Beethoven’s relation to art might almost be described as personal. Art
was his goddess to whom he made petition, to whom he rendered thanks,
whom he defended. He praised her as his savior in times of despair;
by his own confession it was only the prospect of her comforts that
prevented him from laying violent hands on himself. Read his words
and you shall find that it was his art that was his companion in his
wanderings through field and forest, the sharer of the solitude to which
his deafness condemned him. The concepts Nature and Art were intimately
bound up in his mind. His lofty and idealistic conception of art led him
to proclaim the purity of his goddess with the hot zeal of a priestly
fanatic. Every form of pseudo or bastard art stirred him with hatred to
the bottom of his soul; hence his furious onslaughts on mere virtuosity
and all efforts from influential sources to utilize art for other than
purely artistic purposes. And his art rewarded his devotion richly; she
made his sorrowful life worth living with gifts of purest joy:
“To Beethoven music was not only a manifestation of the beautiful, an
art, it was akin to religion. He felt himself to be a prophet, a seer.
All the misanthropy engendered by his unhappy relations with mankind,
could not shake his devotion to this ideal which had sprung in to
Beethoven from truest artistic apprehension and been nurtured by
enforced introspection and philosophic reflection.”
(“Music and Manners,” page 237. H. E. K.)
1. “‘Tis said, that art is long, and life but fleeting:--Nay; life is
long, and brief the span of art; If e’re her breath vouchsafes with gods
a meeting, A moment’s favor ‘tis of which we’ve had a part.”
(Conversation-book, March, 1820. Probably a quotation.)
2. “The world is a king, and, like a king, desires flattery in return
for favor; but true art is selfish and perverse--it will not submit to
the mould of flattery.”
(Conversation-book, March, 1820. When Baron van Braun expressed the
opinion that the opera “Fidelio” would eventually win the enthusiasm of
the upper tiers, Beethoven said, “I do not write for the galleries!” He
never permitted himself to be persuaded to make concessions to the taste
of the masses.)
3. “Continue to translate yourself to the heaven of art; there is no
more undisturbed, unmixed, purer happiness than may thus be attained.”
(August 19, 1817, to Xavier Schnyder, who vainly sought instruction from
Beethoven in 1811, though he was pleasantly received.)
4. “Go on; do not practice art alone but penetrate to her heart; she
deserves it, for art and science only can raise man to godhood.”
(Teplitz, July 17, 1812, to his ten years’ old admirer, Emilie M. in H.)
5. “True art is imperishable and the true artist finds profound delight
in grand productions of genius.”
(March 15, 1823, to Cherubini, to whom he also wrote, “I prize your
works more than all others written for the stage.” The letter asked
Cherubini to interest himself in obtaining a subscription from King
Louis XVIII for the Solemn Mass in D).
[Cherubini declared that he had never received the letter. That it
was not only the hope of obtaining a favor which prompted Beethoven to
express so high an admiration for Cherubini, is plain from a remark made
by the English musician Cipriani Potter to A. W. Thayer in 1861. I found
it in Thayer’s note-books which were placed in my hands for examination
after his death.
One day Potter asked, “Who is the greatest living composer, yourself
excepted?” Beethoven seemed puzzled for a moment, and then exclaimed,
“Cherubini.” H. E. K.]
6. “Truth exists for the wise; beauty for the susceptible heart. They
belong together--are complementary.”
(Written in the autograph book of his friend, Lenz von Breuning, in
1797.)
7. “When I open my eyes, a sigh involuntarily escapes me, for all that I
see runs counter to my religion; perforce I despise the world which does
not intuitively feel that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom
and philosophy.”
(Remark made to Bettina von Arnim, in 1810, concerning Viennese society.
Report in a letter by Bettina to Goethe on May 28, 1810.)
8. “Art! Who comprehends her? With whom can one consult concerning this
great goddess?”
(August 11, 1810, to Bettina von Arnim.)