BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, December 9, 1824

Beethoven makes a shopping list this morning:

+Ink needed.
+Candles.
+Blotting sand.

Beethoven once again makes a column of 42 five times, rather than multiplying 42 times 5.

Copyist Ferdinand Wolanek comes to Beethoven with part of a subscription copy of the Missa Solemnis for him to proofread, and to collect more music to copy. He says he copied all night until now because tomorrow there is a new opera. [Die Nachtwanderlerin, a fairy farce with music by Franz Volkert, which premieres at the Leopoldstadt Theater tomorrow, December 10. It gets only three performances, then vanishes.]

Wolanek will be back with more tomorrow at 9 o’clock. He asks how well Beethoven thinks he copied the score. [Beethoven’s response is not recorded, but since Wolanek continues to get work from Beethoven, Wolanek must have been satisfactory, at least so far.]

Beethoven has mid-day dinner at a restaurant near his apartment in the Johannesgasse, perhaps Zum wilden Mann [At the Sign of the Wild Man]. Karl joins him, saying that the housekeeper heard that Ludwig was here.

Karl echoes Streicher’s opinion that his uncle’s Collected Works would bring in 10,000 florins. The more Karl thinks about it, the more it seems like Streicher’s plan has been premeditated to get the income specified at 10,000 florins. He is acquainted with Steiner and other publishers.

The housekeeper mentioned to Karl that when she was at Frau Schlemmer’s place [probably delivering or picking up copies], she had admired a pot, larger than their largest one, full of coffee, and next to it a bowl of sugar. “She says that if people live like that, then it’s certainly understandable that there is never any money in the house.” Uncle Ludwig brings up the copyist that visited the other day, who wanted money from her so he could pay the shoemaker. Karl thinks that if the story she tells were true, it really is disgusting for her to be out of money right after she had been paid, and she must have surely had 5 florins in the house.

Later, at a coffee house, Ludwig reads today’s newspaper. He makes the following notes:

+Karl’s briefcase.
+4,000 francs for an opera, Paris. Even foreigners participate. Short, 2,000 francs. The same for the opera libretti. [The Wiener Zeitung, Nr.282 at 1197 states that the King of France “has decided that, in order to encourage musical literature and art, with regard to the composition of pieces for the French opera, a competition for opera libretti and opera compositions of two works should be held every year. For the 1825 competition, a prize of 4,000 francs is offered for the best opera libretto from national history or of mere invention in three or five acts, and a prize of 2,000 francs for the best opera libretto in one act. The same prizes are also intended for the best musical compositions of the winning opera poems, in which foreign composers can also appear as competitors.” Beethoven clearly was interested in entering in such a competition, at least briefly, and the contest will be the topic of discussion for several days.]
+Inside the Kärntnertor: chemical quick-matches with chlorine. [An advertisement for different kinds of matches for sale by the Calcium Chloride Factory.]
+Sexarder wine, Apponyi at 30 and 42 kr. [Count Apponyi’s Cellar offered authentic Szexarder wine at 30 and 42 kreutzers per measure.]

Karl mentions that his philosophy class is being taught by a teaching assistant. Professor Joseph Likawetz (1773-1850), the professor of philosophy is in Graz. Once he returns, Karl is confident they will learn the topic thoroughly, since he wrote the textbook.

Conversation Book 78, 20r-22r.

The Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung for today (Nr.50), in its overview of the October concerts in Vienna, makes reference at 818 to the Schuppanzigh Quartet subscription concert series. “Herr Schuppanzigh will again this winter give subscribed quartets every Sunday at the Musikverein. Three have already taken place, attended by a select circle, in which the most excellent works by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Spohr, Onslow, both Rombergs etc. are presented in a truly fulfilling manner. Also, the excellent pianist Hr. Carl Czerny will join this artist’s circle, so we here in Vienna will also once again get to hear the piano works of these masters.”