Beethoven, the Man and the Artist Part 7

When, finally, the work was given to the publisher, Beethoven included in the t.i.tle an admonitory explanation which should have everlasting validity: "Pastoral Symphony: more expression of feeling than painting."

H. E. K.]

89. "My 'Fidelio' was not understood by the public, but I know that it will yet be appreciated; for though I am well aware of the value of my 'Fidelio' I know just as well that the symphony is my real element. When sounds ring in me I always hear the full orchestra; I can ask anything of instrumentalists, but when writing for the voice I must continually ask myself: 'Can that be sung?'

(A remark made in 1823 or 1824 to Griesinger.)

90. "Thus Fate knocks at the portals!"

(Reported by Schindler as Beethoven's explanation of the opening of the symphony in C minor.)

["Hofrath Kueffner told him (Krenn) that he once lived with Beethoven in Heiligenstadt, and that they were in the habit evenings of going down to Nussdorf to eat a fish supper in the Gasthaus 'Zur Rose.' One evening when B. was in a good humor, Kueffner began: 'Tell me frankly which is your favorite among your symphonies?' B. (in good humor) 'Eh! Eh! The Eroica.' K. 'I should have guessed the C minor.' B. 'No; the Eroica.'"

From Thayer's notebook. See "Music and Manners in the Cla.s.sical Period."

H.E.K.]

91. "The solo sonatas (op. 109-ll?) are perhaps the best, but also the last, music that I composed for the pianoforte. It is and always will be an unsatisfactory instrument. I shall hereafter follow the example of my grandmaster Handel, and every year write only an oratorio and a concerto for some string or wind instrument, provided I shall have finished my tenth symphony (C minor) and Requiem."

(Reported by Holz. As to the tenth symphony see note to No. 95.)

92. "G.o.d knows why it is that my pianoforte music always makes the worst impression on me, especially when it is played badly."

(June 2, 1804. A note among the sketches for the "Leonore" overture.)

93. "Never did my own music produce such an effect upon me; even now when I recall this work it still costs me a tear."

(Reported by Holz. The reference is to the Cavatina from the quartet in B-flat, op. 130, which Beethoven thought the crown of all quartet movements and his favorite composition. When alone and undisturbed he was fond of playing his favorite pianoforte Andante--that from the sonata op. 28.)

94. "I do not write what I most desire to, but that which I need to because of money. But this is not saying that I write only for money.

When the present period is past, I hope at last to write that which is the highest thing for me as well as art,--'Faust.'"

(From a conversation-book used in 1823. To Buhler, tutor in the house of a merchant, who was seeking information about an oratorio which Beethoven had been commissioned to write by the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston.)

95. "Ha! 'Faust;' that would be a piece of work! Something might come out of that! But for some time I have been big with three other large works. Much is already sketched out, that is, in my head. I must be rid of them first:--two large symphonies differing from each other, and each differing from all the others, and an oratorio. And this will take a long time, you see, for a considerable time I have had trouble to get myself to write. I sit and think, and think I've long had the thing, but it will not on the paper. I dread the beginning of these large works.

Once into the work, and it goes."

(In the summer of 1822, to Rochlitz, at Baden. The symphonies referred to are the ninth and tenth. They existed only in Beethoven's mind and a few sketches. In it he intended to combine antique and modern views of life.)

["In the text Greek mythology, cantique ecclesiastique; in the Allegro, a Bacchic festival." (Sketchbook of 1818)]

[The oratorio was to have been called "The Victory of the Cross." It was not written. Schindler wrote to Moscheles in London about Beethoven in the last weeks of his life: "He said much about the plan of the tenth symphony. As the work had shaped itself in his imagination it might have become a musical monstrosity, compared with which his other symphonies would have been mere opuscula."]

ON ART AND ARTISTS

96. "How eagerly mankind withdraws from the poor artist what it has once given him;--and Zeus, from whom one might ask an invitation to sup on ambrosia, lives no longer."

(In the summer of 1814, to Kauka, an advocate who represented him in the lawsuit against the heirs of Kinsky.)

97. "I love straightforwardness and uprightness, and believe that the artist ought not to be belittled; for, alas! brilliant as fame is externally, it is not always the privilege of the artist to be Jupiter's guest on Olympus all the time. Unfortunately vulgar humanity drags him down only too often and too rudely from the pure upper ether."

(June 5, 1852, to C. F. Peters, music publisher, in Leipzig when treating with him touching a complete edition of his works.)

98. "The true artist has no pride; unhappily he realizes that art has no limitations, he feels darkly how far he is from the goal, and while, perhaps he is admired by others, he grieves that he has not yet reached the point where the better genius shall s.h.i.+ne before him like a distant sun."

(Teplitz, July 17, to an admirer ten years old.)

99. "You yourself know what a change is wrought by a few years in the case of an artist who is continually pus.h.i.+ng forward. The greater the progress which one makes in art, the less is one satisfied with one's old works."

(Vienna, August 4, 1800, to Mathisson, in the dedication of his setting of "Adelaide." "My most ardent wish will be fulfilled if you are not displeased with the musical composition of your heavenly 'Adelaide.'")

100. "Those composers are exemplars who unite nature and art in their works."

(Baden, in 1824, to Freudenberg, organist from Breslau.)

101. "What will be the judgment a century hence concerning the lauded works of our favorite composers today? Inasmuch as nearly everything is subject to the changes of time, and, more's the pity, the fas.h.i.+ons of time, only that which is good and true, will endure like a rock, and no wanton hand will ever venture to defile it. Then let every man do that which is right, strive with all his might toward the goal which can never be attained, develop to the last breath the gifts with which a gracious Creator has endowed him, and never cease to learn; for 'Life is short, art eternal!'"

(From the notes in the instruction book of Archduke Rudolph.)

102. "Famous artists always labor under an embarra.s.sment;--therefore first works are the best, though they may have sprung out of dark ground."