BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Friday, September 8, 1820 (approximately)

Conversation Book 16, leaves 58r through 58v

Beethoven sketches another idea for “Patrem” early in the Credo, another indication that he was already dissatisfied with the autograph. However, this idea is not developed and never incorporated into the Credo.

Conversation Book 16, leaf 58r, with unused sketch for a revised version of “patrem omnipotentem” for the Credo. (Berlin Staatsbibliothek). The handwriting in the top half of the page is that of piano maker Matthäus Stein.

Then it’s back to chickens. He writes, “19 chickens on the 10th Hof.” [Editor Ted Albrecht suggests Beethoven was transporting 19 chickens from Mödling to “someone am Hof,” possibly the proprietor of the beer house am Hof, where on August 19 he had inquired about potential apartments for the fall. Beethoven will be in Vienna on the 9th and may remain there until the 10th. The whole discussion about the chickens is unclear. On September 5, he writes, “From the City. Chickens. Copyist.” On the 6th or thereabouts, he writes “+ The coachman can carry the chickens to the City. They can be picked up in the afternoon, since the maids are there the whole day until evening.” Are the chickens going to the city, or from the city? Today he writes, “19 chickens on the 10th Hof.” Perhaps he is getting rid of some of his extra chickens in anticipation of moving back to Vienna, even though he still does not have an apartment.]

Beethoven then visits Franz Ludwig von Carbon, a landowner in Mödling. Beethoven had the previous year unsuccessfully attempted to buy from Carbon the Christhof building where he is staying this summer. He solicits Carbon’s opinions on whether to buy a house in the country, almost certainly in connection with Speer’s vineyard house, though Beethoven does not mention any specifics. Carbon is firmly against the idea, mainly because there are too many problems in the country with the quartering of soldiers in homes. Even in Vienna, the suburbs have soldiers taking over homes and apartment buildings as needed. [Under the Quartering Law of 1748, Viennese landowners were required to comply. This practice was common in the British colonies as well, and is the source of the Third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.]

Carbon also points out that having a place in the country would tie Beethoven down to one location for his summers. “[I]f you wanted a change of air, it would have you by the neck. I would not tie myself down.” This advice apparently spells the end to Beethoven’s interest in buying Speer’s house with the vineyard, because it is not mentioned again in the surviving materials.