BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Monday, November 3, 1823

Nephew Karl begins his studies in philosophy and linguistics at the university in Vienna today. He is also taking a class in history. The bulk of his classes are held on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, since his entries on those days of the week abruptly become uncommon. Karl also mentions elsewhere that he has classes on Thursday mornings, so his schedule seems to look like this: classes Monday all day – classes Tuesday mornings – (comes to Uncle Ludwig’s for midday dinner in the afternoon) – Returns to the university, classes all day Wednesday – classes Thursday mornings (returns to Uncle Ludwig’s in the afternoon ) – classes Friday all day (returns to Uncle Ludwig’s through the weekend). These absences do assist in the dating of the conversation book entries. Some references later in the conversation books confirm that Karl was living elsewhere part time, and he seems to have slept there at least two nights of the week and possibly as many as four.

However, for the first two weeks of classes he very seldom comes to Beethoven’s apartment, probably because he is studying and getting settled until he has established a routine. This makes the conversation book entries until mid-November fairly sparse, since he also has few other visitors.

Uncle Ludwig presumably does his shopping for a coffee mill and cups, oil, wine and a potato sack today, after working on the Finale for the Ninth Symphony in the morning.