BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Tuesday, June 20, 1826

Nephew Karl visits Uncle Ludwig this morning. Ludwig starts by interrogating Karl as to his whereabouts on Sunday, after he left the Schwarzspanierhaus, and whether he went back to his rooms. Karl insists that he did, and only later did he go out to an acquaintance to check their homework calculations for Monday.

Ludwig suggests that they go out for a walk together. Karl says that the weather alone would be a satisfactory excuse to do so, if he did not still have so much to do this afternoon. “I have to write diligently from 12 till 1 and from 2 till 3 in order to get finished, as there is very much to do because of the coming exams.”

Ludwig returns to his suspicions about Karl on Sunday, trying to get him to confess. Karl answers, “I have nothing at all to reproach myself for. Sunday, I came straight here; only in the evening did I go to one of my classmates — which I always do — or they come to my place—in order to compare the calculations, which are to be delivered on Monday. — That makes it much easier and saves a lot of time, because otherwise you have to recalculate every bill several times to make sure it is correct, but when we are able to compare it with others, we see any error right away.”

Uncle Ludwig is also suspicious about Karl’s tutor, and wants to know when he sees the tutor. Karl tells him, “Up until now, from 6:30 to 8:30 in the morning. But these days, he will come from 2 until 3, as he is busy in the mornings. It is all the same to me.”

Apparently satisfied with Karl’s explanations, Ludwig turns to the matter of the tailor and the overcoats he is lengthening. Karl says he will go see him tomorrow, because he has some other ones that also need to be extended. He will make an appointment for Friday, June 23. Karl agrees that the chosen fabric is very good and durable. Karl appears to depart to take care of his homework.

New housekeeper Elisabeth Passy asks Ludwig for a kitchen towel. She will count the plates, apparently to see how many new ones are needed. She then will gather the laundry up and hand it off to the washerwoman.

Passy volunteers to sew buttons onto Beethoven’s vest. Beethoven resists, but she tells him that if you do not repair things right away, then they will be ruined. “I have to repair all the vests.”

She also asks for flour, and inquires as to when Beethoven wants his soup.

Later today, Beethoven goes out to a coffeehouse. He copies down a couple household tips he finds somewhere: “+ wash flannel and woolen fabrics as hot as possible with soap and as soon as they are clean, immerse them in cold water and then hang them up.–

“+ in order to remove snails and worms from vegetables and plants, just put them in salted water and they will be removed.”

Beethoven turns to the Wiener Theater-Zeitung and its account of the death in London on June 5 of Carl Maria von Weber. He makes a note (in ink) in the conversation book that “Weber died 40 years old.”