The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume I

Introductory--The Electors of Cologne in the Eighteenth Century--Joseph Clemens, Clemens August and Max Friedrich--The Electoral Courts and Their Music--Musical Culture in Bonn...

to Zmeskall of March 29, 1799, “there is no use in quarrelling with what cannot be changed”--made the best of it, and went to work on the “Sinfonia eroica”!

The impatient Beethoven, vexed at the tardy improvement of his health under the treatment of Vering, made that change of physicians contemplated in his letter to Wegeler. This w...

Let us now turn back to the important letters written in the summer of 1801, beginning with two written to his friend Amenda, which were first published in the “Signale” of 1852...

The narrative resumes its course with the year 1796, the twenty-sixth of Beethoven’s life and his fourth in Vienna. If not yet officially, he was _de facto_ discharged from his...

The year 1800 is an important era in Beethoven’s history. It is the year in which, cutting loose from the pianoforte, he asserted his claims to a position with Mozart and the st...

As a pendant to the preceding sketches of Bonn’s musical history a variety of notices belonging to the last three years of Beethoven’s life in his native place are here brought...

Beethoven’s Creative Activity in Bonn--An Inquiry into the Genesis of Many Compositions--The Cantatas on the Death of Joseph II and the Elevation of Leopold II--Songs, the “Ritt...

Early in the year 1798, a political event occurred which demands notice here from its connection with one of Beethoven’s noblest and most original works--the “Sinfonia Eroica.”...

The Year 1801--Concerts for Wounded Soldiers--Vigano and the Ballet “Prometheus”--Stephan von Breuning--Hetzendorf--“Christus am Ölberg”--Compositions and Publications of the Ye...

However quiet and “without observation” Beethoven’s advent in Vienna may have been at that time when men’s minds were occupied by movements of armies and ideas of revolution, he...

It would be pleasant to announce the arrival of Ludwig van Beethoven in Vienna with, so to speak, a grand flourish of trumpets, and to indulge the fancy in a highly-colored and...

The chronological progress of the narrative must again be interrupted for a chapter or two, since no picture of a man’s life can be complete without the lights or shades arising...

It is not easy to conceive upon what ground the opinion became current, as it did, that Beethoven in the year 1800 and for several years to come was still burdened with the supp...

There is no authentic record of Beethoven’s birthday. Wegeler, on the ground of custom in Bonn, dates it the day preceding the ceremony of baptism--an opinion which Beethoven hi...

Schindler records--and on such points his testimony is good--that he had heard Beethoven attribute the marvellous development of Mozart’s genius in great measure to the “consist...

If for no other reasons than because of the long time and monumental patience expended upon its preparation, the vicissitudes through which it has passed and the varied and ardu...

At the beginning of the seventeenth century a family named van Beethoven lived in a village of Belgium near Louvain. A member of it removed to and settled in Antwerp about 1650....

The musical drama naturally took the first place in the musical life of Vienna at this period. The enthusiasm of Joseph II for a national German opera, to which the world owed M...

Christian Gottlob Neefe succeeded the persons mentioned as Beethoven’s master in music. When this tutorship began and ended, and whether or not it be true that the Elector engag...

Maria Theresia was a tender mother, much concerned to see all her children well provided for in her lifetime and as independent as possible of her eldest son, the heir to the th...

In 1527, the year in which the administration of the office of _Hochmeister_ of the Teutonic Order was united with that of the _Deutschmeister_, whose residence had already been...

In the letter dated November 16, Beethoven’s strong expressions of desire and intention to exhibit his powers as pianist and composer in other cities, are striking and worthy of...

Early in the year 1788, the mind of the Elector, Max Franz, was occupied with the project for forming a company of _Hofschauspieler;_ in short, with the founding of a National T...

Dr. Riemann thinks that Beethoven originally wrote “1802” on the autograph, and that subsequently he, or somebody else, changed the 8 into a 7 and the 0 into an 8. (See the _fac...

Conversation with Schindler about Her Marriage--Schindler’s Contradictory Story--Countess Erdödy--Schindler’s Theory Disproved--The Letter to the “Immortal Beloved”--Critical St...

in Bonn--Gleanings of Fact and Anecdote--A Visit from Haydn--Merry Journey up the Rhine--Beethoven’s Meeting with Abbé Sterkel--He Extemporizes--His Playing Described by Carl Lu...

Beethoven’s Views on Transcriptions--His Despondency--The “Heiligenstadt Will”--Confession of His Deafness--The Second Symphony--Return to Vienna--Marches for the Pianoforte, Fo...

His Connection with the “Sinfonia eroica”--Rival Pianists--Joseph Wölffl--Tomaschek Describes Beethoven’s Playing--Dragonetti--J. B. Cramer--Beethoven’s Demeanor in Society--Com...

Hoffmeister--Concerts for Wounded Soldiers--Vigano and the Ballet “Prometheus”--Interest in the Publication of Bach’s Works and His Indigent Daughter--Stephan von Breuning--Summ...

Trios, Op. 1--Tender Memories of Friends in Bonn--A Letter to Leonore von Breuning--Wegeler Comes to Vienna--His Reminiscences--A Quarrel and Petition for Reconciliation--Irksom...

Germany--Character of Their Rulers--The Electors of Cologne in the Eighteenth Century--Joseph Clemens--Clemens August--Max Friedrich--Incidents and Achievements in Their Reigns-...

Inquiry into the Genesis of Many Compositions--The Cantatas on the Death of Joseph II and the Elevation of Leopold II--Vicissitudes of These Compositions--A Group of Songs--The...

Achieved in the Austrian Capital--A Visit to Prague--The Scena: “Ah, perfido!”--Sojourn in Berlin--King Frederick William II--Prince Louis Ferdinand--Violoncello Sonatas--Relati...

to Amenda, Hoffmeister and Wegeler--The Composer’s Ill Health--The Beginning of His Deafness--Early Symptoms Described by Himself--Thoughts of Marriage--Indignation Aroused by t...

van Beethoven, His Grandfather--He Leaves His Paternal Home--Tenor Singer at Louvain--His Removal to Bonn--Marriage--Activities as Bass Singer and Chapelmaster in the Electoral...

Arrival There--Theatre, Church and Concert-Room--Salieri and the Royal Imperial Opera--Schikaneder’s Theater auf der Wieden--Composers and Conductors in the Imperial Capital--Pa...

on His Own Account--Septet and First Symphony Performed--Punto and the Sonata for Horn--The Charlatan Steibelt Confounded--Beethoven’s Homes in Vienna--Madame Grillparzer, the P...

Conflict of Dates--The House in Which He Was Born--Poverty of the Family--An Inebriate Grandmother and a Dissipated Father--The Composer’s Scant Schooling--His First Music Teach...

Disposition--Evil Effects of Early Associations and Inadequate Intellectual Training--Sentimental Ideals not Realized in Conduct--Self-sufficiency and Pride--The Homage of Young...

Period of Artistic Inactivity in Bonn--The Young Organist Indulges in a Prank--A Visit to Vienna--Mozart Hears the Youthful Beethoven Play--Sympathetic Acquaintances--Death of B...

Appearance--Death of His Father--Records of Minor Receipts and Expenditures--His Studies with Haydn--Clandestine Lessons in Composition with Johann Schenk--A Rupture with Haydn-...

of Maria Theresias’s Youngest Son--His Career in Church and State--Musical Culture in the Austrian Imperial Family--The Elector’s Admiration for Mozart and Mozart’s Characteriza...