Life of Beethoven Part 5

Carl Czerny gave the impulse to this society, so worthy of record in the history of the art, and was upon the whole its guiding principle. The meetings were held at his residence in the forenoon of every Sunday, and were continued with gradually increasing interest for three successive winters. It was another sort of divine worship, to which every one without exception and without announcement had free access. To the peculiar gratification of M. Czerny, Beethoven previously went through several of his greatest works with him, and frequently attended the performance at his side, and his presence had the effect of heightening the interest felt by all the members of the society to the warmest enthusiasm. At the pianoforte M. Czerny had worthy a.s.sistants in the accomplished Baroness Dorothea von Ertmann (to whom Beethoven dedicated his Sonata, Op. 101), and in Messrs. Steiner, von Felsburg, and Pfaller, in the civil service of the Imperial government. The concourse to this musical stoa, where every one might make himself acquainted with all that was most sublime, or at least acquire clearer conceptions of it, was always extraordinary; and kindred spirits there found opportunity for learning to know and to esteem each other. All foreign professional men and connoisseurs, who in their own countries could gain but obscure notions of the spirit of Beethoven's music, here found themselves at the fountain-head of the purest poesy, which never flowed so clear and so brilliant since those memorable parties at Prince Lichnowsky's (of which mention has been made in the first period), and perhaps never may again in that place where this gigantic genius, so far in advance of his age, lived and wrought. For, indeed, so totally is everything, both in prose and poetry, changed there since his time, that this master-mind is become almost a stranger in his earthly home. The doors of that memorable school, which powerfully elevated the mind and heart of all who frequented it, closed at the end of the third winter course for ever, because M. Czerny began thenceforward to devote himself to composition; and, with the opening of the Italian Opera, which speedily followed, all incitement to the cultivation of Beethoven's pianoforte music ceased. Thus it would be very likely that foreigners might now in vain seek an opportunity to hear a Sonata of Beethoven's in Vienna; for the banners of the present day are no longer inscribed with his immortal name.

The next event, directly affecting Beethoven, before the suit with his sister-in-law was quite over, and requiring to be recorded here, is the death of Prince Kinsky, whose heirs refused to pay the stipulated portion of the pension granted in 1809. The matter was accordingly brought into court, and Beethoven was more fortunate in this instance than he had been with regard to the share of Prince Lobkowitz. He recovered rather more than 300 florins, so that, with the 600 contributed by the Archduke Rudolph, he received thenceforward a yearly pension of 900 florins (about 600 rix-dollars), which he enjoyed without further diminution as long as he lived.[53]

The nomination of his most ill.u.s.trious pupil, the Archduke just mentioned, whom he had raised to a high degree of proficiency, and who was the only one of his scholars that Beethoven had at the same time instructed in the theory of harmony--the nomination of this accomplished prince to be Archbishop of Olmutz, brought back our master to that branch of music which is the most sublime and likewise the most difficult, and for which, together with the Symphony, he had the greatest predilection, as he frequently declared. He resolved, namely, to write a grand Ma.s.s for the installation of the Archduke in his archiepiscopal see, which was fixed for the 9th of March, 1820. It was in the winter of 1818-19, that he set about this new work; the first movement of which, however, was of such vast dimensions, that it was impossible to calculate what time it would take to complete the work upon the same scale. It is necessary here to observe that, in those years, Beethoven, in spite of the troubles which he had undergone, enjoyed excellent health. At the very commencement of this new labour, he seemed to be quite a different man. The change was more particularly noticed by his earlier friends; and I must confess that, never, before or since that time, have I seen Beethoven in such a state of absolute abstraction from the world as was the case, more especially in the year 1819. Nay, were I not already past the age of forty, and had to judge of that state of mind and soul of my n.o.ble friend with the understanding of a youth of twenty, I should have many anecdotes of that remarkable period to relate, as another has done of earlier years, but which, after all, are but anecdotes, and ought no more to have been brought before a public forum than the table-talk of Martin Luther should have been.[54]

In the year 1819, while engaged in the composition of his second Ma.s.s, Beethoven was truly the boisterous, heaven-storming giant, and more particularly in the autumn, when he wrote the _Credo_, with the exceedingly difficult fugue. He lived at that time at Modling, in the Hafner House, as it is called, where I paid him frequent visits, and witnessed most extraordinary incidents, many of them arising from the mismanagement of his domestic affairs: for he had continued to keep house ever since 1816, though his nephew was at an academy, and he, of course, quite alone. To enable the reader to form a clear conception of his domestic life at that period, and thence to draw the conclusion under what a yoke, imposed in a great measure by himself, this man sighed and suffered, and in what a state of constant irritation his temper was kept by it, I need but lay before him a short extract from his journal, which, for a period of several years, I possess in his own hand-writing.

"1819.

"31st January. Given warning to the housekeeper.

15th February. The kitchen-maid came.

8th March. The kitchen-maid gave a fortnight's warning.

22nd of this month, the new housekeeper came.

12th May. Arrived at Modling.

Miser et pauper sum.

14th May. The housemaid came; to have six florins per month.

20th July. Given warning to the housekeeper.

1820.

17th April. The kitchen-maid came. A bad day. (This means that he had nothing to eat, because all the victuals were spoiled through long waiting.)

16th May. Given warning to the kitchen-maid.

19th. The kitchen-maid left.

30th. The woman came.

1st July. The kitchen-maid arrived.

28th. At night, the kitchen-maid ran away.

30th. The woman from Unter-Dobling came.

The four bad days, 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th August. Dined at Lerchenfeld.

28th. The woman's month expires.

6th September. The girl came.

22nd October. The girl left.

12th December. The kitchen-maid came.

18th. Given warning to the kitchen-maid.

27th. The new housemaid came."

But enough of this lamentable spectacle of domestic confusion!--and enough too of matter for incessant vexation for the master of a house, who concerns or is obliged to concern himself about such details. But such was Beethoven's domestic state, with very little alteration, till his death. The impossibility of making himself understood by his servants was the princ.i.p.al cause of the incessant changes, by which, it is true, nothing whatever was gained.

Let us now turn from the prosaic to the poetical side of his life.

At the time when the Archduke Rudolph was preparing for his journey to Olmutz, the Ma.s.s destined for the ceremony of his installation was scarcely one third finished; which, taking into account the time usually occupied by him in correcting each of his great works, was as much as to say that the first movement was not yet completed. And to state here at once when Beethoven gave the last finish to this his greatest work, I may add that it was not till the summer of 1822 at Baden (near Vienna), after he had been labouring more than three years at this gigantic performance. Thus the ma.s.s was finished only two years too late for its original destination.

In the winter months of 1821-22, Beethoven wrote the three piano-forte Sonatas, Op. 109, 110, and 111. The Grand Sonata in B major, Op. 106, he wrote during the suit with his sister-in-law. In the summer of 1819, just at the time when he was engaged in the composition of the _Credo_, he complied also with the urgent solicitations of a musical society consisting of seven members, who were then accustomed to play at the tavern b.a.l.l.s, in the Briel, near Modling, and composed some Waltzes for them, and even wrote out the parts. On account of the striking contrast displayed by that genius, which could move at one and the same time in the highest regions of musical poetry and in the ball-room, I made inquiry some years afterwards, when the master had once mentioned the circ.u.mstance, after this light-winged progeny; but the society in question was then broken up, and thus my search proved fruitless.

Beethoven, too, had lost the score of these Waltzes. While he was engaged in the composition of the grand ma.s.s, I do not recollect his having written anything further than a few numbers of Bagatelles. Mr.

P., the publisher of Leipzig, for whom they were destined, wrote to him after he had received them, intimating that he did not consider them worth the price agreed upon (ten ducats, I believe), and added the remark, that Beethoven ought to deem it beneath him to waste his time on trifles such as anybody might produce. Would that Mr. P. could have witnessed the effect of this well-meant lecture on the outrageous composer! It was, nevertheless, a salutary lecture, and came just at the right time, for the great master took pleasure in such relaxations of his powers (which at that time, it is true, he needed), and had written many more Bagatelles of the same kind. _Dormitat aliquando Homerus._

From the foregoing particulars the reader may infer that the price of the four last-mentioned Sonatas and his pension const.i.tuted the whole of Beethoven's income from the year 1818 to 1822, just at a time when he had a considerable annual sum to pay for the education of his nephew, and when the preceding years of dearth had an injurious influence upon him. The state of his finances may be more clearly seen from the letters addressed to M. Ries, which, however (especially those written in 1819 and 1820), ought not to have been exposed to the public eye, but should have been suppressed by his friends Wegeler and Ries;[55] for the tenor of those letters would lead one to suppose either that Beethoven was almost starving, or that, like the modern composers, he had written notes solely for money.[56] This, however, was not the case, though it is a fact that his income during that period was far from covering his expenses. It was not until 1825 that the Ma.s.s was sold to a publisher.

It was consequently in the years 1820 and 1821 that Beethoven suffered real want, as he was determined not to add any new debts to those which he had previously incurred. And yet, if the truth must be told, the privations which he suffered were voluntary; for he was in possession of some bank shares, which might have placed him above any want, if he had chosen to dispose of them. When, therefore, we hear that those four days marked in his Journal for 1820 as "bad days" were such, when, quite dest.i.tute of money, he was obliged to make his dinner of a few biscuits and a gla.s.s of beer, as I have heard from his own lips, I, for my part, am disposed to seek in that fact the origin of his subsequent parsimony, which served only to enrich an unworthy laughing heir; but more upon this subject in the proper place.

Of the year 1821 there is nothing particular to relate excepting an anecdote characteristic of his household system: it went on in its usual way. In the spring of that year, he again removed with bag and baggage to Dobling. On arranging his musical matters there, he missed the score of the first movement (_Kyrie_) of his grand Ma.s.s. All search for it proved vain, and Beethoven was irritated to the highest degree at the loss, which was irreparable; when lo! several days afterwards the whole Kyrie was found, but in what condition! The large sheets, which looked just like waste paper, seemed to the old housekeeper the very thing for wrapping up boots, shoes, and kitchen utensils, for which purpose she had torn most of them in half. When Beethoven saw the treatment to which this production of his genius had been subjected, he could not refrain from laughing at this droll scene, after a short gust of pa.s.sion, and after the sheets had been cleaned from all the soils contracted in such unseemly company.

The 3rd of October, 1822--the name-day[57] of the Emperor Francis--was fixed for the opening of the new theatre in the Josephstadt, on which occasion the music to _Die Ruinen von Athen_, (The Ruins of Athens)[58]

which Beethoven wrote in 1812, for the opening of the new theatre in Pesth, with a new text adapted to time and place, by Carl Meisel, several new pieces, and a new Overture, was to be performed.

In the month of July, Beethoven set about this new work; but that summer, which he pa.s.sed in Baden, was remarkably hot, and therefore, he liked to seek the shade of the neighbouring woods, rather than to swelter in the house. It was not till the hottest part of the season was over, and then the day fixed for the opening was not far distant, that he fell to work in good earnest; and I recollect well, that the ballet-master was put to a pinch about a new composed chorus with a dance. He was in urgent want of the music for rehearsal, but Beethoven would not part with it, because he had not done filing and polishing.

Thus it was not till the afternoon of the day when the first performance was to take place, that the orchestra, collected at random from all quarters, received the extremely difficult Overture in C major, with the double fugue, and that, moreover, with a thousand metrical errors. On the evening of the solemn opening, when, for want of the necessary rehearsals, not a single member of the orchestra was acquainted with his part, Beethoven was seated at the piano, having at his side the music-director Franz Glaser, as a.s.sistant-conductor, and I, escaping from my office, led the orchestra. This, as it were, ex-tempore solemnization, might justly be p.r.o.nounced a total failure, as far as the music was concerned; and it was not till the next day that all the orchestral parts were corrected and studied. Beethoven, indeed, perceived the vacillation on the stage and in the orchestra, but was not sensible that he was the princ.i.p.al cause of it, through his intent listening and r.e.t.a.r.ding the time.

On New-Year's day, 1823, Beethoven, his nephew, and myself were seated at dinner, when a New-Year's card was brought from his brother, who lived in the next house, signed "Johann van Beethoven, landowner"

(_Gutsbesitzer_); Beethoven immediately wrote on the back of it, "Ludwig van Beethoven, brainowner" (_Hirnbesitzer_), and sent it back forthwith to the landowner. It was only a few days before this whimsical circ.u.mstance, that this brother braggingly told our master, that he would never be worth so much as he (Johann van Beethoven) was.[59] It may easily be conceived that our Beethoven was mightily amused by this boast.

During this winter (1823), Beethoven carried into effect the resolution which he had long before formed, of offering the new Ma.s.s, in ma.n.u.script, to the European courts, great and small, for the sum of fifty ducats--a business which he left entirely to my management, which was attended with innumerable formalities and difficulties, and required great patience. In his invitation to the subscription, Beethoven declared this work to be his "greatest" and his "best." And, in that addressed to the King of France, he called it "oeuvre le plus accompli." Only four sovereigns, namely, the Emperor of Russia, and the Kings of Prussia, Saxony, and France, accepted the offer.[60] Prince Anton von Radziwill, governor of Posen, subscribed for the fifth copy, and M. Schelble, on behalf of his Cecilia club, at Frankfort on the Mayn, for the sixth and last.[61] The first of the sovereigns who subscribed was his majesty the King of Prussia.

A characteristic anecdote is connected with the notification made on this subject, through his majesty's amba.s.sador. Whether the Prussian amba.s.sador, the Prince von Hatzfeld, had instructions from Berlin, or whether he wished, from his own impulse, to see Beethoven decorated with a Prussian order, I never knew; but it is a fact, that the Prince commissioned the director of chancery, Hofrath W., to ask Beethoven whether he might not be disposed to prefer a royal order to the fifty ducats; in which case he would transmit his wish to Berlin. Beethoven, without a moment's consideration, replied with great emphasis--"Fifty ducats!" A striking proof how lightly he prized insignia of honour or distinctions in general. Offers of this sort he would have invariably declined, proceed from what quarter soever they might. Without despising the well-merited decoration of an order on the breast of this or that artist of his time, he never envied any man that distinction, but frequently lashed unmercifully one or the other of his contemporaries for their "longing and snapping after ribands," which, according to his notions, were gained only at the expense of the truth and the sacredness of art.

This is the proper place to state that Beethoven applied among others to Gothe, relative to the affair of the subscription to the Ma.s.s, soliciting his recommendation of it to the Grand-Duke of Weimar; but Gothe had already forgotten our Beethoven, for he did not even deign to answer him, and Beethoven felt extremely mortified. This was the first and the last time that Beethoven ever asked a favour of Gothe. In like manner, his letter on the same subject, in his own hand-writing, to the King of Sweden, remained unanswered. This correspondence, however, carried back Beethoven's remembrance to the time when the King of Sweden, as General Bernadotte, was amba.s.sador of the French republic at Vienna; and he distinctly recollected that it was really Bernadotte who awakened in him the first idea of the _Sinfonia eroica_.

The King of France, Louis XVIII., acknowledged the transmission of this Ma.s.s from Beethoven by sending him a heavy gold medal, with his portrait, and on the reverse the inscription, "Donne par le Roi a Monsieur Beethoven," which royal present was the more gratifying to him because he conceived that he was indebted for it to the influence of Cherubini with his Majesty, which he had previously solicited. I subjoin this certainly not uninteresting letter, copied from Beethoven's draft of it, which he sent from the country to me in the city, with instructions what to do with it.

"Most respected Sir,

"With great pleasure I seize the opportunity of approaching you in writing. In spirit I do so very often, as I prize your works above all others of the theatrical cla.s.s. The professional world, however, has to lament that, for a long time past, in our Germany at least, no new theatrical work of yours has made its appearance.

Highly as your other works are estimated by competent judges, still it is a real loss to the art not to possess any new production of your genius for the stage. Genuine art is imperishable, and the genuine artist takes heartfelt delight in high productions of mind.

Just so am I too transported whenever I hear a new work of yours, and take a greater interest in it than if it were my own; in short, I honour and love you. Did not my continual ill health prevent me from seeing you in Paris, with what extraordinary pleasure should I converse with you on musical subjects! Imagine not that, because I am going to ask a favour of you, this is merely the introduction to my request. I hope and am convinced that you do not impute to me so mean a way of thinking.

"I have just completed a grand solemn Ma.s.s, and purpose sending it to the European courts, because I do not intend to publish it for the present. I have, therefore, despatched, through the French emba.s.sy here, an invitation to his Majesty the King of France to subscribe to this work, and am persuaded that the King will be sure to take it upon your recommendation. Ma situation critique demande que je ne fixe pas seulement comme ordinaire mes voeux au ciel; au contraire, il faut les fixer aussi en bas pour les necessites de la vie.

"Be the fate of my request to you what it will, I shall never cease to love and to respect you, et vous resterez toujours celui de mes contemporains que je l'estime le plus. Si vous me voulez faire un estreme plaisir, c'etait, si vous m'ecrivez quelques lignes, ce que me soulagera bien. L'art unit tout le monde,--how much more genuine artists! et peut-etre vous me dignez aussi, de me mettre--to reckon me also among the number.