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From the People's Journal.

A GOSSIP ABOUT BEETHOVEN.

ance. In the year 1785, when but fifteen

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN was born on the | mitted money to him, when in need of assist17th of December, 1770, at Bonn. His father, Johann van Beethoven, was tenor sing-years of age, he was, by the intercession of er in the electoral chapel, and died when our Ludwig had reached his 22d year; his mother boasted the name of Keverich, and died some time before his father. To this mother he was fondly attached (another instance in favor of the theory of geniuses having always good mothers,) and he spoke of her with fervent gratitude and filial affection, as having "so much patience with his obstinacy." There is also a report current, which is entirely unfounded, of his being a natural son of William Frederick II., King of Prussia; but this report, repeated in seven editions of the "Conversations Lexicon," was refuted by Dr. Wegeler, at the composer's own request, by the publication of his baptismal register, and by other means.

Beethoven's education was of the usual sort--neither very good nor very neglected. A little Latin he picked up at a public school. His music, a great thing with the Germans, he was instructed in by his father, and kept at it rather too closely for himself, being but a stubborn irregular boy at that time. He had a great dislike to sitting still, as most boys have so that it was continually necessary to drive him in good earnest to the pianoforte.* Some one of a myth-creating faculty here tells a story of a spider coming down and alighting on his violin, which (the spider, not the fiddle) his mother one day destroyed; whereon Ludwig dashed his violin to pieces. This reminds us of the bees swarming around Pindar's mouth, and is about as probable a story. The great Ludwig always laughed at it, when he saw it so frequently related by some musical quidnunc in the German papers.

Soon after he found a better instructor than his father in the person of M. Pfeiffer, a man of talent, then musical director and oboist. To this master Beethoven owed much; and, in gratitude for his services, afterwards trans

*Schindler's Life.

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Count von Waldstein (to whom he afterwards
dedicated his grand sonata, op. 53,) appoint-
ed organist to the electoral chapel, by the
elector, Max Franz, brother of the emperor
Joseph II., a circumstance which shows that
his talent at this early age was appreciated.
Here one particularly fond of such gossip
might listen to the story told of his discom-
fiture of the singer Hêller, who, boasting of
his talent, told Beethoven that it was impos-
sible for him, in playing a voluntary flourish,
to put him out in a certain place.
"Where-
on, when he came to the passage, he (Bee-
thoven) by an adroit modulation led the sing-
er out of the prevailing mode into one hav-
ing no affinity to it-still, however, adhering
to the tone of the former key; so that the
singer, unable to find his way in this strange
region, was brought to a stand still." The
elector for this trick gave him "a most gra-
cious" reprimand, and bade him not play
any more "such clever tricks ;" truly with
reason, it not being exactly the thing, whilst
performing Divine service. About this time
comes Haydn from England; and the elec-
toral band gave him a breakfast at Godes-
berg. Beethoven composes a cantata, pre-
sents it to Haydn, who thereon praises him,
and tells him to persevere; but what with
roulades, and bravuras, and the Italian style.
of ornamentation prevailing so much, this
cantata was too difficult. Beethoven has
truly remarked, "that a certain class of pi-
anoforte performers seemed to lose intelli-
gence in proportion as they gained dexterity
of fingering. This is true also of other in-
strumentalists. "What," asks one of his
pupils, "can such bravura players make of
the melodies of Beethoven, so simple, yet so
profoundly imbued with sentiment?" Let
our young ladies of the present day mark
this well, and reflect that simplicity and feel-
ing in music will always win its way to favor
-like a poem full of nature, such as Burns
wrote, or an Ionic column, full of grace and

strength and is besides the very acme of
art; while a fantasia brillante, plastered
with ornamentation, resembles too much the
gaudy painting on a tea-board, or the archi-
tecture of a Chinese temple. Some little
time after this, Beethoven met M. Steikel, a
pianoforte player of some celebrity, who
spurred on our composer to fresh exertions,
and also reformed his style of playing, which
at that time was heavy, in consequence of
playing so much on the organ. His name
began to get abroad, and it is about this
time, or somewhat later, the first interview
took place between himself and an ardent
admirer, who was subsequently his biogra-
pher. "I learnt," says this gentleman,
"that a young composer had appeared at
Vienna, who wrote the oddest stuff possible
such as no one could play or understand;
crazy music, in opposition to all rule; and that
this composer's name was BEETHOVEN." Our
author, however, to judge for himself, pro-
cures Beethoven's Sonate Pathetic, and is
attracted and raised to the highest degree of
enthusiasm by it; mentioning it, however, to
his master, he is warned not to play or study
any "eccentric productions;" but the warn-
ing is vain, for Moschelles-it is none other
than he procures Beethoven's pianoforte
works, as they successively appear, and in
them finds "a solace and delight such as no
other composer afforded." The master who
warns him is Weber. Some few years pass,
and Moschelles first sees him whom he blind-
ly worships: "I chanced to be one morning
in the music-shop of Domenico Artaria, who
had just published something of mine, when
a man entered with short and hasty steps,
and, gliding through the circle of ladies and
professors assembled on business or talking
over musical matters, without looking up-
as though he wished to pass unnoticed
made his way direct for Artaria's private
office at the bottom of the shop. Presently
Artaria called me in and said, This is Bee-
thoven; and to him, This is the youth of
whom I spoke.' Beethoven gave me a
friendly nod;" but he put no musical ques-
tion to Moschelles, a fact which rather an-
noyed that young aspirant, quite forgetting
the great master's deafness.

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His superior talents gained him hosts of admirers, who were, as to poet or to painter, by their flattery and absorption of his time, detrimental to his higher cultivation. Let no young genius complain of being solitary; the babbling crowd destroy talent, not create it: who ever heard of a drawing-room lion producing anything intensely original and

great? Mozart about this time, (1787) first hears him, and predicts that he will some day "make a noise in the world." And some time after, going to Vienna, our hero meets old Van Swieten, formerly physician in ordinary to the Empress Maria Theresa, at whose house he has musical treats of compositions by Handel, Sebastian Bach, and the great masters of Italy up to Palestrina, performed with a full band. The old physician was so fond of these treats-and they were really exquisite-that he kept Beethoven often till late at night, and then made him play half a dozen fugues by Bach, "by way of a blesssing." In one of his notes to him, he tells him to come by "half past eight in the evening, with his night-cap in his pocket." What teaching our composer had, he did not much like; it bored him; nor did he, to say the truth, pay much attention to his pupils; and he always went to his tasks, as he himself says, "like an ill-tempered donkey." At Vienna he meets with his patrons, the princely family of Lichnowsky, who became so attached to him as to treat him with "grandmotherly fondness; which was carried to such an extent that very often the princess was on the point of having a glass shade put over me, so that no unworthy person might touch or breathe upon me."* This fondness had an injurious effect; his eccentricities became in consequence more marked and stronger, and, spurning the etiquette of high life, broke through all barriers. But he has noble qualities, this rough man! He was no money-lover: to bow to mammon and his worshippers was, in his opinion, downright blasphemy-the deepest degradation of a man endowed with genius; to respect a rich man, he must know him to be good, humane, and benevolent. Neither does he defend his works from criticism; so that it touch not his honor, he is ready enough to profit by the remarks made. He now takes lessons of Haydn; but finding that great man too like himself, careless toward his pupils, he breaks off with him, and gives his compositions to a first-rate musician, M. Schenk, to correct for him; and besides this he finds time to fall in love-as who does not ?-amor vincit omnia (love conquers all things,) ay, and men too. In fact, Beethoven was most deeply smitten, and, unfortunately for the world, he had no settled love, no one object whom he could marry and call his own for life—no one to say to him, as Wolfgang's wife did, "sit down and work," and spur him on to greater and

*Beethoven's Letters.

more systematic endeavors; and at this time he had more commissions than he could execute, and at a good rate of payment: for the septett (1801) twenty ducats-about 107. sterling; for the first symphony, the same; for the first concerto, ten ducats; for the grand B major sonata (op. 22) twenty ducats.

in his life, and we have done with what might well be placed in an edition of the "Calamities of Authors :

17th April, 1820. The kitchen-maid came. A bad day. [This means that he had nothing to eat, the victuals being spoiled by long waiting.] 10th May. Given warning to the kitchenmaid.

19th. The kitchen-maid left.
30th. The woman came.

1st July. The kitchen-maid arrived.
28th. At night, the kitchen-maid ran away.

Here let us leave her, running on for ever, for

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At Prince Lichnowsky's most of his quartetts are played; and so much care does the composer take with the players, that he binds them "each to do his utmost to distinguish himself, and to surpass the rest.' He makes at this time a musical tour to enjoy the works of the giants of those days-what we know; enough of this domestic confuGluck, Sebastian Bach, Mozart, Haydn, Salieri, &c. which afforded the highest gratification, with bands of one hundred and fifty, or at most two hundred performers; whereas in our times from six to eight hundred, nay, even a thousand, are required by people to enjoy the din which this legion produces, while little attention is paid to the main point; but this excess will soon, it is to be hoped, defeat itself.

We now come to a second period of Beethoven's life. His hearing, as we before hinted, is lost-entirely lost; we are not told in any of his biographies in what manner, but as far as we can gather it was by a gradual cessation, a thickening of the drum of the ear, and drying up of the auditory nerves-this we shall hereafter speak of; but from whatever cause, it made him miserable, and he constantly reverts to it in his letters. Other "evil principles," as he calls them, are his brothers, Carl and Johann, who constantly beset him for money and help; besides this, poor fellow, he is but a bad hand at housekeeping, and irritable enough. It is astonishing, or rather not astonishing but remarkable, how much little annoyances worry and torment great geniuses. Here is an extract from his journal, which proves our assertion as regards housekeeping:

31st Jan., 1819. Given warning to the housekeeper.

15th Feb. The kitchen-maid came.

sion and incessant vexation. Oh, ye German ladies, what bad days" have ye to answer for! Why did not some of you marry the musical genius? But then we are told that his attachments were always among the higher classes; and of a verity, German nobility stick to their rank.

In 1803, he produced his "Christ on the Mount of Olives;" in 1805, his "Fidelio;" these works were composed in "the thickest part of the wood in the Park of Schönbrunn, seated between two stems of an oak which shot out from the main trunk, at the height of about two feet from the ground;" and at this period it was that his brother Carl (his real name was Caspar) began to govern him, and trouble him with his officious temper, the great composer being utterly destitute of worldly experience, and tossed like a ball from hand to hand. Being attacked with illness, he writes his will, bequeathing all to these brothers, and reproaching them at the same time; in this, he speaks of his defective hearing with a natural but yet morbid feeling: "Oh, how cruelly was I driven back by the doubly paid experience of my defective hearing! And yet, it was not possible for me to say to people-Speak louderbawl-for I am deaf!' How could I speak of the defect of a sense which I once possessed in the highest perfection, in a perfection which few of my colleagues possess, or ever did possess. From the effu

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sions of friendship I am cut off. * * * I am obliged to live as an exile." He did not

8th March. The kitchen-maid gave a fort- bear his loss patiently-we are sorry to connight's warning.

"Miser et

22d. The new housekeeper came. 12th May. Arrived at Modlung. pauper sum (I am miserable and poor.) 14th May. The housemaid came. Wages six florins per month.

20th July. Given warning to the housekeeper.

A little more of this in another year, to show that it was a rule and not an exception

fess, from a want of trust in God; nor did he consider that the loss might be consequent, as in all probability it was, on the very perfection of which he boasts. Again he speaks more calmly: "Recommend virtue to your children, that alone, not wealth, can give you happiness. Owing to this, and to my art, I did not terminate my life by suicide."

Recovering from this illness, and being an | gives him no ardent republican, he composed his "Sinfonia Eroica" in honor of Napoleon, who, he thought, would establish a republic, based on the Platonic, all over Europe. The original idea of this symphony was suggested by. General Bernadotte, afterward king of Sweden, but then French ambassador to Vienna. A fair copy of it being made, it was intended to be presented to Bonaparte, when news arrived of his having caused himself to be proclaimed Emperor of the French; at hearing of this, Beethoven tore off the title leaf, and flung the work on the floor, with a torrent of exclamations against the " new tyrant."

He was very often in love; but these attachments were of very brief duration. One day, when rallying him on the conquest of a fair lady, he confessed that this one had enthralled him longer and more powerfully than any; that is to say, full seven months.* Truly he might sing with Rochester

Fie upon it, I have loved

Full three days together!
And am like to love three more,

If it prove fair weather;

but these attachments were strictly virtuous; and though very sentimental, as German loves should be, never once outstepped the bounds of propriety.

What time we pass now, we may be assured, was passed in hard work; genius is ever industrious, but our gossip does not include a full list of his works. Are they not published by Haslinger? are they not written in the memory of Moschelles? In 1809, he is made Kapel-meister to the king of Wesphalia, with a salary of 600 ducats; he is visited by Germans, Poles, Russians, Danes, French, and particularly English, who approached him with all the deference they would pay to a sovereign. He falls in love again with one Bettina, who corresponds with Göthe, and he is introduced to the poet. He thinks something of himself; for meeting together with Göthe the imperial family, he would not stand aside but presses his hat down, buttons his coat, and walks with folded arms

through the thickest of the throng. Princes and pages form a line; the archduke takes off his hat to him, and the empress makes the first salutation. "Those gentry," he says triumphantly, "know me:" but Göthe "stands aside, with his hat off, bending lowly; and Beethoven rallies him smartly for it,

*M. Ries' Notizen, p. 77.

quarter, and flings all his sins in his face." Bravo, Beethoven! "A composer," says he, "is a poet, too." He is again poor, and most whimsical in his abodes, and changes from place to place like a courier; so well known is he through Vienna on this account, that few will take the troublesome lodger, and he has generally three or four places to pay for at once. His price for composing increases from year to year, but his expenses also. He is in 1813 found by Madame Streicher in a deplorable condition, as regards his wardrobe-not a decent coat or whole shirt; but this female Samariputs him to rights"-bless her for it! --and, assisted by her husband, persuades him to take a tailor and his wife for servants; who are real good ones, and our composer is composed; and here, with several compositions, "Der Gloreiche Augenblick, (the Glorious Moment), and several others, closes this period--his golden age.

tan "

after

Next comes his " Battle of Vittoria," played for the benefit of wounded soldiers, and the allied sovereigns being at Vienna, honor him. Soon after, his patron, Prince Carl Von Lichnowsky, dies; and in 1815 Beethoven's brother Carl expires, leaving him yet a ward turns out wild, racketty, and loose, and burden in the shape of a nephew, who aftertroubles his kind uncle, so as to make him, in years, write in agony, thus-" Enough of this! Spoiled as you have been, it would you no injury to pay some attention to simplicity and truth. I have suffered so much your artifices, that it will be a hard matter for me ever to forget them. * God knows, all I wish is to be freed from you, from this base brother, and these unworthy relations. May God hear my prayer! for I can never trust you more. Your father, alas! Yet, fortunately not your father."

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*

Again he writes-"I am growing thinner without any one to feel for me. and thinner, and am indeed very poorly, Have no secret dealings with my brother; once for all, have no secrets from me. Think of my sufferings: give me no uneasiness." Again:

46

Come soon, come soon, come soon!" Again: "My dear son-no more of thisharsh word. For God's sake, do not ruin yourcome to my arms: you shall not hear one self! only come to the heart of your BEETHOVEN." But these cries of agony the in

father

* On this occasion, the greatest musical geniuses assisted with glorious emulation, in inferior parts; Hummel in the cannonade; Moschelles played the cymbals; Meyerbeer the great drum.

fatuated young man heard not. The brother alluded to was Johann; who, having been set up by his brother as an apothecary, amassed a large fortune, and purchased some land. One day his brother coming to Vienna, sent up his card to his brother thus"Johann Beethoven, landowner." Ludwig, not behind in pride, took it and wrote on the back of it-"Ludwig Beethoven, brainowner." But, to go on: he wished to publish his Mass, and for that reason wrote to the various monarchs to solicit their subscription. Four of them only subscribed about some fifty ducats, being the price; and Göthe, then minister of the Grand Duke of Weimar, to whom he wrote, did not even answer his letter; so also was the king of Sweden silent. Louis XVIII., however, sent him a gold medal, with the inscription

"Donné par le roi à Monsieur Beethoven."

The English, always his friends and admirers, wished now very much for him in England; and for this reason the Philharmonic Society offered him 300 guineas, which should be guarantied to him should he superintend the performance of his own works, and write a new symphony and a concerto, to be there performed, but afterward be his own property. £500 sterling was guarantied to him for a concert which he should give in London; but certain rumors about his nephew made him give up the journey and the profit. Besides, a certain Russian prince got the great composer in his clutches, inducing him to write one or two quartettes, and to dedicate them to him, for which he never got paid. In December, 1827, an operation was found necessary on account of the dropsy, with which he was attacked. Another followed on the 8th of January; a third on the 28th of the same month, and the fourth on the 27th of February. Dr. Malfati, who prescribed for him, gave him iced punch as the only specific; which restored him to such i a degree that he thought he was perfectly well, but after the fourth operation even iced punch failed, and he declined rapidly. His finances were beginning to fail him, and to remedy this he now made application to the Philharmonic; no arrangement was, however, come to. His brother Johann, who kept his carriage, tried to draw upon him, and yet refused to let him have any hay (a hay bath having been prescribed for his complaint), saying that his was not good enough. Symptoms of a speedy termination to Beethoven's sufferings appeared early on the 24th of

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March, 1827, after the holy sacrament for the dying had been administered at his own request, and received by him with true devotion. About one, the same day, a terrible struggle between life and death began, and continued without intermission till the 26th; when, at a quarter before six in the evening, the great composer breathed his last, during a tremendous hail-storm, at the age of fiftysix years three months and nine days.

* *

Of his musical genius there can be but one opinion-he was a giant in music; his "gnome-like pleasantries," and "stormy masses" of sound carry conviction with them. "Under him," says one critic," the art attained its climax. "Beethoven," says Magelli, "appeared a hero in the art; and where shall the historian find words to depict the regeneration he produced, when the poet himself must here feel a loss? * To Beethoven, the hero, do we owe its regeneration (the art of music) now and for ever." Instinctively original, keenly searching for novelty, sternly opposing antiquated forms, he freely explored the new world he had created not only for himself, but for all his brothers in the art. But who is not, partially at least, acquainted with his beauties? Pass we to his portrait and his character. His height scarcely exceeded five feet four inches; his figure was strong and muscular, his head unusually large, covered with long, bushy grey hair, which was always in a state of disorder; his forehead was high and expanded, his eyes small and brown; and when he laughed, nearly buried in his head, but unusually large and distended when composing; his mouth was well-formed, and his nose rather broad. When he laughed, his large head seemed to grow larger, his face broader, and he looked at such times like a "grinning ape." Fortunately this was not often; his chin was marked in the middle and on each side with a long furrow, which gave him a peculiar expression. When composing, he dabbled with his hands in water for hours, walking up and down the room for some time. In his person he was sufficiently neat, but not too scrupulous; and in his manner blunt and sometimes uncourteous to young beginners; in his politics he was republican, or, rather, ideally so; and he indulged in a high opinion of himself. In his living he was very abstemious; coffee was his favorite breakfastsixty beans to each cup; he was fond of fish; he did not care much for supper, and went to bed by ten o'clock every night. He never wrote in the afternoon, and seldom in the

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