Beethoven repeatedly invited my mother to coffee, or, as the Viennese say, zur Jause; but my mother almost always declined, as his domestic arrangements did not appear altogether appetizing.

My mother often said to my father that Beethoven's habit of expectorating in the room, his neglected clothing and his extravagant behavior were not particularly attractive. My father always replied: "And yet he has a great deal of success, especially with women."

Beethoven often told my mother that he longed greatly for domestic happiness and much regretted that he had never married.

Beethoven was fond of Stephan von Breuning's son Gerhard, whom, because of his attachment to his father, he dubbed Hosenknopf (Trousers-button) and because of his lightness of foot Ariel. He once had the boy play for him, criticized the position of his hands and sent him Clementi's Method as preferable to Czerny's which the lad was using.

There can be no doubt that the renewed association with von Breuning frequently turned his thoughts to his old home and his boyhood friends in the Rhine country, and his delight must have been keen when in this year, he received letters from Wegeler, whom he had not seen since he left Vienna twenty-eight years before, and his wife, who had been Eleonore von Breuning. They were tender letters, full of information about their family, each other, friends and relations-real home letters telling of births, marriages, careers and deaths. One would think that they ought to have been answered at once, but Beethoven did not find time or occasion to write a reply until the next year, despite this obvious challenge in Dr. von Wegeler's letter:

Why did you not avenge the honor of your mother when, in the Encyclopædia, and in France, you were set down as a love-child? The Englishman who tried to defend you gave the filth a cuff, as we say in Bonn, and let your mother carry you in her womb 30 years, since the King of Prussia, your alleged father, died already in 1740-an assertion which was altogether wrong since Frederick II ascended the throne in 1740 and did not die till 1786. Only your inborn dread of having anything but music of yours published is, probably, the cause of this culpable indolence. If you wish it I will set the world right in this matter.

The great contributions which Beethoven made to music in the year 1825, were the Quartets in A minor, Op. 132 and in B-flat major, Op. 130, which were composed in the order here mentioned; but the second, being published before its companion, received the earlier opus number. The A minor Quartet was the second of the three which Beethoven composed on invitation of Prince Galitzin, the first being that in E-flat, Op. 127, the third that in B-flat. It was taken up immediately on the completion of the E-flat Quartet.

THE LAST STRING QUARTETS

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In March Beethoven had written to Neate that the first of the three quartets which he thought of bringing with him to London was written, that he was at work on the second and that it and the third would be finished "soon." On the same day he wrote to Schott and Sons: "The violin quartets are in hand; the second is nearly finished." The sketches of the A minor (as established by Nottebohm) date back to 1824. The work was originally to have the customary four movements; labor on it was interrupted by the illness of April and then the plan was changed to include the "Song of Thanksgiving in the Lydian mode," the short march before the last movement, and the minuet. The work was finished by August at the latest. The passage in eighth-notes in the second part of the first movement is practically a quotation from one of the German dances written for the Ridotto balls fully thirty years before, with the bar-lines shifted so that the change of harmony occurs on the up-beats of the measures. In a Conversation Book used in May or June, 1825, Beethoven wrote Dankeshimne eines Kranken an Gott bei seiner Genesung. Gefühl neuer Kraft und wiedererwachtes Gefühl ("Hymn of Thanksgiving to God of an Invalid on his Convalescence. Feeling of new strength and reawakened feeling"). In the original score this was changed to the reading: "Sacred Song of Thanksgiving of a Convalescent to the Divinity, in the Lydian Mode. N. B. This piece has always B instead of B-flat." As has already been mentioned in the history of the Ninth Symphony, the principal theme of the last movement was originally conceived for the finale of that work. The B-flat Quartet was begun early in the year, as the letters to Neate and Schott indicate. On August 29, Beethoven wrote to his nephew that it would be wholly finished in ten or twelve days. In November he himself writes in the Conversation Book: "Title for the Quartet," and a strange hand adds: 31ème Quatuor. Pour deux Violons, Viola et Violoncello composé aux désirs de S. A. Monseigneur le Prince Nicolas Galitzin et dédié au même," to which Beethoven adds: "par L. v. B." The Quartet, though more than half-promised to Schlesinger, who got the A minor Quartet, was sold to Artaria, and in January, 1826, Holz writes, "The Quartet will be printed at once; thus the third Quartet will appear before the first two." This was the case, which accounts for the incorrect numbering of them. It had its first. public performance in March, 1826. The Fugue in B-flat, Op. 133, originally formed the finale of the work but was put aside after the first performance and the present finale, which was composed in Gneixendorf in 1826, was substituted.

After securing the A minor Quartet and an assurance that he should also have that in B-flat (he had offered to deposit 80 ducats with a Viennese banker against its completion and delivery and Beethoven had accepted his offer), Schlesinger said that he would purchase the first of the three Quartets from Schott and Sons so as to have all three for his Complete Edition. Karl, in reporting the fact to Beethoven, expressed his belief that the Schotts would sell for fear that if they did not Schlesinger would reprint the work in Paris without permission. The latter made a strenuous effort to get the autograph score of the A minor, but had perforce to content himself with a copy. Holz represented to Beethoven that the autograph would be an asset for Karl in the future, and Karl was of the same opinion; he supported Holz's assertion with the argument that such Capitalien grew more valuable with age and that he was sure Schlesinger would get 30 ducats for the manuscript. Beethoven expressed indifference as to which publisher got the works so long as he was promptly paid. In urging haste upon Holz, who had undertaken to look after the copying of the B-flat, he wrote:

It is immaterial which hellhound licks and gnaws my brains, since it must needs be so, only see that the answer is not delayed too long. The hellhound in L. can wait and meanwhile entertain himself with Mephistopheles (the Editor of the Musik. L. Zeit.) in Auerbach's Cellar; he will soon be plucked by the ears by Belzebub the chief of devils.

The Leipsic "hellhound" thus consigned to Belzebub was, of course, Peters. It was about this time that Karl told his uncle an anecdote to the effect that Cherubini, asked why he did not compose a quartet, replied: "If Beethoven had never written a quartet I would write quartets; as it is, I can not." After the meetings at Schlesinger's room in the inn "Zum wilden Mann" the Quartets in E-flat and A minor were played again at a concert in which Schuppanzigh was prevented from taking part, and Holz played the first violin. Beethoven grew merry at his expense and wrote a canon in the Conversation Book to the words: "Holz fiddles the quartets as if they were treading Kraut.”

Two trifles which kept company with the Quartets in this year were a Waltz in D and an Ecossaise in E-flat for pianoforte, which were published in a collection of light music by C. F. Müller. There are several allusions to the oratorio commissioned by the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in the Conversation Books of 1825, in one of which Grillparzer is mentioned as a likely author for another book; but so far as is known no work was done on "The Victory of the Cross," though Bernard shortened the book.

PRAISE FROM THE BEPRAISED

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Before the end of the year the principal theme of the Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131, is noted, accompanied by the words written by Beethoven: "Only the praise of one who has enjoyed praise can give pleasure";-it is, no doubt, a relic of some of the composer's classic readings.1

'Laudari a viro laudate-Nævius; Lætus sum laudari me, inquit Hector, opinor apud Nævium, abs te, pater, a laudate viro-Cicero ad fam. XV, 6; Cum tragicus ille apud nos ait magnificum esse laudari a laudato viro, laude digno, ait.—Seneca, Epist. 102, 16.

Chapter VIII

A Year of Sickness and Sorrow: 1826-The Quartets in B-Flat, C-Sharp Minor and F Major-Controversy with Prince Galitzin-Dedication of the Ninth SymphonyLife at Gneixendorf-Beethoven's Last Compositions.

T

HE year which witnessed the last of Beethoven's completed labors, and saw what by general consent might be set down as the greatest of his string quartets, that in C-sharp minor, Op. 131, beheld also the culmination of the grief and pain caused by the conduct of his nephew. The year 1826 was a year of awful happenings and great achievements; a year of startling contradictions, in which the most grievous blows which an inscrutable Providence dealt the composer as if utterly to crush him to earth, were met by a display of creative energy which was amazing not only in its puissance but also in its exposition of transfigured emotion and imagination. The history of the year can best be followed if it be told in two sections, for which reason we have chosen to group the incidents connected with the nephew in a chapter by themselves and review first the artistic activities of the composer. After the history of the year has been set forth there will remain to be told only the story of the gathering of the gloom which early in the next year shut down over his mortal eyes forever. The figure which stands out in highest relief throughout the year beside that of the composer is that of Holz, whose concern for his welfare goes into the smallest detail of his unfortunate domestic life and includes also the major part of the labors and responsibilities caused by the tragical outcome of the nephew's waywardness his attempt at self-destruction. Schindler appears at intervals, but with jealous reserve, chary of advice, waiting to be asked for his opinion and pettishly protesting that after it once has been given it will not be acted upon. Stephan von Breuning appears in all the nobility of his nature; and in the attitude and acts of Brother Johann, though they have been severely faulted and, we fear, maligned, there is evidence of something as near