Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's Note

Bold text is indicated by ~tildes~, and italics by _underscores_.

THE LIFE OF LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
VOLUME III

Engraved by Blasius Höfel

After a crayon sketch by Louis Latronne]

The Life of

Ludwig van Beethoven

_By_ Alexander Wheelock Thayer

Edited, revised and amended from the original
English manuscript and the German editions
of Hermann Deiters and Hugo Riemann, concluded,
and all the documents newly translated

By
Henry Edward Krehbiel

Volume III

Published by
The Beethoven Association
New York

_SECOND PRINTING_

Copyright, 1921,
By Henry Edward Krehbiel

From the press of G. Schirmer, Inc., New York
Printed in the U. S. A.

Contents of Volume III

PAGE
CHAPTER I. The Year 1819--Guardianship of Beethoven’s
Nephew Karl--Mother and Uncle in a Legal Struggle--The
Lad’s Education--Conversation Books--A Wedding
Song--In Travail with the Mass in D--The
Commission for an Oratorio from the Gesellschaft
der Musikfreunde--Visits from Zelter and Friedrich
Schneider--Creative Work of the Year 1

CHAPTER II. End of the Litigation over the Guardianship of
the Nephew--A Costly Victory--E. T. A. Hoffmann--An
Analytical Programme--Beethoven’s Financial Troubles--Adagios
and English Hymn-Tunes--Stieler’s
Portrait--Arrested as a Vagrant--Negotiations for the
Mass in D begun with Simrock--The Last Pianoforte
Sonatas--Compositions of the Years 1820 and 1821 24

CHAPTER III. The Year 1822--The Mass in D--Beethoven
and His Publishers--Simrock--Schlesinger--C. F.
Peters--Phantom Masses--Johann van Beethoven:
His Appearance and Character--Becomes His Brother’s
Agent--Meetings with Rochlitz and Rossini--Franz
Schubert--“The Consecration of the House”--Revival
of “Fidelio”--Madame Schroeder-Devrient--The
Bagatelles--A Commission from America 51

CHAPTER IV. The Year 1823--The Roman Ritual and
the Mass in D--Subscriptions Asked from Royal
Courts--Incidents of the Appeal--Goethe and Cherubini
Enlisted as Agents--A Medal from the King of
France--Further Negotiations with Publishers and
Societies--Operatic Projects--Consideration of Grillparzer’s
“Melusine”--The Diabelli Variations--Summer
Visitors--An Englishman’s Story--Weber and Julius
Benedict--Ries and the Ninth Symphony--Franz Liszt
and Beethoven’s Kiss 89

CHAPTER V. The Year 1824--The Symphony in D
Minor--Its Technical History--The Choral Finale
and Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”--First Performance of the
Work and Portions of the Mass--An Address to
Beethoven--Laborious and Protracted Preparations
for the Concert--A Financial Failure--Beethoven’s
False Accusations against Friends and Helpers Drive
Them from the Dinner-Table 144

CHAPTER VI. Incidents and Labors of the Year 1824--A
Truce with the Hated Sister-in-Law--The Gesellschaft
der Musikfreunde’s Oratorio--Bernard’s Libretto--The
Society Forgives Beethoven His Debt and
Elects Him an Honorary Member--Book of “The
Victory of the Cross”--Summer Sojourn at Penzing
Interrupted by Curious Visitors--The London Philharmonic
Society Receives the Symphony in D
Minor--Further Negotiations for the Mass--New
Publishers--Probst--Schott and Sons--A Visitor from
London--Beethoven’s Opinion of His Predecessors--The
Quartet in E-flat, Op. 127--Trip to England Determined
Upon 170

CHAPTER VII. The Year 1825. The Invitation from the
Philharmonic Society of London--The Ninth Symphony
Performed at Aix-la-Chapelle--Mass and Symphony
Delivered to Schott and Sons--Unpleasant Results of an
Attempted Joke on Haslinger--Beethoven and a
Copyist--The String Quartet in E-flat Taken Away
from Schuppanzigh after a First Performance--Karl
Holz--Beethoven Authorizes Him to Write the History
of His Life--Early Biographers--Visits of Rellstab, Kuhlau,
Smart and Others--Sir George Smart’s Recollections--
Dedication of the Mass in D--Stephan von
Breuning--Wegeler asks Beethoven to Defend the Honor
of His Mother--The Quartets in A Minor and B-flat 186

CHAPTER VIII. A Year of Sickness and Sorrow--The
Last String Quartets--Wolfmayer Commissions a
“Requiem” and Pays in Advance--Many Works _in
petto_--Controversy with Prince Galitzin and His
Son--The Fugue in the B-flat Quartet--“Muss es
sein?”--Dedication of the Ninth Symphony--The King
of Prussia and His Gift of a Dubious Diamond--Abbé
Stadler--Beethoven Defends Mozart’s “Requiem”--Friedrich
Wieck--Beethoven Goes to His Brother’s
Summer Home--Life at Gneixendorf--Relations with
His Brother’s Family--Young Oxen Thrown into a Panic
Fear--The Quartet in F and a New Finale for the
Quartet in B-flat--The Year 1826--Beethoven’s Last
Compositions 218

CHAPTER IX. Karl van Beethoven--A Wayward Ward
and an Unwise Guardian--Beethoven and his Graceless
Nephew--An Ill-advised Foster-father--A Profligate
Youth--Effect of the Guardianship on Beethoven’s
Character--An Unsuccessful Attempt at Self-destruction--
Karl is Made a Soldier 247

CHAPTER X. The Last Days at Gneixendorf--A Brother’s
Warning--Beethoven and His Kinspeople--The Fateful
Journey to Vienna--The Fatal Illness--The Physicians
and Their Treatment--The Nephew Exonerated
from a Slanderous Accusation--Schindler’s Disingenuousness--
Dr. Malfatti Forgets a Resentment Harbored
for more than a Decade--Beethoven and Handel’s
Scores--A Gift of 100 Pounds Sterling from the London
Philharmonic Society--Eventual Disposition of the
Money--Metronome Marks for the Ninth Symphony--Death
and Burial of Beethoven--His Estate 267

GENERAL INDEX 315

INDEX TO COMPOSITIONS 344