BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Friday, June 6, 1823

Beethoven writes a followup letter to Johann Schickh, founder and editor of the Wiener Zeitschrift. Beethoven acknowledges that Schickh has fulfilled his request from the day before yesterday, and sent him a quarter’s worth of the magazine, which he is reading as he is “living here under the trees.” He hopes Schickh will continue to send new numbers as they are issued.

The canon WoO 185, “Edel sei der Mensch, hülfreich und gut,” which Beethoven had written out as a gift for departing composer Louis Schlösser last month, is to be published in that magazine. Beethoven offers to proofread the canon for Schickh. The proof sheet can be sent to Kothgasse [where Brother Johann had an apartment] and it will be received by him directly. The note is undated, but Schickh’s note indicates it was received on this date, so it probably was written today or at the earliest yesterday.

Brandenburg Letter 1673, Albrecht Letter 323. The letter is held in a private collection, but a facsimile was included in the auction catalog from which it was sold by J.A. Stargardt, Nr. 619 (1980), p.87 as lot 213.