The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume IIThayer, Alexander Wheelock
History
The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume II
Thayer, Alexander Wheelock
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770-1827
Beethoven grants Clementi the manuscripts of the works afterwards
enumerated, with the right to publish them in Great Britain, but
reserving the rights for other countries. The works are: three
Quartets, one Symphony (“the fourth that he has composed”), the
Overture to “Coriolan,” a Concerto for Violin and the arrangement
of the same for Pianoforte “with additional notes.”
Clementi is to pay for these works the equivalent of £200 in
Viennese funds at Schuller and Co.’s as soon as the arrival of the
manuscripts is reported from London. If Beethoven cannot deliver
all the compositions at once he is to be paid only in proportion.
Beethoven engages to sell these works in Germany, France or
elsewhere only on condition that they shall not be published until
four months after they have been despatched to England. In the case
of the Violin Concerto, the Symphony and the Overture, which have
just been sent off, not until September 1, 1807. Beethoven also
agrees to compose on the same terms, within a time not fixed, and
at his own convenience, three Sonatas or two Sonatas and a Fantasia
for Pianoforte with or without accompaniment, as he chooses, for
which he is to be paid £60. Clementi engages to send Beethoven two
copies of each work. The contract is executed in duplicate and
signed at Vienna, April 20, 1807, by Clementi and Beethoven.[49]
The quartets, in parts, had been lent to Count Franz Brunswick and were
still in Hungary, which gave occasion to one of Beethoven’s peculiarly
whimsical and humorous epistles:
[Sidenote: THE FAMOUS LOVE-LETTER AGAIN]
To Count Franz von Brunswick:
Dear, dear B! I have only to say to you that I came to a right
satisfactory arrangement with Clementi. I shall receive 200 pounds
Sterling--and besides I am privileged to sell the same works in
Germany and France. He has also offered me other commissions--so
that I am enabled to hope through them to achieve the dignity of a
true artist while still young. ~I need, dear B,~ the QUARTETS. I
have already asked your sister to write to you about them, it takes
too long to copy them from my score--therefore make haste and send
them direct to me by LETTER POST. You shall have them back in 4 or
5 days at the latest. I beg you urgently for them, since otherwise
I might lose a great deal.
If you can arrange it that the Hungarians want me to come for a few
concerts, do it--you may have me for 200 florins in gold--then I
will bring my opera along. I will not get along with the princely
rabble.
Whenever WE (several) (~amici~) drink your wine, we drink you, i.
e., we drink your health. Farewell--hurry--hurry--hurry and send me
the quartets--otherwise you may embarrass me greatly.
Schuppanzigh has married--it is said with ONE ~very like him~. What
a family????
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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