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What Shall We Make of Beethoven?

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What Shall We Make of Beethoven? WHAT SHALL WE MAKE OF BEETHOVEN? Session 5 – October 13, 2016 Beethoven the Man Loves and Friendships In Beethoven’s era, unlike in ours, people could keep many secrets about their personal lives if they chose to do so. Whatever secrets he may have had, Beethoven was forthcoming with many details about his friendships and love life. Family and friends contributed many more. But much is missing, as we shall see. PERSONALITY TRAITS All of Beethoven’s relationships, amorous or otherwise, were heavily influenced by certain personality traits, including: Fear of authority figures Hypersensitivity to criticism Identification as a victim An overdeveloped sense of responsibility Lack of awareness of how one affects others Craving for, and addiction to, excitement Confusion of love, pity, and the need to rescue people Fear of being abandoned or rejected Recent research in the field of addiction shows that these attitudes and behaviors are characteristic of children of alcoholic parents. Beethoven’s father suffered from alcoholism, which caused him to lose his job and the family’s income. Like many other children of alcoholics, this disease influenced his attitude toward intimacy and other aspects of love relationships. RELATIONSHIPS WITH WOMEN Beethoven’s letters and those of his friends document a long list of brief, very intense, and always unsuccessful relationships with women. These failures show a remarkably consistent pattern throughout his life: he was often attracted to women whom he believed were in a pitiful situation and needed to be rescued (he was almost always mistaken about this) he was also attracted to women who were unavailable because of their higher social status, or because they were already attached to others he seemed to be unaware of his own shortcomings as a potential partner and usually presented himself in ideal terms at the same time, he was hypersensitive about his real – or imagined - shortcomings and often ended relationships abruptly before he could be rejected. A SURROGATE MOTHER As a young teenager Beethoven formed a strong and lasting relationship with the von Breuning family of Bonn. Frau Helene von Breuning was the mother of three teenage children, all close friends of Beethoven. He spent a good deal of time in the von Breuning house, where Helene often fulfilled the role of surrogate for Beethoven’s own ailing Mother. One close friend of Beethoven noted that Helene “had great power over the boy, who was frequently stubborn and sullen.” Another friend observed that she had the power “to compel him to the performance of his duties.” Both Helene and Beethoven himself were aware of his violent mood swings and conflicting emotions. At age 17 he confessed to a friend: “Since my return to Bonn (from Vienna) I have as yet enjoyed very few happy hours. I have been suffering from melancholia, which in my case is almost as great a torture as my illness.” To Helene herself Beethoven wrote of his “obstinate and passionate moods, my willfulness and irrationality.” She agreed, shrugging her shoulders and commenting to one of her children that “he has his raptus (overwhelming agitation or excitement) again.” EARLY INFATUATIONS The pattern of Beethoven’s feelings toward women was obvious early in his life. The word infatuation rather than love affair seems the most accurate way to describe these emotional states – they were always brief but very intense, with Beethoven being completely carried away by unreasoning passion. The first such infatuation was with Helene von Breuning’s daughter, Eleanor, another childhood friend. The next was with Jeannette d’Honrath, who was already pledged to an Austrian military officer. There were also mad crushes on several of his female piano students, especially Maria Anna von Westerholt, who soon married a member of the nobility. And many, many, many others. AN EARLY LOVE LETTER We get a more detailed picture of how Beethoven’s presented himself to women from one of his letters to Eleanor von Breuning: However little, in your opinion, I may deserve to be believed, yet I beg you to believe, my friend (please let me continue to call you friend), that I have suffered greatly, and am still suffering, from the loss of your friendship … However little I may mean to you, please believe that I entertain just as great a regard for you, and your mother, as I have always done … Think now and then of your true friend, who still cherishes a great regard for you. THE INFATUATIONS CONTINUE This pattern continued throughout Beethoven’s life: frequent flirtations, extreme excitement and agitation, fantasized love relationships, and invariable, often heartbreaking, breakups. His friend Ferdinand Ries described them this way: “Although Beethoven was very often in love, his attachments were mostly of very brief duration.” His early biographer Thayer noticed the same pattern: “One all-absorbing but temporary passion, lasting until its object is married to a more favored lover, is forgotten in another, destined to end in like manner, until, at length, all faith in the possibility of a permanent, constant attachment to one person was lost.” Beethoven’s major infatuations with Giulietta Guicciardi, Julie von Vering, Bettina Brentano, Maria Bigot, and Elizabeth Röckel ended with their attachment to other men. His crushes on Magdalena Willmann and Thesese Malfatti ended when they proved to be uninterested in him. These seemingly desirable relationships also seemed to be threatening as well. The 20th century American musician Elliot Forbes put it this way: “Beethoven frequently decided to plunge into composition work when faced with the possibility of a permanent attachment with a woman.” NOT MARRIAGE MATERIAL? And yet these infatuations do not tell us the whole story about Beethoven’s romantic life. As these two letters show, written in his early thirties, by age 30 Beethoven seemed to feel that the pursuit of unattainable women had great advantages, and that he was resigned to this because bachelorhood maximized his opportunity for artistic achievement. Was Beethoven really only interested in the excitement of romantic pursuits, or are these letters yet another example of “sour grapes,” which he often used to cover disappointments. THE “IMMORTAL BELOVED” Or – were some of his infatuations deeper and more serious? Found in Beethoven’s personal effects after his death was the only unalloyed love letter of his life, an uncontrolled outburst of passionate feeling, exalted in tone, confused in thought, and ridden with conflicting emotions. There is no date on this letter, nor on a similar one written to the same woman on the following day. Nor- more importantly – do we know to whom these letters written. My angel, my all, my very self – Only a few words today and at that with pencil…Why this deep sorrow when necessity speaks – can our live endure except through sacrifices, through not demanding everything from one another; can you change the fact that you are not wholly mine and I not wholly thine. We shall surely see each other soon; moreover, today I cannot share with you the thoughts I have had during these last few days … My heart is full of so many things to say to you – ah – there are moments when I feel that speech amounts to nothing at all. Cheer up – remain my true, my only treasure, my all as I am yours. The gods must send us the rest, what for us must and shall be… Your faithful LUDWIG The identity of the “Immortal beloved” has been debated by music scholars since the letter was found in 1827. Although several different women have been suggested, no one has been able to identify her with certainty. FRIENDSHIPS Many who knew Beethoven during his childhood described him as a lonely, friendless, isolated boy. But from early adolescence on, Beethoven attracted friends and maintained several friendships over many years. Some of his friends were musicians, not uncommon for a composer; others became friends because they were attracted to his genius or personal qualities. Still others were influential people Beethoven thought might further his career. Stephan von Breuning, close and loyal friend of B from childhood on despite many squabbles and tantrums on B’s part. Beethoven briefly lived in his house. He helped Beethoven revise the libretto of Fidelio. Franz Gerhard Wegeler, renowned Bonn physician, an intimate friend of Beethoven throughout their lives. Ferdinand Ries, a prolific composer, pupil and friend and of Beethoven. He published a detailed reminiscence of Beethoven in 1838. Ignatz Schuppanzigh, a celebrated violin virtuoso, met Beethoven when he became his violin student soon after moving to Vienna. They remained friends and music associates for the rest of B’s life. Schuppanzigh premiered most of B’s works for violin and conducted the first performance of the 9th Symphony. In 1808 he founded and played first violin in Count Rasumovsky’s string quartet - the first professional string quartet – which was formed in order to practice and perform Beethoven’s very difficult works. Carl Czerny, long-time friend and a leading piano virtuoso and composer, studied with Beethoven in Bonn from age 10, and premiered three of his piano concertos. Anton Schindler, Viennese law clerk and violinist. From 1822 he lived in Beethoven’s house and served as his private secretary. At Beethoven’s death Schindler inherited much of Beethoven’s estate, including his 400 “conversation books” used by people to converse with B in his later years. In 1840 Schindler published “Beethoven as I Knew Him,” a wonderfully intimate and detailed biography, now largely discredited. Beethoven the Composer Piano Variations In today’s musical world, the genre of Piano Variations is a rare bird. The few pieces of this type that we hear on piano recitals date from the mid19th century: big, virtuoso pieces by Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, and Brahms.
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