasury is commanded to satisfy the debt by the usual
withdrawal of the sum from the salary of the defendant.
Bonn, May 24, 1775.
Attest. P.
which probably refers to a debt contracted by one of the women of the
court chapel. A few years later, as we have seen, he seems to have
been intrusted with the training of Johanna Helena Averdonck, whom he
brought forward as his pupil in March, 1778, and the singer Gazzenello
was his pupil before she went elsewhere. It was largely his own fault
that the musically gifted man was unfortunate in both domestic and
official relations. His intemperance in drink, probably inherited from
his mother but attributed by old Fischer to the wine trade in which
his father embarked, made itself apparent at an early date, and by
yielding to it more and more as he grew older he undoubtedly impaired
his voice and did much to bring about his later condition of poverty.
How it finally led to a catastrophe we shall see later. According to
the testimony of the widow Karth, he was a tall, handsome man, and wore
powdered hair in his later years. Fischer does not wholly agree with
her: “of medium height, longish face, broad forehead, round nose, broad
shoulders, serious eyes, face somewhat scarred, thin pigtail.” Three
and a half years after obtaining his salary of 100 th. he ventured to
marry. Heinrich Kewerich, the father of his wife, was head cook in
that palace at Ehrenbreitstein in which Clemens danced himself out of
this world, but he died before that event took place.[9] His wife, as
the church records testify, was Anna Clara Daubach. Her daughter Maria
Magdalena, born December 19, 1746, married a certain Johann Laym,
valet of the Elector of Trèves, on January 30, 1763. On November 28,
1765, the husband died, and Maria Magdalena was a widow before she had
completed her 19th year. In a little less than two years the marriage
register of St. Remigius, at Bonn, was enriched by this entry:
THE PARENTS OF THE COMPOSER
_12ma 9bris. Praevia Dispensatione super 3bus denuntiationibus
copulavi D. Joannem van Beethoven, Dni. Ludovici van Beethoven
et Mariae Josephae Poll conjugum filium legitimum, et Mariam
Magdalenam Keferich viduam Leym ex Ehrenbreitstein, Henrici
Keferich et annae clarae Westorffs filiam legitimam. Coram
testibus Josepho clemente Belseroski et philippo Salomon._
That is, Johann van Beethoven has married the young widow Laym.
How it came that the marriage took place in Bonn instead of the home of
the bride we are told by Fischer. Chapelmaster van Beethoven was not
at all agreed that his son should marry a woman of a lower station in
life than his own. He did not continue his opposition against the fixed
determination of his son; but it is to be surmised that he would not
have attended a ceremony in Ehrenbreitstein, and hence the matter was
disposed of quickly in Bonn. After the wedding the young pair paid a
visit of a few days’ duration to Ehrenbreitstein.
CHARACTER OF MME. VAN BEETHOVEN
Fischer describes Madame van Beethoven as a “handsome, slender person”
and tells of her “rather tall, longish face, a nose somewhat bent
(_gehöffelt_, in the dialect of Bonn), spare, earnest eyes.” Cäcilia
Fischer could not recall that she had ever seen Madame van Beethoven
laugh; “she was always serious.” Her life’s vicissitudes may have
contributed to this disposition:--the early loss of her father, and of
her first husband, and the death of her mother scarcely more than a
year after her second marriage. It is difficult to form a conception
of her character because of the paucity of information about her.
Wegeler lays stress upon her piety and gentleness; her amiability
and kindliness towards her family appear from all the reports;
nevertheless, Fischer betrays the fact that she could be vehement
in controversies with the other occupants of the house. “Madame van
Beethoven,” Fischer continues, “was a clever woman; she could give
converse and reply aptly, politely and modestly to high and low, and
for this reason she was much liked and respected. She occupied herself
with sewing and knitting. They led a righteous and peaceful married
life, and paid their house-rent and baker’s bills promptly, quarterly,
and on the day. She[10] was a good, a domestic woman, she knew how to
give and also how to take in a manner that is becoming to all people
of honest thoughts.” From this it is fair to assume that she strove
to conduct her household judiciously and economically; whether or not
this was always possible in view of the limited income, old Fischer
does not seem to have been informed. She made the best she could of
the weaknesses of her husband without having been able to influence
him; her care for the children in externals was not wholly sufficient.
Young Ludwig clung to her with a tender love, more than to the father,
who was “only severe”; but there is nothing anywhere to indicate that
she exerted an influence upon the emotional life and development of
her son, and in respect of this no wrong will be done her if the
lower order of her culture be taken into consideration. Nor must it
be forgotten that in all probability she was naturally delicate and
that her health was still further weakened by her domestic troubles
and frequent accouchements. The “quiet, suffering woman,” as Madame
Karth calls her, died in 1787 of consumption at the age of 40 years.
Long years after in Vienna Beethoven was wont, when among his intimate
friends, to speak of his “excellent” (_vortreffliche_) mother.[11]
At the time when Johann van Beethoven married, there was quite a colony
of musicians, and other persons in the service of the court, in the
Bonngasse, as that street is in part named which extends from the
lower extremity of the market-place to the Cologne gate. Chapelmaster
van Beethoven had left the house in the Rheingasse and lived at No.
386. In the adjoining house, north, No. 387, lived the musical family
Ries. Farther down, the east house on that side of the way before the
street assumes the name Kölnerstrasse was the dwelling of the hornist,
afterward publisher, Simrock. Nearly opposite the chapelmaster’s the
second story of the house No. 515 was occupied (but not till after
1771) by the Salomons; the parterre and first floor by the owner of
the house, a lace-maker or dealer in laces, named Clasen. Of the two
adjoining houses the one No. 576 was the dwelling of Johann Baum, a
master locksmith, doubtless the Jean Courtin, “serrurier,” of the Court
Calendar for 1773. In No. 617 was the family Hertel, twelve or fifteen
years later living under the Beethovens in the Wenzelgasse, and not far
off a family, Poll, perhaps relations of Madame Beethoven the elder.
Conrad Poll’s name is found in the Court Calendars of the 1770’s as
one of the eight Electoral “Heiducken” (footmen). In 1767 in the rear
of the Clasen house, north[12] there was a lodging to let; and there
the newly married Beethovens began their humble housekeeping. Their
first child was a son, Ludwig Maria, baptized April 2, 1769, whose
sponsors, as may be read in the register of St. Remigius parish, were
the grandfather Beethoven and Anna Maria Lohe, wife of Jean Courtin,
the next-door neighbor. This child lived but six days. In two years the
loss of the parents was made up by the birth of him who is the subject
of this biography.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] In Fétis’ “Biographie universelle” (new ed.) several of these names
are misprinted. They are corrected here from Mr. Jacobs’ letter to A.
W. T.
[6] Thayer’s account of this period in the life of Beethoven’s
grandfather has here been extended from an article by the Chevalier
L. de Burbure, published in the “Biographie nationale publiée par
l’Académie Royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux arts de
Belgique.” Tome II. p. 105. (Brussels, 1868.) From this it further
appears that two other members of the Antwerp branch of the family were
devoted to the fine arts, viz.: Peter van Beethoven, painter, pupil
of Abr. Genoel, jr., and Gerhard van Beethoven, sculptor, accepted in
the guild of St. Luke about 1713, Director Vollmer, of Brussels, in a
communication to Dr. Deiters gave information of a branch of the family
in Mechlin and of still another in Brabant where, in the village of
Wambeke, there was a curé van Beethoven who must either have died or
been transferred between 1729 and 1732.
[7] The original entry is printed in full in the German edition of this
biography.
[8] “The grandfather was a man short of stature, muscular, with
extremely animated eyes, and was greatly respected as an artist.”
Fischer’s description is different, but Wegeler is the more trustworthy
witness of the two.
[9] The church records at Ehrenbreitstein say that he died August
2, 1759, in Molzberg, at the age of 58; his funeral took place
in Ehrenbreitstein. A Frau Eva Katharina Kewerich, who died at
Ehrenbreitstein on October 10, 1753, at the age of 89 years, was
probably his mother.
[10] Some notes by Fischer contain the characteristic addition: “Madame
van Beethoven once remarked that the most necessary things, such as
house-rent, the baker, shoemaker and tailor must first be paid, but she
would never pay drinking debts.”
[11] In the collection of Beethoven relics in the Beethoven House in
Bonn there is a portrait which is set down as that of Beethoven’s
mother. The designation, however, rests only on uncertain tradition and
lacks authoritative attestation. It is certainly difficult to see in it
the representation of a consumptive woman only 40 years old. Moreover,
it is strange that Beethoven should have sent from Vienna for the
portrait of his grandfather and not for that of his dearly loved mother
had one been in existence. It is only because of a resemblance between
this picture and another that the belief exists that portraits of both
of the parents of Beethoven are in existence. In 1890 two oil portraits
were found in a shed in Cologne and restored by the painter Kempen, who
recognized in them the handiwork of the painter Beckenkamp, who, like
Beethoven’s mother, was born in Ehrenbreitstein, was a visitor at the
Beethoven home in Bonn and died in Cologne in 1828. The female portrait
agrees with that in Bonn; they are life-size, finely executed pictures,
but they are certainly not Beethoven’s parents. Enough has been said
about the portrait of the mother. In the case of that of the father
the first objection is that it also lacks authentication. Fischer’s
description does not wholly fit the picture; the old man would not
have forgotten the protruding lower lip. But the entire expression of
the face, serious, it is true, but fleshy and vulgar, and the gray
perruque, do not conform to what we know of the easy-going musician. It
will be difficult, too, to trace any resemblance of expression between
it and the familiar one of Beethoven from which a conclusion might be
drawn. So long as proofs are wanting, scientific biography will have
no right to accept the portraits as those of Beethoven’s parents.
Reproductions of them may be found in the “Musical Times” of London,
December 15, 1892.
[12] The house is now owned by the Beethoven-Haus Verein, and
maintained as a Beethoven museum.