Chapter II: Part 2

[“Schindler relates that when once he asked Beethoven to tell him what the F minor and D minor (op. 31, No. 2) meant, he received for an answer only the enigmatical remark: ‘Read Shakespeare’s “Tempest.”’ Many a student and commentator has since read the ‘Tempest’ in the hope of finding a clew to the emotional contents which Beethoven believed to be in the two works, so singularly associated, only to find himself baffled. It is a fancy, which rests, perhaps, too much on outward things, but still one full of suggestion, that had Beethoven said: ‘Hear my C minor symphony,’ he would have given a better starting-point to the imagination of those who are seeking to know what the F minor sonata means. Most obviously it means music, but it means music that is an expression of one of those psychological struggles which Beethoven felt called upon more and more to delineate as he was more and more shut out from the companionship of the external world. Such struggles are in the truest sense of the word tempests. The motive, which, according to the story, Beethoven himself said, indicates, in the symphony, the rappings of Fate at the door of human existence, is common to two works which are also related in their spiritual contents. Singularly enough, too, in both cases the struggle which is begun in the first movement and continued in the third, is interrupted by a period of calm, reassuring, soul-fortifying aspiration, which, in the symphony as well as in the sonata, takes the form of a theme with variations.”--“How to Listen to Music,” page 29. H. E. K.]

88. “Sinfonia Pastorella. He who has ever had a notion of country life can imagine for himself without many superscriptions what the composer is after. Even without a description the whole, which is more sentiment than tone painting, will be recognized.”

(A note among the sketches for the “Pastoral” symphony preserved in the
Royal Library at Berlin.)

[There are other notes of similar import among the sketches referred to which can profitably be introduced here:

“The hearer should be allowed to discover the situations;”

“Sinfonia caracteristica, or a recollection of country life;”

“Pastoral Symphony: No picture, but something in which the emotions are expressed which are aroused in men by the pleasure of the country (or) in which some feelings of country life are set forth.”

When, finally, the work was given to the publisher, Beethoven included in the title an admonitory explanation which should have everlasting validity: “Pastoral Symphony: more expression of feeling than painting.” H. E. K.]

89. “My ‘Fidelio’ was not understood by the public, but I know that it will yet be appreciated; for though I am well aware of the value of my ‘Fidelio’ I know just as well that the symphony is my real element. When sounds ring in me I always hear the full orchestra; I can ask anything of instrumentalists, but when writing for the voice I must continually ask myself: ‘Can that be sung?’

(A remark made in 1823 or 1824 to Griesinger.)

90. “Thus Fate knocks at the portals!”

(Reported by Schindler as Beethoven’s explanation of the opening of the
symphony in C minor.)

[“Hofrath Kueffner told him (Krenn) that he once lived with Beethoven in Heiligenstadt, and that they were in the habit evenings of going down to Nussdorf to eat a fish supper in the Gasthaus ‘Zur Rose.’ One evening when B. was in a good humor, Kueffner began: `Tell me frankly which is your favorite among your symphonies?’ B. (in good humor) ‘Eh! Eh! The Eroica.’ K. ‘I should have guessed the C minor.’ B. ‘No; the Eroica.’” From Thayer’s notebook. See “Music and Manners in the Classical Period.” H.E.K.]

91. “The solo sonatas (op. 109-ll?) are perhaps the best, but also the last, music that I composed for the pianoforte. It is and always will be an unsatisfactory instrument. I shall hereafter follow the example of my grandmaster Handel, and every year write only an oratorio and a concerto for some string or wind instrument, provided I shall have finished my tenth symphony (C minor) and Requiem.”

(Reported by Holz. As to the tenth symphony see note to No. 95.)

92. “God knows why it is that my pianoforte music always makes the worst impression on me, especially when it is played badly.”

(June 2, 1804. A note among the sketches for the “Leonore” overture.)

93. “Never did my own music produce such an effect upon me; even now when I recall this work it still costs me a tear.”

(Reported by Holz. The reference is to the Cavatina from the quartet in B-flat, op. 130, which Beethoven thought the crown of all quartet movements and his favorite composition. When alone and undisturbed he was fond of playing his favorite pianoforte Andante--that from the sonata op. 28.)

94. “I do not write what I most desire to, but that which I need to because of money. But this is not saying that I write only for money. When the present period is past, I hope at last to write that which is the highest thing for me as well as art,--‘Faust.’”

(From a conversation-book used in 1823. To Buhler, tutor in the house of a merchant, who was seeking information about an oratorio which Beethoven had been commissioned to write by the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston.)

95. “Ha! ‘Faust;’ that would be a piece of work! Something might come out of that! But for some time I have been big with three other large works. Much is already sketched out, that is, in my head. I must be rid of them first:--two large symphonies differing from each other, and each differing from all the others, and an oratorio. And this will take a long time, you see, for a considerable time I have had trouble to get myself to write. I sit and think, and think I’ve long had the thing, but it will not on the paper. I dread the beginning of these large works. Once into the work, and it goes.”

(In the summer of 1822, to Rochlitz, at Baden. The symphonies referred to are the ninth and tenth. They existed only in Beethoven’s mind and a few sketches. In it he intended to combine antique and modern views of life.)

[“In the text Greek mythology, cantique ecclesiastique; in the Allegro, a Bacchic festival.” (Sketchbook of 1818)]

[The oratorio was to have been called “The Victory of the Cross.” It was not written. Schindler wrote to Moscheles in London about Beethoven in the last weeks of his life: “He said much about the plan of the tenth symphony. As the work had shaped itself in his imagination it might have become a musical monstrosity, compared with which his other symphonies would have been mere opuscula.”]

ON ART AND ARTISTS

96. “How eagerly mankind withdraws from the poor artist what it has once given him;--and Zeus, from whom one might ask an invitation to sup on ambrosia, lives no longer.”

(In the summer of 1814, to Kauka, an advocate who represented him in the
lawsuit against the heirs of Kinsky.)

97. “I love straightforwardness and uprightness, and believe that the artist ought not to be belittled; for, alas! brilliant as fame is externally, it is not always the privilege of the artist to be Jupiter’s guest on Olympus all the time. Unfortunately vulgar humanity drags him down only too often and too rudely from the pure upper ether.”

(June 5, 1852, to C. F. Peters, music publisher, in Leipzig when
treating with him touching a complete edition of his works.)

98. “The true artist has no pride; unhappily he realizes that art has no limitations, he feels darkly how far he is from the goal, and while, perhaps he is admired by others, he grieves that he has not yet reached the point where the better genius shall shine before him like a distant sun.”

(Teplitz, July 17, to an admirer ten years old.)

99. “You yourself know what a change is wrought by a few years in the case of an artist who is continually pushing forward. The greater the progress which one makes in art, the less is one satisfied with one’s old works.”

(Vienna, August 4, 1800, to Mathisson, in the dedication of his setting of “Adelaide.” “My most ardent wish will be fulfilled if you are not displeased with the musical composition of your heavenly ‘Adelaide.’”)

100. “Those composers are exemplars who unite nature and art in their works.”

(Baden, in 1824, to Freudenberg, organist from Breslau.)

101. “What will be the judgment a century hence concerning the lauded works of our favorite composers today? Inasmuch as nearly everything is subject to the changes of time, and, more’s the pity, the fashions of time, only that which is good and true, will endure like a rock, and no wanton hand will ever venture to defile it. Then let every man do that which is right, strive with all his might toward the goal which can never be attained, develop to the last breath the gifts with which a gracious Creator has endowed him, and never cease to learn; for ‘Life is short, art eternal!’”

(From the notes in the instruction book of Archduke Rudolph.)

102. “Famous artists always labor under an embarrassment;--therefore first works are the best, though they may have sprung out of dark ground.”

(Conversation-book of 1840.)

103. “A musician is also a poet; he also can feel himself transported by a pair of eyes into another and more beautiful world where greater souls make sport of him and set him right difficult tasks.”

(August 15, 1812, to Bettina von Arnim.)

104. “I told Goethe my opinion as to how applause affects men like us, and that we want our equals to hear us understandingly! Emotion suits women only; music ought to strike fire from the soul of a man.”

(August 15, 1810, to Bettina von Arnim.)

105. “Most people are touched by anything good; but they do not partake of the artist’s nature; artists are ardent, they do not weep.”

(Reported to Goethe by Bettina von Arnim, May 28, 1810.)

106. “L’art unit tout le monde,--how much more the true artist!”

(March 15, 1823, to Cherubini, in Paris.)

107. “Only the artist, or the free scholar, carries his happiness within him.”

(Reported by Karl von Bursy as part of a conversation in 1816.)

108. “There ought to be only one large art warehouse in the world, to which the artist could carry his art-works and from which he could carry away whatever he needed. As it is one must be half a tradesman.”

(January, 1801, to Hofmeister, in Leipzig.)

BEETHOVEN AS CRITIC

The opinion of artist on artists is a dubious quantity. Recall the startling criticisms of Bocklin on his associates in art made public by the memoirs of his friends after his death. Such judgments are often one-sided, not without prejudice, and mostly the expression of impulse. It is a different matter when the artist speaks about the disciples of another art than his own, even if the opinions which Bocklin and Wagner held of each other are not a favorable example. Where Beethoven speaks of other composers we must read with clear and open eyes; but even here there will be much with which we can be in accord, especially his judgment on Rossini, whom he hated so intensely, and whose airy, sense-bewitching art seduced the Viennese from Beethoven. Interesting and also characteristic of the man is the attitude which he adopted towards the poets of his time. In general he estimated his contemporaries as highly as they deserved.

109. “Do not tear the laurel wreaths from the heads of Handel, Haydn and Mozart; they belong to them,--not yet to me.”

(Teplitz, July 17, 1852, to his ten-year-old admirer, Emilie M., who had
given him a portfolio made by herself.)

110. “Pure church music ought to be performed by voices only, except a ‘Gloria,’ or some similar text. For this reason I prefer Palestrina; but it is folly to imitate him without having his genius and religious views; it would be difficult, if not impossible, too, for the singers of today to sing his long notes in a sustained and pure manner.”

(To Freudenberg, in 1824.)

111. “Handel is the unattained master of all masters. Go and learn from him how to achieve vast effects with simple means.”

(Reported by Seyfried. On his death-bed, about the middle of February, 1827, he said to young Gerhard von Breuning, on receiving Handel’s works: “Handel is the greatest and ablest of all composers; from him I can still learn. Bring me the books!”)

112. “Handel is the greatest composer that ever lived. I would uncover my head and kneel on his grave.”

(Fall of 1823, to J. A. Stumpff, harp maker of London, who acted very nobly toward Beethoven in his last days. It was he who rejoiced the dying composer by sending him the forty volumes of Handel’s works (see 111).)

[“Cipriani Potter, to A. W. T., February 27, 1861. Beethoven used to walk across the fields to Vienna very often. B. would stop, look about and express his love for nature. One day Potter asked: ‘Who is the greatest living composer, yourself excepted?’ Beethoven seemed puzzled for a moment, and then exclaimed: ‘Cherubini!’ Potter went on: ‘And of dead authors?’ B.--He had always considered Mozart as such, but since he had been made acquainted with Handel he put him at the head.” From A. W. Thayer’s notebook, reprinted in “Music and Manners in the Classical Period,” page 208. H.E.K.]

113. “Heaven forbid that I should take a journal in which sport is made of the manes of such a revered one.”

(Conversation-book of 1825, in reference to a criticism of Handel.)

114. “That you are going to publish Sebastian Bach’s works is something which does good to my heart, which beats in love of the great and lofty art of this ancestral father of harmony; I want to see them soon.”

(January, 1801, to Hofmeister, in Leipzig.)

115. “Of Emanuel Bach’s clavier works I have only a few, yet they must be not only a real delight to every true artist, but also serve him for study purposes; and it is for me a great pleasure to play works that I have never seen, or seldom see, for real art lovers.”

(July 26, 1809, to Gottfried Hartel, of Leipzig in ordering all the
scores of Haydn, Mozart and the two Bachs.)

116. “See, my dear Hummel, the birthplace of Haydn. I received it as a gift today, and it gives me great pleasure. A mean peasant hut, in which so great a man was born!”

(Remarked on his death-bed to his friend Hummel.)

117. “I have always reckoned myself among the greatest admirers of Mozart, and shall do so till the day of my death.”

(February 6, 1886, to Abbe Maximilian Stadler, who had sent him his
essay on Mozart’s “Requiem.”)

118. “Cramer, Cramer! We shall never be able to compose anything like that!”

(To Cramer, after the two had heard Mozart’s concerto in C-minor at a
concert in the Augarten.)

119. “‘Die Zauberflote’ will always remain Mozart’s greatest work, for in it he for the first time showed himself to be a German musician. ‘Don Juan’ still has the complete Italian cut; besides our sacred art ought never permit itself to be degraded to the level of a foil for so scandalous a subject.”

(A remark reported by Seyfried.)

[“Hozalka says that in 1820-21, as near as he can recollect, the wife of a Major Baumgarten took boy boarders in the house then standing where the Musikverein’s Saal now is, and that Beethoven’s nephew was placed with her. Her sister, Baronin Born, lived with her. One evening Hozalka, then a young man, called there and found only Baronin Born at home. Soon another caller came and stayed to tea. It was Beethoven. Among other topics Mozart came on the tapis, and the Born asked Beethoven (in writing, of course) which of Mozart’s operas he thought most of. ‘Die Zauberflote’ said Beethoven, and, suddenly clasping his hands and throwing up his eyes, exclaimed: ‘Oh, Mozart!’” From A. W. Thayer’s notebooks, reprinted in “Music and Manners in the Classical Period,” page 198. H. E. K.]

120. “Say all conceivable pretty things to Cherubini,--that there is nothing I so ardently desire as that we should soon get another opera from him, and that of all our contemporaries I have the highest regard for him.”

(May 6, 1823, to Louis Schlasser, afterward chapel master in Darmstadt,
who was about to undertake a journey to Paris. See note to No. 112.)

121. “Among all the composers alive Cherubini is the most worthy of respect. I am in complete agreement, too, with his conception of the ‘Requiem,’ and if ever I come to write one I shall take note of many things.”

(Remark reported by Seyfried. See No. 112.)

122. “Whoever studies Clementi thoroughly has simultaneously also learned Mozart and other authors; inversely, however, this is not the case.”

(Reported by Schindler.)

123. “There is much good in Spontini; he understands theatrical effect and martial noises admirably.

“Spohr is so rich in dissonances; pleasure in his music is marred by his chromatic melody.

“His name ought not to be Bach (brook), but Ocean, because of his infinite and inexhaustible wealth of tonal combinations and harmonies. Bach is the ideal of an organist.”

(In Baden, 1824, to Freudenberg.)

124. “The little man, otherwise so gentle,--I never would have credited him with such a thing. Now Weber must write operas in earnest, one after the other, without caring too much for refinement! Kaspar, the monster, looms up like a house; wherever the devil sticks in his claw we feel it.”

(To Rochlitz, at Baden, in the summer of 1823.)

125. “There you are, you rascal; you’re a devil of a fellow, God bless you!... Weber, you always were a fine fellow.”

(Beethoven’s hearty greeting to Karl Maria von Weber, in October, 1823.)

126. “K. M. Weber began too learn too late; art did not have a chance to develop naturally in him, and his single and obvious striving is to appear brilliant.”

(A remark reported by Seyfried.)

127. “‘Euryanthe’ is an accumulation of diminished seventh chords--all little backdoors!”

(Remarked to Schindler about Weber’s opera.)

128. “Truly, a divine spark dwells in Schubert!”

(Said to Schindler when the latter made him acquainted with the “Songs of Ossian,” “Die Junge Nonne,” “Die Burgschaft,” of Schubert’s “Grenzen der Menschheit,” and other songs.)

129. “There is nothing in Meyerbeer; he hasn’t the courage to strike at the right time.”

(To Tomaschek, in October, 1814, in a conversation about the “Battle of Victoria,” at the performance of which, in 1813, Meyerbeer had played the big drum.)

130. “Rossini is a talented and a melodious composer, his music suits the frivolous and sensuous spirit of the times, and his productivity is such that he needs only as many weeks as the Germans do years to write an opera.”

(In 1824, at Baden, to Freudenberg.)

131. “This rascal Rossini, who is not respected by a single master of his art!”

(Conversation-book, 1825.)

132. “Rossini would have become a great composer if his teacher had frequently applied some blows ad posteriora.”

(Reported by Schindler. Beethoven had been reading the score of “Il
Barbiere di Siviglia.”)

133. “The Bohemians are born musicians. The Italians ought to take them as models. What have they to show for their famous conservatories? Behold! their idol, Rossini! If Dame Fortune had not given him a pretty talent and amiable melodies by the bushel, what he learned at school would have brought him nothing but potatoes for his big belly.”

(In a conversation-book at Haslinger’s music shop, where Beethoven
frequently visited.)

136. “Goethe has killed Klopstock for me. You wonder? Now you laugh? Ah, because I have read Klopstock. I carried him about with me for years when I walked. What besides? Well, I didn’t always understand him. He skips about so; and he always begins so far away, above or below; always Maestoso! D-flat major! Isn’t, it so? But he’s great, nevertheless, and uplifts the soul. When I couldn’t understand him I sort of guessed at him.”

(To Rochlitz, in 1822.)

135. “As for me I prefer to set Homer, Klopstock, Schiller, to music; if it is difficult to do, these immortal poets at least deserve it.”

(To the directorate of the “Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde” of Vienna, January, 1824, in negotiations for an oratorio, “The Victory of the Cross” [which he had been commissioned to write by the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston. H. E. K.].)

136. “Goethe and Schiller are my favorite poets, as also Ossian and Homer, the latter of whom, unfortunately, I can read only in translation.”

(August 8, 1809, to Breitkopf and Hartel.)

137. “Who can sufficiently thank a great poet,--the most valuable jewel of a nation!”

(February 10, 1811, to Bettina von Arnim. The reference was to Goethe.)

138. “When you write to Goethe about me search out all the words which can express my deepest reverence and admiration. I am myself about to write to him about ‘Egmont’ for which I have composed the music, purely out of love for his poems which make me happy.”

(February 10, 1811, to Bettina von Arnim.)

139. “I would have gone to death, yes, ten times to death for Goethe. Then, when I was in the height of my enthusiasm, I thought out my ‘Egmont’ music. Goethe,--he lives and wants us all to live with him. It is for that reason that he can be composed. Nobody is so easily composed as he. But I do not like to compose songs.”

(To Rochlitz, in 1822, when Beethoven recalled Goethe’s amiability in
Teplitz.)

140. “Goethe is too fond of the atmosphere of the court; fonder than becomes a poet. There is little room for sport over the absurdities of the virtuosi, when poets, who ought to be looked upon as the foremost teachers of the nation, can forget everything else in the enjoyment of court glitter.”

(Franzensbrunn, August 9, 1812, to Gottfried Hartel of Leipzig.)

141. “When two persons like Goethe and I meet these grand folk must be made to see what our sort consider great.”

(August 15, 1812, in a description of how haughtily he, and how humbly
Goethe, had behaved in the presence of the Imperial court.)

142. “Since that summer in Carlsbad I read Goethe every day,--when I read at all.”

(Remarked to Rochlitz.)

143. “Goethe ought not to write more; he will meet the fate of the singers. Nevertheless he will remain the foremost poet of Germany.”

(Conversationbook, 1818.)

144. “Can you lend me the ‘Theory of Colors’ for a few weeks? It is an important work. His last things are insipid.”

(Conversation-book, 1820.)

145. “After all the fellow writes for money only.”

(Reported by Schindler as having been said by Beethoven when, on his
death-bed, he angrily threw a book of Walter Scott’s aside.)

146. “He, too, then, is nothing better than an ordinary man! Now he will trample on all human rights only to humor his ambition; he will place himself above all others,--become a tyrant!”

(With these words, as testified to by Ries, an eye-witness, Beethoven tore the title-page from the score of his “Eroica” symphony (which bore a dedication to Bonaparte) when the news reached him that Napoleon had declared himself emperor.)

147. “I believe that so long as the Austrian has his brown beer and sausage he will not revolt.”

(To Simrock, publisher, in Bonn, August 2, 1794.)

148. “Why do you sell nothing but music? Why did you not long ago follow my well-meant advice? Do get wise, and find your raison. Instead of a hundred-weight of paper order genuine unwatered Regensburger, float this much-liked article of trade down the Danube, serve it in measures, half-measures and seidels at cheap prices, throw in at intervals sausages, rolls, radishes, butter and cheese, invite the hungry and thirsty with letters an ell long on a sign: ‘Musical Beer House,’ and you will have so many guests at all hours of the day that one will hold the door open for the other and your office will never be empty.”

(To Haslinger, the music publisher, when the latter had complained about
the indifference of the Viennese to music.)

ON EDUCATION

Beethoven’s observations on this subject were called out by his experiences in securing an education for his nephew Karl, son of his like-named brother, a duty which devolved on him on the death of his brother in the winter of 1815. He loved his nephew almost to idolatry, and hoped that he would honor the name of Beethoven in the future. But there was a frivolous vein in Karl, inherited probably from his mother, who was on easy footing with morality both before and after her husband’s death. She sought with all her might to rid her son of the guardianship of his uncle. Karl was sent to various educational institutions and to these Beethoven sent many letters containing advice and instructions. The nephew grew to be more and more a care, not wholly without fault of the master. His passionate nature led to many quarrels between the two, all of which were followed by periods of extravagant fondness. Karl neglected his studies, led a frivolous life, was fond of billiards and the coffee-houses which were then generally popular, and finally, in the summer of 1826, made an attempt at suicide in the Helenental near Baden, which caused his social ostracism. When he was found he cried out: “I went to the bad because my uncle wanted to better me.”

Beethoven succeeded in persuading Baron von Stutterheim, commander of an infantry regiment at Iglau, to accept him as an aspirant for military office. In later life he became a respected official and man. So Beethoven himself was vouchsafed only an ill regulated education. His dissolute father treated him now harshly, now gently. His mother, who died early, was a silent sufferer, had thoroughly understood her son, and to her his love was devotion itself. He labored unwearyingly at his own intellectual and moral advancement until his death.

It seems difficult to reconcile his almost extravagant estimate of the greatest possible liberty in the development of man with his demands for strict constraint to which he frequently gives expression; but he had recognized that it is necessary to grow out of restraint into liberty. His model as a sensitive and sympathetic educator was his motherly friend, the wife of Court Councillor von Breuning in Bonn, of whom he once said: “She knew how to keep the insects off the blossoms.”

Beethoven’s views on musical education are to be found in the chapters “On Composition” and “On Performing Music.”

149. “Like the State, each man must have his own constitution.”

(Diary, 1815.)

150. “Recommend virtue to your children; that, alone can bring happiness; not wealth,--I speak from experience. It was virtue alone that bore me up in my misery; to her and my art I owe that I did not end my life by self-murder.”

(October 6, 1802, to his brothers Karl and Johann [the so-called
Heiligenstadt Will].)

151. “I know no more sacred duty than to rear and educate a child.”

(January 7, 1820, in a communication to the Court of Appeals in the suit
touching the guardianship of his nephew Karl.)

152. “Nature’s weaknesses are nature’s endowments; reason, the guide, must seek to lead and lessen them.”

(Diary, 1817.)

153. “It is man’s habit to hold his fellow man in esteem because he committed no greater errors.”

(May 6, 1811, to Breitkopf and Hartel, in a letter complaining of faulty
printing in some of his compositions.)

154. “There is nothing more efficient in enforcing obedience upon others than the belief on their part that you are wiser than they...Without tears fathers can not inculcate virtue in their children, or teachers learning and wisdom in their pupils; even the laws, by compelling tears from the citizens, compel them also to strive for justice.”

(Diary, 1815.)

155. “It is only becoming in a youth to combine his duties toward education and advancement with those which he owes to his benefactor and supporter; this I did toward my parents.”

(May 19, 1825, to his nephew Karl.)

156. “You can not honor the memory of your father better than to continue your studies with the greatest zeal, and strive to become an honest and excellent man.”

(To his nephew, 1816-18.)

157. “Let your conduct always be amiable; through art and science the best and noblest of men are bound together and your future vocation will not exclude you.”

(Baden, July 18, 1825, to his nephew, who had decided to become a
merchant.)

158. “It is very true that a drop will hollow a stone; a thousand lovely impressions are obliterated when children are placed in wooden institutions while they might receive from their parents the most soulful impressions which would continue to exert their influence till the latest age.”

(Diary, spring of 1817. Beethoven was dissatisfied with Giannatasio’s school in which he had placed his nephew. “Karl is a different child after he has been with me a few hours” (Diary). In 1826, after the attempt at suicide, Beethoven said to Breuning: “My Karl was in an institute; educational institutions furnish forth only hot house plants.”)

159. “Drops of water wear away a stone in time, not by force but by continual falling. Only through tireless industry are the sciences achieved so that one can truthfully say: no day without its line,--nulla dies sine linea.”

(1799, in a sketch for a theoretical handbook for Archduke Rudolph.)

ON HIS OWN DISPOSITION AND CHARACTER

So open-hearted and straightforward a character as Beethoven could not have pictured himself with less reserve or greater truthfulness than he did during his life. Frankness toward himself, frankness toward others (though sometimes it went to the extreme of rudeness and ill-breeding) was his motto. The joyous nature which was his as a lad, and which was not at all averse to a merry prank now and then, underwent a change when he began to lose his hearing. The dread of deafness and its consequences drove him nearly to despair, so that he sometimes contemplated suicide. Increasing hardness of hearing gradually made him reserved, morose and gloomy. With the progress of the malady his disposition and character underwent a decided change,--a fact which may be said to account for the contradictions in his conduct and utterances. It made him suspicious, distrustful; in his later years he imagined himself cheated and deceived in the most trifling matters by relatives, friends, publishers, servants.

Nevertheless Beethoven’s whole soul was filled with a high idealism which penetrated through the miseries of his daily life; it was full, too, of a great love toward humanity in general and his unworthy nephew in particular. Towards his publishers he often appeared covetous and grasping, seeking to rake and scrape together all the money possible; but this was only for the purpose of assuring the future of his nephew. At the same time, in a merry moment, he would load down his table with all that kitchen and cellar could provide, for the reflection of his friends. Thus he oscillated continuously between two extremes; but the power which swung the pendulum was always the aural malady. He grew peevish and capricious towards his best friends, rude, even brutal at times in his treatment of them; only in the next moment to overwhelm them most pathetically with attentions. Till the end of his life he remained a sufferer from his passionate disposition over which he gradually obtained control until, at the end, one could almost speak of a sunny clarification of his nature.

He has heedlessly been accused of having led a dissolute life, of having been an intemperate drinker. There would be no necessity of contradicting such a charge even if there were a scintilla of evidence to support it; a drinker is not necessarily a dishonorable man, least of all a musician who drinks. But, the fact of the matter is that it is not true. If once Beethoven wrote a merry note about merrymaking with friends, let us rejoice that occasions did sometimes occur, though but rarely, when the heart of the sufferer was temporarily gladdened.

He was a strict moralist, as is particularly evidenced by the notes in his journal which have not been made public. In many things which befell him in his daily life he was as ingenuous as a child. His personality, on the whole, presented itself in such a manner as to invite the intellectual and social Philistine to call him a fool.

160. “I shall print a request in all the newspapers that henceforth all artists refrain from painting my picture without my knowledge; I never thought that my own face would bring me embarrassment.”

(About 1803, to Christine Gerardi, because without his knowledge a
portrait of him had been made somewhere--in a cafe, probably.)

161. “Pity that I do not understand the art of war as well as I do the art of music; I should yet conquer Napoleon!”

(To Krumpholz, the violinist, when he informed Beethoven of the victory
of Napoleon at Jena.)

162. “If I were a general and knew as much about strategy as I, a composer, know about counterpoint, I’d give you fellows something to do.”

(Called out behind the back of a French officer, his fist doubled, on May 12, 1809, when the French had occupied Vienna. Reported by a witness, W. Rust.)

163. “Camillus, if I am not mistaken, was the name of the Roman who drove the wicked Gauls from Rome. At such a cost I would also take the name if I could drive them wherever I found them to where they belong.”

(To Pleyel, publisher, in Paris, April, 1807.)

164. “I love most the realm of mind which, to me, is the highest of all spiritual and temporal monarchies.”

(To Advocate Kauka in the summer of 1814. He had been speaking about the
monarchs represented in the Congress of Vienna.)

165. “I shall not come in person, since that would be a sort of farewell, and farewells I have always avoided.”

(January 24, 1818, to Giannatasio del Rio, on taking his nephew Karl out
of the latter institute.)

166. “I hope still to bring a few large works into the world, and then, like an old child, to end my earthly career somewhere among good people.”

(October 6, 1802, to Wegeler.)

167. “O ye men, who think or declare me to be hostile, morose or misanthropical, what injustice ye do me. Ye know not the secret cause of what thus appears to you. My heart and mind were from childhood disposed for the tender feelings of benevolence; I was always wishing to accomplish great deeds.”

(October 6, 1802, in the so-called Heiligenstadt Will.)

168. “Divinity, thou lookest into my heart, thou knowest it, thou knowest that love for mankind and a desire to do good have their abode there. O ye men, when one day ye read this think that ye have wronged me, and may the unfortunate console himself with the thought that he has found one of his kind who, despite all the obstacles which nature put in his path, yet did all in his power to be accepted in the ranks of worthy artists and men!”

(From the Heiligenstadt Will.)

169. “I spend all my mornings with the muses;--and they bless me also in my walks.”

(October 12, 1835, to his nephew Karl.)

170. “Concerning myself nothing,--that is, from nothing nothing.”

(October 19, 1815, to Countess Erdody.)

[A possible allusion to the line, “Nothing can come of nothing.” from Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” Act 1, scene 1]

171. “Beethoven can write, thank God; but do nothing else on earth.”

(December 22, 1822, to Ferdinand Ries, in London.)

172. “Mentally I often frame an answer, but when I come to write it down I generally throw the pen aside, since I am not able to write what I feel.”

(October 7, 1826, to his friend Wegeler, in Coblenz. “The better sort of people, I think, know me anyhow.” He is excusing his laziness in letter-writing.)

173. “I have the gift to conceal my sensitiveness touching a multitude of things; but when I am provoked at a moment when I am more sensitive than usual to anger, I burst out more violently than anybody else.”

(July 24, 1804, to Ries, in reporting to him a quarrel with Stephan von
Breuning.)

174. “X. is completely changed since I threw half a dozen books at her head. Perhaps something of their contents accidentally got into her head or her wicked heart.”

(To Mme. Streicher, who often had to put Beethoven’s house in order.)

175. “I can have no intercourse, and do not want to have any, with persons who are not willing to believe in me because I have not yet made a wide reputation.”

(To Prince Lobkowitz, about 1798. A cavalier had failed to show him
proper respect in the Prince’s salon.)

176. “Many a vigorous and unconsidered word drops from my mouth, for which reason I am considered mad.”

(In the summer of 1880, to Dr. Muller, of Bremen, who was paying him a
visit.)

177. “I will grapple with Fate; it shall not quite bear me down. O, it is lovely to live life a thousand times!”

(November 16, 1800, or 1801, to Wegeler.)

178. “Morality is the strength of men who distinguish themselves over others, and it is mine.”

(In a communication to his friend, Baron Zmeskall.)

179. “I, too, am a king!”

(Said to Holz, when the latter begged him not to sell the ring which King Frederick William III, of Prussia, had sent to him instead of money or an order in return for the dedication of the ninth symphony. “Master, keep the ring,” Holz had said, “it is from a king.” Beethoven made his remark “with indescribable dignity and self-consciousness.”)

[On his deathbed he said to little Gerhard von Breuning: “Know that I am an artist.”]

[At the height of the popular infatuation for Rossini (1822) he said to his friends: “Well, they will not be able to rob me of my place in the history of art.”]

180. “Prince, what you are you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am through my own efforts. There have been thousands of princes and will be thousands more; there is only one Beethoven!”

(According to tradition, from a letter which he wrote to Prince Lichnowsky when the latter attempted to persuade him to play for some French officers on his estate in Silesia. Beethoven went at night to Troppau, carrying the manuscript of the (so-called) “Appassionata” sonata, which suffered from the rain.)

181. “My nobility is here, and here (pointing to his heart and head).”

(Reported by Schindler. In the lawsuit against his sister-in-law (the mother of nephew Karl) Beethoven had been called on to prove that the “van” in his name was a badge of nobility.)

182. “You write that somebody has said that I am the natural son of the late King of Prussia. The same thing was said to me long ago, but I have made it a rule never to write anything about myself or answer anything that is said about me.”

(October 7, 1826, to Wegeler.)

[“I leave it to you to give the world an account of myself and especially my mother.” The statement had appeared in Brockhaus’s “Lexicon.”]

183. “To me the highest thing, after God, is my honor.”

(July 26, 1822, to the publisher Peters, in Leipzig.)

184. “I have never thought of writing for reputation and honor. What I have in my heart must out; that is the reason why I compose.”

(Remark to Karl Czerny, reported in his autobiography.)

185. “I do not desire that you shall esteem me greater as an artist, but better and more perfect as a man; when the condition of our country is somewhat better, then my art shall be devoted to the welfare of the poor.”

(Vienna, June 29, 1800, to Wegeler, in Bonn, writing of his return to
his native land.)

186. “Perhaps the only thing that looks like genius about me is that my affairs are not always in the best of order, and that in this respect nobody can be of help but myself.”

(April 22, 1801, to Hofmeister, in Leipzig excusing himself for dilatoriness in sending him these compositions: the Pianoforte sonata op. 22, the symphony op. 21, the septet op. 20 and the concerto op. 19.)

187. “I am free from all small vanities. Only in the divine art is the lever which gives me power to sacrifice the best part of my life to the celestial muses.”

(September 9, 1824, to George Nigeli, in Zurich.)

188. “Inasmuch as the purpose of the undersigned throughout his career has not been selfish but the promotion of the interests of art, the elevation of popular taste and the flight of his own genius toward loftier ideals and perfection, it was inevitable that he should frequently sacrifice his own advantages and profit to the muse.”

(December, 1804, to the Director of the Court Theatre, applying for an
engagement which was never effected.)

189. “From my earliest childhood my zeal to serve suffering humanity with my art was never content with any kind of a subterfuge; and no other reward is needed than the internal satisfaction which always accompanies such a deed.”

(To Procurator Varenna, who had asked him for compositions to be played
at a charity concert in Graz.)

190. “There is no greater pleasure for me than to practice and exhibit my art.”

(November 16, 1800, or 1801, to Wegeler.)

191. “I recognize no other accomplishments or advantages than those which place one amongst the better class of men; where I find them, there is my home.”

(Teplitz, July 17, 1812, to his little admirer, Emile M., in H.)

192. “From childhood I learned to love virtue, and everything beautiful and good.”

(About 1808, to Frau Marie Bigot.)

193. “It is one of my foremost principles never to occupy any other relations than those of friendship with the wife of another man. I should never want to fill my heart with distrust towards those who may chance some day to share my fate with me, and thus destroy the loveliest and purest life for myself.”

(About 1808, to Frau Marie Bigot, after she had declined his invitation
to drive with him.)

194. “In my solitude here I miss my roommate, at least at evening and noon, when the human animal is obliged to assimilate that which is necessary to the production of the intellectual, and which I prefer to do in company with another.”

(Teplitz, September 6, 1811, to Tiedge.)

195. “It was not intentional and premeditated malice which led me to act toward you as I did; it was my unpardonable carelessness.”

(To Wegeler.)

196. “I am not bad; hot blood is my wickedness, my crime is youthfulness. I am not bad, really not bad; even though wild surges often accuse my heart, it still is good. To do good wherever we can, to love liberty above all things, and never to deny truth though it be at the throne itself.--Think occasionally of the friend who honors you.”

(Written in the autograph album of a Herr Bocke.)

197. “It is a singular sensation to see and hear one’s self praised, and then to be conscious of one’s own imperfections as I am. I always regard such occasions as admonitions to get nearer the unattainable goal set for us by art and nature, hard as it may be.”

(To Mdlle. de Girardi, who had sung his praises in a poem.)

198. “It is my sincere desire that whatever shall be said of me hereafter shall adhere strictly to the truth in every respect regardless of who may be hurt thereby, me not excepted.”

(Reported by Schindler, who also relates that when Beethoven handed him documents to be used in the biography a week before his death, he said to him and Breuning: “But in all things severely the truth; for that I hold you to a strict accountability.”)

199. “Now you can help me to find a wife. If you find a beautiful woman in F. who, mayhap, endows my music with a sigh,--but she must be no Elise Burger--make a provisional engagement. But she must be beautiful, for I can love only the beautiful; otherwise I might love myself.”

(In 1809, to Baron von Gleichenstein. As for the personal reference it seems likely that Beethoven referred to Elise Burger, second wife of the poet G. August Burger, with whom he had got acquainted after she had been divorced and become an elocutionist.)

200. “Am I not a true friend? Why do you conceal your necessities from me? No friend of mine must suffer so long as I have anything.”

(To Ferdinand Ries, in 1801. Ries’s father had been kind to Beethoven on
the death of his mother in 1787.)

201. “I would rather forget what I owe to myself than what I owe to others.”

(To Frau Streicher, in the summer of 1817.)

202. “I never practice revenge. When I must antagonize others I do no more than is necessary to protect myself against them, or prevent them from doing further evil.”

(To Frau Streicher, in reference to the troubles which his servants gave him, many of which, no doubt, were due to faults of his own, excusable in a man in his condition of health.)

203. “Be convinced that mankind, even in your case, will always be sacred to me.”

(To Czapka, Magisterial Councillor, August, 1826, in the matter of his
nephew’s attempt at suicide.)

204. “H. is, and always will be, too weak for friendship, and I look upon him and Y. as mere instruments upon which I play when I feel like it; but they can never be witnesses of my internal and external activities, and just as little real participants. I value them according as they do me service.”

(Summer of 1800, to the friend of his youth, Pastor Amenda. H. was
probably the faithful Baron Zmeskall von Domanovecz.)

205. “If it amuses them to talk and write about me in that manner, let them go on.”

(Reported by Schindler as referring to critics who had declared him ripe
for the madhouse.)

206. “To your gentlemen critics I recommend a little more foresight and shrewdness, particularly in respect of the products of younger authors, as many a one, who might otherwise make progress, may be frightened off. So far as I am concerned I am far from thinking myself so perfect as not to be able to endure faulting; yet at the beginning the clamor of your critic was so debasing that I could scarcely discuss the matter when I compared myself with others, but had to remain quiet and think: they do not understand. I was the more able to remain quiet when I recalled how men were praised who signify little among those who know, and who have almost disappeared despite their good points. Well, pax vobiscum, peace to them and me,--I would never have mentioned a syllable had you not begun.”

(April 22, 1801, to Breitkopf and Hartel, publishers of the “Allgemeine
Musik Zeitung.”)

207. “Who was happier than I when I could still pronounce the sweet word ‘mother’ and have it heard? To whom can I speak it now?”

(September 15, 1787, from Bonn to Dr. Schade, of Augsburg, who had aided him in his return journey from Vienna to Bonn. His mother had died on July 17, 1787.)

208. “I seldom go anywhere since it was always impossible for me to associate with people where there was not a certain exchange of ideas.”

(February 15, 1817, to Brentano of Frankfurt.)

209. “Not a word about rest! I know of none except in sleep, and sorry enough am I that I am obliged to yield up more to it than formerly.”

(November 16, 1801, or 1802, to Wegeler. In Homer’s “Odyssey” Beethoven
thickly underscored the words: “Too much sleep is injurious.” XV, 393.)

210. “Rest assured that you are dealing with a true artist who likes to be paid decently, it is true, but who loves his own reputation and also the fame of his art; who is never satisfied with himself and who strives continually to make even greater progress in his art.”

(November 23, 1809, to George Thomson, of Edinburgh, for whom Beethoven
arranged the Scotch songs.)

211. “My motto is always: nulla die sine linea; and if I permit the muse to go to sleep it is only that she may awake strengthened.”

(October 7, 1826, to Wegeler.)

212. “There is no treatise likely to be too learned for me. Without laying claim to real learning it is yet true that since my childhood I have striven to learn the minds of the best and wisest of every period of time. It is a disgrace for every artist who does not try to do as much.”

(November 2, 1809, to Breitkopf and Hartel, of Leipzig.)

213. “Without wishing in the least to set myself up as an exemplar I assure you that I lived in a small and insignificant place, and made out of myself nearly all that I was there and am here;--this to your comfort in case you feel the need of making progress in art.”

(Baden, July 6, 1804, to Herr Wiedebein, of Brunswick, who had asked if it was advisable for a music teacher and student to make his home in Vienna.)

214. “There is much on earth to be done,--do it soon! I must not continue my present everyday life,--art asks this sacrifice also. Take rest in diversion in order to work more energetically.”

(Diary, 1814.)

215. “The daily grind exhausts me.”

(Baden, August 23, 1823, to his nephew Karl.)

THE SUFFERER

216. “Compelled to be a philosopher as early as my 28th year;--it is not an easy matter,--more difficult for the artist than any other man.”

(October 6, 1802; the Heiligenstadt Will.)

217. “Compelled to contemplate a lasting malady, born with an ardent and lively temperament, susceptible to the diversions of society, I was obliged at an early date to isolate myself and live a life of solitude.”

(From the same.)

218. “It was impossible for me to say to others: speak louder; shout! for I am deaf. Ah! was it possible for me to proclaim a deficiency in that one sense which in my case ought to have been more perfect than in all others, which I had once possessed in greatest perfection, to a degree of perfection, indeed, which few of my profession have ever enjoyed?”

(From the same.)

219. “For me there can be no recreation in human society, refined conversation, mutual exchange of thoughts and feelings; only so far as necessity compels may I give myself to society,--I must live like an exile.”

(From the same.)

220. “How great was the humiliation when one who stood beside me heard the distant sound of a shepherd’s pipe, and I heard nothing; or heard the shepherd singing, and I heard nothing. Such experiences brought me to the verge of despair;--but little more and I should have put an end to my life. Art, art alone deterred me.”

(From the same.)

221. “I may say that I live a wretched existence. For almost two years I have avoided all social gatherings because it is impossible for me to tell the people I am deaf. If my vocation were anything else it might be more endurable, but under the circumstances the condition is terrible; besides what would my enemies say,--they are not few in number! To give you an idea of this singular deafness let me tell you that in the theatre I must lean over close to the orchestra in order to understand the actor; if I am a little remote from them I do not hear the high tones of instruments and voices; it is remarkable that there are persons who have not observed it, but because I am generally absent-minded my conduct is ascribed to that.”

(Vienna, June 29, 1800, to Wegeler. “To you only do I confide this as a
secret.” Concerning his deafness see Appendix.)

222. “My defective hearing appeared everywhere before me like a ghost; I fled from the presence of men, was obliged to appear to be a misanthrope although I am so little such.”

(November 16, 1801, or 1800, to Wegeler, in writing to him about his
happy love. “Unfortunately, she is not of my station in life.”)

223. “Truly, a hard lot has befallen me! Yet I accept the decree of Fate, and continually pray to God to grant that as long as I must endure this death in life, I may be preserved from want.”

(March 14, 1827, to Moscheles, after Beethoven had undergone the fourth operation for dropsy and was confronting the fifth. He died on March 26, 1827.)

224. “Live alone in your art! Restricted though you be by your defective sense, this is still the only existence for you.”

(Diary, 1816.)

225. “Dissatisfied with many things, more susceptible than any other person and tormented by my deafness, I often find only suffering in the association with others.”

(In 1815, to Brauchle, tutor in the house of Countess Erdody.)