The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume IIThayer, Alexander Wheelock
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The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume II
Thayer, Alexander Wheelock
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770-1827
It would give me great joy if Beethoven were to make me a present
of the two songs of mine which he has composed, but neatly and
plainly written. I am very eager to hear them. It is one of my
greatest enjoyments, for which I am very grateful, to have the
old moods of such a poem (as Beethoven very correctly says) newly
aroused in me....
June 6, 1810.
(Bettina to Goethe)
Dearest friend! I communicated your beautiful letter to Beethoven
so far as it concerned him. He was full of joy and cried: “If there
is any one who can make him understand music, I am the man!” The
idea of hunting you up at Karlsbad filled him with enthusiasm. He
struck his forehead a blow and said: “Might I not have done that
earlier?--but, in truth, I did think of it but omitted to do it
because of timidity which often torments me as if I were not a
real man: but I am no longer afraid of Goethe.” You may count,
therefore, on seeing him next year....
I am enclosing both songs by Beethoven; the other two are by me.
Beethoven has seen them and said many pretty things about them,
such as that if I had devoted myself to this lovely art I might
cherish great hopes; but I merely graze it in flight, for my art is
only to laugh and sigh in a little pocket--more than that there is
none for me.
Bettina.
By the middle of June she was in Bohemia.
There are a few letters from this period to which attention may be
paid. On July 9, 1810, Beethoven wrote to Zmeskall telling him of his
distracted state of mind: he ought to go away from Vienna for the sake
of his health, but Archduke Rudolph wanted him to remain near him; so
he was one day in Schönbrunn, the next in Vienna. “Every day there
come new inquiries from strangers, new acquaintances, new conditions
even as regards art--sometimes I feel as if I should go mad because
of my undeserved fame; fortune is seeking me and on that account I
almost apprehend a new misfortune.” On July 17th, he sent to Thomson
the Scotch songs which he had arranged, accompanied by a letter (in
French) in which he discusses business matters, gives some instructions
touching the repetitions in the songs, repeats his offer to compose
three quintets and three sonatas and to send him such arrangements
for quartet and quintet as have been made of his symphonies. Soon
thereafter he wrote to Bettina Brentano:[79]
[Sidenote: BEETHOVEN’S LETTER TO BETTINA]
Vienna, August 11, 1810.
Dearest Bettine:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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