morning, perhaps a languid breeze, scarcely a breath of air. But there
is already in the still air a secret menace, a dark foreboding. Large
shadows loom and pass; tragic rumblings; murmuring awesome silences;
the furious gusts of the winds of the _Eroica_ and the _C minor_.
However, the freshness of the day is not yet gone. Joy remains joy;
the brightness of the sky is not overcast; sadness is never without
a ray of hope. But after 1810 the poise of the soul is disturbed. A
strange light glows. Mists obscure his deepest thoughts; some of
the clearer thoughts appear as vapour rising; they disappear, are
dispelled, yet form anew; they obscure the heart with their melancholy
and capricious gloom; often the musical idea seems to vanish entirely,
to be submerged, but only to re-appear again at the end of a piece in
a veritable storm of melody. Even joy has assumed a rough and riotous
character. A bitter feeling becomes mingled in all his sentiments.[82]
Storms gather as evening comes on. Heavy clouds are big with tempests.
Lightning flashes o'er the black of night. The climax of the hurricane
is approaching. Suddenly, at the height of the tempest, the darkness
is dispersed. Night is driven away and the clear, tranquil atmosphere
is restored by a sheer act of will power. What a conquest was this!
What Napoleonic battle can be likened to it? What was Austerlitz glory
to the radiance of this superhuman effort, this victory, the most
brilliant that has ever been won by an infirm and lonely spirit. Sorrow
personified, to whom the world refused joy, created joy himself to give
to the world. He forged it from his own misery, as he proudly said in
reviewing his life. And indeed it was the motto of his whole heroic
soul:
JOY THROUGH SUFFERING
(To Countess Erdödy, October 19th, 1815).
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES:
[1] J. Russell (1822). Charles Czerny who, when a child, saw him in
1801 with a beard of several days' growth, hair bristling, wearing a
waistcoat and trousers of goats' wool, thought he had met Robinson
Crusoe.
[2] The painter Kloeber's remark, when he painted his portrait about
1818.
[3] Dr. W. C. Müller observed particularly "his fine eloquent eyes
sometimes so kind and tender, at other times so wild, threatening and
awe inspiring" (1820).
[4] Kloeber said "Ossian's." All these details are taken from notes of
Beethoven's friends, or from travellers who saw him, such as Czerny,
Moscheles, Kloeber, Daniel Amadeus Atterbohm, W. C. Müller, J. Russel,
Julius Benedict, Rochlitz, etc.
[5] His grandfather, Ludwig, the most remarkable man of the family and
whom Beethoven most resembled, was born at Antwerp, and only settled at
Bonn in his twentieth year when he became choir master to the Prince
Elector. We must not forget this fact to understand properly the
passionate independence of Beethoven's nature and so many other traits
which are not really German in his character.
[6] Letter to Dr. Schade at Augsburg, 15th September, 1787.
[7] Later on, in 1816, he said: "He is a poor man who does not know how
to die! I myself knew, when I was but fifteen."
[8] We quote from several of these letters in a later part of the book,
pages 65, _et seq._
[9] To Wegeler, 29th June, 1801.
[10] He had already made a short stay there, in the spring of 1787.
On that occasion he met Mozart who, however, took little notice of
him. Haydn, whose acquaintance he made at Bonn in December, 1790, gave
him some lessons. Beethoven also had for masters, Albrechtsberger and
Salieri. The first-named taught him Counterpoint and Fugue, the second
trained him in vocal writing.
[11] It can hardly be called his début, for his first Concert in Vienna
had taken place on 30th March, 1795.
[12] To Wegeler, 29th June, 1801 (Nohl 14). "None of my friends shall
want whilst I have anything," he wrote to Ries about 1801.
[13] In his Will and Testament of 1802, Beethoven says that his
deafness first appeared six years before--very likely in 1796. Let us
notice in passing that in the catalogue of his works, Opus one alone
(Three Trios) was written before 1796. Opus 2, the first three Piano
Sonatas appeared in March, 1796. It may, therefore, be said that the
whole of Beethoven's work is that of a deaf man.
See the article on Beethoven's deafness by Dr. Klotz Forest in the
"Medical Chronicle" of 15th May, 1905. The writer of the article
believes that the complaint had its origin in a general hereditary
affliction (perhaps in the phthisis of his mother). The deafness
increased without ever becoming total. Beethoven heard low sounds
better than high ones. In his last years it is said that he used a
wooden rod, one end of which was placed in the piano sound-box, the
other between his teeth. He used this means of hearing when he composed.
(On the same question see C. G. Cunn: _Wiener medizinische
Wochenschrift_, February-March, 1892; Nagel: _Die Musik_ (15th March,
1902); Theodor von Frimmel: _Der Merker_, July, 1912).
There are preserved in the Beethoven museum at Bonn the acoustical
instruments made for Beethoven, about 1814, by the mechanician Maelzel.
[14] I have translated these extracts from M. Rolland's text. Mr.
Shedlock's translation from the original German may be seen on pages 65
_et seq._--B.C.H.
[15] To Wegeler, 16 November, 1801.
[16] She was not afraid either of boasting of her old love for
Beethoven in preference to that for her husband. Beethoven helped
Gallenberg. "He was my enemy; that is the very reason why I should do
all possible for him," he told Schindler on one of his conversation
note-books in 1821. But he scorned to take advantage of the position.
"Having arrived in Vienna," he wrote in French, "she sought me out and
came weeping to me, but I rejected her."
[17] 6th October, 1802 (see page 57).
[18] "Bring up your children to be virtuous. That alone can make them
happy; money will not. I speak from experience. It is that which
sustained me in my misery. Virtue and Art alone have saved me from
taking my own life." And in another letter, 2nd May, 1810, to Wegeler:
"If I had not read somewhere that a man ought not to take his own life
so long as he can still do a kind action, I should long ago have ended
my existence, and doubtless by my own hand."
[19] To Wegeler.
[20] Hornemann's miniature, of 1802, represents Beethoven dressed in
the fashion of the day with side whiskers, long hair, the tragic air of
one of Byron's heroes, but with the firm Napoleonic look which never
gives way.
[21] It is a fact that the Eroica Symphony was written for and around
Bonaparte, and the first MS. still bears the title, "Bonaparte."
Afterwards Beethoven learnt of the Coronation of Napoleon. Breaking
out into a fury, he cried: "He is only an ordinary man"; and in his
indignation he tore off the dedication and wrote the avenging and
touching title: _Sinfonia Eroica composta per festeggiare il souvenire
di un grand Uomo_. (Heroic Symphony composed to celebrate the memory of
a great man). Schindler relates that later on his scorn for Napoleon
became more subdued; he saw in him rather the unfortunate victim
of circumstances worthy of pity, an Icarus flung down from Heaven.
When he heard of the St. Helena catastrophe in 1821, he remarked: "I
composed the music suitable for this sad event some seventeen years
ago." It pleased him to recognise in the Funeral March of his Symphony
a presentiment of the conqueror's tragic end. There was then probably
in the _Eroica Symphony_ and especially in the first movement, a kind
of portrait of Bonaparte in Beethoven's mind, doubtless very different
from the real man, and rather what he imagined him to be or would have
liked him to be--the genius of the Revolution. Beethoven, in the Finale
of the Eroica Symphony, used again one of the chief phrases of the work
he had already written on the revolutionary hero par excellence, the
god of liberty, Prometheus, 1801.
[22] Robert de Keudell, German Ambassador in Rome: _Bismarck and his
family_, 1901. Robert de Keudell played this Sonata to Bismarck on
an indifferent piano on 30th October, 1870, at Versailles. Bismarck
remarked regarding the latter part of the work: "The sighs and
struggles of a whole life are in this music." He preferred Beethoven
to all other composers, and more than once affirmed "Beethoven's music
more than any other soothes my nerves."
[23] Beethoven's house was situated near those fortifications of
Vienna which Napoleon had blown up after the taking of the city.
"What an awful life, with ruins all around me," wrote Beethoven to
the publishers, Breitkopf & Härtel, on 26th June, 1809, "nothing but
drums, trumpets, and misery of every kind." A portrait of Beethoven at
this time has been left to us by a Frenchman who saw him in Vienna in
1809, Baron Trémont, of the Council of State. It gives a picturesque
description of the disorder in Beethoven's room. They talked together
of philosophy, religion, politics, and "especially of Shakespeare."
Beethoven was very much inclined to follow Trémont to Paris, where he
knew they had already performed his Symphonies at the Conservatoire,
and there he had many enthusiastic admirers. (See _Mercure Musical_, 1
May, 1906, _Une visite à Beethoven_, by Baron Trémont, published by J.
Chantavoine).
[24] Or to be more exact, Theresa Brunsvik. Beethoven had met the
Brunsviks at Vienna between 1796 and 1799. Giulietta Guicciardi was the
cousin of Theresa. Beethoven seems also to have been attracted at one
period by one of Theresa's sisters, Josephine, who first married Count
Deym, and later on, the Baron Stackelberg. Some very striking details
on the Brunsvik family are found in an article by M. André de Hevesy.
_Beethoven et l'Immortelle Bien-aimée_ (_Revue de Paris_, March 1 and
15, 1910). For this study M. de Hevesy has made use of the MS. Memoires
and the papers of Theresa, which were preserved at Martonvasar in
Hungary. They all show an affectionate intimacy between Beethoven and
the Brunsviks, and raise again the question of his love for Theresa.
But the arguments are not convincing, and I leave them to be discussed
at some future time.
[25] Marian Tanger: _Beethovens unsterbliche Geliebte_ (Beethoven's
undying Love), Bonn, 1890.
[26] _Wilst du dein Herz mir schenken_ (_Aria di Govannini_), Edition
Peters, 2071. This beautiful air appears in the album which Bach wrote
for his wife, Anna Magdalena.
[27] Nohl: _Life of Beethoven_.
[28] Beethoven was really short-sighted. Ignaz von Seyfried says that
this was caused by smallpox, and that he was obliged to wear spectacles
when quite young. This short-sightedness would probably exaggerate
the wild expression of his eyes. His letters between 1823-4 contain
frequent complaints on the subject of his eyes which were often
painful. See the articles by Christian Kalischer on this subject,
_Beethovens Augens und Augenleiden_ (_Die Musik_, 15th March--1st
April, 1902).
[29] The music for Goethe's play _Egmont_ was commenced in 1809.
Beethoven had also wished to write the music to William Tell, but
Gyrovetz was chosen before him.
[30] Conversation with Schindler.
[31] But written (so it seems) from Korompa at the Brunswick's house.
[32] This portrait can still be seen in Beethoven's house at Bonn. It
is reproduced in Frimmel's _Life of Beethoven_, page 29, and in the
"Musical Times," 15th December, 1892.
[33] To Gleichenstein.
[34] "The heart is the mainspring of all that is great" (to Giannatasio
del Rio).
[35] "Goethe's poems give me great happiness," he wrote to Bettina
Brentano on 19th February, 1811. And also "Goethe and Schiller are my
favourite poets, together with Ossian and Homer, whom, unfortunately,
I can only read in translations." To Breitkopf & Härtel, 8th August,
1809, Nohl, _New Letters_, LIII.
It is remarkable that Beethoven's taste in literature was so sound in
view of his neglected education. In addition to Goethe, who he said
was "grand, majestic, always in D major" (and more than Goethe) he
loved three men, Homer, Plutarch and Shakespeare. Of Homer's works he
preferred the _Odyssey_ to the _Iliad_; he was continually reading
Shakespeare (from a German translation) and we know with what tragic
grandeur he has set _Coriolanus_ and the _Tempest_ in music. He read
Plutarch continually, as did all who were in favour of the revolution.
Brutus was his hero, as was also the case with Michael Angelo; he had
a small statue of him in his bedroom. He loved Plato, and dreamed of
establishing his republic in the whole world. "Socrates and Jesus have
been my models," he wrote once on his note-books (_Conversations during
1819 and 1820_).
[36] To Bettina von Arnim. The authenticity of Beethoven's letters to
Bettina, doubted by Schindler, Marx and Deiters, has been supported by
Moritz Carriere, Nohl and Kalischer. Bettina has perhaps embellished
them a little, but the foundation remains reliable.
[37] "Beethoven," said Goethe to Zelter, "is, unfortunately, possessed
of a wild and uncouth disposition; doubtless, he is not wrong in
finding the world detestable, but that is not the way to make it
pleasant for himself or for others. We must excuse and pity him for
he is deaf." After that he did nothing against Beethoven nor did he
do anything for him, but he ignored him completely. At the bottom,
however, he admired Beethoven's music and feared it also. He was afraid
it would cause him to lose that mental calm which he had gained through
so much trouble. A letter of young Felix Mendelssohn, who passed
through Weimar in 1830, gives us a very interesting glimpse into the
depths of that storm-tossed passionate soul, controlled as it was by
a masterly and powerful intellect.... "At first," writes Mendelssohn,
"he did not want to hear Beethoven's name mentioned, but after a time
he was persuaded to listen to the First Movement of the Symphony in C
minor, which moved him deeply. He would not show anything outwardly,
but merely remarked to me, 'that does not touch me, it only surprises
me.' After a time he said 'It is really grand, it is maddening, you
would think the house was crumbling to pieces.' Afterwards, at dinner,
he sat pensive and absorbed until he began to question me about
Beethoven's music. I saw quite clearly that a deep impression had been
made on him...." (For information on the relations between Goethe and
Beethoven, see various articles by Frimmel).
[38] Letter from Goethe to Zelter, 2nd September, 1812.... Zelter to
Goethe, 14th September, 1812: "_Auch ich bewundere ihn mit Schrecken_"
("I, too, regard him with mingled admiration and dread"). Zelter writes
to Goethe in 1819, "They say he is mad."
[39] At any rate, this was a subject which Beethoven had in his mind;
for we find it in his notes, especially those for the proposed Tenth
Symphony.
[40] There was a very tender intimacy between Amalie Sebald and him
about this time, and it is possible that this may have supplied the
inspiration.
[41] Differing from him in this, Schubert had written in 1807 a _pièce
d'occasion_, in honour of Napoleon the Great, and conducted the
performance himself before the Emperor.
[42] "I say nothing of our monarchs and their kingdoms," he wrote to
Kauka during the Congress. "To my mind, the empire of the spirit is
the dearest of all. It is the first of all kingdoms, temporal and
spiritual."
[43] Vienna, is that not to say everything? All trace of German
Protestantism eradicated, even the national accent lost,
Italianised.... German spirit, German habits and ways explained from
textbooks of Italian and Spanish origin.... The country of debased
history, falsified science, falsified religion.... A frivolous
scepticism calculated to undermine all love of truth, honour, and
independence! (Wagner, _Beethoven_, 1870).
Grillparzer has written that it was a misfortune to be born an
Austrian. The great German composers of the end of the 19th Century
who have lived in Vienna, have suffered cruelly from the spirit of
this town, delivered up to the Pharisaical cult of Brahms. The life
of Bruckner was one long martyrdom. Hugo Wolf, who battled furiously
before giving in, has uttered implacable judgments on Vienna.
[44] King Jerome had offered Beethoven an annuity of six hundred ducats
of gold and 150 silver ducats for travelling expenses, for playing to
him occasionally and for managing his chamber-music concerts, which
were not long or very frequent. Beethoven was eager to go.
[45] Rossini's _Tancredi_ sufficed to shake the whole German musical
edifice. Bauernfold (quoted by Ehrhard) notes in his _Journal_ this
criticism which circulated in the Viennese salons in 1816: "Mozart
and Beethoven are old pedants; the stupidity of the preceding period
amused them: it is only since Rossini that one has really known melody.
_Fidelio_ is quite devoid of music; one cannot understand why people
take the trouble to weary themselves with it." Beethoven gave his last
concert as pianist in 1814.
[46] The same year Beethoven lost his brother Karl. "He clung to life
so, that I would willingly have given mine," he wrote to Antonia
Brentano.
[47] Except for his intimate friendship with Countess Maria von Erdödy,
a constant sufferer like himself, afflicted with an incurable malady.
She lost her only son suddenly in 1816. Beethoven dedicated to her in
1809 his two Trios Op. 70; and in 1815-17, his two great Sonatas for
Violoncello Op. 102.
[48] Besides his deafness, his health grew worse from day to day.
During October, 1816, he was very ill. In the summer of 1817 his doctor
said he had a chest complaint. During the winter, 1817-18, he was
tormented with his so-called phthisis. Then he had acute rheumatism in
1820-21, jaundice in 1821, and several maladies in 1823.
[49] A change of style in his music, beginning with the Sonata Op: 101,
dates from this time.
[50] Beethoven's conversation-books form more than 11,000 manuscript
pages, and can be found bound to-day in the Imperial Library at Berlin.
[51] Schindler, who had been intimate with Beethoven since 1819,
had known him slightly since 1814; but Beethoven had found it very
difficult to be friendly; he treated him at first with disdainful
haughtiness.
[52] See the admirable notes of Wagner on Beethoven's deafness
(_Beethoven_, 1870).
[53] He loved animals and pitied them. The mother of the historian, von
Frimmel, says that for a long while she had an involuntary dislike for
Beethoven, because when she was a little girl he drove away with his
handkerchief all the butterflies that she wanted to catch.
[54] He was always uncomfortable in his lodgings. In thirty-five years
in Vienna, he changed his rooms thirty times.
[55] Beethoven had written personally to Cherubini, who was "of all his
contemporaries the one whom he most esteemed." Cherubini did not reply.
[56] "I never avenge myself," he wrote besides to Madame Streicher.
"When I am obliged to act against others, I only do what is necessary
to defend myself or to prevent them from doing one harm."
[57] A letter which has been found in Berlin to M. Kalischer, shews
with what deep feeling Beethoven wished to make his nephew "a citizen
useful to the state" (February 1st, 1819).
[58] Schindler, who saw him then, says that he suddenly became an old
man of seventy, utterly crushed and broken of will. He would have died
had Carl died. He died soon afterwards.
[59] The dilettantism of our time has not failed to seek to reinstate
this scoundrel. This is not surprising.
[60] Letter from Fischenich to Charlotte Schiller (January, 1793).
Schiller's Ode was written in 1785. The actual theme appeared in 1808
in the _Fantasy for piano, orchestra and Choir, Op. 80_, and in 1810
in the Song on Goethe's words: _Kleine Blumen, Kleine Blaetter_. I
have seen in a notebook of 1812 belonging to Dr. Erich Prieger at
Bonn, between the sketches of the _Seventh Symphony_ and a plan for
an _Overture to Macbeth_, an attempt to adopt some words of Schiller
to the theme which he used later on in the _Overture Op. 115_
(_Namensfeier_). Several instrumental motives of the _Ninth Symphony_
appeared before 1815. Thus the definite theme of Joy was put down in
notes in 1822; also all the other airs of the _Symphony_, except the
Trio, which came a little after, then the _andante moderato_, and
later the _adagio_, which appeared last of all. For references to
Schiller's poem and the false interpretation which is given now-a-days
by substituting for the word _Joy_ the word _Liberty_, see an article
by Charles Andler in _Pages Libres_ (July 8, 1905).
[61] Berlin Library.
[62] Just as if there were words below.
[63] The _Mass in D_, Op: 123.
[64] Harassed by domestic quarrels, misery, cares of all kinds,
Beethoven only wrote during the five years from 1816 to 1821, three
pieces for the piano (Op: 101, 102, and 106). His enemies said he was
exhausted. He began to work again in 1821.
[65] February, 1824. Signed Prince C. Lichnowski, Count Maurice
Lichnovsky, Count Maurice de Fries, Count M. de Dietrichstein, Count
F. de Palfy, Count Czernin, Ignace Edler de Mosel, Charles Czerny,
Abbé Stadler, A. Diabelli, Artari & Co., Steiner & Co., A. Streicher,
Zmeskall, Kiesewetter, etc.
[66] "My moral character is publicly recognised," Beethoven proudly
said to the Vienna Municipality, on February 1st, 1819, to vindicate
his right to the guardianship of his nephew. Even distinguished writers
like Weisenbach have considered him worthy of the dedication of their
works.
[67] In August, 1824, he was haunted with the fear of sudden death
"like my grandfather to whom I bear so much resemblance," he wrote on
August 16th, 1824, to Dr. Bach.
[68] The Ninth Symphony was given for the first time in Germany at
Frankfurt on April 1st, 1825; in London on March 25th, 1825; in Paris
at the Conservatoire on March 27th, 1831. Mendelssohn, then aged
seventeen, gave a performance of it on the piano at the Jaegerhalle in
Berlin on November 14th, 1826. Wagner, a student at Leipzig, re-copied
it entirely by hand; and in a letter, dated October 6th, 1830, to
the publisher, Schott, offered him a reduction of the Symphony for
pianoforte duet. One can say that the Ninth Symphony decided Wagner's
career.
[69] "Apollo and his Muses would not wish to deliver me up to death
yet, for I still owe them so much. Before I go to the Champs-Elysées I
must leave behind me what the spirit inspires and tells me to finish.
It seems to me that I have scarcely written anything." (To the brothers
Schott, Sept. 17th, 1829.)
[70] Beethoven wrote to Moscheles on March 18th, 1827: "The complete
sketch of a Symphony is in my desk with a new overture." This sketch
has never been found. One only reads in his notes:
"Adagio cantique." Religious song for a symphony in the old modes
(_Herr Gott dich loben wir.--Alleluja_), may be in an independent
style, may be as introduction to a fugue. This Symphony might be
characterised by the entrance of voices, perhaps in the _finale_,
perhaps in the _adagio_. The violins in the orchestra, etc., increased
ten times for the last movements. The voices to enter one by one; or to
repeat the _adagio_ somehow in the last movements. For words for the
_adagio_, a Greek myth or an ecclesiastical canticle, in the _allegro_,
Bacchus' Feast (1818). As has been seen the choral conclusion was
intended to be reserved for a _Tenth Symphony_ and not for the _Ninth
Symphony_.
Later he said that he wished to accomplish in his _Tenth Symphony_ "the
reconciliation of the modern world with the ancient, which Goethe had
attempted in his _Second Faust_."
[71] The subject is the legend of a horseman who is loved and captured
by a fairy, and who suffers from nostalgia and lack of liberty.
There are analogies between this poem and that of _Tannhäuser_.
Beethoven worked at it between 1823 and 1826. (See A. Ehrhard _Franz
Grillparzer_, 1900).
[72] Since 1808 Beethoven had made plans for writing the music to
_Faust_. (The first part of _Faust_ appeared under the title of
_Tragedy_ in the autumn of 1807). It was then his dearest plan.