BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, January 12, 1825

Brother Johann comes to the apartment, probably in the late morning or early afternoon. Ludwig is having trouble with his eyes again. Johann offers to have his bottle of eyewash refilled. Ludwig doesn’t want him to take it, possibly concerned about contamination. Johann says he’ll bring one tomorrow in another bottle then.

Johann, perhaps commenting on the “old woman,” Barbara Holzmann, says “Of all your housekeepers, that one is still the best.”

Nephew Karl writes down what is for mid-day dinner today:
Brown rice soup.
Meat with potato sauce.
Spinach with frittaten.
Venison.

Karl says the maid can go with, and she must also get the coachman. [This discussion may, Theodore Albrecht suggests, be to drive Barbara Holzmann back to the St. Marx Spital. She had asked to come today to oversee the delivery of the wood that was ordered.] Karl is unimpressed with the current maid. He tells Uncle Ludwig that after dinner, she should be called to give her the 2 florins due her and send her away. The new housekeeper says she does nothing, or what she does do is with nonchalance and boredom. They need a new maid anyway.

[A page may be missing here from Conversation Book 80, since Johann’s next comment is obscure.]

Johann remarks that Adolf Bäuerle, the editor of the Theaterzeitung “knows nothing about it [what “it” is, is unclear; but probably the proposed trip to England, given the followup comment.] but, such an ass of an editor.” Ludwig suggests that Johann act as his traveling companion for the England trip. Johann jokes in response, “Then Karl must teach me English in the space of four months.”

The wood is delivered today. For cutting, 1 florin 30 kreutzers is due; splitting it twice is also 1 florin 30 kreutzers for each time, for a total of 4 florins 30. Uncle Ludwig gave Karl 45 florins. The wood was 30 florins, and the driver gets 2 florins, leaving 13 florins, out of which Uncle Ludwig can pay this 4 florins 30 kreutzers right now. The landlord gets 1 florin 30 kreutzers also for carrying and stacking the wood; it would have been more expensive to have the wood people do it, because they would charge 3 florins.

[A page appears to be missing here, as Karl’s discussion on the next page is somewhat discontinuous with the preceding, and talks about the dedication of the canon WoO 188 to Reinhold von Duesterloh.] “I believe that it is quite right, only I don’t know whether it should say, ‘Look! Science, etc.’ How could it also be poetic; it–that is, Science.” [Frequent contributor Birthe Kibsgaard notes that Karl is here engaging in some wordplay between “sieh” (the command to look) and “sie” (it.) Should it be, “Look! Science,” or should it be “It, Science” to make it sound more poetic.]

Beethoven then writes out the canon “Gott ist eine feste Burg,” WoO 188 in the album of Reinhold von Duesterloh (1758-1834), as he had requested. Sketches for the canon appear in Conversation Book 80 at 14r. The original, bearing today’s date, is held by the Paul Sacher Stiftung Library in Basel, Switzerland, Rudolf Grumbacher Collection Referenz-Nr.467. This collection unfortunately is not yet digitized and available online. Duesterloh is known to have arrived in Vienna from Bohemia on November 2, 1824, and departed on January 18, 1825, and he visited Beethoven several times. He offered to do copying for Beethoven and asked for lessons. Along with the canon, Beethoven wrote: “Act! Science has never made anyone happy.” The canon uses the two opening bars of the main theme of the Credo from the Missa Solemnis, op.123. The text is adapted from Martin Luther’s translation of the 46th Psalm, “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott.” Duesterloh probably visits Beethoven at some point today to collect the album with the canon in it. He does not write in the conversation book, however. Given Karl’s discussion here, after dinner and the wood delivery, of what the inscription should be, Duesterloh, if he comes today, most likely does so in the late afternoon.

The canon is here performed by Accentus:

Later, Beethoven goes to a coffee house and reads today’s Wiener Zeitung (Nr.8). He makes note of a statement at p.31 that the Austrian National Bank will once again make loans against its bank shares, which will be useful for Beethoven when he runs short of cash from time to time.

Conversation Book 80, 5r-3r. This concludes Conversation Book 80, and Conversation Book 81 picks up tomorrow.

In today’s Leipzig Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, Nr.2 there is a report at 26-32 regarding the concerts in Lisbon between November 1822 and November 1824. In the subscription concerts in that city by the pianist João Domingos Bomtempo (1775-1842), concluding in June of 1823, Beethoven’s Symphony Nr. 5 in C minor was performed, as well as an unspecified Overture by him, noted at 29. No dates are given for these performances, however.

The Intelligenz-Blatt supplement Nr.1 to this issue of the AMZ includes an advertisement from the T. Trautwein firm in Berlin for a Festival Overture by Beethoven, arranged for piano four hands by C.W. Henning. “This Overture is now appearing in print for the first time, and there is no other printed arrangement of any kind.” The arrangement was not authorized by Beethoven, and he wrote to Henning on January 1, complaining about this pirated edition, saying that they only purchased the rights to perform the Consecration of the House Overture op.124 at the opening of the Royal Theater, and did not buy the rights in the work itself. Beethoven eventually will publish a protest that this work is unauthorized and not approved by him; the approved arrangement for two and four hands piano by Carl Czerny are forthcoming from the B. Schott firm in Mainz.