The pension from the Elector had been stopped. Prince Lichnowsky made
Beethoven a small allowance, and with this exception, the latter was
dependent on his own exertions. Some time in 1808 Jerome Bonaparte, King
of Westphalia, offered Beethoven the position of _Maître de Chapelle_
at Cassel, with an annual salary, beside travelling expenses, of about
$1,500. This led the Archduke Rudolph, Prince Lobkowitz, and Prince Kinsky
to give a joint undertaking in March 1809 to secure Beethoven 4,000
florins, payable half-yearly, a sum nominally worth about $2,000, and
really about $1,000; this was lessened by the depreciation of the Austrian
paper and the bankruptcy and the death of Prince Kinsky. It was in this
year that Beethoven met young Moscheles, began relations with Breitkopf
and Härtel, negotiated with Thomson about the harmonization of Scottish
melodies, a contract which in the course of years netted him about $1,000.
The French were again in Vienna. Wagram was fought. Beethoven, during
the bombardment of his town, was in a cellar, and dreading the effect of
the explosions on his hearing, called in the aid of cushions. Haydn died
in May, and there is no hint of the fact in the letters or journals of
his quondam pupil. It was the year of the beginning of the "Les Adieux"
sonata, to commemorate the departure of the Archduke.
May, 1810, was the date of the first performance of the music to "Egmont,"
probably in a private house, and in this month Beethoven first saw Bettine
Brentano, "Goethe's child, who seemed the incarnation or the original of
Mignon." With her he fell in love, although she was betrothed to Count
Arnim. The authenticity of the three letters which she published in after
years as his has been a subject of warm dispute. It was in this same year
that he contemplated marriage, and wrote for his baptismal certificate.
But the name of the possible wife is unknown. Some have called her Therese
von Brunswick; others Therese Malfatti.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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