Beethoven, the Man and the Artist Part 3

33. "I always have a picture in my mind when composing, and follow its lines."

(In 1815, to Neate, while promenading with him in Baden and talking about the "Pastoral" symphony.)

[Ries relates: "While composing Beethoven frequently thought of an object, although he often laughed at musical delineation and scolded about petty things of the sort. In this respect 'The Creation' and 'The Seasons' were many times a b.u.t.t, though without depreciation of Haydn's loftier merits. Haydn's choruses and other works were loudly praised by Beethoven."]

34. "The texts which you sent me are least of all fitted for song. The description of a picture belongs to the field of painting; in this the poet can count himself more fortunate than my muse for his territory is not so restricted as mine in this respect, though mine, on the other hand, extends into other regions, and my dominion is not easily reached."

(Nussdorf, July 15, 1817, to Wilhelm Gerhard, who had sent him some Anacreontic songs for composition.)

35. "Carried too far, all delineation in instrumental music loses in efficiency."

(A remark in the sketches for the "Pastoral" symphony, preserved in the Royal Library in Berlin.)

[Mozart said: "Even in the most terrifying moments music must never offend the ear."]

36. "Yes, yes, then they are amazed and put their heads together because they never found it in any book on thorough ba.s.s."

(To Ries when the critics accused him of making grammatical blunders in music.)

37. "No devil can compel me to write only cadences of such a kind."

(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 pa.s.sage in one of his works.)

[Beethoven here addresses his friend in the third person, which is the customary style of address for the German n.o.bility 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 a.s.sert 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-ba.s.s; 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."