Beethoven and Greco-Roman Antiquity

Jos van der Zanden

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9781032047096
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000442779
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Classical Music

Ludwig van Beethoven had a life beyond music. He considered it his duty to spend leisure-time improving his Bildung (sophistication). To this end he familiarised himself with tangible manifestations of Greco-Roman antiquity, for he perceived these cultures and their representatives as examples of intellectual, moral, and artistic perfection. He consumed such writers as Homer, Plutarch, Horace, Tacitus, Euripides, and Greek poets. These texts were morally uplifting for him, and advantageous for building character. They now hold a key to Beethoven's ideal of a steadfast, austere, and Stoic outlook, necessary for a 'great man' to carry out his duties. Jos van der Zanden demonstrates that Beethoven's engagement with Greco-Roman culture was deep and ongoing, and that it ventured beyond the non-committal. Drawing on a comprehensive investigation of primary sources (letters, conversation books, diaries, recollections of contemporaries) he examines what Beethoven knew of such topics like history, art, politics, and philosophy of antiquity. The book presents new information on the composer's republicanism, his familiarity with the works of Plato, his admiration of the elderly Brutus, his plan to utilize 'unresolved dissonances' in an unknown piece of music, and his decision to subscribe to a book about ancient Greek poetry. A hitherto unknown vocal piece based on lines by Euripides is revealed. The study concludes with a comprehensive survey of all compositions and sketches by Beethoven based on Greco-Roman subjects.

1 Introduction

DOI: 10.4324/9781003194354-1

The attractiveness of Antiquity for powerful souls is probably the most sophisticated and imperceptible of all enticements.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Fragmente 1885 (34, 176)

In March 1827, when Beethoven was lying on his deathbed, the thirteen-year-old Gerhard von Breuning wrote in a conversation book: ‘Do you like to read about the artefacts of the Romans and the Greeks? If you do, I will bring illustrations of them tomorrow, together with the explanation, and also another more general book about these ancient artefacts’.¹ The boy had evidently overheard that Beethoven had requested his attendants to supply him with Classical literature. Anton Schindler had borrowed Ovid’s Metamorphoses from a library, but failed to obtain what the sick man had asked for, namely the writings of Tacitus and Plutarch.² The volumes that Beethoven needed were not readily available, which was why Gerhard offered to bring his schoolbooks on the Romans and the Greeks, as temporary replacements.

Schindler recollected in his biography, that the dying Beethoven was surrounded by ‘Plutarch and other Greek favourites’.³ He informed Ignaz Moscheles in London that ‘when alone, he entertains himself with reading the ancient Greeks’.⁴ Conversation books and letters corroborate this claim: sure enough, on his deathbed Beethoven had at his disposal at least Homer, Plutarch, Ovid, and Epictetus.⁵ One might say that he departed from the world while immersed in ancient wisdom, and this lends some credence to the story that one of his final utterings was: ‘Plaudite amici comoedia finita est’ – a Hellenistic life-trivializing expression reportedly used by Emperor Augustus.⁶ The upshot is, that very late in life Beethoven set much store by ancient writings. Late in life means at a time when enthusiasm for the ancients was no longer widely shared. It was no longer a focal point for a younger generation, or for society at large. Tellingly, when not very much later Franz Schubert was fatally ill, he entertained himself with rampantly consumed novels by James Fenimore Cooper.⁷ Allowing for crude Beethoven–Schubert dualisms and timeworn stereotypes in biographical writing, these divergent choices may well reflect a contrast between generations. The two composers were living cheek by jowl, but they their interests differed totally.⁸

Beethoven’s marked proclivity for ancient writings in his final months raises various questions. Was it restricted to the final years or a long-time engagement? What was the origin of his choices? What did he actually consume and when? What was the outcome of these activities? More generally: how significant was Greco-Roman antiquity for him, as a person and as a composer? These and related issues are broached in this book.

1.1 Aims and objectives

This opening chapter charts the various areas of investigation. It first defines aims and objectives and, following a conspectus of current scholarship in the field, the methodology that is applied for answering the basic questions.

The primary objectives are these: to build up a picture of the extent to which Beethoven was conversant with Greco-Roman culture, in the broadest sense; to investigate which steps he took to broaden his purview on the matter; to inquire into the motives behind his setting his sights upon familiarizing himself with ancient writings; to elaborate in detail how the information that he gathered had a bearing on his thoughts and world views; finally, to enumerate and elucidate his musical output insofar as bound up with antiquity. The justification of these investigations, with all types of evidence being brought to bear on the central question of how to estimate the extent of Beethoven’s knowledge, lies in the composer’s towering and canonical status in Western culture. The unravelling of Beethoven’s psychic configuration, stretching to what went beyond his vocational activities, may contribute to the understanding of his singular achievements. This understanding is constantly in flux, and every time frame has its own angle on the material.

The described objectives bring with them the danger that they stretch in remote directions – biographically, historically, and musically. To this extent, in order to place useful constraints on the research and to define the ends to which investigations are conducted, a limited number of priorities and targets is set. This book is confined to exploring the following fields of inquiry. It aims to build up as coherent as possible a picture of:

1. the cultural-historical background of Beethoven’s involvement with antiquity, part of which is historically contingent and can be subsumed under the generic. Throughout Beethoven’s life, assuredly in the earlier part, broad sections of society lavished a fresh attention on the Greco-Roman world. This was more or less anchored in the culture of the time and the ancients were regarded as the birthplace of modern civilization. A cultural perspective is needed for an appraisal as to whether Beethoven’s interest extended beyond this flow, and to gauge the particular and idiosyncratic. Since Beethoven was resident in Bonn and Vienna, where conditions were dissimilar, these periods of his life are treated separately.
2. publications that Beethoven consulted, acquired, or meant to aquire about and from antiquity. As will be seen, he imputed significance to the works of several ancient writers in German translation. Except for Homer’s Odyssey, scholarly research into the books he had at his disposal is rather unsatisfactory. Since editions contained prefaces, elucidations, notes, and, in some cases, evaluative interpretations, it is prudent to scrutinize which of these went through his hands. Moreover, some were of considerable literary quality, approaching the artistic, and it may have been the language proficiency of an individual translator that laid claim on his interest. This category also covers novels and educational material, like textbooks or historical commentaries on antiquity. Some were provenly studied by Beethoven; others were designated by him as worthy of acquiring.
3. memoranda and excerpts made by Beethoven about and from antiquity, the identification and evaluation of which may furnish insight into how Greco-Roman wisdom affected him. In his Tagebuch Beethoven spotlighted sayings and aphorisms that purportedly impressed him. An analysis may shed light on what he expected to find here. A special case is his personal copy of Homer’s Odyssey, which contains dozens of underlinings and other notations in pencil. These are here categorized, evaluated, and commented upon – a complete overview is added as an appendix to Chapter 4.
4. the role for Beethoven of ancient philosophy. Since ancient writers, as a rule, committed themselves to one or other philosophical school (such as Platonism, Stoicism, Epicurism, the Peripatetics), Beethoven must have come across specific preferences for one school or another. It may be worthwhile to explore how these preferences affected Beethoven, to interrogate the extent to which he was indebted to them, and how they may have been of service to him in everyday life.
5. compositions, sketches, and plans that have a bearing on antiquity. Throughout his life, Beethoven encountered Greco-Roman antiquity by virtue of his profession. This led to a series of works related to it, from brief canons to large-scale stage music. Since he scrupulously explored the literary merit of texts before commencing a work, plumbing their depths to grasp central ideas, the textual choices he made invite enquiry: what exactly fascinated him about them? This also applies to unfinished projects, and even to vague plans.

If explored in a thoughtful and cautious manner, with sufficient supply of background material, it may realistically be assumed that the combined results of the interrogations yield insight into, and a better understanding of, Beethoven’s intellectual powers in this field. Related topics must necessarily be omitted, falling beyond the scope, for instance, Beethoven’s interest in Indian culture, or in a genre called Schicksalstragödie.⁹ Discussed rather cursorily as well is the delicate topic of his religious convictions, which is briefly touched upon in Chapter 8. Nor can the issue be broached here of aesthetic considerations: first-period works embody a style with drama and expression defined by the tension between key regions and by carefully designed features of weight and proportion, and therefore a comparison with Winckelmannian views on aesthetics suggests itself. Did the Classical world’s ideals (neoclassical proportion and equipoise, structural cohesion, the application of ornaments, etcetera) had a bearing on his artistic choices? The topic is touched upon fleetingly in Chapter 3, but cannot be further evaluated. These and similar themes mandate separate and more firmly investigations than will be fruitful to pursue for present purposes.

1.2 The quest for Bildung

The general context of this book is defined by Beethoven’s quest for Bildung, or rather Geistesbildung, man’s intellectual, spiritual, and emotional self-cultivation through the acquisition of knowledge.¹⁰ Beethoven left scarce information about what he deemed necessary to achieve this, but an oft-quoted passage from an 1809 letter to publisher Breitkopf & Härtel offers at least a glimpse:

There exists no text that should all too soon be called too learned for me. Without attempting in any way to claim to be erudite, I can say that ever since childhood I strove to comprehend what good and wise people of every age have meant to express. It is a disgrace if an artist does not consider it his duty to achieve at least the same in such matters.¹¹

He was addressing a sensitive issue here. As a rule, musicians and composers were deemed to have been poorly educated; they were regarded as being unsophisticated and of limited erudition. The AMZ regularly advised musicians to educate themselves in order to avoid demonstrating ‘lack of Bildung’.¹² The bias was widespread. Caroline Pichler (1768–1843), a Viennese contemporary of Beethoven who had personally met...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Preface
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Influences I: Bonn
• 3 Influences II: Vienna
• 4 Greek literature I: Homer
• 5 Greek literature II: xenophon, Euripides, and Greek poetry
• 6 Literature from imperial Rome: Plutarch, Horace, and Tacitus
• 7 The role of Hellenistic philosophy
• 8 Antiquity in Beethoven’s music
• 9 Closing observations
• Literature cited
• Index
• Works Cited