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De Beethovensite http://www.beethovensite.eu Alles over Ludwig van Beethoven (bijgewerkt op 31 december 2009) |
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Gallery of portraits of Beethoven's
family
Gallery of other pictures
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1. Was Beethoven born on December 16, 1770? Most probably. The date of his baptismal certificate is December 17 and in his days roman catholic babies mostly were baptized within 24 hours after their birth. Another proof is an unfortunately now lost letter by Albrechtsberger, one of Beethoven's Viennese teachers, who wrote this letter to his pupil on December 15 and sent him his congratulations for the next day.
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information 2. Was Beethoven black? To European standards he was not, but to American standards maybe. One thing is for sure: though Beethoven surely had a dark complexion, he didn't have a black or brown skin, nor negroid features. On the contrary. His portraits show a typical European face and so does a portrait of one his brothers and two portraits of his nephew Karl. His ancestors were partly Flemish (the Beethovens), partly German (the Keverichs). At first sight there's not the slightest trace of a proof for his "blackness". Yet we cannot exclude beyond any doubt that he had some drops "black" blood in his veins. During the so-called 80-year-war (1568-1648) Flanders and the southern part of the Netherlands were occupied by the Spanish and a part of the Spanish army was "Moorish", as they called it in those days, which means from Northern Africa. So it's not completely impossible that one of those soldiers had been the cause of some African genes in the Beethoven family.
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information 3. What does the name Beethoven mean? Most experts think that it has to do with the fact that in the seventeenth century the Beethoven family was a family of Catholic farmers, living in Flanders. The word "beet" (these days spelled "biet") means, not surprisingly, "beet". The word "hof" (plural "hoven") means "garden", not only the grounds, but also the buildings. Some researchers point to a part of the Netherlands, called the "Betuwe", where a long time ago a (German?) family had found "better meadows" (the prefix "bet" meaning "better") and later on travelled southwards to Flanders where they settled down. In Flanders there was a locality called Betouwe and in the sixteenth century it's mentioned in the archives as Bethove or Bethoven. Anyway, the use of "van" ("from") does suggests that the name points to a particular place, be it the original "better meadow" or the later one developed "beetgarden". In the sixteenth and seventeenth century the name was also spelled as "Piethoff(en)," "Betthoff(en)," and "Biethof(en)." A third group of experts points to the noble family de Bethues, living in Limburg, the most southern part of the Netherlands. But the most amazing digression is one by a French researcher who saw a connection to the Portugese noble family de Bethos. This family was a family of slave-traders who found their slaves in, of course, Africa. And then the story of Beethoven's black blood comes to mind again. But these days most researchers believe in the not-noble connection to the Catholic farmers and most probably they are right.
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information 4. Was Beethoven of noble birth? No, he was not, unless those above-mentioned dissident researchers are right. But this is not very likely. In principle the prefix "van" in Dutch and Flemish only points to a particular place, not to noble birth, in contrast to the German "von". Seen from a Dutch point of view the composer's name was not just "Beethoven", but "Van Beethoven", the word "van" being a part of the name itself, not pointing to a particular descent. There is a slight difference between the Dutch and Flemish way to write down Beethoven's name. The Dutch way: Ludwig van Beethoven or Van Beethoven. The Flemish way: Ludwig Van Beethoven of Van Beethoven. Beethoven without ''van'' is German. 5. Was Beethoven's sister-in-law Johanna his famous Immortal Beloved? No. A cunning American moviemaker, Bernard Rose, was the one who "invented" this hypothesis in 1995 and there's no reason to take him seriously. There's not the slightest trace of a proof that Beethoven and his sister-in-law were interested in each other. On the contrary. From the moment they met their relationship was a hostile one and later on the two began to hate each other. Serious biographers shrug their shoulders about Rose's hypothesis. Yet he was not the first who frankly showed this dissident opinion. As far as I know a Dutchman, one Harke de Roos, was the first who postulated a hypothesis about a love affair between Beethoven and Johanna, though not with Johanna in the role of Immortal Beloved. If we may believe De Roos Johanna and Beethoven had a short affair in winter 1805/6. The result: Karl, who was born in September 1806. This hypothesis is not completely impossible, though also not very likely, to say the least. On the contrary.
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information 6. When and where did Beethoven write his letter to the Immortal Beloved? In Teplitz (Bohemia) in 1812, though this has not yet been proven beyond any doubt. But the chance for another date and place is very, very, very little indeed. The most important research on this problem has been done by Unger, who published his discoveries in 1909 and 1911, later on confirmed by Sonneck. More and more evidence was found, the newest, as far as I know, in the sixties and the seventies, thanks to the investigations by Plevka and Racek, thoroughly discussed by Goldschmidt in 1977, whose book on the identity of the Immortal Beloved is still a must for every researcher.
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information 7. To whom did Beethoven write the famous loveletter? We don't know. Biographer Schindler was the first who tried to identify the mysterious lady. His choice was Giulietta Guicciardi, the girl to whom Beethoven had dedicated the Moonlight sonata. Later on biographer Thayer's choice was Therese Brunswick, Giulietta's cousin. Biographer Frimmel's choice was Magdalene Willmann, Unger's choice Bettina Brentano, Marek's choice Dorothea Ertmann, et cetera, et cetera. It's not easy to mention the name of female friend of Beethoven's who has NOT been put on the list of candidates! These days Solomon is by far the most fashionable Beethoven biographer and his choice is Antonie Brentano, Bettina's sister-in-law. This choice is very popular in the USA, the UK and Australia, but in Europe most biographers prefer Josephine Brunswick, Therese's sister, put forward by La Mara in the twenties, again in the fifties by Kaznelson and finally in the seventies and eighties by Goldschmidt and Tellenbach, lately also by Steblin. Another, not very likely candidate is Marie Erdödy, suggested by Steichen in the fifties and by Altman in 1996. Lately three new candidates were added to the list: Almerie Esterházy, put forward in October 2000, Barbara von Tschoffen, put forward in June 2002, and Maria Anna von Liechtenstein, put forward in late 2002. Frankly, I give them little chance. Surprisingly in 2002 Walden did a heroic attempt to defend the candidacy of Bettina Brentano, already decades ago correctly (in my opinion) put aside.
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information 8. Was Beethoven a homosexual and is that the reason why the identity of the mysterious lady is still a riddle? Two things are for sure: the text of the loveletter shows beyond any doubt that he intended to send it to a living woman and the text also shows his ardent passion for this particular woman. These facts don't fit to a homosexual. Nevertheless the Sterba couple, psychoanalysts who had been pupils of Freud himself, tried to turn Beethoven into a homosexual, though he would have 'suppressed' these feelings. Nowhere the Sterbas 'accuse' Beethoven of having practized homosexuality. But according to the Sterbas Beethoven's 'misogynic' state of mind was a huge stumbling-block between him and the women. The loveletter, the Sterbas continued, is the result of his conflict between the platonic love for the woman involved and his knowledge about himself that he would never be able to become hers, to be her man in every respect. Later on Solomon and Wolf digressed on possible homosexual 'inhibitions' of Beethoven's personality. I find it not very likely.
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information 9. When, how and why did Beethoven go deaf and what was the cause of his death? The exact date of the onset of the deafness is unknown, but it must have happened in the period 1796/1798. It was a very slow process and not until 1817 Beethoven began to use the so-called Konversationshefte (conversation books), because he couldn't communicate anymore with his visitors. They had to write down their questions and remarks. However, as late as 1825 he was still able to hear very loud sounds. The first who tried to write a complete anamnesis of all Beethoven's illnesses, including, of course, his deafness was Schweisheimer and he did so in 1922. He thought that Beethoven's other chronic illness, his bowel problems, had had the same background, most probably an underlying chronic disease, maybe an infection. To this day there's no consensus about the cause of those problems, nor about the deafness. We only know for sure that from about 1820/1 Beethoven began to suffer from chronic liver problems and that this ended in cirrhosis. Liver failure caused his death. It's not impossible that lead poisoning, maybe due to high levels in medicine, wine, water or food, was one of the causes of the cirrosis. However, it is an uneasy fact that Beethoven drank too much. We can safely assume that this was the most important cause of his lethal liver illness. As for his deafness: otosclerose is the most likely candidate.
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information 10. Did Beethoven and Mozart meet and if so, when and how? Maybe. In January 1787 young Beethoven travelled to Vienna and we can safely assume that he wanted to become Mozart's pupil. He stayed there until the end of March. Then he travelled to Munich, visited Regensburg and Augsburg and by the end of April he quickly returned to Bonn, most probably due to a letter of his father about the very bad health of his mother (she died in July 1787). Beethoven himself never said a word about a meeting with Mozart, nor did Mozart, nor one of those who may have been present. According to Czerny Beethoven had told him that he had heard Mozart playing the piano (and he didn't like it, too "staccato" and "old-fashioned"). However, according to another testimony Beethoven had met Mozart, but never heard him play. Yet we all know that famous story about Mozart praising young Beethoven loudly. Beethoven's friend Holz, who met him for the first time in 1825, was the one who threw the story into the world after Beethoven's death and we don't have any knowledge about the source.
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information 11. Is it true that Beethoven, who moved to Vienna in November 1792 and died in March 1827, lived in more than 70 appartments over the years? Yes and no. It's a fact that Beethoven, always discontent and restless, very often moved, sometimes within a few weeks or months. But without more information one should get the wrong impression. In his days most well-to-doViennese used to leave the dirty, stinking city during the warm summer months and moved to a pleasant residence abroad, mostly somewhere in the beautiful Wienerwald. They often left in April or May and returned by the end of October. Sometimes they hired a new appartment on returning to the city, sometimes they returned to their old winter residences. Beethoven followed their tracks in this respect. Being so restless he mostly moved into a new appartment in October and more than once he was not satisfied with the summer appartment(s) he had chosen and then decided to move from one residence to another.
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information 12. Was Beethoven left-handed? No, most probably he was not. However, on the web one can find more than one site, mostly devoted to "handicapped" people who nevertheless have become famous due to their impressive achievements, on which Beethoven is given as one of the most striking examples. Most probably the myth about Beethoven being a leftie is the result of the mirrored and often republished print of the Stieler portrait, where the composer has the score of the Missa Solemnis in his left hand and a pencil in the right one. But there's not the slightest trace of a proof that he was left-handed. On the contrary. The only data we have seem to prove that he was right-handed. His handwriting is undoubtedly the handwriting of a right-handed person. Also instructive is the drawing by Klosson. Beethoven is sitting at a table in a public house, holding a newspaper in his left hand and a pipe in his right hand, like all right-handed people. Another proof is a drawing, made in the 1820s, on which we see Beethoven walking, holding a walking-stick in his right hand. 13. To whom did Beethoven dedicate his third symphony, the so-called Eroica? To an unknown hero whose memory we are supposed to celebrate (according to the subtitle). However, there's quite a lot of evidence in favor of Napoleon Bonaparte as the not-mentioned hero. It's almost sure that Beethoven had the French consul in mind when he wrote the symphony (1802/3). At the time he considered a trip to Paris and even pondered about moving to France forever. But then the picture changed. We all know the famous testimony of his friend and pupil Ries who brought him the news (spring 1804) that Bonaparte had declared himself an emperor, expecting that the Pope would be willing to crown him, which indeed happened. According to Ries Beethoven got very angry, went to his desk, gripped the score of the just finished symphony and tore the first page (on which he had written down the dedication) to pieces. Then he shouted that "now" Bonaparte would become a dictator and that he would trample down human rights. He surely was right... He renamed the symphony into "Eroica", but later on in a letter to the publisher he frankly admitted that the "true" name of the symphony was "Bonaparte." It's striking that he did not mention the name of the emperor-to-be (Napoleon), but Bonaparte, the name of the uncrowned consul. In 2007 Steblin offered a surprising view on the funeral march of the symphony: the mysterious dead person is... the Elector, Beethoven's mecenas of his youth.
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information Yes. Notwithstanding all the noise about them over the years there's actually not the slightest trace of a proof that Beethoven had misread his metronome or had suffered from a "manic-depressive attack" or had been too deaf (the markings date from 1817 and later) or had used a disabled metronome or had erred in whatever what other way. It's not difficult to devote many a book to all the attempts to "explain" his "unplayable" markings. In the seventies of the 20th century it finally turned out that Schindler, his first (and very unreliable) biographer, is the source of all the confusion. Schindler disliked Beethoven's metronome markings. He considered them far too fast. After Beethoven's death he embarked on a enterprise that was to become -maybe- the main goal of his life: the "correction" of those markings into a much slower direction. With this goal in mind he "rewrote" parts of the conversation books and even produced a fake score: WoO.162. For many a decade performers took Schindler seriously and overlooked his many forgeries (not only on the metronome markings, but also connected to various important biographical problems, alas). Thanks to the research of the German researchers Beck and Herre and the American researcher Howell we now know that it's high time to throw all the speculations about Beethoven's so-called unplayable metronome markings into the dustbin. They are playable indeed. However, it needs a small, but first-class orchestra, a first-class conductor and first-class soloist(s). There is only one exception and unfortunately this is Beethoven's most famous composition: his last symphony. When he wrote down the metronome markings for this music his personal circumstances were difficult and careful research has shown that he obviously made a few errors. The discussion on this complex problem is still going on.
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information 15. Was the famous Broadwood piano Beethoven's favorite? No. He got his Broadwood in 1818 when he was already very deaf, too deaf to judge the instrument objectively. However, he appreciated the precious gift, ordered by some of his best Viennese friends and sent to him by the London manufacturers. From about 1810 he had had troubles with finding a good substitute piano, after he had given up his many attempts to improve the Érard he had received from the French manufacturers in about 1803. He tried one piano after another in the period 1810-1817 and finally he got the famous Broadwood, which surely is an impressive piano indeed. He was grateful, of course. And he was told that it was an excellent instrument. That's the background of his so-called appreciation of this particular instrument. But what we know about his likes and dislikes of pianos points to Viennese instruments (Walter, Streicher), not to English, nor to French.
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information 16. How tall was Beethoven? According to Schindler he was short, about 1.68 m. The report of the exhumation of 1863 shows that Schindler's guess wasn't bad.
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information 17. What were Beethoven's favorite dishes? According to Schindler pasta with Parmesan cheese and salami, but a study of the conversation books shows that he also liked veal, beaf, liver, chicken, oysters, fish, spinach, fruit, cream, sugar, soup, eggs, very strong coffee and, last but not least, wine. He didn't like pork and he was not really fond of beer.
For more information 18. Was Beethoven murdered? If we may believe Altman and De Roos, the true cause of Beethoven's death was not the bad liver, but... poison, deliberately given by people who wanted to get rid of the dissident composer. This assumption is highly hypothetical and speculative, since there is not the slightest trace of a proof that somebody wanted to murder Beethoven. Nevertheless a considerable amount of lead has been found in his hear and his bones, at least according to the chemists who analyzed both hair and bones, by order of the Ira F.Brillant Center for Beethoven Research. Experts (Reiter, Eisinger) strongly disagree on the quality of this reseach. However, assuming that the amount of in Beethoven's was extraordinary high, we still can safely assume that this lead had entered his body by natural causes, like food, drink and/or medicines. It is also not very likely that he died of lead poisoning or, even more unlikely, that lead caused his deafness. Beethoven did not show the usual symptoms of lead poisoning.
For more information 19. What was the colour of Beethoven's eyes and hair? Brown, as stated by Schindler in his biography. Some contemporaries called his hair black, or even coal-black, but the paintings show that dark-brown is more likely. The painting of Beethoven as a 13-year-old shows light-brown hair, but often such hair will darken upon growing older (and later on will lighten again due to old age). There is some confusion about the colour of his eyes, due to the testimony of painter Klöber, who many years after he had met Beethoven recalled that he had greyish-blueish eyes. Probably his memory didn't serve him well, for not only the still somewhat doubtful painting of the child Beethoven, but also the surely genuine paintings of later years (Hornemann, Mähler, Stieler, Waldmüller) show brown or brownish eyes. See also the portrait gallery. 20. Is it true that Beethoven's mother got seven or more children, of which most of them were deaf or blind or otherwise disabled, probably due to syphilis? No, that's not true. When she married Johann van Beethoven she was already a widow. Both her husband and her young baby had died. As far as I know nothing is known about the cause of their deaths. In 1769 she gave birth to Johann's first child, but it died at the age of six days. Then followed our great composer, then his brother Caspar Anton Carl, who died in 1815 of tuberculosis, then his brother Nikolaus Johann, who died in 1848 of old age. Three more children (one boy, two girls) followed, all of them died very soon, respectively at the age of four days, two years and one year. Nothing is known about the causes of their deaths. Beethoven's mother died of tuberculosis (in 1787), Beethoven's father probably of a heart attack (in 1792).
For more information 21. Who was the mysterious Elise to whom Beethoven dedicated that famous bagatelle for piano? Most probably to Therese Malfatti, who was his piano pupil in 1809/10 and with whom he may have been in love, though the topic is still debated. Most researchers think he was, but some disagree. Anyway, why 'Für Elise', instead of 'Für Therese'? It's an error, made by researcher Nohl. Years after Beethoven's death he stumbled on the autograph of the little piece when he visited the Malfatti family. Not one member of the family said something about a possbile 'special relationship' between Beethoven and Therese and Nohl misread Beethoven's hieroglyphs. Later on researchers learned that Beethoven may have been in love with Therese and they concluded that Nohl must have erred. Unfortunately the autograph is lost.
For more information 22. Did Beethoven suffer from a mental disorder, like the bipolar disorder or the borderline syndrome? According to some biographers, particularly those who
are interested in psychoanalysis and depth psychology, Beethoven
may have been a victim of a mental disorder. The first who
suggested this possibility was Radestock and he did so in 1884.
But his view was completely overlooked. Newman (1927) did a
better attempt and, fitting to
his times, his view was very Freudian. This resulted in
speculative digressions on Beethoven's 'disturbed' sexuality. In
principle the view of the Sterbas (1954) was not very different
and later on Solomon defended the hypothesis that Beethoven may
have been a homosexual (see for my view question #8). Already in
the picture for some decades is the bipolar disorder and in 2002 Davies strongly defended this hypothesis. In 2003
Kopitz digressed on the borderline syndrome. Are these disorders
possible diagnoses for Beethoven?
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