Part 6 (2/2)
The following fragment is without date:--
”The beautiful cravat, worked by your own hands, has caused me the greatest possible surprise. Although in itself so pleasing, it awakened within me feelings of melancholy. Its effect was to recall the past, and to shame me by your generous behaviour. In truth, I did not think that you still considered me worthy of remembrance.
”Oh! could you have been a witness of my emotions yesterday when it arrived, you would not think I exaggerate in saying that the recollection of you brings the tears to my eyes, and makes me very sad. However little I may deserve credit in your eyes, I beg you to believe, _my friend_ (allow me still to call you so), that I have suffered and still suffer through the loss of your friends.h.i.+p. You and your dear mother I shall never forget. Your goodness to me was such that the loss of you neither can nor will be easily replaced. I know what I lost and what you were to me, but----if I attempt to fill up this blank, I must refer to scenes which are as unpleasant for you to hear as for me to describe.
”As a slight return for your kind remembrance of me, I take the liberty of sending you some variations, and the rondo with violin accompaniment. I have a great deal to do, or I would have copied the long-promised sonata for you. In my ma.n.u.script it is little better than a sketch, and it would be very difficult for Paraquin himself,[12] clever as he is, to transcribe it. You can have the rondo copied, and then return the score to me. It is the only one of all my compositions suitable for you, and as you are shortly going to Kerpen,[13] I thought it might afford you some pleasure.
”Farewell, my friend. It is impossible for me to call you by any other name, however indifferent I may be to you. Pray believe that I reverence you and your mother as highly as formerly.
”If it is in my power to contribute anything to your happiness, pray do not fail to let me know, since it is the only means left to me of proving my grat.i.tude for past friends.h.i.+p.
”May you have a pleasant journey, and bring your dear mother back in perfect health!
”Think sometimes of
”Your admiring Friend,
”BEETHOVEN.”
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 6: The origin of this work may not be uninteresting to the reader. It is briefly as follows. Among the effects of Beethoven offered for sale at the public auction of 1827 were five packets of MSS., labelled ”Exercises in Composition.” These were bought by the publisher, T. Haslinger, in the not unreasonable belief that they would be found to present a complete view of the preparation made by the master for his life's work. He determined to give the collection to the world, and entrusted the editing of it to the Chevalier von Seyfried, as a friend of Beethoven and himself a scholarly musician. In process of time the volume appeared, and was received with very opposite sentiments by different sections of the public: by some it was accepted as genuine; by others rejected as a fabrication. Nottebohm's investigation has proved the truth to lie between the two extremes. ”Seyfried's book,” he says, ”is neither authentic nor forged; it is a _falsified_ work.” Seyfried, in fact, seems to have gone to work with incredible recklessness; his ”Beethoven's Studies” is an _Olla Podrida_, composed of not only Beethoven's own exercises (put together without regard to natural sequence or chronology), but of another theoretical course, probably that prepared by Beethoven years after for the instruction of the Archduke Rudolph; while a third element is actually introduced in the shape of Studies from a MS. written in a strange hand, and possibly the work of another pupil of Albrechtsberger!]
[Footnote 7: Original father--creator.]
[Footnote 8: The following remarks are eminently characteristic of Beethoven. When his fiery nature had led him into saying or doing anything which subsequent reflection showed him to be contrary to true friends.h.i.+p, his remorse knew no bounds. Wegeler declares that his contrition was often entirely disproportionate to the fault committed, as in the present instance.]
[Footnote 9: Variations on Figaro's air, ”Se vuol ballare.”]
[Footnote 10: Afterwards Count Marienrode, and Minister of Finance in the kingdom of Westphalia. At a later period he filled the same office in Wirtemberg.]
[Footnote 11: Wegeler says, ”Beethoven often complained to me also of this sort of _espionage_. He particularized the Abbe Gelinek, a very fruitful composer of variations, in Vienna, who always settled himself in his neighbourhood. This may have been one of the reasons why Beethoven always looked out for a lodging in as open a place as possible.”]
[Footnote 12: _Paraquin_, contro-ba.s.so in the electoral orchestra; a thorough musician, and universally esteemed as such.]
[Footnote 13: _Kerpen_, the residence of an uncle of Fraulein v.
Breuning, where the family usually spent some weeks in summer.]
[Ill.u.s.tration]
CHAPTER V.
THE VIRTUOSO.
Family Occurrences--Music in Vienna--Van Swieten--Prince Lichnowski--Beethoven's Independence, Personal Appearance, Manners--Rasoumowski Quartet--Occurrences in Lichnowski's Palace--First Three Trios--Artistic Tour to Berlin--Woelfl--Beethoven as an Improvisatore--Steibelt.
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