Scan 70
STOKES, ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MUSIC AND MUSICIANS VOLUME 1, 1908
2 lines. Read by computer on 15 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1when Haydn again went to England, studied counterpoint with Albrechtsberger and violin with Schuppanzigh. Beethoven never acknowledged any obligation to Haydn, and as it was the rule of that master to keep still when he couldn't speak well of people, his opinion of his pupil is doubtful. Albrechtsberger, however, did not hesitate to warn his other pupils to let Beethoven alone because he was "incapable of learning, and would never amount to anything." In 1792 Beethoven's father died, but the Elector continued, at Beethoven's request, to pay his salary to his brothers in Bonn until Mar., 1794, continuing Beethoven's own allowance as well. A few months later the French Republican army seized Bonn, and Beethoven was thereafter to regard Vienna as his home. Despite bad manners, slovenly habits, and a total disregard for conventions, Beethoven made warm friends among the nobility, and Prince and Princess Karl Lichnowsky, who had already presented him with a quartet of strings, now made him an allowance of 600 guldens per annum, besides keeping a room at his disposal in their house. He quarrelled with his friends and patrons on the slightest provocation, often without any at all, though he sometimes made profuse apologies when realizing himself in the wrong. An amusing instance of his arrogance was displayed when he learned that Prince Lichnowsky had ordered his servant to answer Beethoven's bell before his own. Beethoven thereupon promptly engaged a servant for his exclusive use. It may be that the Viennese regarded his independence as a joke, it may be that his remarkable powers of improvising were weighed against his faults. At any rate, he was not merely tolerated, but cultivated — by women as well as men. His industry in composition was prodigious. He ordinarily arose about five o'clock and worked until noon, when dinner was served, but he sometimes forgot to eat. He often took long walks in the afternoon, especially if living in one of the many villages in the environs of Vienna, as was his rule in summer; spending his evening in society or at the theatre. During his walks he always carried a notebook in which to jot down musical ideas as they occurred to him, and he usually kept several compositions in hand at a time, working at each in turn, as he felt disposed. He hated to be interrupted, and often sang the melodies he was writing in a voice far from pleasant, strumming at his piano, stamping, or roaring aloud. Sometimes he spent days in rewriting. His note books show 18 attempts at one aria in "Fidelio" (O Hoffnung). The irregularity of his habits and his need of solitude when composing may have had something to do with the frequency with which he changed his lodging, often at great expense and inconvenience. In 1795 the list of compositions written in Vienna included some trios, the first three piano sonatas, which he dedicated to Haydn; 12 Variations on "Se vuol ballare," 13 on "Es war einmal," eight for four hands on Count Waldstein's theme, nine for solo piano on "Quant' e più bello," a trio for oboes, corno inglese, and piano, and a violin rondo in G, the B flat concerto for piano and orchestra, the songs "Adelaide," "Opferlied," and "Seufzer eines Ungeliebten"; 12 minuets, 12 Deutsche Tänze for orchestra, and the canon "Im Arme der Liebe." Heretofore Beethoven had only played in private houses in Vienna. Mar. 29, 1795, he appeared at the annual actors' fund benefit at the Burg Theatre, playing his own concerto in C major; two days later playing a concerto of Mozart's at the benefit given his widow, and on Dec. 18, a concerto of his own at a concert given by Haydn. Jan. 10, 1796, he played with Haydn again, and then visited Nuremberg, and perhaps Prague, and finally Berlin, where the king gave him a box of gold coin. He was in Prague during February, and composed "Ah perfido" for Mme. Duschek, but November found him back in Vienna, where he composed a farewell song for the troops leaving for the Napoleonic wars, and later gave a concert with the Rombergs. Three piano sonatas (Op. 2), 12 varia-
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