BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Friday, January 2, 1824

Nephew Karl is with Uncle Ludwig this afternoon for dinner. He wonders what kinds of widows will apply for the position this time. The new housekeeper asks whether they want the fish fried, because if not there should not be lemon on it. Uncle Ludwig wants to know how she intended to cook the fish, and she says hot boiled.

Karl disapproves of his uncle’s method of counting out 60 coffee beans and roasting them for his daily coffee. Why not roast a whole pound of coffee at once, so as to be far less bother? That’s how everyone else does it, and it takes up less time. Ludwig agrees [but does not change his ways.]

Karl launches into a discussion of the differences between High German and the Viennese dialect Wienerisch. Most people cannot even understand High German. For example, Uncle Ludwig yesterday told the maid that she should bring more Brühe [broth.] She didn’t know what that word was, and Schindler had to translate it as “lautre Suppe” [clear soup] so she understood what was meant. Similarly, she seems to have confused aufdecken [uncover] with aufbetten [make the bed] last night, because she started making the bed. Similarly, when Uncle Ludwig asked for a strand of thread as “Garn“, she did not know the word until he said “Zwirn.” Karl observes that people for the most part write as they speak, rather than speaking as they write.

There is discussion of what is the best calendar for the coming year. Karl opines that Jurende’s Vaterländischer Pilger [Patriotic Pilgrim], while voluminous, is the best.

The musical play this evening at the Theater in the Josephstadt is Franz Gläser’s Arsenius, der Weiberfeind again. Karl observes that just as Gläser earlier stole all his music from Der Freischütz, now he is using Euryanthe as a source. So if one liked that opera, you get to hear all of the choruses, dances and other music all over again.

Karl complains of stomach cramps, and says the cooking cannot go on like this.

Conversation Book 51, 16r-16v.

Ignaz Moscheles departs Vienna today.

Today’s Wiener Zeitung at 4 includes an advertisement from the Lithographic Institute for newly published arrangements of Franz Gläser’s magical play Arsena, to which Arsenius der Weiberfeind is a sequel. The Overture can be had in versions for solo piano and piano four hands, as well as various arias, duets and choruses, with piano accompaniment. A fantasy on themes from the play composed for piano by Johann Lepschy is also available.