BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Tuesday August 23, 1825

Beethoven spends the morning with continued proofreading of the parts to the string quartet op.132, which had been copied by cellist Joseph Linke and unpaid assistant and violinist Karl Holz. This is meticulous work, and Beethoven is unhappy with the results, especially the placement of crescendos and slurs, and a seeming indifference to staccato and staccatissimo markings. Probably mid-morning, Nephew Karl arrives from Vienna, but there are still letters to finish after Uncle Ludwig completes the proofreading, which seems to continue until some time after noon. Unfortunately, there is at least one page missing from the conversation book that would cover Karl’s time in Baden today, just before leaf 17r, which is used tomorrow and begins mid-sentence.

Having completed this work, Beethoven this afternoon writes a letter to Holz containing corrections and a change for the quartet. “Most excellent Violino 2-do! The passage in the first Allegro in the first violin should be like this:” [Beethoven writes in the final version of bar 119 and the first count of bar 120; the autograph was written differently, and Linke had copied it accurately, so this was a change, and it was successfully incorporated into the final version.] He then specifies dynamic expressions in the four parts at bars 97 and 98. “The notes are all correct – Please understand me correctly – Volti subito. [“Turn right away.” A page turn occurs here.]

“Now, about your copy, dear friend. [Holz had done the last part of the quartet, the Recitative and Finale, and also took over for Linke on another movement when Linke developed a headache.] Obligatissimo – yet the signs [piano-crescendo-decrescendo] etc etc are terribly neglected and often, very often, are in the wrong place, which is probably due to haste. For God’s sake, I ask you to impress upon Rampel [Wenzel Rampl] that he copy everything as it is. Just look at the copy I have corrected, and you will find everything you will have to say to him. Where there must be a [staccato marking dot] over the note it is not allowed to write a [staccatissimo wedge], and vice versa.” [Beethoven adds on the third page another example of staccato and staccatissimo being used incorrectly in the fourth bar of the theme of the Finale.]

“It is not a matter of indifference [notes staccatissimo] and [notes staccato]. The [crescendo markings] sometimes need to stand later than the notes , which is done with diligent intentions. [Another example follows] The slurs on notes like this example are not a matter of indifference as to whether they are [all three notes of a figure] or [just the first two notes of the figure.] In the Adagio, they should rather be thus: [just the first two notes slurred]

Take note from those higher up: I spent no less than the whole morning today and the whole afternoon the day before yesterday correcting the two movements, and I am completely hoarse from cursing and stamping. Yours in haste, Beethoven.”

Beethoven adds the postscript, “Excuse me for today, it’s already almost 2 o’clock, and Karl is leaving at 4 o’clock. We are very busy.”

Brandenburg Letter 2032; Anderson Letter 1421. The original is in Beethoven’s hand entirely. Presumably Karl was to deliver the letter and the corrected copies to Holz, who was then to take them to Rampl for making the copy of the parts for Galitzin. Sieghard Brandenburg notes that Beethoven’s autograph score itself is inconsistent on the staccato and staccatissimo markings. The original letter is held by the Bonn Beethovenhaus, and it can be seen here:

https://www.beethoven.de/de/media/view/6671997811556352/scan/0

Beethoven also writes a short undated and unsigned note that may also have gone to Holz today with the corrected copies: “The splinter from the wood of Christ still must correct the mistakes that no human makes. Wood, incidentally, is to be kindled.”

Brandenburg Letter 2033; Anderson Letter 1513. The original is in the British Library in London (Loan 48 99/13 f.27). Sieghard Brandenburg tentatively dated these letters to August 15, 1825, but we are confident that they are actually written a week later, based on the details that are collected and analyzed in the process of determining Beethoven’s doings day by day in this column.

Having accomplished this exhausting task, Beethoven goes to a coffee house in Baden to read yesterday’s Vienna newspapers. He appears to copy part of an advertisement, “…in order to avoid the wetness in swampy locations, laid on the found, 1 or 1/2 feet high, with lead plates.” The beginning of the sentence was apparently on a leaf now missing from the conversation book.

Conversation Book 92, 17r.

Once back in Vienna, Karl takes the two letters and the corrected parts and delivers them to Karl Holz. Holz in turn promptly takes the parts to copyist Wenzel Rampl to have proper copies made for Prince Galitzin in Russia, with instructions to complete the work by Sunday, August 28th so Holz can take it back out to Baden.

We are indebted to frequent contributor Birthe Kibsgaard for her assistance in clarifying the chronology of this difficult week from the extrinsic and intrinsic evidence.