Beethoven and Domestic Problems

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 45, 22 May 1931, Page 1

Beethoven and Domestic Problems

2YA is this week commencing a series of "Petites Periodes" with favourite ‘masters of music. They include short sketches and recitals. by eminent musicians. The first of these will be "Beethoven."

Beethoven was a man apart-a soul longing for love-but he was not understood and, as he prematurely decayed, he became more ‘difficult to tolerate. Following is. Matthew Quinney on one of his difficulties.

GOOD managing wife--a typical Hausfrau-would have made all the difference to Beethoven. Let us see how. For a start, she would have put a stop to the numerous flittings that must have disorganised ,his work and sacrificed his nerves. It is a pious and picturesque custom to mark with a suitably inscribed plate the houses in which "the great have passed their lives. To distinguish in this way all the dwelling places of Beethoven in Vienna, however, would be impossible, for there were thirty of them!

On an average he packed up and moved about once a year, and only a few of his lodgings are known to-day. Nor can the reason for his frequent migrations be ascertained, though wecan easily guess at some of them. His eccentricity, violent temper, irregular habits, and (it must be said with regret) his casualness in matters of personal ‘hygiene, must have made him an undesirable tenant; the probability is that he received notice to quit as often as he gave notice of quitting. In the matter of personal hygiene we must not be misled by his excellent habit of pouring jugs of water over his head. Such enthusiastic ablutions weigh little against some less desirable habits, such as spitting on the floor of

any room and in any house in which he happened to be. Nor did he confine his marksmanship to the floor; occasionally (we read) he would regard a large mirror as an attractive area, and.... however this may have been mere absence of mind. But the worst on this subject cannot be told in a refined, family journal. His devoted slave and worshipper, Schindler (who was so proud of his servitude that he printed on his visiting cards, "L’ami de Beethoven’’) says, after speaking of Beethoven’s shortage of underwear, "I must hesitate

co describe his condition exactly as it was." Think of the difference a first-rate wife would have made! Yet, though he worshipped some women (albeit never the same one for long at a time) and even more women wotshipped him (in spite of his embarrassing manners) a wife was not for Beethoven. His pursuits were as vain as they were fleeting. ‘Now you can help me to hunt a wife," he wrote to his friend Count Gleichenstein, in 1810, during a period -of comparative affluence; and he bids the Count to buy him "‘at least half a dozen

neckties," in preparation for the chase; and a few months later he goes even farther than neckties, asking another friend to obtain his (Beethoven’s) birth certificate as a preliminary to the documentary part of the ceremony. Among the women who fluttered round him, however, was one who deserves honourable mention for her disinterested devotion. She was Nanette von Stricher, wife of a noted pianoforte maker. As a child of eight, by the way, she had lessons from Mozart, and so was a link between the two great men. She undertook from time to time to straighten out things for Beethoven when they got too bad even for him. We may

safely guess that it was to the faithful Nanette that Beethoven wrote the list of questions that is still preserved in the’ State Library at Berlin:What ought one to give two servants to eat at dinner and supper, both as to quantity and quality? How often ought one to give them roast meat? Ought they have it at dinner and supper, too? That which is intended for the servants, do they have in common with the victuals of the master, or do they prepare their'own separately, i.e, do they (Concluded on page 2.)

Beethoven (Continued from page 1.) have different food from the master? How many pounds of meat are to be reckoned for three persons? What allowance per day do the housekeeper and maid receive? How about the washing? Do the housekeeper and maid get more? How much wine and beer? . Does one give it to them, and when* Breakfast? Domestic worries of all kinds played a large part in Beethoven’s. correspoidence, and most of them were due to

his constant change of servants. In order to realise the kind of agitated procession that went on we have only to glance at this extract from one of his notebooks :-- On April 17 the kitchenmaid came. May 16, gave notice to the kitchenmaid. . May 19, the kitchenmaid left. May 30, the woman entered upon her duties. July 1, the new kitchenmaid came. July 28,.the kitchenmaid ran.away in: the evening. July 30, the woman from Lower Dobling entered service. September 9, the girl entered ser- _ Vice. + October 22, the girl left. December 12, the kitchenmaid entered service.

December 18, the kitchenmaid gave notice. No doubt there were some trying specimens among them, but it must be udmitted that they started work under a heavy handicap, for there seems to have been a natural animosity between Beethoven and the genus. On June 8, 1818, he writes: "The new housekeeper _ inhabitant of Hell!" : AS Beethoven was wont to be even more frank in speech than on pupet we may imagine that the new housekeeper soon: found herself called some thing far worse than a troglodyte. Nor did he stop at words. Hear what haypened .to-2 slut named Nany :- The evening before last Nany began to jeer at me for ringing the bell, after the manner of all low people, so she already knew that I had written to you. [Frau Streicher] about it.. Yesterday the infernal tricks recommenced. I made short work of it, and. threw at her my heavy chair; after ‘that I was at peace the whole day, :.’- But Nany was evidently used to as: sorted mwissilesi- ® I have endured much to-day from N., but haye: thrown half a dozen ‘books at her head as a New Year's gift. : He was no better off when he tried men-servants :- ’ Again unfortunate with a servant and probably also robbed. Already on the 14th I gave him 14 days’ notice, but he gets drunk, stays whole nights out of the house, and is so bold and coarse that I would like to send him away still sooner. Musical friends tell me that all these trials played their part in making Bee thoven’s music what it was; the angry explosions (say they) that are so fre quent in his music are in part the re sult of the spiritual unrest brought about by his physical and domestic tribulations. It-may be so, I dare not venture into: regions where only musicians can tread with certainty. All I know is that to me (a plain man not without bowels of compassion for my suffering fellows) it seems incomprehensible that in order to make the Fifth Symphony the cataclysmic work it is, Beethoven should have had to spend half his working life in a state of muddle and torture indicated by such Jetters as I have quoted. I have so far heard little of Beethoven’s music, and that little with ouly a confused notion as to what all the turmoil was about; but I am ready to salute him as a great man. For only a hero-however untidy and un-hygienic-could :stand up against ali squalid discomfort and-do his life’s work in such a way as to rank (as Beethoven seems to rank) among the world’s greatest benefactors. : (But I still maintain that marriage with the right woman would have enabled him to do his job even better than he did.)