MEMOIR OF BEETHOVEN.

BY MISS THOMASINA ROSS.

WITH A PORTRAIT.*

AN eminent composer of the sixteenth century, Claudio Monteverde of Cremona, was the first who ventured to break through the orthodox rules of counterpoint, which before his time had been regarded as sacred and inviolable. Throwing aside the fetters imposed on him by the composers of earlier days, Monteverde boldly struck out a path for himself. In like manner did Beethoven daringly break through pre-established rules, and, the consequence was, that in the early part of his career he was exposed to the same sort of censure which two centuries previously had assailed the contrapuntist of Cremona. His innovations far outstripped those of Haydn and Mozart, who, in their turn had deviated from the still more rigid laws observed by Handel and Sebastian Bach. But Beethoven was happily endowed with an independence of mind which enabled him to pursue his course heedless of critical reproof, and the mighty power of his genius soon triumphed over all opposition. At the commencement of the present century Beethoven's grand orchestral compositions would scarcely have been listened to any where but in Germany; and now no composer can be said to enjoy more universal admiration. He disdained to copy his predecessors in the most distant manner, and, by his bold, energetic, and original style, he carried off the prize of musical Olympus.

Ludwig van Beethoven was born on the 17th of December, 1770, at Bonn. His father was a singer attached to the Electoral Chapel, and his grandfather, who is said to have been a native of Maestricht,+ was music-director at Bonn in the time of the Elector Clemens. It has been alleged that Beethoven was a natural son of Frederick the Great. This story, which is entirely devoid of foundation, occasioned great annoyance to Beethoven, who, however, satisfactorily refuted it. In a letter on the subject, addressed to his friend, Dr. Wegeler, dated 1826, he, very much to his honour, requests the doctor "will make known to the world the unblemished character of his mother." Beethoven received elementary instruction at a public school, whilst his father taught him music at home, where he studied the pianoforte and violin. When practising the latter instrument, he was accustomed to retire to a closet in a remote part of the house; and it is related, that, as soon as he began to play, a spider used to let itself down from the ceiling, and alight upon the instrument. The young musician became interested in watching this spider, and in endeavouring to discover how its movements might be influenced by music. One day his mother happened to enter the closet when the spider had settled itself on the violin. Casting her eye on what she supposed to be an unpleasant intruder, she whisked it away with her handkerchief, and killed it. This incident is said to have produced a most powerful effect on the sensitive mind of Beethoven, and it was

The annexed portrait, engraved by permission of Messrs. R. Cocks and Co., is considered by Mr. Charles Czerny to be the most correct likeness of the celebrated composer.

+ The preposition van attached to Beethoven's name denotes his Flemish descent.

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some time before he recovered from the melancholy into which it plunged him.

At the age of 15, Beethoven having attained great proficiency on the organ, was appointed organist to the chapel of the Elector of Cologne, and the emperor, Joseph II., settled upon him a small pension. Being desirous of profiting by the instruction of Haydn, he obtained the elector's permission to reside in Vienna for a few years; and in 1792 he left Bonn for that purpose. All the talent of musical Germany was at that time congregated in the Austrian capital, and Beethoven, then in his twenty-second year, was so charmed with the congenial society by which he found himself surrounded, that he resolved to make Vienna his permanent place of abode. "Here will I stay," said he to himself, "even though the emperor should cut off my pension." He carried this resolution into effect, and, with the exception of one or two visits to Leipsic and Berlin, he spent the remainder of his life in or near Vienna. But he did not long continue the pupil of Haydn, with whom he soon became dissatisfied. Even at that early period of his life his temper was marked by caprice and singularity, and a determined resolution to follow his own taste and opinions in all questions relating to composition and scoring, rendered him a most refractory and wayward pupil.* He would not acknowledge himself to have been the pupil of Haydn, because, as he affirmed, he had never learned anything from him. When Haydn left Vienna on his second visit to England, Beethoven rejoiced at the opportunity thus afforded for their separation. He then began to take lessons from the celebrated Albrechtsberger, who, like Haydn, found him thoroughly untractable.

Among the many distinguished acquaintance formed by Beethoven soon after his arrival in Vienna, may be numbered the princely family of Lichnowsky. Prince Karl Lichnowsky, who had been a pupil of Mozart, was the Mæcenas of the musical professors then in Vienna. The prince assigned to Beethoven a yearly pension of six hundred florins, and he became the paternal friend of the young composer. The princess, also a most accomplished musician, extended to him the affection of a mother. The attentions lavished on him by this illustrious couple were almost ludicrous; and, truly, the eccentricities, and the strange temper of their protégé, must frequently have taxed their indulgence to the utmost. Taking a retrospect of this period of his life, he observes, in a letter to a friend: "The

• His unwillingness to conform to rules is exemplified in the following anecdote related by Ries, in his "Notizen ueber Bethoven." "One day, during a walk, I was talking to him of two consecutive-fifths which occur in one of his earliest violin quartetts in C minor, and which, to my surprise, sound most harmoniously. Beet hoven did not know what I meant, and would not believe the intervals could be fifths. He soon produced the piece of music paper which he was in the habit of carrying about with him, and I wrote down the passage with its four parts. When I had thus proved myself to be right, he said, Well, and who forbids them ?' Not knowing what to make of this question, I was silent, and he repeated it several times, until I at length replied, Why, it is one of the very first rules.' He, however, still repeated his question, and I answered, Marpurg, Kirnberger, Fuchs, &c.-in fact, all our theorists.' Well, then, I permit them,' was his final answer."

↑ At this ungracious treatment, Haydn very naturally felt offended; but how. ever true it might be that he had learned nothing from his master, yet traces of Haydn's classic elegance of style are clearly discernible in some of Beethoven's early works.

princess treated me with grandmotherly fondness, and sometimes I could well-nigh have persuaded myself that she would have a glass shade put over me, lest I should be touched or breathed on by persons whom she deemed unworthy to approach me."

In this brightest interval of the great composer's existence, whilst he was mingling in the gayest and most intellectual circles of Viennese society, he conceived an ardent and romantic attachment for a lady of noble family. This affair is alluded to by some of his biographers, but in a manner sufficiently vague to warrant the inference that it was clouded in mystery. Beethoven's correspondence contains several letters to this lady. They are addressed to "Julia,” and from their tenor it is obvious that an obstacle more formidable than difference of rank rendered a union with the object of his affections impossible. A paper, in his own handwriting, contains the following passage, evidently referring to this subject:

"Love-love alone is capable of conferring on me a happier state of existence. Oh, heaven! let me at length find her, she who strengthen me in virtue-who may lawfully be mine."

may

But, whatever may be the facts connected with this unfortunate attachment, it furnished inspiration for one of Beethoven's most exquisite productions, viz. the Sonata Op. 27. This composition is known throughout Austria by the name of the "Moonlight Sonata" -a name intended merely to indicate the tender and romantic colouring with which it is imbued. In the published copies, the title and dedication differ, from the style in which they appear in the composer's MS., where the following words are written at the head of the composition: "Sonata quasi Fantasia dedicata alla Madamazella Contessa Giulietta di Guicciardi."

During an interval of ten or twelve years, the first performances of all Beethoven's works regularly took place at Prince Lichnowsky's musical parties. On the occasion on which the celebrated Razumowsky Quartett was first played, the performers were, Schuppinzigh (first violin), Sina (second), Weiss (viola), and Kraft alternately with Linke (violoncello). In the frequent rehearsals of the quartett, Beethoven seemed to have infused into the souls of the performers some portion of his own sublime spirit, and the result was a degree of perfection which enraptured the assembled cognoscenti.

Beethoven's quartett music, which may be said to have opened a new world of art full of sublime conceptions and revelations, found worthy interpreters in the four great instrumentalists above named, over the purity of whose performance the composer watched with unceasing anxiety. In 1825, when one of his last difficult quartetts was to be performed before a very select audience, he sent to Schuppenzigh, Sina, Weiss, and Linke, the parts respectively allotted to them, accompanied by the following droll letter:

"My dear Friends,

"Herewith each of you will receive what belongs to him, and you are hereby engaged to play, on condition that each binds himself upon his honour to do his best to distinguish himself, and to surpass the rest. This paper must be signed by each of those who have to cooperate in the performance in question. "BEETHOVEN."

In the year 1800, the grand oratorio of the "Mount of Olives" was commenced, and whilst engaged on that work, the composer expe