BIRCHALL BECOMES BEETHOVEN'S PUBLISHER 319 Count on my boundless gratitude, I hope for a speedy, a very speedy answer from you. Some time about October 15th, Beethoven returned to Vienna. And now another bitter parting: The Erdödys, accompanied by Brauchle, Sperl and Linke, departed to Croatia never to return. The letters to Smart, Salomon and Ries were not in vain; through their efforts, especially Salomon's, Mr. Robert Birchall, Music Publisher of No. 133 New Bond St., was induced to purchase four of the works enumerated by Häring, viz: the pianoforte arrangements of the "Wellington's Victory," Op. 91, and Symphony in A, Op. 92; the Trio in B-flat, Op. 97, and the Sonata for Pianoforte and Violin, Op. 96, for "the sum of one hundred and thirty-five gold Dutch ducats-value in English currency, sixtyfive pounds." The correspondence between the composer and publisher as presented by Mr. Birchall's successors begins with a paper in extraordinary English which has hitherto passed as a note received from Vienna, but which, it is obvious, is nothing but the effort of some resident German to interpret the contents of the following letter from Beethoven:1 Well-born Sir! Vienna, October 28th, 1815. I inform you that the Battle and Victory Symphony on Wellington's Victory in pianoforte arrangement was dispatched to London several days ago to the house of Thomas Coutts, in London, whence you may fetch it. I beg you to be speedy as possible in printing it and inform me of the day when you purpose publishing it so that I may give timely notice of the fact to the publisher here such great hurry is not necessary with the 3 works which follow and which you will receive soon and in the case of which I shall take the liberty to fix the day:-Mr. Salomon will Mr. Birchall's successor was C. Lonsdale, who had been his principal assistant and who had conducted the correspondence with Beethoven; and the business is at this writing in the hands of Mr. Lonsdale's son Robert. From both these gentlemen, the author received great kindness and valuable aid in his English researches. The letter in the text was not in their possession, but has since been communicated to this work by Mr. S. Ganz. This excepted, the correspondence may be read in the “Jahrbücher für Musikalische Wissenschaft," 1ten Band, by Breitkopf and Härtel, 1863. As our reading of the English paper mentioned in the text differs from that in the "Jahrbücher" it is here subjoined. "Mr. Beethoven send word to Mr. Birchall that it is severall days past that he has sent for London, Wellington's Battel Simphonie and that Mr. B. may send for it at Thomas Coutts. Mr. Beethoven wish Mr. Bl. would make ingrave the sayd Simphonie so soon as possible and send him word in time the day it will be published, that he may prevent in time the publisher at Vienna. "To regard the 3 Sonatas which Mr. B. shall receive afterwards there is not wanted such a gt. hurry and Mr. B[eethoven] will take the liberty to fixe the day when the are to be published. Mr. Bleethoven] sayd tha Mr. Solomon has a good many tings to say concerning the Simphonie in (?) Mr. Bleethoven] wish for an answer so soon as possible concerning the days of publication." The letter here queried, does not belong to the English Alphabet, but the "Battle and Victory Symphony" is meant. have the goodness to explain to you more clearly why there is this greater haste in the matter of the Battle and Victory Symphony. Awaiting a very speedy answer regarding the day of publication of the work which you have received. I remain your obedient servant, Ludwig van Beethoven. We now reach one of the most important and at the same time most melancholy events in Beethoven's life an event which exerted the profoundest influence on the rest of his life—the death of his brother Karl. We introduce it with that brother's last will and testament: Certain that all men must die and feeling that I am near this goal, but in the full possession of my understanding, I have freely and voluntarily deemed it good to make these, my last dispositions. 1. I commend my soul to the mercy of God, but my body to the earth from which it came and desire that it be buried in the simplest manner in accordance with the rites of Christian Catholicism. 2. Immediately after my death, four holy masses are to be said, to which end I set apart 4 florins. 3. My heirs general are commanded to pay the pious legacies according to law. 4. As my wife at our marriage brought me and paid over 2000 fl. in B. bonds, for which I gave no receipt, I acknowledge receipt of these 2000 fl. in B. bonds and desire that these 2000 fl. in B. bonds as also the deposit be rectified in accordance with the existing marriage contract. 5. I appoint my brother Ludwig van Beethoven guardian. Inasmuch as this, my deeply beloved brother has often aided me with true brotherly love in the most magnanimous and noblest manner, I ask, in full confidence and trust in his noble heart, that he shall bestow the love and friendship which he often showed me, upon my son Karl, and do all that is possible to promote the intellectual training and further welfare of my son. I know that he will not deny me this, my request. 6. Convinced of the uprightness of Hrn. Dr. Schönauer, Appellate and Court Advocate, I appoint him Curator for probate, as also for my son Karl with the understanding that he be consulted in all matters concerning the property of my son. 7. The appointment of heirs being the essential matter in a testament, I appoint my beloved wife Johanna, born Reiss, and my son Karl, heirs general to all my property in equal portions after the deduction of my existing debts and the above bequests. 8. The wagon, horse, goat, peacocks and the plants growing in vessels in the garden are the property of my wife, since these objects were all purchased with money from the legacy received from her grandfather. In witness whereof, I have not only signed this, my last will with my own hand, but to aid in its execution have also called in three witnesses. Thus done, Vienna, November 14, 1815. Karl van Beethoven, m. p. A DYING BROTHER'S INJUNCTION 321 Carl Gaber, m. p. House owner, Breitenfeld No. 9. Benedikt Gaber, m. p. House owner, Breitenfeld No. 25. Johann Naumann, m. p. House No. 5, Breitenfeld. ("This testament was delivered under seal to the R. I. L. Austrian General Court, by the Karl Scheffer Solicitor Dr. Schönauer, on November 17, 1815, etc.") CODICIL TO MY WILL Having learned that my brother, Hr. Ludwig van Beethoven, desires after my death to take wholly to himself my son Karl, and wholly to withdraw him from the supervision and training of his mother, and inasmuch as the best of harmony does not exist between my brother and my wife, I have found it necessary to add to my will that I by no means desire that my son be taken away from his mother, but that he shall always and so long as his future career permits remain with his mother, to which end the guardianship of him is to be exercised by her as well as my brother. Only by unity can the object which I had in view in appointing my brother guardian of my son, be attained, wherefore, for the welfare of my child, I recommend compliance to my wife and more moderation to my brother. God permit them to be harmonious for the sake of my child's welfare. This is the last wish of the dying husband and brother. Vienna, November 14, 1815. Karl van Beethoven m. p. We, the undersigned, certify in consonance with truth that Karl van Beethoven declared in our presence that he had read the statement on the opposite page and that the same is in accordance with his will, finally we certify that he signed it with his own hand in our presence and requested us to witness the act. Thus done on November 14, 1815. Carl Gaber, m. p. ("This codicil was delivered under seal to the R. I. L. Austrian General Court by the Karl Scheffer Solicitor Dr. Schönauer, on Nov. 17, 1815, etc.") On November 20, 1815, the "Wiener Zeitung" printed the announcement: "Died on November 16, Hr. Karl van Beethoven, Cashier in the R. I. Bank and Chief Treasury, aged 38 years,1 of consumption." And so in his own house died the brother Karl whose last moments came with a suddenness which aroused his brother's suspicions that the end had been hastened by poison! Nor would he be satisfied upon the matter until his friend 'This was an error, as Karl was baptized on April 8, 1774. Bertolini had made a post mortem examination "whereby the lack of foundation for the suspicion was proved.' A few weeks before his death, Karl had applied for leave of absence from his office on the score of his feeble condition; but his petition was harshly refused in a document on which Beethoven afterwards wrote: "This miserable financial product caused the death of my brother." In fact, however, it made probably little difference; his was evidently one of those common cases of phthisis, where the patient, except to the experienced eye, shows no signs of immediate danger; who at the last moments finds himself free from pain and blessed with a buoyancy of spirit that gives him vain hopes of prolonged life. It is the last flickering of the flame, as the skillful physician well knows. As above noted, Karl van Beethoven's will was deposited with the proper authorities on the 17th, and "the R. I. L. Austrian Landrecht (General Court) on November 22, 1815, appointed the widow of the deceased, Johanna van Beethoven, guardian, the brother of the deceased, Ludwig van Beethoven, associate guardian of the minor son Karl." And so, for the present, we will leave the matter.1 And Breuning? Why during these years and especially in this time of sorrow does his name nowhere meet us? His son answers the question in that extremely interesting little volume "Aus dem Schwarzspanierhause.”2 Jacob Rösgen, an employee in the office of the Minister of War in which Breuning was a Secretary, had learned certain facts, or suspicions, in relation to Karl van Beethoven's integrity, which he thought should be communicated to Ludwig as a warning "not to have anything to do with him in financial matters." To this end he, having obtained Breuning's word of honor not to make known the source of the information, imparted to him the whole matter. "Breuning faithfully performed the task which he had assumed; but Ludwig, in his tireless endeavor to better his brother, 1A letter, preserved in the Beethoven House Museum at Bonn (Kalischer, "Sämmtliche Briefe" II, 310), to Madame Antonie von Brentano mentions that Karl had been pensioned, but this may have been written after an application had been made and before it had been refused. The letter says: "Among the individuals (whose number is infinite) who are suffering, is my brother who was obliged to have himself pensioned because of his ill health, conditions are very hard just now, I do all that is possible, but that is not much." He then offers Brentano a pipe-bowl belonging to his brother, who thinks that it might be sold for 10 louis d'or, remarking: "he needs a great deal, is obliged to keep a horse and carriage in order to live (for he is as desirous to keep his life as I am willing to lose mine)." "Aus dem Schwarzspanierhause," by Dr. Gerhard von Breuning. Vienna, Rosner, 1874. Dr. Breuning prints the note of reconciliation (which has appeared in this work) as subsequent to this affair. We are unable to agree with him. A PERIOD OF PROSPERITY 323 hastened to take him to task for his conduct and charge him with the acts which had been reported to him; he went so far, when pressed by his brother for the source of his information, as to mention the name of his friend Steffen. Kaspar (Karl) then appealed directly to my father and asked the name of the author of the 'denunciation,' and when my father resolutely declined to give the name (Rösgen) Kaspar indulged himself in abuse to such an extent that he left insulting letters addressed to him and unsealed with the portier of the Ministry of War. My father, angered and pained at this impertinence and Ludwig's breach of confidence, read the latter a sharp lecture which ended with the declaration that because of such unreliability it would be impossible longer to hold association with him." It will be long before we meet Breuning again. There is a striking incongruity between Beethoven's pleas of poverty in his letters to correspondents in England at this period and the facts drawn from official and other authentic sources. Let us tarry a moment on this point. He was now, at the end of 1815, in the regular receipt of his annuity, 3400 florins in notes of redemption; in March and April the arrears, 4987 florins in such notes, had been paid him; the profits of his concerts since January 1, 1814, with presents from crowned heads and others were, if we may trust Schindler, who appears to speak from accurate knowledge, sufficient in amount to purchase somewhat later the seven bank-shares, which at his death, "according to the price current on the day of his death," had a value in convention-coin of 7441 florins; Neate had paid him 75 guineas; for the works sold to Steiner and Co. he had "been wholly compensated"; in March (1816) he received from Mr. Birchall 65 pounds sterling; and there were payments to him from Thomson and others, the aggregate of which cannot be determined. This incongruity is not essentially diminished either by his taxes-sixty pounds for 1814, he tells Thomson-nor by the 10,000 florins W. W. expended for the benefit of his brother, whether the "Wiener Währung" in the letter to Ries be understood as the old five for one, or the new in notes of redemption; for this fraternal charity extended back over a series of years. In this letter to Ries, the reader will observe also a remarkable instance of its writer's occasional great carelessness of statement, where he speaks of his "entire loss of salary" for several years; for the Archduke's share had throughout been punctually paid; not 1Dr. Gerhard von Breuning places this incident in 1804, Thayer in 1815. The cause of the quarrel which was followed by a reconciliation in 1804, has been explained. |