BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Monday, October 2, 1826

Ludwig and Nephew Karl are in Gneixendorf, staying at Brother Johann’s estate, Schloss Wasserhof. Early in the morning, while Ludwig is working on the quartet op.135, Karl notes that Johann has become a satirist; he is correcting his servants using wordplay. Wanting to write some letters, Ludwig asks Karl what the date is. Karl answers, “Today is the 2nd of October.”

Ludwig also would like to go into the nearby town of Krems to do his shopping. Karl tells him that the servants can’t take him right away; they are busy with breakfast. Someone [possibly Johann, or the young servant Michael Kren] has been waiting half an hour for Ludwig. Everyone is working the whole day.

Karl tells his uncle the letters must be written right away; the letter carrier will come soon. [Johann has said the letter carrier comes at 9 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.] Ludwig dictates a letter to Tobias Haslinger, and another letter as an enclosure. The letter to Haslinger opens with the musical greeting “Bester Tobias,” WoO 205i, which can be heard here worked out by Willem Holsbergen as a canon:

https://unheardbeethoven.org/mp3s/WoO205i.mp3

Beethoven continues: “There is no time today for the remaining consonanting and vocalizations. I only ask you to deliver the enclosed letter immediately.”

“You will surely forgive me for bothering you, but since you are the proprietor of an art post office, it is naturally impossible but to do otherwise than make use of it.”

“You can see that I am here in Gneixendorf. The name bears some resemblance to a breaking axe. The air is healthy. As for other matters, one must Memento mori.”

“Most astonishing, first of all Tobiasses, in the grace of the art and the post office, we commend ourselves, Beethoven.”

Brandenburg Letter 2219; Anderson Letter 1534. The whereabouts of the original are unknown. The text is derived from Ludwig Nohl’s edition of Beethoven’s letters, vol.I Nr.383. According to Nohl, who had the original, only the notes at the top of the letter and the closing “we recommend ourselves” were by Beethoven; the balance is by Nephew Karl. What the enclosure was is unknown; no other letters with today’s date survive, but it must have been directed to a recipient in Vienna. Beethoven’s jocular reference to Haslinger’s music shop as a post office is referring to the fact that it, and the Steiner shop before it, were known as the place to send Beethoven’s mail.

Karl says he has to go down to the cellar for a bit and retrieve some wine; otherwise they will have nothing to drink. [Today is Johann’s 50th birthday, so some wine will be needed.]

One of the servants is going to Krems; he can take care of Uncle Ludwig’s shopping. He is Michael Kren, the son of the supervisor of Johann’s wine cellar, and he understands shopping well. Kren asks whether the letters have already gone, or whether he is to take them to Krems. He can generally be available to Ludwig by 7 or 8 a.m.

Ludwig gives Karl 6 florins, and Karl goes with the baker’s son to Krems. They return later today, and Karl notifies his uncle that they weren’t able to get ink. That will come tomorrow because they couldn’t get a container for it. Karl reports the list of their purchases:
Wax candles, 1/2 pound 1 florin 42 kreutzers
Cotton 6
Soap powder 30
Pencils, 3 each 8 kr. 24
Erasers are not available, except for penknives with multiple blades.
Writing paper, 1 book [24 sheets] 27
Blotting paper, ditto 12
Ear picks [curettes] 6
And since the Hungarian tobacco is here, but in all of Gneixendorf there was not a pipe to be found, I brought one with me from Krems.
With all the accessories, it cost 1 fl. 21
Tooth powder, one box 24
Total 5 fl. 12 kr.
Received: 6 fl.
Remaining: 48 kr.

Conversation Book 122, 27v-29r. This concludes Conversation Book 122. Conversation Book 123 probably begins being used shortly thereafter. However, the next clearly datable entry does not occur until shortly before October 30, since we lack the usual assistance of advertisements copied out of newspapers. The entries will thus be more sporadic and uncertain in date over the next two months while Ludwig and Karl are in Gneixendorf.

The October, 1826 issue of The Harmonicon (Nr.XLVI) contains at 197-198 a review of Carl Czerny’s Variations on a Theme of Beethoven, op.55, published by Clementi & Co. in Cheapside. “The beautiful canzonet of Beethoven, Das Glück der Freundschaft [op.88], chosen by M. Czerny, is exceedingly flowing and melodious, and he has given it first in the composer’s own notes; indeed of the six variations which he has written on it, five, though sufficiently difficult, are very practicable, rational, and pleasing; but in the sixth, he has indulged his natural propensity for rapid, sweeping passages, for mingled fingers, wide extensions, and long leaps. A great portion, however, of the latter may be curtailed—a practice which, in such cases, the adroit will often have recourse to—and the remainder will be worth possessing. But as an exercise, even the last variation may be rendered useful.”

At 204-205, this issue of The Harmonicon also includes the following in its report of music in the City of Vienna: “A new grand Quatuor from the pen of the inexhaustible Beethoven has just appeared here. It is entitled Grand Quatuor pour deux Violons, Alto et Violoncelle, compose et dedié à son Altesse Monseigneur le Prince de Galitzin, par Louis Beethoven, Op.127. It may be justly said of this composer, that though Haydn and Mozart had appeared to have fixed the limits of this species of composition, he has extended them. The energies of his ever-active mind led him to create new forms, of which, bold as some of them are, criticism has recognized the claim, and received them into her canon; though many, it is true, must be content to rank there as splendid exceptions to general rules. Beethoven’s manner is equally singular. Without any apparent plan, without any determinate connexion between the parts with a view to a perfect whole, his works are marked with the impress of inspiration; the most abrupt and singular transitions, effects the most extraordinary, and passages of the greatest sublimity ranged by the side of those of the most opposite character, frequently recall to our minds the well-known remark of Napoleon relative to the sublime and the ridiculous. In the composition before us, what more divine than the cantabile movement, so full of tender and pastoral feeling, but how strangely contrasted with the scherzando vivace which immediately follows!”

“Beethoven has manifested powers of the first order in other species of composition, but it will not be denied that his symphonies form the real culmination-point of his genius. They are thus beautifully characterized by Reichardt, a German critic of eminence. ‘The symphonies of Haydn may be compared to a beautiful and elegant villa, in and around which everything is in harmony, everything pleasing and lovely; those of Mozart are like a magnificent palace, the splendor and riches of which excite your highest admiration; but the gigantic compositions of this kind from the pen of Beethoven resemble some aerial and cloud-capped tower, which strikes you with awe, wonder, and amazement.'”

The musical supplement to this issue of The Harmonicon includes an arrangement of the March from Egmont, op.84/5, for Piano-forte by an anonymous hand (not Beethoven), at pages 204-206.

In Paris, Hector Berlioz today enrolls in the course in counterpoint and fugue taught by Anton Reicha at the Conservatoire.