[147] Halm’s personal explanation to Mr. Thayer.
[148] The Editor has taken the liberty of transferring the music to the treble clef and to interpret the notes which are indistinct in the autograph in accordance with Dr. Deiters’s transcript.
[149] It would scarcely be worth while to review the acrimonious controversy on this subject. There were errors and misunderstandings growing out of faulty memories and imperfect records. Mr. Thayer made a painstaking study of the subject and secured all the available correspondence from Prince George Galitzin and from other sources in 1861. His résumé as given in Grove’s “Dictionary of Music and Musicians” (Art. “Galitzin”) doubtless sets forth the fact of indebtedness and payment correctly. He says: “These (the last two Quartets) were received by the Prince together and were acknowledged by him Nov. 22, 1826. He also received a MS. copy of the Mass in D and printed copies of the Ninth Symphony and of the two overtures in C, the one (Op. 124) dedicated to him, the other (Op. 115) dedicated to Count Radzivill. Thus the whole claim against him was—Quartets 150 ducats; Overture (Op. 115), 25 ducats; Mass, 50 ducats; loss on exchange, 4 ducats; total 229 ducats, not including various other pieces of music sent. On the other hand he appears, notwithstanding all his promises, to have paid, up to the time of Beethoven’s death, only 104 ducats. It should be said that in 1826, war and insurrection had broken out in Russia, which occupied the Prince and obliged him to live away from Petersburg, and also put him to embarrassing expenses. After the peace of Adrianople, (Sept. 14, 1829) when Beethoven had been dead some years a correspondence was opened with him by Hotschevar, Karl van Beethoven’s guardian, which resulted in 1832 in a further payment of 50 ducats, making a total of 154. Karl still urges his claim for 75 more to make up the 150 ducats for the Quartets, which Galitzin in 1835 promises to pay but never does. In 1852, roused by Schindler’s statement of the affair (ed. I. pp. 162, 163), he writes to the Gazette musicale of July 21, 1852, a letter stating correctly the sum paid but incorrectly laying it all to the account of the Quartets. Other letters passed between him and Karl Beethoven, but they are not essential to the elucidation of the transaction.”
To this the present editor adds a bit of history derived chiefly from Mr. Thayer’s papers. In the course of time Schindler’s partly erroneous statement that the debt which Galitzin owed Beethoven at the time of his death was all on account of the quartets was magnified into the statement made by Heinrich Döring and Brendel that the Prince had “cheated” the composer out of the fee for the Quartets. Prince Nicolas Galitzin had withdrawn to his distant estates in Russia, but at his instigation the cudgels were taken up in his behalf by his son Prince George, who, stirred into indignation by Döring’s biography in particular, sent that writer the following letter: “I can not and do not want to know anything of the past, all the less since it will certainly not be expected of me to contradict the proofs produced by him (his father). But as by the publication of your article you have made the question for me one of the day, I, as a man of honor must do my duty to put an end to these misunderstandings. I have deposited the sum of 125 ducats which you bring in question with Mr. Kaskel, banker in Dresden, for the heirs of Beethoven, and from you, my dear Sir, I expect the necessary information in this matter, since you must have acquainted yourself with the necessary facts while writing your notice. You must admit that hereafter I reserve the right to treat this question as a personal one! In case the family of Beethoven has died out there will be no other disposition of the money deposited with Banker Kaskel than to pay it over to a charity or some other cause which may be directly associated with the name and works of the famous artist. Dresden, July 15-3, 1858.” Karl van Beethoven, sole heir of the composer, had died three months previously, leaving a widow and children, who were his heirs. Prince George’s money seemed like a gift of Providence to the widow, who hastened, as soon as she read the letter in a musical journal, to write to Holz as the friend of the dead composer to collect the money for her and express her gratitude to Prince George. Holz complied with part of her request in a letter full of obsequiousness in which he accused Schindler of scandalmongering and offered to provide the Prince with evidence of that gentleman’s rascality. But he did not collect the money, which lay still untouched in the vaults of Kaskel in 1861, when Madame van Beethoven, having made a vain application to Prince George, addressed a letter to Kaskel asking whether the money was still deposited with him or had been withdrawn by Prince George. In the latter event she stated that she wanted to contradict a statement circulating by the public press that the heirs of Beethoven had received the gift. Kaskel referred her to Ad. Reichel, a musical director in Dresden and a friend of the Prince, through whom, indeed, the deposit had been made. On April 28, 1861, she wrote to Reichel, reviewing the facts in the case and stating her desire to apply the money, in case it was given to her, to the musical education of her youngest daughter, Hermine van Beethoven, then 8 years of age. Kaskel also wrote to Reichel, sending him Madame van Beethoven’s letter and saying that as he had not heard anything from Prince Galitzin for several years he intended to turn the money over to the Municipal Court of Dresden in order to spare himself all further correspondence in the matter. Kaskel wrote to the Prince on May 7, 1861, asking him to prescribe a disposition of the money, for, if Kaskel carried out his determination to send it to the court, it would be frittered away. He urged that the money be given to Madame van Beethoven. This revival of interest in the subject was evidently due to Mr. Thayer’s activity in behalf of the widow and her daughter. Mr. Thayer was in London in 1860 and evidently took up the matter with the Prince. He makes no mention of the subject in his notice written for Grove’s “Dictionary”; but among his letters the present writer found the following letter, evidently written on the eve of his departure from England in February, 1861:
“Dear Mr. Thayer. Prince Galitzin has asked me to remit to you the enclosed letters, praying you kindly to act for him in the affair, as you will soon be on the spot. He begs you, however, to bear in mind the necessity off proving that the money for these Quartets has not been paid (I fear an impossibility!); but however vexatious this may be to poor Mad. v. B. everyone must defer to the obstacle to her having the money: in the awkward light in which it places the Prince’s father. From what I can gather from his conversation he will be most satisfied to have the money appropriated for the purpose you suggested: the M. S. S. At all events Prince G. is quite content to leave the matter in your hands. Wishing you a pleasant journey and speedy return, believe me, dear Mr. Thayer, Yours sincerly Natalia Macfarren.”
The editor’s efforts to learn the ultimate disposition of the money deposited with Kaskel have been in vain. Mr. Thayer’s papers contain no hint of the steps which may have been taken after Mrs. Macfarren’s appeal to Prince George; the banking house of Kaskel is gone out of existence; Nephew Karl’s daughter, Hermine, is dead. For three years, from 1866 to 1869, she was a student in the pianoforte and harmonium classes of the Conservatory at Vienna, and it seems likely that Mr. Thayer succeeded in having the Dresden deposit applied to her education; but if so he left no memorandum of that fact amongst the papers which have come under the editor’s eyes.
[150] Under the agreement it was to be the exclusive property of the Philharmonic Society for a year and a half.
[151] This interesting letter is now owned by Dwight Newman of Chicago.
[152] Though there is no authority for doing so it seems impossible not to associate the following three-part canon, which may be found in the B. and H. Complete Edition, with this amusing anecdote:
