[Footnote 6: The origin of this work may not be uninteresting to the reader. It is briefly as follows. Among the effects of Beethoven offered for sale at the public auction of 1827 were five packets of MSS., labelled "Exercises in Composition." These were bought by the publisher, T. Haslinger, in the not unreasonable belief that they would be found to present a complete view of the preparation made by the master for his life's work. He determined to give the collection to the world, and entrusted the editing of it to the Chevalier von Seyfried, as a friend of Beethoven and himself a scholarly musician. In process of time the volume appeared, and was received with very opposite sentiments by different sections of the public: by some it was accepted as genuine; by others rejected as a fabrication. Nottebohm's investigation has proved the truth to lie between the two extremes. "Seyfried's book," he says, "is neither authentic nor forged; it is a _falsified_ work." Seyfried, in fact, seems to have gone to work with incredible recklessness; his "Beethoven's Studies" is an _Olla Podrida_, composed of not only Beethoven's own exercises (put together without regard to natural sequence or chronology), but of another theoretical course, probably that prepared by Beethoven years after for the instruction of the Archduke Rudolph; while a third element is actually introduced in the shape of Studies from a MS. written in a strange hand, and possibly the work of another pupil of Albrechtsberger!] [Footnote 7: Original father--creator.] [Footnote 8: The following remarks are eminently characteristic of Beethoven. When his fiery nature had led him into saying or doing anything which subsequent reflection showed him to be contrary to true friendship, his remorse knew no bounds. Wegeler declares that his contrition was often entirely disproportionate to the fault committed, as in the present instance.] [Footnote 9: Variations on Figaro's air, "Se vuol ballare."] [Footnote 10: Afterwards Count Marienrode, and Minister of Finance in the kingdom of Westphalia. At a later period he filled the same office in Wirtemberg.] [Footnote 11: Wegeler says, "Beethoven often complained to me also of this sort of _espionage_. He particularized the Abbé Gelinek, a very fruitful composer of variations, in Vienna, who always settled himself in his neighbourhood. This may have been one of the reasons why Beethoven always looked out for a lodging in as open a place as possible."] [Footnote 12: _Paraquin_, contro-basso in the electoral orchestra; a thorough musician, and universally esteemed as such.] [Footnote 13: _Kerpen_, the residence of an uncle of Fräulein v. Breuning, where the family usually spent some weeks in summer.] [Illustration] CHAPTER V. THE VIRTUOSO.