BEETHOVEN:
Impressions of Contemporaries
Gottfried Fischerâs Story
The date of Beethovenâs birth at the âBeethoven Hausâ in the Bonngasse, Bonn, is not known with certainty. He was baptized on December 17, 1770. Therefore, the probability is that Ludwig van Beethoven was born on December sixteenth. For many years Beethoven shared the belief that he was born in 1772. The supposition is that his fatherâas other fathers of prodigies have done before and afterâdesired him to appear younger than he was. At any rate, when his juvenile âDrei Sonaten fĂŒr Klavierâ were published in 1783, the dedication to the Elector of Cologne, Maximilian Friedrich, read âcomposed by Ludwig van Beethoven, age eleven years.â
Some time after Beethovenâs birth, his family moved to the house of the Fischer family in the Rheingasse. This gave rise to a further legend: the Fischer house in the Rheingasse came to be considered the house in which the composer of âFidelioâ and the âNinth Symphonyâ was born and where thousands upon thousands in the course of time paid homage to his memory, until the indisputable claim of the âBeethoven Hausâ in the Bonngasse was established.
In the Fischer house Gottfried Fischer was born in 1780 and died there in 1864. When about sixty years old, master-baker Gottfried, at the request of many pilgrims to his house, the supposed birth-house of Beethoven, began to write down his and his older sisterâs CĂ€cilie reminiscences of Ludwig, adding to them until about 1857. Under the circumstances, the Fischer reminiscences are a curious jumble of essential and unessential things, in awkward language, but they shed important and entertaining light on Beethovenâs boyhood.
When Ludwig van Beethoven had grown a bit he attended the elementary school, taught by Herr Huppert, at house No. 1091 in the Neugasse, which connects with the Rheingasse; later he went to the MĂŒnsterschule. 4 According to his father he did not learn much in school; for this reason his father set him down so early before the piano and kept him hard at work.
CĂ€cilie Fischer testifies how his father instructed him at the piano; he would have to stand on a little bench and play. That our former OberbĂŒrgermeister Windeck has seen, too.
Ludwig van Beethoven also had daily lessons on the violin. Once he was playing without notes; his father happened in, and said: âWhat silly trash are you scratching together again now? You know that I canât bear that; scratch by note, otherwise your scratching wonât amount to much.ââWhen Johann van Beethoven happened to have visitors and Ludwig came into the room, he was wont to edge up to the piano and play chords with his right hand. Then his father would say: âWhat are you splashing around for? Go away, or Iâll box your ears.ââIn time his father grew attentive when he heard him play the violin. He was again playing after his own fashion, without notes, when his father came in: âWonât you ever stop, after all Iâve told you?â He played again, and said to his father: âNow isnât that beautiful?â His father said: âThat is something else, you made it up yourself. You are not to do that yet; apply yourself to the piano and violin, strike the notes quickly and correctly, that is more important. When you have once got so far, then you can and must work enough with your head; but donât concern yourself with that nowâyou are not to do that yet.ââAfterwards, Ludwig van Beethoven also took daily lessons on the viola.
When Ludwig van Beethoven had grown a bit more, often dirty, negligent, CĂ€cilie Fischer said to him: âHow dirty you are looking againâyou ought to keep yourself clean!â Said he: âWhatâs the odds? When Iâm once a gentleman (Herr) no one will take any notice of that.â
When Ludwig van Beethoven had been well trained 5 on the piano by his father, and began to feel himself master of the notes and the piano, he was emboldened to play on the organ and take lessons. And so he went for a trial to Brother Willibald in our local Franciscan monastery, a masterly teacher who knew his father, Johann van Beethoven, well. He very obligingly accepted him, with permission of the Father Superior, and gave him instruction, including training in the Church ritual, and made such progress that he could often make use of him as a substitute, so that he was greatly liked and esteemed by Brother Willibald.
As Ludwig van Beethoven became more and more venturesome on the organ, he had a mind to play on a larger organ, and made an essay in the Minorite monastery. Here he won such a friendly footing with the organist, that he was taken on to play the organ regularly every morning at 6 at Holy Mass. The bench on which he often sat is still to be seen there. There was a certain Father Hanzmann in the monastery who was likewise a good organist, and who also, when he cared to, played the organ. When the Beethovens had a concert at home, Father Hanzmann was always there. Ludwig could not bear him, and said to CĂ€cilie: âThat monk, he always has to come here; he might as well stay in his monastery and read his prayer-book.â
In Bonn there was a middle-aged man by the name of Stommb, who had formerly been a musician and learned to compose. Thereby, it was said, he had become insane; he used to wander through the town with a conductorâs wand in his right hand and a music-roll in his left; not a word would he say. When he came into the ground floor at Rheinstrasse No. 934, where no one had thought to see him, he would strike with his wand on the table in the ground floor and point up towards the Beethoven home as if to indicate that musicians were there, too, and then beat time with the conductorâs wand on the music-roll, not saying one word.
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Ludwig van Beethoven often laughed about it, and once said: âWe can see by that how it goes with musicians; music has already made this one madâwhat may happen to us?â
It seems as if this scatterbrained musician must have felt this. For when he had gone out, and was on the street, he would point at Beethovenâs lodgings and strike the music with his wand, and go away.
If the old saying be accepted: Children and fools speak truth, one might suppose he wished to say that Ludwig van Beethoven would become a great man, and would make a noise in the world.
CĂ€cilie Fischer was often much vexed that the fool always came into this house only, and frightened the servants.
The three sons of Herr Johann van Beethoven, namely, Ludwig, Kaspar and Nikola, were very jealous of their parentsâ honor. On occasions when their papa was in company and (what did not often happen) had drunk a trifle too much, and his sons noticed it, all three were straightway on the spot, worried, and tried in the most winning way to induce their papa to go quietly home with them, so as not to make a scene; they would say soothingly, âO PapĂ€chen, PapĂ€chen!â and then he would comply. He was not quarrelsome in his cups, but merry and lively, so we in the house would hardly notice anything.
Ludwig now thought himself his fatherâs equal in music; his brother Kaspar had learned what was required of him in school, and the same in his study of herbs, so that in time he could be received as an apprentice by an apothecary. Both were bold and adventurous; when they could play mischievous tricks they were overjoyed and laughed heartily, and Ludwig would arch his back like a cat, as was his wont.
At that time Goodwife Fischer kept hens, and had long wondered why her hens were laying so few eggs. 7 She kept watch, but caught nobody. Till it happened that she went into the yard quite unsuspectingly and saw that Ludwig van Beethoven had crept through the fence into the henhouse. Frau Fischer said: âHa, ha, Ludwig, what are you up to there?â He said: âMy brother Kaspar threw my handkerchief in here and I came in to get it.â Frau Fischer said: âYes, yes, that may well be why I am getting so few eggs.â Ludwig said: âOh, Frau Fischer, the hens often hide their eggs; then, when you come across them, you will be all the gladder. And then there are foxes, they say, and they steal eggs, too.â Frau Fischer said: âI think you are one of those same sly foxes. What will ever become of you!â Ludwig said: âOh, heaven only knows! From what you say, up to date I am still a foxy player!â (Notenfuchs.) Says Frau Fischer: âYes, and an egg-fox, too!â (Eierfuchs).
Then the two boys ran off laughing like rogues. Frau Fischer had to laugh with them, and could not find it in her heart to call them to account for their monkey trick.â
Early on a summer morning a cock had flown out of another yard and lighted on the roof of Fischersâ rear building where Ludwigâs father and mamma slept, toward the street.
The three boys slept on the side toward the yard, and Ludwig spied the cock directly. The Fischer boys also slept toward the yard, and had seen the cock; so they watched quietly to see how the fun would end.
Ludwig said: âThat cock looks to me like a fat young rider; he has no spurs yet. Just see, just see how respectfully the cock is commending himself to us! If I could catch him, Iâd soon beat the time for him!â
Ludwig and Kaspar sneaked out into the yard, and tempted and coaxed the cock with bread until they caught him. Then they squeezed his throat so that he could not scream, ran upstairs to their attic, and laughed. Now they probably had planned with the maid that she 8 should prepare the cock when papa and mamma had gone out.
Next day the house-ownerâs son, Johann Fischer, said to Ludwig: âThe cock must have become a musician; for I heard how he sang an alto-part.â They laughed; Ludwig said: âThat alto-part, when he was roasted enough, made me tired, too. But you surely wonât say anything to papa or mamma about it, else we three boys would have to run out of the house.â
The other said: âOh, what does the cock matter to me? He might have stayed in his yard.â Ludwig said, that formerly it was the law that one might keep whatever one found early in the morning that had flown into the yard. âAnd that is right, and folks ought to take better care of their livestock, for great mischief can be done by livestock.â
Later one could not say that Ludwig cared much for companions or society. And then, when he had to turn his mind to music or set to work by himself, he assumed quite another demeanor and insisted on due respect. His happiest hours were those when he was free from the company of his parents, which was seldom the caseâwhen all the family were away and he was alone by himself. So he got so far that in his twelfth year he already came forward as a composer, and in his fifteenth was appointed organist, and in token of rank wore a sword on his left side when he went up to the rood-loft in the court-church with his father.
Gala dress for court musicians: Sea-green frock coat, green knee-breeches with buckles, stockings of white or black silk, shoes with black bow-knots, embroidered vest with pocket-flaps, the vest bound with real gold cord, hair curled and with queue, crush hat under the left arm, sword on the left side with silver belt.
Former physique of Herr Ludwig van Beethoven: Short and thick-set, broad across the shoulders, short neck, large head, rounded nose, dark-brown complexion; 9 always leaned forward a little in walking. When still a boy they used to call him âder Spagnolâ (the Spaniard) in our house.
One morning Ludwig van Beethoven was in his chamber overlooking the yard, leaning in the window with his head in both hands and staring fixedly at one spot. CĂ€cilie Fischer came over the yard and said to him: âHow does it look, Ludwig?â but got no answer. Afterwards she asked him, what he meant by it: âNo answer is an answer, too.â He said: âO no, not that; excuse me; I was just occupied with such a lovely, deep thought, I couldnât bear to be disturbed.â
From his attic Beethoven had the beautiful view over the Rhine and the other side, the view of the Seven Mountains like that from the old toll-house. In the attic were two telescopes, a small one and a large one; with them one could see twenty miles. That was Herr Ludwig van Beethovenâs delight, for the Beethovens loved the Rhine.
As Ludwig van Beethoven advanced from day to day in music and composition, and sold his compositions to strangers, he thereby became so famous far and wide that many music-lovers came to visit him from distant foreign parts out of curiosity, and requested Herr Ludwig van Beethoven that he allow them to hear him play in a little concert. Then Herr Johann van Beethoven, when it was possible, sent out for musicians and gave a concert in his room. Most likely the gentlemen paid him well for itâwe do not know.
As the disturbance through the strangers grew worse and worse, Herr Fischer said to Herr Johann van Beethoven: âIf I were not a baker, all this disturbance from outsiders would not worry me; one has the night for rest. But as I am a baker, and must stay up at night to bake, I must sleep in the daytime; I cannot stand itâit would make me sick. Herr van Beethoven, I am sorry to tell you that you must look around for other lodgings.â
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Johann van Beethoven often said: âMy son Ludwig, he is now my only joy; he is getting on so well in music and composition, everyone observes him with admiration. My Ludwig, my Ludwig, I can see that in time he will become a great man in the world. You who are gathered together here, and live to see it, remember my words!â
Christian Gottlob Neefe
(1783)
At the tender age of twelve Beethoven had begun to assist his teacher at the organ and as cembalist in the opera orchestra, when Christian Gottlob Neefe (1748-1798), Court organist at Bonn to the Elector of Cologne and a composer of once popular âSingspiele,â contributed on March 2, 1783 to âCramerâs Magazineâ the following prophetic communication (The translation here used is that in Thayer I, 69):
Louis van Beethoven, son of the tenor singer mentioned, a boy of eleven years and of most promising talent. He plays the clavier very skilfully and with power, reads at sight very well, andâto put it in a nutshellâhe plays chiefly âThe Well-Tempered Clavichordâ of Sebastian Bach, which Herr Neefe put into his hands. Whoever knows this collection of preludes and fugues in all the keysâwhich might almost be called the non plus ultra of our artâwill know what this means. So far as his duties permitted, Herr Neefe has also given him instruction in thorough-bass. He is now training him in composition and for his encouragement has had nine variations for the pianoforte, written by him on a march [by Ernst Christoph Dressler] engraved at Mannheim. This youthful genius is deserving of help to enable him to travel. He would surely become a second Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were he to continue as he has begun.
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Mozart
(1787)
When the âyouthful geniusâ was at last, in the springtime of 1787, enabled to travel, he naturally betook himself to Mozart in Vienna, but the news of his motherâs serious illness compelled him to return to Bonn after a few lessons with the master. âMy journey cost me a great deal,â Beethoven wrote to a friend in September, 1787, âand I have not the smallest hope of earning anything here. Fate is not propitious to me in Bonn.â His introduction to Mozart is narrated by Mozartâs biographer Jahn as follows (Thayer, I, 90):
Beethoven, who as a youth of great promise came to Vienna in 1786 [really in 1787], but was obliged to return to Bonn after a brief sojourn, was taken to Mozart and at that musicianâs request played something for him which he, taking it for granted that it was a show-piece prepared for the occasion, praised in a rather cool manner. Beethoven observing this, begged Mozart to give him a theme for improvisation. He always played admirably when excited and now he was inspired, too, by the presence of the master whom he reverenced greatly; he played in such a style that Mozart, whose attention and interest grew more and more, finally went silently to some friends who were sitting in an adjoining room, and said, vivaciously, âKeep your eyes on him; some day he will give the world something to talk about.â
Carl Ludwig Junker
(1791)
In the autumn of 1791 the Elector, the music-loving Maximilian Francis, took with him to Mergentheim, the capital of the Teutonic Order, his court musicians for the entertainment of the assembled Commanders and Knights of the order. Junker, better known as a writer on music than as a composer, visited the musicians at Mergentheim. In his letter to Bosslerâs âCorrespondenzâ on November 23, 1791 he overflowed wi...