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. Count von Waldstein (to whom he afterwards dedicated his grand sonata, op. 53,) appointed 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 discomfiture of the singer Heller, who, boasting of his talent, told Beethoven that it was impossible for him, in playing a voluntary flourish, to put him out in a certain place. "Whereon, when he came to the passage, he (Beethoven) by an adroit modulation led the singer out of the prevailing mode into one having 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 gracious" 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 electoral band gave him a breakfast at Godesberg. Beethoven composes a cantata, presents 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 pianoforte performers seemed to lose intelligence in proportion as they gained dexterity of fingering. This is true also of other instrumentalists. 'What," asks one of his pupils, "can such bravura players make of Soon after he found a better instructor than the melodies of Beethoven, so simple, yet so his father in the person of M. Pfeiffer, a man profoundly imbued with sentiment?"" of talent, then musical director and oboist. our young ladies of the present day mark To this master Beethoven owed much; and, this well, and reflect that simplicity and feelin gratitude for his services, afterwards trans-ing in music will always win its way to favor 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. *Schindler's Life. Let --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 architecture 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 biographer. "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, procures 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 warning 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 blindly 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 Beethoven;' and to him, This is the youth of whom I spoke.' Beethoven gave me a friendly nod;" but he put no musical question to Moschelles, a fact which rather annoyed that young aspirant, quite forgetting the great master's deafness. 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 101. sterling; for the first symphony, the same; for the first concerto, ten ducats; for the grand B major sonata (op. 22) twenty ducats. 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 daysGluck, 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: 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. 1st July. The kitchen-maid arrived. Here let us leave her, running on for ever, for what we know; enough of this domestic confusion 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 From the effu* * I He did not 31st Jan., 1819. Given warning to the house- ever did possess. * * keeper. 15th Feb. The kitchen-maid came. 8th March. The kitchen-maid gave a fortnight's warning. et 22d. The new housekeeper came. 12th May. Arrived at Modlung. "Miser pauper sum (I am miserable and poor.) 14th May. The housemaid came. Wages six florins per month. 20th July. Given warning to the housekeeper. * sions of friendship I am cut off. tue to roun shildwan that Recovering from this illness, and being an | gives him no ardent republican, he composed his "Sin- in his face." fonia 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 at tachments 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! Out these attachments were strictly virtuous; He is quarter, and flings all his sins Bravo, Beethoven! "A composer," says he, "is a poet, too." 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 Samaritan "puts 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. 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 What time we pass now, we may be asof this! Spoiled as you have been, it would do you ured, was passed in hard work; genius is no injury to pay some attention to simver industrious, but our gossip does not in-plicity and truth. I have suffered so much from 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 unfor I can never trust you more. worthy relations. May God hear my prayer! father, alas! Yet, fortunately not your father." lude a full list of his works. Are they not published by Haslinger? are they not writen in the memory of Moschelles? In 1809, e is made Kapel-meister to the king of Vesphalia, with a salary of 600 ducats; he Vesphalia, with a salary of 600 ducats; he s visited by Germans, Poles, Russians, Danes, French, and particularly English, ho approached him with all the deference hey would pay to a sovereign. He falls in Ove again with one Bettina, who corresponds with Göthe, and he is introduced to the poet. He thinks something of himself; for meeting ogether with Göthe the imperial family, he ould not stand aside but presses his hat down, uttons his coat, and walks with folded arms rough the thickest of the throng. Princes nd pages form a line; the archduke takes This hat to him, and the empress makes e first salutation. Those gentry," he -ys triumphantly, "know me:" but Göthe stands aside, with his hat off, bending low-: and Beethoven rallies him smartly for it. | * * Your Again he writes-"I am growing thinner without any one to feel for me. and thinner, and am indeed very poorly, Have no all, have no secrets from me. secret dealings with my brother; once for Think of my sufferings: give me no uneasiness." Again: Come soon, come soon, come soon!" Again: "My dear son-no more of thiscome to my arms: you shall not hear one harsh word. For God's sake, do not ruin yourself! only come to the heart of fatheryour BEETHOVEN." But these cries of agony the in * On this occasion, the greatest musical geniuses assisted with glorious emulation, in inferior parts; 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 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 tion. March, 1827, after the holy sacrament for the dying had been administered at his own request, and received by him with true devoAbout 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. 66 * * Of his musical genius there can be but one opinion-he was a giant in music; hist "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 char acter. 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 higl 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-form ed, and his nose rather broad. When he laughed, his large head seemed to grow larger, his face broader, and he looked a such times like a "grinning ape." Fortu nately this was not often; his chin wa marked in the middle and on each side with a long furrow, which gave him a peculia expression. When composing, he dabble with his hands in water for hours, walking up and down the room for some time. I his person he was sufficiently neat, but no 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 opinio of himself. In his living he was very abste mious; coffee was his favorite breakfast |