Chapter I (2)

Whereas we, Max. Frid. p. on the death of Court Musician Philipp
Haveck and the submissive petition of our court musician Philipp
Salomon bestowed upon him the grace of adding 50 fl. for his
two daughters to the salary which he already enjoys out of the
salary of the above mentioned Haveck per year; we confirm the act
hereby; wherefore we have graciously issued, this decree, which
our Electoral Court Exchequer will humbly observe and make all
necessary provisions.

Attest, p. Münster, 17th 9bris 1769.

(On the margin:) “Gracious addition of 50 fl. for the court
musician Philipp Salomon” and, besides Brandt and Meuris, also
“_in simili_ for Court Musician Joann Bethoff 25 fl.”

There need be no apology for filling a few more pages with extracts from documents found in the Düsseldorf archives; for now a period has been reached in which the child Ludwig van Beethoven is growing up into youth and early manhood, and thrown into constant contact with those whose names will appear. Some of these names will come up many years later in Vienna; others will have their parts to play in the narrative of that child’s life. Omitting, for the present, a petition of Johann van Beethoven, we begin them with that of Joseph Demmer, of date January 23, 1773, which first secured him his appointment after a year’s service and three months’ instruction from “the young Mr. van Beethoven.”

Most Reverend Archbishop and Elector,
Most Gracious Lord, etc., etc.

I have been accepted as chorister in the cathedral of this city at
a salary of 80 th. per year, and have so practised myself in music
that I humbly flatter myself of my ability to perform my task
with the highest satisfaction.

It being graciously known that the bass singer van Beethoven
is incapacitated and can no longer serve as such, and the
contra-bassist Noisten can not adapt his voice: therefore this my
submissive to Your Reverend Electoral Grace that you graciously
be pleased to accept me as your bass singer with such gracious
salary as may seem fit; I offer should it be demanded to attend
the operettas also and qualify myself in a short time. It depends
upon a mere hint from Your Electoral Grace alone; that it shall
not be burdensome to the cantor’s office of the cathedral to save
the loss of the 80 th. yearly which it has bestowed upon me.

I am in most dutiful reverence
Your Electoral Grace’s
most obedient
Joseph Demmer.

_Pro Memoria_.

Cantor Demmer earned at the utmost 106 rth. per year if he
neglected none of the greater or little _Horis_.

Pays the Chamber Chancellor Kügelgen
for board, annually, 66 rth.
for _quartier_ (lodging) 12 rth.

moreover, he must find himself in clothes and washing since his
father, the sub-sacristan in Cologne, is still overburdened with 6
children.

He has paid 6 rth. to young Mr. Beethoven for 3 months.

JOSEPH DEMMER SUCCEEDS BEETHOVEN

In response to another petition after the death of L. van Beethoven the following decree was issued:

Decree as Court vocal bass for Joseph Demmer.

Whereas His Electoral Grace of Cologne, M. F. our most gracious
Lord, on the humble petition of Joseph Demmer has graciously
appointed and accepted him as His Highness’s vocal bass on the
Electoral Toxal, with a yearly salary of 200 fl. divided in
_quartalien_ to begin with the current time, the appointment is
confirmed hereby and a decree granted to the same Demmer, of
which, for purposes of payment, the Electoral Chancellary will
take notice and all whom it may concern will respect and obey the
same and otherwise do what is necessary in the premises. Attest,
p. Bonn, May 29, 1774.

Two years later leave of absence, but without salary, was granted to Joseph Demmer to visit Amsterdam to complete his education in music. Further notes from documentary sources:

1774. May 26. Andreas Lucchesi appointed Court Chapelmaster in
place of Ludwig van Beethoven, deceased, with a salary of 1,000 fl.

May 29. Salary of Anna Maria Ries raised from 230 fl. to 300
fl. On May 13, 1775, together with Ferdinand Trewer (Drewer),
violinist, she receives leave of absence for four months, to
begin in June with two quarters’ pay in advance. In the Court
Calendar for 1775, which was printed about seven months in
advance, she is already described as Madame Drewers, née Ries. She
was considered the best singer in the chapel.

November 23. Franz Anton Ries has granted him 25 th. payable
quarterly.

1775. March 23. Nicolas Simrock appointed on petition “Court
Hornist on the Electoral Toxal, in the cabinet and at table,”
and a salary of 300 fl. was granted April 1. This is the first
appearance in these records of a name which afterwards rose into
prominence.

1777. April 20. B. J. Mäurer, violoncellist, “who has served in
the court chapel from the beginning of the year till now on a
promise of 100 th.,” prays for an appointment as court ’cellist
at a salary of 400 th. Appointed at a salary of 200 th.; we shall
have occasion to recur to him presently in connection with notices
touching Beethoven.

Under date May 22, 1778, J. van Beethoven informs the Elector that “the singer Averdonck, who is to be sent to Chapelmaster Sales at Coblenz, is to pay 15 fl. per month for board and lodging but that only a _douceur_ is to be asked for her instruction and that to take her thither will cost 20 th.” There followed upon this the following document:

To the humble announcement of Court Musician Beethoven
touching the singer Averdonck.

Electoral Councillor Forlivesi is to pay to the proper authorities
for a year beginning next month, 15 fl. a month and for the
travelling expenses 20 rth. once and for all as soon as the
journey is begun.

Attest.
p. Bonn, May 22, 1778.

This pupil of Johann van Beethoven, Johanna Helena Averdonk, born in Bonn on December 11, 1760, and brought forward by her teacher at a concert in Cologne, received 120 th. “as a special grace” on July 2, and was appointed Court Singer on November 18, 1780, with a salary of 200 th. She died nine years later, August 13, 1789.

The petitions sent in to the Elector were rarely dated and were not always immediately attended to; therefore the date of a _decretum_ is not to be taken as conclusive in regard to the date of facts mentioned in a petition. An illustration is afforded by a petition of Franz Ries. He has returned from a tour to Vienna and prays for a salary of 500 fl. “not the half of what he can earn elsewhere.” The petition is dated March 2. Two months passing without bringing him an answer, he petitions again and obtains a decree on May 2 that in addition to his salary of 28 th. 2 alb. 6, he shall receive “annoch so viel,”--again as much,--i. e., 400 fl.

1780. August. Court Organist Van den Eede prays that in
consideration of his service of 54 years he be graciously and
charitably given the salary vacated by the death of Court Musician
Salomon. Eighteen others make the same prayer. The decision of the
privy council is in these words: “To be divided between Huttenus
and Esch. A decree as musical vocalist must first be given to the
latter.”

1781. February 15. The name of C. G. Neefe is now met with for
the first time. He petitions for appointment to the position of
organist in succession to Van den Eede, obviously aged and infirm.
A decree was issued “_placet et expediatur_ on the death of
Organist Van den Eede,” and a salary of 400 fl. granted.

1782. May 16. Johann van Beethoven petitions for “the three
measures (_Malter_) of corn.”

The archives of Düsseldorf furnish little more during the time of Max Frederick save certain papers relating to the Beethoven family, which are reserved for another place.

OPERA AT THE ELECTOR’S COURT

The search for means to form some correct idea of the character of the musical performances at the Elector’s court during this reign has been more successful than for the preceding; but much is left to be desired down to the year 1778, when the theatre was placed upon a different basis and its history is sufficiently recorded. Such notices, however, in relation to the operatic entertainments as have been found scattered, mostly in the newspapers of Bonn, in those years, are numerous enough to give an idea of their character; while the remarks upon the festivities of the court, connected with them, afford a pretty lively picture of social amusement in the highest circle. We make room for some of the most significant occurrences, in chronological order:

1764. January 3. Galuppi’s opera “Il Filosofo di Campagna,” given
in the Electoral Theatre with great applause.

January 8. A grand assembly at the palace in the afternoon, a
magnificent supper in the grand gallery at which many spectators
were present, and finally a masked ball.

March 23. Second performance of “La buona Figliuola,” music by
Piccini.

May 13. Elector’s birthday; “Le Nozze,” music by Galuppi, and two
ballets.

May 20. “II Filosofo” again, the notice of which is followed by
the remark that the Elector is about removing to Brühl for the
summer but will visit Bonn twice a week “on the days when operas
are performed.”

September 21. “La Pastorella al Soglio” (composer not named,
probably Latilla), and two ballets.

December 16. “La Calamità di cuori,” by Galuppi, and two ballets.
This was “the first performance by the Mingotti company under the
direction of Rizzi and Romanini.”

1765. January 6. “Le Aventure di Rodolfo” (Piccini?), given by the
same company together with a pantomime, “L’Arlequino fortunato per
la Maggia.” After the play there was a grand supper at which the
Pope’s nuncio was a guest, and finally a masked ball kept up till
6 o’clock in the morning.

1767. May 13. The Archbishop’s birthday. Here is the programme
condensed from the long description of the festivities in the
“Bonnischer Anzeiger”: 1, Early in the morning three rounds from
the cannon on the city walls; 2, The court and public graciously
permitted to kiss His Transparency’s hand; 3, solemn high mass
with salvos of artillery; 4, Grand dinner in public, the pope’s
nuncio, the foreign ministers and the nobility being the guests
and the eating being accompanied by “exquisite table-music”; 5,
After dinner “a numerously attended assembly”; 6, “A serenata
composed especially for this most joyful day” and a comic
opera in the palace theatre; 7, Supper of 130 covers; 8, _Bal
masqué_ until 5 a. m. The two dramatic pieces were “Serenata
festivale, tra Bacco, Diana ed il Reno,” the authors unnamed,
and “Schiava finta,” _drama giocoso dal celebre don Francesco
Garzia_, _Spagnuolo_, the music probably by Piccini; “Giovanni van
Beethoven” sang the part of _Dorindo_.

1768. May 16. “On the stage of the Court Theatre was performed
with much applause a musical poem in German, specially written for
the birthday of His Highness, and afterward an Italian intermezzo
entitled ‘La Nobiltà delusa.’”

1769. The festivities in honor of the birthday of the Elector
took place May 17th, when, according to the “Anzeiger,” “an
Italian musical drama written expressly for this occasion was
performed”--but the title suggests the possibility of a mistake;
“II Riso d’Apolline,” with music by Betz, had been heard in 1701.

1771. A single discovery only for this year has rewarded search,
that of a text-book, one of particular interest: “Silvain,”
comédie en une acte, mélée d’ariettes, représentée, etc. Text
by Marmontel, music by Grétry. _Dolmon père_, Mons. Louis van
Beethoven, _Maître de Chapelle_; _Dolmon, fils ainé_, Jean van
Beethoven, etc.

1772. February 27. “Le Donne sempre Donne,” music by Andreas
Lucchesi.

In March, on occasion of the opening of the Estates, “La Contadine
in Corte,” music by Sacchini.

The pieces given on the birthday this year were “Il Natal di
Giove,” music by Lucchesi, and “La buona Figliuola,” music by
Piccini. On the 17th the latter was repeated on the arrival of the
French ambassador.

1773. May 30. The Elector’s birthday; “L’Inganno scoperto, overo
il Conte Caramella,” music by Lucchesi, in which Ludovico van
Beethoven sang the part of _Brunoro, contadino e tamburino_.

VERSATILITY OF THE COURT MUSICIANS

There are three more operettas which evidently belong to the succeeding winter when the Bonn company had the aid of two singers from the electoral court of Trèves. Their titles are “L’Improvvisata, o sia la Galanteria disturbata,” by Lucchesi, “Li tre Amanti ridicoli,” by Galuppi, and “La Moda,” by Baroni. Ludwig van Beethoven did not sing in them. The means are still wanting to fill up the many gaps in the annals of this period or to carry them on during the next three years. Perhaps, however, the loss is not of much importance, for the materials collected are sufficient to warrant certain conclusions in regard to the general character of the court music. The musicians, both vocal and instrumental, were employed in the church, concert-room and theatre; their number remained without material change from the days of Christopher Petz to the close of Chapelmaster van Beethoven’s life; places in this service were held to be a sort of heritage, and of right due to the children of old incumbents, when possessed of sufficient musical talent and knowledge; few if any names of distinguished virtuosos are found in the lists of the members, and, in all probability, the performances never rose above the respectable mediocrity of a small band used to playing together in the light and pleasing music of the day.

The dramatic performances appear to have been confined to the operetta; and the vocalists, who sang the Latin of the mass, seem to have been required to be equally at home in German, Italian and French in the theatre. Two visits of the Angelo Mingotti troupe are noted; and one attempt, at least, to place the opera upon a higher basis by the engagement of Italian songstresses, was evidently made in the time of Clemens August.; it may be concluded that no great improvement was made--it is certain that no permanent one was; for in the other case the Bonn theatrical revolution of 1778 had not been needed. This must be noticed in detail.

Chronologically the following sketch belongs to the biography of Ludwig van Beethoven, as it embraces a period which happens in his case to be of special interest, young as he was;--the period from his 8th to his 14th year. But the details given, though of great importance for the light which they throw upon the musical life in which he moved and acted, would hardly be of so much interest to most readers as to justify breaking with them the course of the future narrative.

It was a period of great awakening in theatrical matters. Princes and courts were beginning everywhere in Germany to patronize the drama of their mother tongue and the labors of Lessing, Gotter and other well-known names, in the original production of German, or in the translation of the best English, Italian and French plays, were justifying and giving ever new impulse to the change in taste. From the many itinerant troupes of players performing in booths, or, in the larger cities, in the play-houses, the better class of actors were slowly finding their way into permanent companies engaged and supported by the governments. True, many of the newly established court theatres had but a short and not always a very merry life; true, also, that the more common plan was merely to afford aid and protection to some itinerant troupe; still the idea of a permanent national theatre on the footing of the already long-existing court musical establishments had made way, and had already been carried out in various places before it was taken up by the elector at Bonn. It can hardly be supposed that the example of the imperial court at Vienna, with the immense means at its disposal, could exert any direct influence upon the small court at Bonn at the other extremity of Germany; but what the Duke of Gotha and the elector at Mannheim had undertaken in this direction, Max Friedrich may well have ventured and determined to imitate. But there was an example nearer home--in fact in his own capital of Münster, where he, the prince primate, usually spent the summer. In 1775, Dobbler’s troupe, which had been for some time playing in that city, was broken up.

The Westhus brothers in Münster built up their own out of the
ruins; but it endured only a short time. Thereupon, under the
care of the minister, H. von Fürstenberg (one of those rare
men whom heaven elects and equips with all necessary gifts to
cultivate what is good and beautiful in the arts), a meeting of
the lovers of the stage was arranged in May and a few gentlemen
of the nobility and a few from the parterre formed a council
which assumed the direction. The Elector makes a considerable
contribution. The money otherwise received is to be applied to the
improvement of the wardrobe and the theatre. The actors receive
their honoraria every month.[3]

OPERA AND DRAMA AT BONN IN 1779

At Easter, 1777, Seyler, a manager famous in German theatrical annals, and then at Dresden, finding himself unable to compete with his rival, Bondini, left that city with his company to try his fortunes in Frankfort-on-the-Main, Mayence, and other cities in that quarter. The company was very large--the Theatre Lexicon (Article “Mainz”) makes it, including its orchestra, amount to 230 individuals!--much too large, it seems, in spite of the assertion of the Theatre Lexicon, to be profitable. Be that as it may, after an experience of a year or more, two of the leading members, Grossmann and Helmuth, accepted an engagement from Max Friedrich to form and manage a company at Bonn in order that “the German art of acting might be raised to a school of morals and manners for his people.” Taking with them a pretty large portion of Seyler’s company, including several of the best members, the managers reached Bonn and were ready upon the Elector’s return from Münster to open a season. “The opening of the theatre took place,” says the Bonn “Dramaturgische Nachrichten,” “on the 26th of November, 1778, with a prologue spoken by Madame Grossmann, ‘Wilhelmine Blondheim,’ tragedy in three acts by Grossmann, and ‘Die grosse Batterie,’ comedy in one act by Ayrenhofer.” The same authority gives a list of all the performances of the season, which extended to the 30th of May, 1779, together with débuts, the dismissals and other matters pertaining to the actors. The number of the evenings on which the theatre was open was 50. A five-act play, as a rule, occupied the whole performance, but of shorter pieces usually two were given; and thus an opening was found occasionally for an operetta. Of musical dramas only seven came upon the stage and these somewhat of the lightest order except the first--the melodrama “Ariadne auf Naxos,” music by Benda. The others were:

1779. February 21. “Julie,” translated from the French by
Grossmann, music by Desaides.

February 28. “Die Jäger und das Waldmädchen,” operetta in one act,
music by Duni.

March 21. “Der Hofschmied,” in two acts, music by Philidor.

April 9. “Röschen und Colas,” in one act, music by Monsigny.

May 5. “Der Fassbinder,” in one act, music by Oudinot.

May 14. A prologue “Dedicated to the Birthday Festivities of His
Electoral Grace of Cologne, May 13, 1779, by J. A. Freyherrn vom
Hagen.”

The selection of dramas was, on the whole, very creditable to the taste of the managers. Five of Lessing’s works, among them “Minna von Barnhelm” and “Emilia Galotti,” are in the list and some of the best productions of Bock, Gotter, Engel and their contemporaries; of translations there were Colman’s “Clandestine Marriage” and “Jealous Wife,” Garrick’s “Miss in her Teens,” Cumberland’s “West Indian,” Hoadly’s “Suspicious Husband,” Voltaire’s “Zaire” and “Jeannette,” Beaumarchais’s “Eugénie,” two or three of the works of Molière, and Goldoni, etc.;--in short, the list presents much variety and excellence.

Max Friedrich was evidently pleased with the company, for the “Nachrichten” has the following in the catalogue of performances: “On the 8th (of April) His Electoral Grace was pleased to give a splendid breakfast to the entire company in the theatre.... The company will occupy itself until the return of His Electoral Grace from Münster, which will be in the middle of November, with learning the newest and best pieces, among which are ‘Hamlet,’ ‘King Lear’ and ‘Macbeth,’ which are to be given also with much splendor of costume according to the designs of famous artists.”

It may be remarked here that the “Bonn Comedy House” (for painting the interior of which Clemens August paid 468 thalers in 1751, a date which seems to fix the time at which that end of the palace was completed), occupied that portion of the present University Archæological Museum room next the Coblenz Gate, with large doors opening from the stage into the passageway so that this space could be used as an extension of the stage in pieces requiring it for the production of grand scenic effects. Above the theatre was the “Redouten-Saal” of Max Franz’s time. The Elector had, of course, an entrance from the passages of the palace into his box. The door for the public, in an angle of the wall now built up, opened out upon the grove of horse-chestnuts. The auditorium was necessarily low, but spacious enough for several hundred spectators. Though much criticized by travellers as being unworthy so elegant a court, not to say shabby, it seems to have been a nice and snug little theatre.

Meanwhile affairs with Seyler were drawing to a crisis. He had returned with his company from Mannheim and reopened at Frankfort, August 3, 1779. On the evening of the 17th, to escape imprisonment as a bankrupt, whether through his own fault or that of another--the Theatre Lexicon affirms the latter case--he took his wife and fled to Mayence. The company was allowed by the magistrates to play a few weeks with a view of earning at least the means of leaving the city; but on October 4, its members began to separate; Benda and his wife went to Berlin, but C. G. Neefe, the music director, and Opitz, descended the Rhine to Bonn and joined the company there--Neefe assuming temporarily the direction of the music in the theatre--of which more in another place.

No record has been found of the repertory of the Bonn theatre for the season 1779-1780, except that the opening piece on December 3, on the evening after the Elector’s return from Münster, was a prologue, “Wir haben Ihn wieder!” text by Baron vom Hagen, with airs, recitatives and choruses composed by Neefe; that the “Déserteur” was in the list, and finally Hiller’s “Jagd.” In June, 1781, the season being over, the company migrated to Pyrmont, from Pyrmont to Cassel, and thence, in October, back to Bonn.

ANOTHER BUSY SEASON AT BONN

The season of 1781-’82 was a busy one; of musical dramas alone 17 are reported as newly rehearsed from September, 1781, to the same time in 1782, viz:

“Die Liebe unter den Handwerkern”
(“L’Amore Artigiano”) Music by Gassmann
“Robert und Calliste” „ „ Guglielmi
“Der Alchymist” „ „ Schuster.
“Das tartarische Gesetz” „ „ d’Antoine (of Bonn)
“Der eifersüchtige Liebhaber”
(“L’Amant jaloux”) „ „ Grétry
“Der Hausfreund”
(“L’Ami de la Maison”) „ „ Grétry
“Die Freundschaft auf der Probe”
(“L’Amitié à l’Épreuve”) „ „ Grétry
“Heinrich und Lyda” „ „ Neefe
“Die Apotheke” „ „ Neefe
“Eigensinn und Launen der Liebe” „ „ Deler (Teller, Deller?)
“Romeo und Julie” „ „ Benda
“Sophonisba” (Deklamation mit Musik) „ „ Neefe
“Lucille” „ „ Grétry
“Milton und Elmire” „ „ Mihl (or Mühle)
“Die Samnitische Vermählungsfeier”
(“Le Marriage des Samnites”) „ „ Grétry
“Ernst und Lucinde” „ „ Grétry
“Günther von Schwarzburg” „ „ Holzbauer

It does not follow, however, that all these operas, operettas and plays with music were produced during the season in Bonn. The company followed the Elector to Münster in June, 1782, and removed thence to Frankfort-on-the-Main for its regular series of performances at Michaelmas. It came back to Bonn in the Autumn.

The season 1782-’83 was as active as the preceding. Some of the newly rehearsed spoken dramas were “Sir John Falstaff,” from the English, translations of Sheridan’s “School for Scandal,” Shakespeare’s “Lear,” and “Richard III,” Mrs. Cowley’s “Who’s the Dupe?” and, of original German plays, Schiller’s “Fiesco” and “Die Räuber,” Lessing’s “Miss Sara Sampson,” Schroeder’s “Testament,” etc., etc. The number of newly rehearsed musical dramas--in which class are included such ballad operas as General Burgoyne’s “Maid of the Oaks”--reached twenty, viz:

“Das Rosenfest” Music by Wolf (of Weimar)
“Azalia” „ „ Johann Küchler
(Bassoonist in
the Bonn chapel)
“Die Sklavin” (_La Schiava_) „ „ Piccini
“Zémire et Azor” „ „ Grétry
“Das Mädchen im Eichthale”
(“Maid of the Oaks”) „ „ d’Antoine (Captain
in the army of the
Elector of Cologne)
“Der Kaufmann von Smyrna” „ „ J. A. Juste (Court
Musician in The
Hague)
“Die seidenen Schuhe” „ „ Alexander Frizer
(or Fridzeri)
“Die Reue vor der That” „ „ Desaides
“Der Aerndtetanz” „ „ J. A. Hiller
“Die Olympischen Spiele” (_Olympiade_) „ „ Sacchini
“Die Lügnerin aus Liebe” „ „ Salieri
“Die Italienerin zu London” „ „ Cimarosa
“Das gute Mädchen” (_La buona
figliuola_) „ „ Piccini
“Der Antiquitäten-Sammler” „ „ André
“Die Entführung aus dem Serail” „ „ Mozart
“Die Eifersucht auf der Probe”
(_Il Geloso in Cimento_) „ „ Anfossi
“Rangstreit und Eifersucht auf dem
Lande” (_Le Gelosie villane_) „ „ Sarti
“Unverhofft kommt oft”
(_Les Évènements imprévus_) „ „ Grétry
“Felix, oder der Findling”
(_Félix ou l’Enfant trouvé_) „ „ Monsigny
“Die Pilgrimme von Mekka” „ „ Gluck

But a still farther provision has been made for the Elector’s amusement during the season of 1783-’84, by the engagement of a ballet corps of eighteen persons. The titles of five newly rehearsed ballets are given in the report from which the above particulars are taken, and which may be found in the theatrical calendar for 1784.

With an enlarged company and a more extensive repertory, preparations were made for opening the theatre upon the Elector’s return, at the end of October, from Münster to Bonn. But the relations of the company to the court have been changed. Let the “Theater-Kalender” describe the new position in which the stage at Bonn was placed:

Bonn. His Electoral Grace, by a special condescension, had
graciously determined to make the theatrical performances
gratuitous and to that end has closed a contract with His
Highness’s Theatrical Director Grossmann according to which
besides the theatre free of rent, the illumination and the
orchestra he is to receive an annual subvention for the
maintenance of the company. On His Highness’s command there will
be two or three performances weekly. By particular grace the
director is permitted to spend several summer months in other
places.

AN INFLUENCE ON THE BOY BEETHOVEN

The advantages of this plan for securing a good repertory, a good company and a zealous striving for improvement are obvious; and its practical working during this, its only, season, so far as can now be gathered from scanty records, was a great success. It will hereafter be seen that the boy Ludwig van Beethoven was often employed at the pianoforte at the rehearsals--possibly also at the performances of the company of which Neefe was the musical director. That a company consisting almost exclusively of performers who had passed the ordeal of frequent appearance on the stage and had been selected with full knowledge of the capacity of each, and which, moreover, had gained so much success at the Bonn court as to be put upon a permanent footing, must have been one of more than the ordinary, average excellence, at least in light opera, needs no argument. Nor need comments be made upon the influence which daily intercourse with it, and sharing in its labors, especially in the direction of opera, must have exerted upon the mind of a boy of twelve or thirteen years possessed of real musical genius.

The theatrical season, and with it the company, came to an untimely end. Belderbusch died in January, 1784. Madame Grossmann died in childbed on March 28, and on April 15 the Elector followed them to another world. After the death of the Elector Maximilian Friedrich the Court Theatre was closed for the official mourning and the company dismissed with four weeks’ salary.

It is consonant to the plan of this introductory chapter that some space be devoted to sketches of some of the principal men whose names have already occurred and to some notes upon the musical amateurs of Bonn who are known, or may be supposed, to have been friends of the boy Beethoven. These notices make no claim to the credit of being the result of original research; they are, except that of Neefe, little more than extracts from a letter, dated March 2, 1783, written by Neefe and printed in Cramer’s “Magazin der Musik” (Vol. I, pp. 337 _et seq._). At that time the “Capelldirector,” as Neefe calls him, was Cajetano Mattioli, born at Venice, August 7, 1750, whose appointments were concertmaster and musical director in Bonn, made on May 26, 1774 and April 24, 1777.

He studied in Parma, says Neefe, with the first violinist Angelo
Moriggi, a pupil of Tartini, and in Parma, Mantua and Bologna
conducted grand operas like “Orfeo,” “Alceste,” etc., by the
Chevalier Gluck with success. He owed much to the example set by
Gluck in the matter of conducting. It must be admitted that he is
a man full of fire, of lively temperament and fine feeling. He
penetrates quickly into the intentions of a composer and knows how
to convey them promptly and clearly to the entire orchestra. He
was the first to introduce accentuation, instrumental declamation,
careful attention to forte and piano, or all the degrees of
light and shade in the orchestra of this place. In none of the
qualifications of a leader is he second to the famed Cannabich of
Mannheim. He surpasses him in musical enthusiasm, and, like him,
insists upon discipline and order. Through his efforts the musical
repertory of this court has been provided with a very considerable
collection of good and admirable compositions, symphonies, masses
and other works, to which he makes daily additions; in the same
manner he is continually striving for the betterment of the
orchestra. Just now he is engaged in a project for building a
new organ for the court chapel. The former organ, a magnificent
instrument, became a prey of the flames at the great conflagration
in the palace in 1777. His salary is 1,000 fl.

The chapelmaster (appointed May 26, 1774) was Mr. Andrea Lucchesi,
born May 28, 1741, at Motta in Venetian territory. His teachers
in composition were, in the theatre style, Mr. Cocchi of Naples;
in the church style, Father Paolucci, a pupil of Padre Martini at
Bologna, and afterwards Mr. Seratelli, Chapelmaster of the Duke
of Venice. He is a good organist and occupied himself profitably
with the instrument in Italy. He came here with Mr. Mattioli as
conductor of an Italian opera company in 1771. Taken altogether
he is a light, pleasing and gay composer whose part-writing is
cleaner than that of most of his countrymen. In his church-works
he does not confine himself to the strict style affected by many
to please amateurs. Neefe enumerates Lucchesi’s compositions as
follows: 9 works for the theatre, among them the opera “L’Isola
della Fortuna” (1765), “Il Marito geloso” (1766), “Le Donne sempre
Donne,” “Il Matrimonio per astuzia” (1771) for Venice, and the two
composed at Bonn, “Il Natal di Giove” and “L’inganno scoperto,”
various intermezzi and cantatas; various masses, vespers and other
compositions for the church; six sonatas for the pianoforte and
violin; a pianoforte trio, four pianoforte quartets and several
pianoforte concertos. His salary was 1,000 fl.

CHRISTIAN GOTTLOB NEEFE’S CAREER

The organist of the Court Chapel was Christian Gottlob Neefe, son of a poor tailor of Chemnitz in Saxony, where he was born February 5, 1748. He is one of the many instances in musical history in which the career of the man is determined by the beauty of his voice in childhood. At a very early age he became a chorister in the principal church, which position gave him the best school and musical instruction that the small city afforded--advantages so wisely improved as to enable him in early youth to gain a living by teaching. At the age of 21, with 20 thalers in his pocket and a stipend of 30 thalers per annum from the magistrates of Chemnitz, he removed to Leipsic to attend the lectures of the university, and at that institution in the course of time he passed his examination in jurisprudence. Upon this occasion he argued the negative of the question: “Has a father the right to disinherit a son for devoting himself to the theatre?” In Chemnitz Neefe’s teachers in music had been men of small talents and very limited acquirements, and even in Leipsic he owed more to his persevering study of the theoretical works of Marpurg and C. P. E. Bach than to any regular instructor. But there he had the very great advantage of forming an intimate acquaintance with, and becoming an object of special interest to, Johann Adam Hiller, the celebrated director of the Gewandhaus Concerts, the then popular and famous composer, the introducer of Handel’s “Messiah” to the German public, the industrious writer upon music, and finally a successor of Johann Sebastian Bach as Cantor of the Thomas School. Hiller gave him every encouragement in his power in his musical career; opened the columns of his musical “Wöchentliche Nachrichten” to his compositions and writings; called him to his assistance in operatic composition; gave him the results of his long experience in friendly advice; criticized his compositions, and at length, in 1777, gave him his own position as music director of Seyler’s theatrical company, then playing at the Linkische Bad in Dresden. Upon the departure of that troupe for Frankfort-on-the-Main, Neefe was persuaded to remain with it in the same capacity. He thus became acquainted with Fräulein Zinck, previously court singer at Gotha but now engaged for Seyler’s opera. The acquaintance ripened into a mutual affection and ended in marriage not long afterward. It is no slight testimony to the high reputation which he enjoyed that at the moment of Seyler’s flight from Frankfort (1779) Bondini, whose success had driven that rival from Dresden, was in correspondence with Neefe and making him proposals to resign his position under Seyler for a similar but better one in his service. Pending the result of these negotiations Neefe, taking his wife with him, temporarily joined Grossmann and Helmuth at Bonn in the same capacity. Those managers, who knew the value of his services from their previous experience as members of the Seyler troupe, paid a very strong, though involuntary, tribute to his talents and personal character by adopting such unfair measures as to compel the musician to remain in Bonn until Bondini was forced to fill his vacancy by another candidate. Having once got him, Grossmann was determined to keep him--and succeeded.

As long as the Grossmann company remained undivided Neefe accompanied it in its annual visits to Münster and other places;--thus the sketch of his life printed sixteen years later in the first volume of the “Allgemeine Musikzeitung” of Leipsic bears date “Frankfort-on-the-Main, September 30, 1782”; but from that period save, perhaps, for a short time in 1783, he seems not to have left Bonn at all.

There were others besides Grossmann and Helmuth who thought Neefe too valuable an acquisition to the musical circles of Bonn not to be secured. Less than a year and a half after his arrival there the minister Belderbusch and the countess Hatzfeld, niece of the Elector, secured to him, though a Protestant, an appointment to the place of court organist. The salary of 400 florins, together with the 700 florins from Grossmann, made his income equal to that of the court chapelmaster. It is difficult now to conceive of the forgotten name of C. G. Neefe as having once stood high in the list of the first North German composers; yet such was the case. Of Neefe’s published compositions, besides the short vocal and clavier pieces in Hiller’s periodical, there had already appeared operettas in vocal score, “Die Apotheke” (1772), “Amor’s Guckkasten” (1772), “Die Einsprüche” (1773) and “Heinrich und Lyda” (1777); also airs composed for Hiller’s “Dorf-Barbier” and one from his own republished opera “Zemire und Azor”; twelve odes of Klopstock--sharply criticized by Forkel in his “Musikalisch-Kritische Bibliothek,” much to the benefit of the second edition of them; and a pretty long series of songs. Of instrumental music he had printed twenty-four sonatas for pianoforte solo or with violin; and from Breitkopf and Härtel’s catalogues, 1772 and 1774, may be added the following works included neither in his own list nor that of Gerber: a partita for string quartet, 2 horns, 2 oboes, 2 flutes and 2 bassoons; another for the same instruments minus the flutes and bassoons; a third for the string quartet and 2 oboes only, and two symphonies for string quartet, 2 horns, 2 oboes and 2 flutes. The “Sophonisbe” music was also finished and twenty years later, after Mozart had given a new standard of criticism, it was warmly eulogized in the “Allgemeine Musikzeitung” of Leipsic. At the date of his letter to Cramer (March 2, 1783) he had added to his published works “Sechs Sonaten am Clavier zu singen,” “Vademecum für Liebhaber des Gesangs und Clavier,” the clavier score of “Sophonisbe,” and a concerto for clavier and orchestra. His manuscripts, he adds (Cramer’s “Magazine,” I; p. 382), consist of (a) the scores of the operettas which had appeared in pianoforte arrangements; (b) the score of his opera “Zemire und Azor”; (c) the score of his opera “Adelheit von Veltheim”; (d) the score of a bardic song for the tragedy “The Romans in Germany”; (e) the scores of theatrical between-acts music; (f) the score of a Latin “Pater noster”; (g) various other smaller works. He had in hand the composition of the operetta “Der neue Gutsherr,” the pianoforte score of which, as also that of “Adelheit von Veltheim,” was about to be published by Dyck in Leipsic. A year before at a concert for amateurs at the house of Mr. von Mastiaux he had produced an ode by Klopstock, “Dem Unendlichen,” for four chorus voices and a large orchestra, which was afterwards performed in Holy Week in the _Fräuleinstiftskirche_. In short, Neefe brought to Bonn a high-sounding reputation, talent, skill and culture both musical and literary, which made him invaluable to the managers when new French and Italian operas were to be prepared for the German stage; great facility in throwing off a new air, song, _entr’acte_ or what not to meet the exigencies of the moment; very great industry, a _cacoethes scribendi_ of the very highest value to the student of Bonn’s musical history in his time and a new element into the musical life there. This element may have seemed somewhat formal and pedantic, but it was solid, for it was drawn from the school of Handel and Bach.

MUSIC IN PRIVATE HOUSES OF BONN

Let us return to Neefe’s letter to Cramer again for some notices of music outside the electoral palace:

Belderbusch, the minister, retained a quintet of wind-instruments,
2 clarinets, 2 horns and a bassoon.

The Countess von Belderbusch, wife of a nephew of the minister,
whose name will come up again, “plays skilfully upon the clavier.”

The Countess von Hatzfeld, niece of the Elector, was “trained
in singing and clavier playing by the best masters of Vienna to
whom, indeed, she does very much honor. She declaims recitatives
admirably and it is a pleasure to listen to her sing arias _di
parlante_. She plays the fortepiano brilliantly and in playing
yields herself up completely to her emotions, wherefore one never
hears any restlessness or uneveness of time in her _tempo rubato_.
She is enthusiastically devoted to music and musicians.”[4]

Chancellor and Captain von Schall “plays clavier and violin.
Though not adept on either instrument he has very correct musical
feeling. He knows how to appreciate the true beauties of a
composition, and how to judge them, and has large historical and
literary knowledge of music.”

Frau Court Councillor von Belzer “plays the clavier and sings.
She has a strong, masculine contralto of wide range, particularly
downwards.”

Johann Gottfried von Mastiaux, of the Finance Department and
incumbent of divers high offices, is a self-taught musician. He
plays several instruments himself and has given his four sons and
a daughter the best musical instruction possible in Bonn. All
are pianists and so many of them performers on other instruments
that the production of quintets is a common family enjoyment. He
is a devoted admirer of Haydn, with whom he corresponds, and in
his large collection of music there are already 80 symphonies,
30 quartets and 40 trios by that master. His rare and valuable
instruments are so numerous “that he could almost equip a complete
orchestra. Every musician is his friend and welcome to him.”

Count Altstädter: “in his house one may at times hear a very good
quartet.”

Captain Dantoine, “a passionate admirer and knower of music; plays
the violin and the clavier a little. He learned composition from
the books of Marpurg, Kirnberger and Riepel. Formed his taste in
Italy. In both respects the reading of scores by classical masters
has been of great service to him.” Among his compositions are
several operettas, symphonies and quartets “in Haydn’s style.”

The three Messrs. Facius, “sons of the Russian agent here, are
soundly musical; the two elder play the flute and the youngest
plays the violoncello.” (According to Fischer the members of this
family were visitors at the house of the Beethovens.)

There are many more music-lovers here, but the majority of them
are too much given to privacy, so far as their musical practice
goes, to be mentioned here. Enough has been said to show that a
stranger fond of music need never leave Bonn without nourishment.
Nevertheless, a large public concert institution under the
patronage of His Electoral Grace is still desirable. It would be
one more ornament of the capital and a promoter of the good cause
of music.

What with the theatre, the court music, the musical productions in the church and such opportunities in private it is plain that young talent in those days in Bonn was in no danger of starvation for want of what Neefe calls “musikalische Nahrung.”

So much upon the _dramatis personæ_, other than the principal figure and his family. Let an attempt follow to describe the little city as it appeared in 1770--in other words, to picture the scene. By an enumeration made in 1789, the population of Bonn was 9,560 souls, a number which probably for a long series of years had rarely varied beyond a few score, more or less--one, therefore, that must very nearly represent the aggregate in 1770. For the town had neither manufactures nor commerce beyond what its own wants supported; it was simply the residence of the Elector--the seat of the court, and the people depended more or less directly upon that court for subsistence--as a wag expressed it, “all Bonn was fed from the Elector’s kitchen.” The old city walls--(the “gar gute Fortification, dass der Churfürst sicher genug darinnen Hof halten kann” of Johann Hübner’s description)--were already partially destroyed. Within them the whole population seems to have lived. Outside the city gates it does not appear that, save by a chapel or two, the eye was impeded in its sweep across gardens and open fields to the surrounding villages which, then as now hidden in clusters of walnut and fruit trees, appeared, when looked upon from the neighboring hills, like islands rising upon the level surface of the plain. The great increase of wealth and population during the last 150 years in all this part of the Rhine valley under the influence of the wise national economy of the Prussian government, has produced corresponding changes in and about the towns and villages; but the grand features of the landscape are unchanged; the ruins upon the Drachenfels and Godesberg looked down, as now, upon the distant roofs and spires of Bonn; the castle of Siegburg rose above the plains away to the East; the chapel crowned the Petersberg, the church with the marble stairs the nearer Kreuzberg.

A PROSPECT OF BONN IN BEETHOVEN’S DAY

The fine landing place with its growing trees and seats for idlers, the villas, hotels, coffee-houses and dwellings outside the old walls, are all recent; but the huge ferryboat, the “flying bridge,” even then was ever swinging like a pendulum from shore to shore. Steam as a locomotive power was unknown, and the commerce of the Rhine floated by the town, gliding down with the current on rafts or in clumsy but rather picturesque boats, or impelled against the stream by the winds, by horses and even by men and women. The amount of traffic was not, however, too great to be amply provided for in this manner; for population was kept down by war, by the hard and rude life of the peasant class, and by the influences of all the false national-economic principles of that age, which restrained commerce by every device that could be made to yield present profit to the rulers of the Rhine lands. Passengers had, for generations, no longer been plundered by mail-clad robbers dwelling upon a hundred picturesque heights; but each petty state had gained from the Emperor’s weakness “vested rights” in all sorts of custom-levies and taxes. Risbeck (1780) found nine toll-stations between Mayence and Coblenz; and thence to the boundary of Holland, he declares there were at least sixteen, and that in the average each must have collected 30,000 Rhenish florins per annum.

To the stranger, coming down from Mayence, with its narrow dark lanes, or up from Cologne, whose confined and pestiferously dirty streets, emitting unnamed stenches, were but typical of the bigotry, superstition and moral filth of the population--all now happily changed, thanks to a long period of French and Prussian rule--little Bonn seemed a very picture of neatness and comfort. Even its ecclesiastical life seemed of another order. The men of high rank in the church were of high rank also by birth; they were men of the world and gentlemen; their manners were polished and their minds enlarged by intercourse with the world and with gentlemen; they were tolerant in their opinions and liberal in their views. Ecclesiastics of high and low degree were met at every corner as in other cities of the Rhine region; but absence of military men was a remarkable feature. Johann Hübner gives the reason for this in few and quaint words:--“In times of war much depends upon who is master of Bonn, because traffic on the Rhine can be blockaded at this pass. Therefore the place has its excellent fortification which enables the Elector to hold his court in ample security within its walls. But he need not maintain a garrison there in time of peace, and in time of war troops are garrisoned who have taken the oath to the Emperor and the empire. This was settled by the peace of Ryswick as well as Rastatt.”

While the improvement in the appearance of the streets of Bonn has necessarily been great, through the refitting or rebuilding of a large portion of the dwelling-houses, the plan of the town, except in those parts lying near the wall, has undergone no essential change, the principal one being the open spaces, where in 1770 churches stood. On the small triangular Römer-Platz was the principal parish church of Bonn, that of St. Remigius, standing in such a position that its tall tower looked directly down the Acherstrasse. In 1800 this tower was set on fire by lightning and destroyed; six years later the church itself was demolished by the French and its stones removed to become a part of the fortifications at Wesel. On the small, round grass plot as one goes from the Münster church toward the neighboring city gate (Neuthor) stood another parish church--a rotunda in form--that of St. Martin, which fell in 1812 and was removed; and at the opposite end of the minster, separated from it only by a narrow passage, was still a third, the small structure dedicated to St. Gangolph. This, too, was pulled down in 1806. Only the fourth parish church, that of St. Peter in Dietkirchen, is still in existence and was, at a later date, considerably enlarged. After the demolition of these buildings a new division of the town into parishes was made (1806).

The city front of the electoral palace, now the university, was more imposing than now, and was adorned by a tall, handsome tower containing a carillon, with bells numerous enough to play, for instance, the overture to Monsigny’s “Deserter.” This part of the palace, with the tower and chapel, was destroyed by fire in 1777.

The town hall, erected by Clemens August, and the other churches were as now, but the large edifice facing the university library and museum of casts, now occupied by private dwellings and shops, was then the cloister and church of the Franciscan monks. A convent of Capuchin nuns stood upon the Kesselgasse; its garden is now a bleaching ground.

HOLIDAY TIMES IN THE LITTLE CITY

Let the fancy picture, upon a fine Easter or Pentecost morning in those years, the little city in its holiday attire and bustle. The bells in palace and church tower ringing; the peasants in coarse but picturesque garments, the women abounding in bright colors, come in from the surrounding villages, fill the market-place and crowd the churches at the early masses. The nobles and gentry--in broad-flapped coats, wide waistcoats and knee-breeches, the entire dress often of brilliant colored silks, satins and velvets, huge, white, flowing neckcloths, ruffles over the hands, buckles of silver or even of gold at the knees and upon the shoes, huge wigs becurled and bepowdered on the heads, and surmounted by the cocked hat, when not held under the arm, a sword at the side, and commonly a gold-headed cane in the hand (and if the morning be cold, a scarlet cloak thrown over the shoulders)--are daintily picking their way to the palace to kiss His Transparency’s hand or dashing up to the gates in heavy carriages with white wigged and cocked-hatted coachmen and footmen. Their ladies wear long and narrow bodices, but their robes flow with a mighty sweep; their apparent stature is increased by very high-heeled shoes and by piling up their hair on lofty cushions; their sleeves are short, but long silk gloves cover the arms. The ecclesiastics, various in name and costume, dress as now, save in the matter of the flowing wig. The Elector’s company of guards is out and at intervals the thunder of the artillery on the walls is heard. On all sides, strong and brilliant contrasts of color meet the eye, velvet and silk, purple and fine linen, gold and silver--such were the fashions of the time--costly, inconvenient in form, but imposing, magnificent and marking the differences of rank and class. Let the imagination picture all this, and it will have a scene familiar to the boy Beethoven, and one in which as he grew up to manhood he had his own small part to play.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] “Briefe,” II. 354, 355.

[2] This was the beginning of the career of Salomon. He became concertmaster to Prince Henry of Prussia, played in Paris, and in 1781 took up a residence in London where, as violinist and conductor, he became brilliantly active and successful. He made repeated visits to Bonn, once in 1790, when he was on his way to London accompanied by Haydn.

[3] Reichardt, “Theaterkalender, 1778,” p. 99.

[4] To her Beethoven dedicated his variations on “Venni Amore.”