(From notes written in his years of study. Beethoven called the
composition of fugues “the art of making musical skeletons.”)
38. “Good singing was my guide; I strove to write as flowingly as
possible and trusted in my ability to justify myself before the
judgment-seat of sound reason and pure taste.”
(From notes in the instruction book of Archduke Rudolph.)
39. “Does he believe that I think of a wretched fiddle when the spirit
speaks to me?”
(To his friend, the admirable violinist Schuppanzigh, when the latter
complained of the difficulty of a passage in one of his works.)
[Beethoven here addresses his friend in the third person, which is the
customary style of address for the German nobility and others towards
inferiors in rank. H. E. K.]
40. “The Scotch songs show how unconstrainedly irregular melodies can be
treated with the help of harmony.”
(Diary, 1812-1818. Since 1809 Beethoven had arranged Folksongs for
Thomson of Edinburgh.)
41. “To write true church music, look through the old monkish chorals,
etc., also the most correct translations of the periods, and perfect
prosody in the Catholic Psalms and hymns generally.”
(Diary, 1818.)
42. “Many assert that every minor piece must end in the minor. Nego! On
the contrary I find that in the soft scales the major third at the
close has a glorious and uncommonly quieting effect. Joy follows sorrow,
sunshine--rain. It affects me as if I were looking up to the silvery
glistering of the evening star.”
(From Archduke Rudolph’s book of instruction.)
43. “Rigorists, and devotees of antiquity, relegate the perfect fourth
to the list of dissonances. Tastes differ. To my ear it gives not the
least offence combined with other tones.”
(From Archduke Rudolph’s book of instruction, compiled in 1809.)
44. “When the gentlemen can think of nothing new, and can go no further,
they quickly call in a diminished seventh chord to help them out of the
predicament.”
(A remark made to Schindler.)
45. “My dear boy, the startling effects which many credit to the natural
genius of the composer, are often achieved with the greatest ease by the
use and resolution of the diminished seventh chords.”
(Reported by Karl Friederich Hirsch, a pupil of Beethoven in the winter
of 1816. He was a grandson of Albrechtsberger who had given lessons to
Beethoven.)
46. “In order to become a capable composer one must have already learned
harmony and counterpoint at the age of from seven to eleven years,
so that when the fancy and emotions awake one shall know what to do
according to the rules.”
(Reported by Schindler as having been put into the mouth of Beethoven by
a newspaper of Vienna. Schindler says: “When Beethoven came to Vienna he
knew no counterpoint, and little harmony.”)
47. “So far as mistakes are concerned it was never necessary for me to
learn thorough-bass; my feelings were so sensitive from childhood that
I practiced counterpoint without knowing that it must be so or could be
otherwise.”
(Note on a sheet containing directions for the use of fourths in
suspensions--probably intended for the instruction of Archduke Rudolph.)
48. “Continue, Your Royal Highness, to write down briefly your
occasional ideas while at the pianoforte. For this a little table
alongside the pianoforte is necessary. By this means not only is the
fancy strengthened, but one learns to hold fast in a moment the
most remote conceptions. It is also necessary to compose without the
pianoforte; say often a simple chord melody, with simple harmonies, then
figurate according to the rules of counterpoint, and beyond them; this
will give Y. R. H. no headache, but, on the contrary, feeling yourself
thus in the midst of art, a great pleasure.”
(July 1, 1823, to his pupil Archduke Rudolph.)
49. “The bad habit, which has clung to me from childhood, of always
writing down a musical thought which occurs to me, good or bad, has
often been harmful to me.”
(July 23, 1815, to Archduke Rudolph, while excusing himself for not
having visited H.R.H., on the ground that he had been occupied in noting
a musical idea which had occurred to him.)
50. “As is my habit, the pianoforte part of the concerto (op. 19) was
not written out in the score; I have just written it, wherefore,
in order to expedite matters, you receive it in my not too legible
handwriting.”
(April 22, 1801, to the publisher Hofmeister, in Leipzig.)
51. “Correspondence, as you know, was never my forte; some of my best
friends have not had a letter from me in years. I live only in my notes
(compositions), and one is scarcely finished when another is begun. As I
am working now I often compose three, even four, pieces simultaneously.”
(Vienna, June 29, 1800, to Wegeler, in Bonn.)
52. “I never write a work continuously, without interruption. I
am always working on several at the same time, taking up one, then
another.”
(June 1, 1816, to Medical Inspector Dr. Karl von Bursy, when the latter
asked about an opera (the book by Berge, sent to Beethoven by Amenda),
which was never written.)
53. “I must accustom myself to think out at once the whole, as soon as
it shows itself, with all the voices, in my head.”
(Note in a sketch-book of 1810, containing studies for the music to
“Egmont” and the great Trio in B-flat, op. 97. H. E. K.)
54. “I carry my thoughts about me for a long time, often a very long
time, before I write them down; meanwhile my memory is so faithful that
I am sure never to forget, not even in years, a theme that has once
occurred to me. I change many things, discard, and try again until I
am satisfied. Then, however, there begins in my head the development
in every direction, and, in as much as I know exactly what I want, the
fundamental idea never deserts me,--it arises before me, grows,--I see
and hear the picture in all its extent and dimensions stand before my
mind like a cast, and there remains for me nothing but the labor of
writing it down, which is quickly accomplished when I have the time, for
I sometimes take up other work, but never to the confusion of one with
the other.
“You will ask me where I get my ideas. That I cannot tell you with
certainty; they come unsummoned, directly, indirectly,--I could seize
them with my hands,--out in the open air; in the woods; while walking;
in the silence of the nights; early in the morning; incited by moods,
which are translated by the poet into words, by me into tones that
sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.”
(Said to Louis Schlosser, a young musician, whom Beethoven honored with
his friendship in 1822-23.)
55. “On the whole, the carrying out of several voices in strict
relationship mutually hinders their progress.”
(Fall of 1812, in the Diary of 1812-18.)
56. “Few as are the claims which I make upon such things I shall still
accept the dedication of your beautiful work with pleasure. You ask,
however, that I also play the part of a critic, without thinking that
I must myself submit to criticism! With Voltaire I believe that ‘a few
fly-bites can not stop a spirited horse.’ In this respect I beg of you
to follow my example. In order not to approach you surreptitiously, but
openly as always, I say that in future works of the character you might
give more heed to the individualization of the voices.”
(Vienna, May 10, 1826. To whom the letter was sent is not known, though
from the manner of address it is plain that he was of the nobility.)
57. “Your variations show talent, but I must fault you for having
changed the theme. Why? What man loves must not be taken away from
him;--moreover to do this is to make changes before variations.”
(Baden, July 6, 1804, to Wiedebein, a teacher of music in Brunswick.)
58. “I am not in the habit of rewriting my compositions. I never did it
because I am profoundly convinced that every change of detail changes
the character of the whole.”
(February 19, 1813, to George Thomson, who had requested some changes in
compositions submitted to him for publication.)
59. “One must not hold one’s self so divine as to be unwilling
occasionally to make improvements in one’s creations.”
(March 4, 1809, to Breitkopf and Hartel, when indicating a few changes
which he wished to have made in the symphonies op. 67 and op. 68.)
60. “The unnatural rage for transcribing pianoforte pieces for string
instruments (instruments that are in every respect so different from
each other) ought to end. I stoutly maintain that only Mozart could have
transcribed his own works, and Haydn; and without putting myself on a
level with these great men I assert the same thing about my pianoforte
sonatas. Not only must entire passages be elided and changed, but
additions must be made; and right here lies the rock of offence to
overcome which one must be the master of himself or be possessed of
the same skill and inventiveness. I transcribed but a single sonata for
string quartet, and I am sure that no one will easily do it after me.”
(July 13, 1809, in an announcement of several compositions, among them
the quintet op. 29.)
61. “Were it not that my income brings in nothing, I should compose
nothing but grand symphonies, church music, or, at the outside, quartets
in addition.”
(December 20, 1822, to Peters, publisher, in Leipzig. His income had
been reduced from 4,000 to 800 florins by the depreciation of Austrian
currency.)
[Here, in the original, is one of the puns which Beethoven was fond of
making: “Ware mein Gehalt nicht ganzlich ohne Gehalt.” H. E. K.]