BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Saturday, January 8, 1825

Nephew Karl and Brother Johann are at Beethoven’s apartment today. The housekeeper, Barbara Holzmann, asks that in the future she be given money before she goes, because it is difficult for her to lay out her own money.

The three Beethovens continue to discuss the possibilities of a trip to London. Karl again suggests Johann Baptist Streicher would be a great help on such a trip. “He is taken with you, body and soul.” Johann reminds his brother that the English in their correspondence describe this as a means for living better. There is nothing to work on here in Vienna except the oratorio. [Johann seems unaware or has forgotten that Ludwig is spending most of his time on the final string quartets; op.127 is nearly finished and op.132 has been started.]

Karl has some gossip. It is said Count Ferdinand Troyer, high steward to Archduke Rudolph, is to marry a rich soap-maker’s daughter. The King of Prussia married a woman from the Viennese Harrach family. Henriette Sontag, who sang at Beethoven’s May 1824 Akademie concerts, is to become a countess. [Sontag does not in fact marry Count Eduard Klamm-Glaas, since his family will break off their betrothal with a lawsuit.]

Karl expects more housekeeper applicants to come tomorrow. If someone is to be hired full-time, like the old woman, Holzmann, then Karl and Johann think that the annual salary should be only 200 florins, since she would not get more anywhere else. Ludwig is concerned that that is not enough more than the maid is paid, but Karl thinks it’s enough that she gets twice as much as the maid. If Holzmann stays longer, that would be good. She said she was leaving earlier, and she thought someone would come running after her to get her to stay, but when that didn’t happen she came back herself.

Johann talks about the play Die zwey Nächte zu Valladolid [Two Nights in Valladolid] by Baron Joseph Christian von Zedlitz (1790-1862). [This play had been performed a few days ago, on January 4, at the Burgtheater.] Johann had run into Baron Zedlitz earlier today, and they talked about economic matters for nearly three hours. At the end, Johann proclaimed him a unique man, a splendid man.

Ludwig seems to have a new cook on a trial basis today. She makes a half a turtle for dinner. Karl suggests that if the turtle is large, 1 florin is a very small price. He believes that she learned to cook in restaurants. “Everything smells superb.” She wants to do whatever is necessary to satisfy Beethoven.

After dinner, Karl and Ludwig go to a coffee house to read the newspapers. Karl says that when he was here the other day, he asked his friend Carl Enk to get him the 100 verses from the Odyssey in Wolf’s translation. Enk brought those verses today, which were a sample of his translation of Homer. Wolf translated it entirely according to the Greek meter, so that for every dactyl in Greek, there would also be a dactyl in German. It would be possible to do that for the entire epic, just as was done for these 100 verses, but it would be a great deal of hard work.

The professor of Arabic languages from Baden has not come back. He gave public lectures in Baden, but he had only two attendees who paid him a total of 5 florins per week.

Apparently the old and new housekeepers get into an argument; one of them tells Karl that they had a lively discourse among themselves. The door to Karl’s room has to be kept open. The new housekeeper will try to keep it warmer, which she has promised to do. She will do everything she can to keep Beethoven satisfied.

Brother Johann comes back to the apartment this evening or very early tomorrow morning. He urges Ludwig to finish the proofreading of the scores for Schott. He expects that Ludwig should be finished by the morning of the day after tomorrow, and then they can immediately take them to Fries & Co. and arrange for the payment to be made. [The proofreading will take another week; Johann does not seem to comprehend the sheer volume of music that needs to be corrected.]

Beethoven writes out in the conversation book the canon Gott ist eine feste Burg, WoO 188. [The words are based on Martin Luther’s hymn, “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,” or A mighty fortress is our God. Theodore Albrecht suggests that this entry may be connected with the fact the banker Fries was a Protestant, and the Swiss Reformed Church adjoined the back of Fries’s palace facing the Josephsplatz.] A copy of page 14r showing this canon sketch is attached. Beethoven appears to have already been asked by Reinhold von Duesterloh for a souvenir, and this is what Beethoven has come up with for him. It will be written in Duesterloh’s album in a few days.

Johann writes that she [presumably Holzmann] is really looking for another woman, but in the meantime she [probably the maid] has, he thinks, given notice recently.

Ludwig continues to vacillate about the England trip and points out that the Akademie concerts last year did not bring in very much money. Johann points out that they were good for his reputation, though. It would be an event and could be publicized through the musical newspapers [probably meaning the Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung.] Ludwig doesn’t think that would be necessary, but Johann asks how people in distant large cities are supposed to know that he’s in England?

Conversation Book 80, 10v-14v.