The Essays of Jeffrey Dane
Beethoven's Dwellings
Part One
.... by Jeffrey Dane - © 1999 Jeffrey Dane
Beethoven in the 1820's. Lithograph by Michel Katzaroff, ca. 1933
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Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, and Brahms (among others) are symbolized in Vienna
not only with monuments but also with museums (two, in Schubert's case: his
birthplace, and the house in which he died), but it is Beethoven who is
represented most. With several museums devoted to him, some of which contain
his own personal effects, there exist in and around Vienna more sites
associated with Beethoven than with any other composer who graced the city. A
walk in Vienna and its environs can reveal some of the places where Beethoven
lived.
Though born in Germany, Beethoven spent most of his adult life in the
Austrian capital. His birthplace in Bonn is now an important archive and
museum, containing the most comprehensive Beethoven collection in the world,
but he lived there only for the first four years of his life. The Bonn house
in which he grew to young manhood, at Rheingasse 934, was destroyed during
the Second World War (as was the house on Speckstrasse in Hamburg where
Brahms was born).
Beethoven first journeyed to Vienna at 17, in 1787, hastened back to Bonn at
the news his mother was dying, and returned to Vienna, ultimately for good,
in 1792. He undertook some concert tours to Prague, Leipzig and Berlin
(1795), to Pressburg and Budapest (1800), and stayed briefly at the health
spas in Teplitz and Karlsbad, but from 1792 onward his stay in Vienna was
permanent.
There is evidence that Beethoven lived in more than 60 different places (some
sources mention at least 80) during his 35 years in Vienna. Sixteen of the 27
documented dwellings he occupied during his time there were located in what
is now the inner city, the old part of Vienna now surrounded by The Ring, the
enormous boulevard which circumvents the heart of the city.
"Romanticized" portrait of Beethoven. Drawn by Karl Jäger. Date Unknown
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Some of the buildings in which Beethoven lived now contain museums devoted to
him (Gedenkräume, memorial rooms) and are open to the public (Mölkerbastei 8
in Vienna, and Rathausgasse 10 in nearby Baden). Other buildings, some of
them still private residences, are not museums but are merely identified by
the characteristic red and white Austrian banners with a plaque stating
Beethoven lived there (such as the corner house at Beatrixgasse-Ungargasse 5
in Vienna, where Beethoven worked on the Missa Solemnis in 1819 and where he
finished the ninth symphony in 1824). Many more structures still serve as
public or commercial buildings, and even private quarters, but offer no
indication of their former illustrious tenant (Ballgasse 6 in Vienna).
Many of the buildings in which Beethoven lived during the course of his life
in Vienna have been demolished altogether, allegedly in the name of
"progress." (Cases in point are the house in which he died, demolished in
1904, and Tiefergraben 241, one of his early residences in Vienna). Some of
the buildings no longer extant still warrant mention here because of the
importance of their Beethoven association, even though some of the present
structures give no clue that the composer once lived on that site.
Beethoven's powers of concentration in composing his music may have been
supreme, but in his personal nature he was restless in the extreme. He seems
to have changed lodgings as often as he did his servants later in life.
Indications are that in some cases he didn't have to pay rent for a flat if
he wasn't actually occupying it for a period. Finding a flat in Vienna was
easier then than now, and, never a home-owner, he didn't have much furniture
to move. These points help explain his consistent movement from place to
place, and why he sometimes retained several flats simultaneously. Yet
another reason was his usual disregard of conventional, external
considerations, which often caused friction with neighbors, janitors,
servants and landlords. Accordingly, scores of original Beethoven sites now
exist, as fascinating to the interested as the sight of an original Beethoven
score.
Beethoven disliked affectation, and though short in physical stature (about
5'4"), he often cut others down to size when warranted and took delight in
doing so. (Brahms, also relatively short, followed Beethoven's example in
these respects, honing and polishing these skills to razor-sharpness). When
Beethoven's younger brother made a small fortune as an apothecary with
military contracts, he invested in land and informed Ludwig by pretentiously
signing his letter to the composer with the self-imposed title, "Johann van
Beethoven, Gutzbesitzer" (owner of land). Beethoven responded by signing his
own letter, "Ludwig van Beethoven, Hirnbesitzer" (owner of brains).
Early in 1803 the composer was provided with an apartment at the Theater an
der Wien by J.E. Schikaneder, a librettist (and, from 1801, the theater's
manager). Beethoven's flat was in a building, no longer extant, that was part
of the Theatre complex. There are indications he used this flat primarily to
receive visitors, while composing elsewhere. Still an active theater, the
Theater an der Wien was the site of the first public performances of several
of the composer's most important works: his third symphony ("Eroica"), which
Beethoven himself conducted on April 7, 1805, and his only opera, Fidelio,
performed there in its revised form on May 23, 1814. This theater was also
the site of the first performance, on December 22, 1808, of the composer's
fifth and sixth symphonies (which were in fact composed in reverse-order),
and the Fantasy for Piano, Chorus and Orchestra. It was a mammoth concert in
which Beethoven himself took part.
While today many go south for the winter, Beethoven often went "south" for
the summer, to the towns of Baden and Mödling. Times have changed: a simple
jaunt for us today was a veritable journey in Beethoven's era. Even preparing
a letter in those days, with the elaborate writing paraphernalia involved
(inkwell, quills, writing-sand, sealing-wax, etc.), would be something of a
chore for us now. Some of Beethoven's summer locales were, in his day, as
geographically distant from Vienna, and from each other, as his early and
late works were, musically. Now easily reached by bus or tram, Baden and
Mödling were then, before the railroad era, an hours-long journey by carriage
or coach from the city limits.
Beethoven also visited Hetzendorf, Penzing, Döbling, Heiligenstadt, and
Jedlesee. These were self-contained towns in the composer's day but today are
integral geographical components of the city of Vienna. The Jedlesee location
(today, Jeneweingasse 17) was then the residence of Princess Marie Erdödy,
where Beethoven was invited during the summers of 1801-1803.
Before leaving the city for the summer, Beethoven usually arranged to have
his mail sent to his publishers for later retrieval. There are several
reasons documented information on the composer's summer residences is not as
abundant as for some of his city dwellings. At best, his letters from the
country usually bear only the town of origin, and sometimes the date.
Especially in his later years, Beethoven had the egregious habit, endearing
him to historians and scholars, of misdating his letters. In one rather
obvious but non-crucial case, he actually wrote 1088 (sic) instead of 1808.
Perhaps no-one in the entire history of music better exemplifies the image of
The Absent-Minded Composer than does Beethoven. To compound and crown the
confusion further, most of the specific locations had different addresses in
Beethoven's day - the houses differently numbered and the streets differently
named. The researcher faces a rich assortment of obstacles.
Among the numerous Beethoven residences in Vienna proper, only three
buildings remain essentially as he knew them: Mölkerbastei 8,
Auerspergstrasse 3, and Laimgrubengasse 22. All the others have been either
substantially modified, or altogether replaced by new structures. Of these
three original Beethoven locations, the first is by far the most important;
the second is not a museum; and the third is closed during the winter and is
accessible only by advance arrangement intermittently during the tourist
seasons.
Beethoven lived and died before the advent of the Industrial Revolution.
Though by nature he was quite indifferent to material extravagance, by
today's standards even some of his more "luxurious" personal surroundings
might be called quaint by some and primitive by others. Both would be right.
- - Beethoven in Teplitz - -
Beethoven visited the town of Teplitz (now part of what was Czechoslovakia)
in August of 1811, where he met both old and new friends, often at the Clary
Palace.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), a Renaissance Man of his time. He and Beethoven met in 1812
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At this stage the 41-year-old composer was preoccupied with problems, and
much of his conversation and correspondence from this period is characterized
by complaints. Beethoven had a reputation, largely warranted, of being
something of a malcontent. If his chronic complaining was not always
altogether justified in every case, certainly it was entirely understandable,
in view of the life he led intermittently riddled with the misfortune and
malady that often plagued him.
Money matters, too, were of concern to him at this time, though his grumbling
in this regard was not as merited. Beethoven was certainly not an
18th-century Vanderbilt but he was far from a pauper - as indeed were most of
the great (and even the not-so-great) composers. The image of The Starving
Composer is largely a myth - often believed and traditionally accepted, but
usually false, and although Beethoven first made his mark not as a composer
but as a pianist (and especially as an improvisor), he ultimately reached
iconic status as a composer even during his own lifetime.
Beethoven returned to Teplitz in 1812, where he met and spent time with
Goethe on July 19, 20, 21 and 23. Beethoven was then 42, Goethe 63, with the
publication of the first part of Faust four years behind him. Of this
meeting, the following vignette has come down to us. - As Beethoven and
Goethe walked, some of the nobility passed with their entourage. Goethe
politely stepped aside and bowed deferentially to the nobles - while
Beethoven, in a gesture entirely typical of him, strode almost defiantly
right through their midst, with his hands behind his back and without
acknowledging the presence of the nobles, who had no alternative but to give
him clear passage. When Goethe asked Beethoven how he could so
disrespectfully treat these nobles, the composer replied, again quite
characteristically, "There are countless 'nobles', but only two of us."
Though he recognized the genius of the older man, soon afterward Beethoven
wrote of him, "The Court suits him too much; it is not becoming of a poet."
In a letter of September 2, 1812, Goethe wrote of his meeting with Beethoven,
"His talent astonished me, but his is a totally untamed personality, and he
is not entirely wrong in finding the world detestable, though this attitude
does not make it more pleasant, either for him or others." Goethe also wrote,
"To think of teaching Beethoven would be an insolence even in one with
greater insight than mine, for he has the guiding light of genius, whilst the
rest of us sit in total darkness, scarcely suspecting the direction from
which daylight will break upon us."
- - Beethoven in Baden - -
Beethoven's fondness for the town of Baden-bei-Wien drew him to it
intermittently for at least a dozen summers between 1807 and 1825. His
attachment to this place in some ways anticipated the loyalty of Johannes
Brahms, decades later, to the town of Bad Ischl, near Salzburg, where he,
too, spent 12 creative summers during the 1880s and 1890s. Though most of the
buildings Beethoven is said to have occupied in Baden are still in existence,
only one (at Rathausgasse 10) now contains Memorial Rooms.
Because of his carelessness in some of his letters, only a few locations in
Baden have been determined with any certainty as Beethoven dwellings.
Beethoven first visited Baden for part of the summer in 1807, where he stayed
at the Johannesbad. Now a Baden spa facility (kurpension), it is located at
Johannesbadgasse 12. He returned to Baden in 1809, 1810, 1813, 1814, 1815 &
1816 (for longer periods), and again in 1817. During the summers of
1821-1825, he attemped to alleviate some of his ailments by taking the cures
at the natural mineral baths for which Baden is still known. (Baden is the
German word for baths).
During the summers of 1808, 1809 and 1813, he stayed at Weilburgstrasse 13,
then known as The Sauerhof. It is still a privately-owned hotel. In the 1920s
the sculptor Sockel was commissioned to do a bust of Beethoven which now
graces the hotel's grounds.
In 1822 Beethoven stayed at an inn called Zum Goldenen Schwan (The Golden
Swan), located at what is now Antonsgasse 4 (in Beethoven's time the address
was Baden 230 Wienerstrasse). Though now marked with a memorial plaque
stating Beethoven lived there, it is not a museum.
In 1816 he stayed at Breitnerstrasse 26, later known as Castle Breiten, and
on another occasion at Kaiser Franz Ring 9, near what is now the Public
Library. Beethoven also had quarters at Magdalenenhof 87, now Frauengasse 10.
Rathausgasse 10, now a small Beethoven museum (containing a piano of the
period), is marked by a plaque stating the composer lived on the upper floor
of this two-storey dwelling while working on the ninth symphony.
Beethoven, an enthusiastic lover of nature (to which his sixth symphony,
"Pastorale," bears witness), enjoyed walking in the valley near Baden called
the Helenenthal. It may have been this area which gave rise to the following
Beethoven vignette: "When he became excited by some musical idea he waved his
hands and screamed melodies, occasionally frightening horses and unsuspecting
strangers."
The Helenenthal was where Beethoven's nephew, Carl, tried to commit suicide
in the mid-1820s by climbing one of its peaks and shooting himself with a
pistol. The composer's litigation for Carl's guardianship had taken years,
and made such inroads into Beethoven's time and efforts that it may have
robbed posterity of at least several sonatas, a string quartet, and perhaps
even the tenth symphony, sketches for which Beethoven actually made.
- - Beethoven in Mödling - -
In Beethoven's day, Mödling was a small market town of less than 300 houses.
He first visited here in 1799 when he was 29, and during the years 1818-1821
he returned there for a part of each summer.
Beethoven's last piano, made for him by Viennese official Court piano-maker Conrad Graf ca. 1823. Now displayed in the Beethoven Birthplace Museum, Bonn, Germany
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Like Brahms after him, Beethoven sometimes worked on the composition of
several pieces simultaneously. Above the door of Hauptstrasse 79 in Mödling,
there is a plaque stating that Beethoven lived and worked there in the
summers of 1818 and 1819. Known as The Hafnerhaus, it now contains Beethoven
Memorial Rooms. In his day the building was owned by Jacob Tuschek.
Beethoven's quarters consisted of "three rooms on the first floor, on the
right." (In Europe even today "the first floor" means the second floor, i.e.,
the first one above street-level). It was here that Beethoven worked on the
composition of no less than five works: the Mödling Dances, the Missa
Solemnis, the ninth symphony, the piano sonata Nr.29 ("Hammerklavier"), and
the Diabelli Variations.
In 1818 Beethoven was sent an English Broadwood grand piano as a gift from
the London manufacturer. It was conveyed from England by ship via Trieste,
thence overland to Austria. Beethoven received it during his stay in Mödling,
where the instrument had been specifically directed by Broadwood himself -
and it took nearly a year for the piano to reach the composer.
The Hafnerhaus was taken over by the town of Mödling on June 14, 1970 in
commemoration of that year's Beethoven bicentennial. It has since been the
subject of French and Japanese documentary films and the site has been of
considerable interest to European, American and Asian visitors.
When Beethoven returned to Mödling in the summer of 1820, he stayed at The
Augustinerhof at Babenbergerstrasse 36. It is known today as The Christhof,
Achsenaugasse 6. This structure, too, is marked by a plaque stating when
Beethoven lived there. Though not accessible to the general public in the
traditional sense, the owner has been known to open the rooms on occasion to
accredited visitors (i.e., those who have made the effort to contact him with
their specific Beethoven interest).
There is evidence that this structure was known as The Christhof even in
Beethoven's time. In his sketches for the Missa Solemnis there is a cryptic
entry which reads, Do'tag. Azgtg. Christ. Decoded, it could easily mean:
Donnerstag, auszugtag, Christhof (Thursday, moving-day, (to the) Christhof).
One of Beethoven's most extraordinary characteristics, which sets him apart
from composers who preceded him (and from most who followed), was the manner
in which he grew musically. Where most composers reach a certain level of
musical maturity, Beethoven continued his ascent throughout his life. He not
only climbed a musical Matterhorn but he seems actually to have created and
scaled entirely new peaks of his own.
Some of his late pieces (particularly his chamber works) were extremely
demanding upon both listener and performer, and were called "...the musical
mutterings of a deaf man." The ninth symphony was premiered after only two
rehearsals and was played from manuscript, which makes us wonder how
musically cohesive a performance it actually was. Beethoven's late piano and
chamber works, respectively, may have defied both the
performance-capabilities as well as the comprehension of all but the most
astute musical minds of his day. Some of this music was beyond the scope of
his contemporaries, a fact of which Beethoven himself was aware. When the
violinist Radicati asked him about the "meaning" of the late quartets, the
composer is said to have replied, without a trace of irony, "Oh, those are
not for you, but for a later age." On another occasion he was told that one
of his latest pieces "did not please the audience" in performance.
Beethoven's response was, "Some day it will please them." It took time for
some of his last works to gain general acceptance, and it wasn't until half a
century after Beethoven's death that his late quartets became "accessible."
Compared to those of his contemporaries, these last works of Beethoven may
have sounded strange and perhaps even tumultous to some listeners. Examples
of this are some of his late quartets, generally, and his Grosse Fuge (Great
Fugue) specifically, a piece described by Igor Stravinsky as, "an absolutely
contemporary work which will be contemporary forever." In Beethoven's day,
some of his later works were as difficult to perform (and, for some, even to
listen to) as his handwriting, wild in the extreme, is difficult to read.
Our ears are accustomed to the 20th-century musical sounds we hear today, so
Beethoven's music no longer seems new or "revolutionary" to most of us, and
may now sound actually old-fashioned. This was not the case when his works
first appeared, and some of his later music arguably belonged to the musical
dawn of the world's next century. It is conceivable that had Beethoven lived
even another fifteen years and continued his musical growth, his last works,
viewed in proper historical perspective, might have assumed characteristics
approaching what we know today as the avant-garde. Conjecture may be
fruitless but it's still fascinating.
Nevertheless, on the musically informed listener even his late works make an
eloquent impression - an impression which may be difficult to explain and
impossible to define, but easy to recognize and a pleasure to feel. If
Beethoven's music no longer answers our esthetic wants, it surely answers our
esthetic needs.
End of Part One - On to Part Two of Beethoven's Dwellings
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