BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Thursday, July 27, 1826
As promised yesterday, Nephew Karl and unpaid assistant Karl Holz visit Tobias Haslinger’s music shop with Uncle Ludwig’s demands. Holz comes to the Schwarzspanierhaus to report to Beethoven, while Karl returns to his rooms at Matthias Schlemmer’s. Holz tells Beethoven that Haslinger “was very submissive; he said that he would gladly do anything the way you want it. However, he still needs to receive the corrections from you; you yourself would be able to see that it was not because of wantonness that the title pages turned out to be useless a 2nd time; but it is no joke to pay 8 florins C.M. to produce a new title. He only asks you to send the corrections as soon as possible. It seems that [Head Censor Franz] Sartori did not inform him of the improved titles. I think he will be calm now, for he assured me that he never intended to do you any harm.”
Holz continues, “He also secretly told me, so that Karl could not hear it, that he did not want to accept the money [the half of the pension for Karl’s mother Johanna] back then, only because for certain reasons he does not want to have anything to do with this woman. In any other cases, and in whatever commissions, it will be an honor for him to serve you.”
Ludwig will be glad when Karl’s studies are finally finished. Holz notes that it will be only 2 more months now. [The term would conclude around Michaelmas, September 29.]
Holz says that he delivered the note to Ignaz Dembscher, instructing him as penance to pay Ignaz Schuppanzigh 50 florins, if he wants to have the score for the op.130 quartet for a private concert. “I gave the note to Dembscher; he laughed, and asked “Must it be?” I answered: That is the only requirement for forgiving everything.” [This exchange will inspire Beethoven to respond with the canon WoO 196 “Es muss sein (It must be.)] Beethoven asks whether Schuppanzigh went with him; Holz says “Mylord was not there.”
Beethoven gives Holz the corrected proofs for several of the works that Haslinger is printing. Holz says he will deliver them to Tobias tomorrow [July 28.] Holz thinks he will agree to the revised titles. Beethoven brings up his proposed announcement that Haslinger is no long authorized to accept mail for him; perhaps that will no longer be necessary. Holz agrees. “He will be careful now, as he can see that such an ad would harm him very much if he behaves like that again. He said that you had wiped your feet on him.”
Beethoven asks Holz to bring something that cannot be identified; Holz says he will do that the day after tomorrow [July 29.] If he can help here in the house, he will gladly do that.
Conversation Book 115, 33r-35r.
Meanwhile, today Nephew Karl takes a strange step. His landlord Matthias Schlemmer observes Karl have his textbooks [which are actually the property of Uncle Ludwig] taken down the stairs by Schlemmer’s maid and put into a carriage, and has the coachman take them to the university. There is an antiquarian bookseller, Michael Zehetmayr, near there (Holz later remarks that some of these books could bring 50 or 60 florins). Frau Schlemmer also observes Karl packing up his things, as if he is preparing to leave. [From Schlemmer’s and Holz’s statements in Conversation Book 118, 44r-44v.] Although Schlemmer makes note of these odd happenings (all the more odd since as Holz just noted, Karl still has two more months of studies), he does not mention it to Holz or to Beethoven. The Schlemmers believe that Karl is preparing to move out.
Most likely using the proceeds of the sale of his books, Karl not long afterwards purchases two pistols and hides them in a chest in his rooms. He does not take the examinations that he is supposed to take this week, but mentions nothing about that when he meets with his uncle tomorrow.
Sixteen-year-old Frederic Chopin is today accepted to the Warsaw High School for Music. To celebrate, this evening Chopin attends a performance of Rossini’s La gazza ladra at the Polish National Theatre. Alan Walker, Fryderyk Chopin at 98.