Such a case is Beethoven’s. A French writer, M. Teodor de Wyzewa, in a book called “Beethoven et Wagner,” has made so masterly, so discriminating an analysis of Beethoven’s parents and grandparents, that no one can read it without a strong conviction of the important part played by heredity in the formation of this extraordinarily unique, peculiar, and well-defined character. No man ever existed who was more intensely individual than Beethoven; yet many of the traits which in him were so marvelously blended, and which in the blending produced so novel a flavor, were undoubtedly derived from earlier, and quite undistinguished, members of his family. Beethoven’s grandfather, Ludwig van Beethoven, born at Antwerp in 1712, was of an old Flemish family of marked national character. He early removed to Bonn, the seat of the Elector of Cologne, as a court-musician, and in 1761 became court music-director, a position which he held with zeal and ability until his death in 1773. “He was,” says M. de Wyzewa, “a man of middle stature, sinewy and thick-set, with strongly-marked features, clear eyes, and an extreme vivacity of manner. Great energy and a high sense of duty were combined, in him, with a practical good sense and a dignity of demeanor that earned for him, in the city he had entered poor and unknown, universal respect. His musical knowledge and ability were considerable; and although he was not an original composer, he had frequently to make arrangements of music for performance by his choir. He was a man of strong family and patriotic sentiment, and established in Bonn quite a colony of Flemish, his brother and cousins.” Beethoven’s grandmother, on the other hand born Maria-Josepha Poll, developed early in her married life a passion for drink which finally obliged her husband to send her to a convent where she remained, without contact with the family, until her death. It is probable that this unfortunate tendency was but a symptom of morbid weakness of the nervous system, beyond the control of her will--a fact, as we shall see, interesting in its possible bearing or the interpretation of her grandson’s idiosyncrasies. In 1740 was born to this ill-assorted couple a son, Johann van Beethoven, the father of the composer. M. de Wyzewa treats him summarily: “His character, like his intelligence can be described in one word--he was a perfect nullity”; adding, however, that he was not a bad man, as some of the anecdotes regarding his conduct toward his son seem to indicate:--“He was merely idle, common, and foolish.” For the rest, he was a tenor singer in the court chapel, and he passed his leisure in taverns and billiard-rooms.