BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO: Thursday, September 30, 1824

Nephew Karl is with Uncle Ludwig at his apartment in Baden, and Brother Johann stops by to visit. Johann asks whether Housekeeper Holzmann will be getting wine tomorrow morning. He thinks the rabbit they have on hand will still be good for two more days, until Saturday October 2, so it will be suitable to serve visitor Johann Andreas Stumpff when he comes to dinner.

He doesn’t want to stay here or in Vienna any more, and intends to leave for his estate in Gneixendorf at 5 a.m. tomorrow morning. Johann will be seeing Stumpff before he goes, and Johann suggests that Ludwig write a note today regarding Wellington’s Victory, in hopes of finally getting some compensation for the dedication of that work to the then-Prince Regent, now King George IV. Johann doesn’t think they should postpone anything concerning that dedication.

Housekeeper Barbara Holzmann has bought a wild duck. She also has some living doves, which she intends to make into a dove pie. Uncle Ludwig appears to object to the doves being still alive, but Karl thinks they need not be killed until they are needed.

After Johann leaves, Karl writes, “Only today did I learn why he is hurrying so. Specifically, he still has to pay the previous owner of the estate an installment of 1,900 florins C.M. per year. The paymaster for it lives in the Kahlenbergerdörfchen near Nussdorf. He was there just recently and paid, but because he lacked a stamped sheet [an official paper indicating that the necessary government fee had been paid] he only received a note that he had paid. Now he fears that the man could die today or tomorrow and the note would no longer be valid. Therefore he must go there to get a stamped version.” Uncle Ludwig wonders whether it is wise to put this off until tomorrow; Karl told Johann that he thinks it is probably safe to let it go today; Johann says “maybe.” He has paid this sum for 3 years, and still has to do it for four more years. That payment in W.W. is almost 5,000 florins.

Conversation Book 76, 6v-9r.

Probably about now, Beethoven writes to his friend, Tobias Haslinger, partner in the S.A. Steiner music company. He opens with the musical greeting “Tobias!” WoO 205h. The lyrics, of Beethoven’s own invention, are “Tobias! Paternostergäßler. Tobias! Paternostergäßlerischer, Bierhäußlerischer musikalischer Philister!” (Tobias! Our Father Alley. Tobias! Our-Father-Alley-Dweller, beerhouse-dwelling musical Philistine!”) This greeting is a parody on the liturgical practice in the Roman Catholic church of a priest reciting a text on a single note, moving up a second on the penultimate note and then back again. The inspiration for this parody is of course the address of Steiner’s shop: Paternoster Gäßchen (Our Father Alley).

This musical greeting can be heard at https://unheardbeethoven.org/mp3s/woo205g.mp3, which is our newest addition to The Unheard Beethoven.

The undated letter continues, “Note what Karl says, think of yourself as a fire extinguishing station, only instead of water, think money. Prestissimo, the receipt to Prague. If it doesn’t come soon, I will have to act as an outpost. Farewell, the decree as the Great Seal Keeper will be delivered to you shortly. B—–n.”

This letter probably dates from around the end of September. The reference to the receipt going to Prague in all likelihood relates to Beethoven’s annuity payment, which will be due the first of October from Prince Kinsky, whose treasurer was in Prague. The obscure injoke about Haslinger being the keeper of the Great Seal also appears in a letter of October 7, 1824, making this time period highly probable for the letter to have been written.

Brandenburg Letter 1887; Anderson Letter 1312. As of the writing of Brandenburg’s edition, this letter was in a private collection in Switzerland.