Dr.Gerhard von Breuning describes Beethoven's appearance:
Beethoven's outward appearance, due to his quite peculiar nonchalance
in the matter of dress, had something uncommonly conspicuous about it in the street. Usually lost in thought and humming to himself,
he often gesticulated with his arms when walking by himself. When in company, he would speak quite animatedly and loudly, and, since
his companion then had to write his rejoinder in the conversation book, an abrupt halt would have to be made; this was conspicuous
in itself and was still more so when the rejoinder was communicated in mime. And so it happened that most of the passers-by would
turn around to stare at him; the street urchins also made their gibes and shouted after him. For that reason his nephew Carl refused
to go out with him and once told him straight out that he was ashamed to accompany him in the street because of his "comical appearance"
; at this, so he told us, he was greatly insulted and hurt. For my part, I was proud to be able to show myself with a man of his importance.
Piano Sonata tempo indications in Italian, tallied by movement,
42 Allegro, 4 vivace, 16 Adagio, 13 Allegretto, 8 Andante, 4 Largo,
3 Prestissimo, 5 Presto
Ludwig is for our friend Beethoven who had an affinity for bottles of Riesling. Beethoven’s father was a wine merchant and his mother’s
family continues to grow grapes on the Rhine near Bonn. Beethoven was fastidious with his finances yet even in his early years, when
his income was meager, his personal budgets always included a line item for wine. He composed his grand Ninth Symphony while living
at a winery known for making fine Riesling and late in his life, when he could no longer travel, he asked a good friend to bring him
Rhine wine – though he also wrote that wine from Mosel would suffice. When Beethoven in one of his more boisterous moods said, “Music
is the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind ...” we
like to think he too was inspired by a glass or two of good Riesling.
Dinner Party Discussion Questions:
I. On Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Piano Sonata, the tempo markings indicate an impossibly
fast speed. Are the markings
a) a typo
b) added not by Beethoven but
by an overly romantic publisher far too invested in Beethoven’s heroic image
c) Beethoven’s way of telling
us that when we play his music we have to strive for being as transcendent as possible
d) The tempo markings
only apply the first part of the sonata
e) The Sonata’s speed and energy was more important than
hitting all the correct notes (see Schnabel)
f) Beethoven wanted madness in his music
g) Beethoven was composing in his head and couldn’t give a damn about your personal physical limitations - we’re to use our imaginations
and hear it that fast
II. How fast should a conductor initiate the start of Beethoven’s fifth symphony? Should the first
measures, the first time we hear the fates knocking, be slow and dramatic or should the music just rip from the first down beat and
carry on from there? How do you suppose Beethoven wielded his baton?
III.Quartet in G major, Op.18, no. 2 - Beethoven styled
humor?
The first movement of Beethoven’s G major Quartet starts out with imagery of a gentleman tipping his hat and then bowing.
A feminine curtsy follows. Could this be a friendly greeting to the listener or a poke at the pageantry of the stodgy, pre-Napoleon
aristocracy or could it be a polite acknowledgement of the era’s elder composers, the one’s Beethoven is about to leave in the dust?
Early in the development section of this movement, at measure 101, Beethoven presents us with a false cadence. It’s a proud and definitive
cadence but it has issue; Beethoven has mistakenly taken us to the key of E flat major instead of tonic G major. This amateurish gaffe
of tonal heresy could certainly earn young Beethoven a whack in the back of the head with a conductor’s baton (or a Mozartian “kick
on the ass”) from one of the pedagogic forefathers. The music scrambles, searching in frenzy for the correct key; it’s a panic with
music suitable for the next time you lose your car keys - though maybe this was Beethoven’s pun, drawing inspiration from the last
time he lost the keys to his wine cellar. The cello finds the proper notes in measure 145 but with some buffoonery, it takes the rest
of the band another four measures to figure the lost has already been found. The key of G major, order and sanity are restored
and a proper, Haydnesque cadence commences in measure 157. Is this the young and rebellious Beethoven laughing at his doubters, the
established holders of musical cannon, the aristocrats with their dandy etiquette or is he just having a good time?