Bluffer’s Guide To Beethoven
Bluffer’s Guide: Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) published in The Record on 15th December 2007. [A little late in publishing here, sorry. Just ignore the first paragraph]
Tomorrow is Beethoven’s birthday. Or so we think. There is no formal record of his birth but rather his baptism, which took place on 17th December 1770. It was the custom at the time for Roman Catholic families to have their child baptised the next day, likely due to high infant mortality, so it is fair to assume that 16 th December was the day.
Millions of words have been devoted to Beethoven’s music, its reception, influence and performance. On this occasion, we’ll set 900 aside to discover who Ludwig van Beethoven was as a person.
The Name
Ludwig van Beethoven was not, as his surname suggests, a member of the aristocracy. He was vehement in his assertion that he was a true artist and therefore socially equal to the aristocratic patrons that subsidised his life. Unfortunately, Viennese society didn’t see it that way and it is assumed that he added van to his surname essentially to make himself feel like he belonged.
Family Life
Beethoven’s childhood was a social services nightmare. His father Johann was a musician at the court in Bonn and but routinely drank away his wages. Johann noticed Ludwig’s talent at the keyboard early on and proceeded to give his son lessons at all hours of the day and night. The purpose of these lessons was to create a mini-Mozart that could give concerts for enormous sums of money, thus relieving Johann from the burden of working himself. For Ludwig’s first concert public concert appearance, Johann advertised that the boy was 6 years old, when he was really nearly 8. It would be years until Beethoven discovered his true age.
As a teenager, Ludwig was also employed at the court and was forced to appropriate part of Johann’s wages in order to keep his two younger brothers in food and clothes, while his father “spent time in the country”, the 18th century euphemism for rehab.
Appearance
Aside from the wild hair and piercing eyes that immediately come to mind, it is difficult to imagine what Beethoven actually looked like. One thing is for certain: he was no Adonis. By all accounts, Beethoven was shorter than average, with broad shoulders and a short neck. His face was pockmarked and his wide nose and bushy eyebrows did nothing to improve the situation. Those that met Beethoven were taken by the intensity of his deeply set eyes as well as his enormous capacity for animation involving both his face and body. This vitality is missing from all contemporary portraits, as candid poses were not the done thing in the early 19th century.
In his younger days, he was often smartly turned out but in later years, his growing sense that social rules didn’t apply to him meant that his friends had to, on occasion, sneak into his rooms and replace his tattered clothes with new ones.
Personality
Beethoven’s character was as repulsive as it was attractive. He could be a gruff, ill-tempered obstinate one minute and then as quickly as the wind changes course, he would turn into a charming practical joker keen to dote on his friends. Indeed, Beethoven’s personality was so magnetic that he was never short on friends no matter how grumpy or rude he was. They were so devoted to him that when, at the end of his life, he was completely dependent on the help of others there was competition to run his errands.
In addition to his Jekyll and Hyde tendencies, Beethoven was notoriously scatterbrained. One of his patrons, Countess Anna Margaret von Browne gave him a riding horse as thanks for the Op. 10 pianos sonatas. True to form, Beethoven promptly forgot about it. One of his more enterprising servants started a horse rental business and it wasn’t until Beethoven received a large bill for fodder that he curtailed the servant’s illicit entrepreneurial activities and got rid of the animal.
Love
Beethoven never married or had any children, largely due to his habit of falling in love with women of a higher social class than he, making it impossible for the relationship to go anywhere. Of course there was the occasional dalliance but for the most part, although the objects of his affections were genuinely fond of him, his romantic feelings were unrequited.
By his early forties, he had finally admitted that his marriage project had been a dismal failure. The legal battle he started for guardianship of his nephew Karl was a misguided attempt at creating a family of his own and ended disastrously. Despite yearning to be a husband and father, Beethoven renounced the idea of domestic happiness devoted himself more and more to his music, writing, “Only in my divine art do I find the support which enables me to sacrifice the best part of my life to the heavenly Muses.”
What They Said:
Surely I’ve written better things.
Beethoven on the Moonlight Sonata
A colossus beyond the grasp of most mortals, with his totally uncompromising power, his unsensual and uningratiating way with music as with people.
– Yehudi Menuhin, violinist
I like Beethoven. Especially the poems.
Ringo Starr
Plaudite, amici, comedia finita est. (Applaud, my friends, the comedy is over.) Beethoven, on his deathbed,—Likely apocryphal but typical of his keen wit.
So Strange It Has To Be True: In 1900, Max Klinger, a German artist created a sculpture of Beethoven deep in thought, seated naked amongst angels with an eagle at his feet. It is currently on display in Leipzig.
Doug Palmer | Feb 9, 2008 | Reply
I was under the impression that his last words were ’tis a pity, too late.
Referring to the expected arrival of some wine that was supposed to make him feel better. I don’t remember, however, where I read that.
There are so many biographies and letter collections. One can only glean a rough outline of the life. The movies aren’t much help, although “Immortal Beloved” had a ring of psychological verity.
I don’t think Ludwig would be quoting Leoncavallo, although his later works were ahead of their time.