Death might come unannounced and give no time to make a legal will; therefore I hereby attest with my own hand that I declare my nephew Karl van Beethoven to be my universal heir and that after my death everything without exception which can be called my property shall belong to him. I appoint you to be his curator, and if there should be no testament after this you are also authorized and requested to find a guardian for my beloved nephew—to the exclusion of my brother Johann van Beethoven—and secure his appointment according to law. I declare this writing to be valid for all time as being my last will before my death. I embrace you with all my heart.
The words excluding Johann from the guardianship were written on the third page of the document and on the first there was this addition: “NB. In the way of capital there are 7 shares of bank stock; whatever else is found in cash is like the bank shares to be his.” Shortly before his death he reiterated this bequest with modifications entailed by changed conditions.
The origin of a canon which Beethoven improvised at the coffee-house “Zur goldenen Birne” on February 20 to the words “Bester Herr Graf, Sie sind ein Schaf” is said by Schindler to have been a discussion between the composer and Count Lichnowsky concerning a contract with Steiner. Obviously, Beethoven and his adviser had disagreed.
Seeks Appointment as Court Composer
In November 1822, Anton Tayber, Imperial Court Composer, died. Beethoven applied for the appointment as his successor and Counts Lichnowsky and Dietrichstein entered the lists for him. Beethoven made a personal appeal to Dietrichstein, who was the “Court Music-Count” who, on February 23, 1823, disclosed the plan which had been conceived to promote Beethoven’s interests with the Emperor in a letter to Lichnowsky:
It would have been my duty long ago to reply to good Beethoven, since he came to me so trustfully. But after I had spoken with you I decided to break silence only after I had received definite information on the subject in question. I can now tell you positively that the post held by the deceased Tayber—who was not Chamber but Court Composer—is not to be filled again. I do not want to write to Beethoven because I do not like to disappoint a man whom I so sincerely respect, and therefore I beg of you when occasion offers to let him know the fact and then to inform me when and where I may meet him, as I have forgotten where he lives.
I am also sending you herewith the score of a mass by Reutter which Beethoven wished to see. It is true that H. M. the Emperor is fond of this style, but Beethoven, if he writes a mass, need not adhere to it. Let him follow the bent of his great genius and have a care only that the mass be not too long or too difficult to perform;—that it be a tutti mass and have only short soprano and alto solos in the voices (for which I have two fine singing-boys)—but no tenor, bass or organ solos. If he wishes he may introduce a violin, oboe or clarinet solo.
His Majesty likes to have fugues well worked out but not too long; the Sanctus and Osanna as short as possible, in order not to delay the transubstantiation, and—if I may add something on my own account—the Dona nobis pacem connected with the Agnus Dei without marked interruption, and soft. In two masses by Handel (arranged from his anthems), two by Naumann and Abbé Stadler, this makes a particularly beautiful effect. These in brief, as results of my experience, are the things which are to be considered and I should congratulate myself, the court and art if our great Beethoven were soon to take the work in hand.
On March 10 Dietrichstein sent Beethoven three texts for graduals and a like number for offertories from which to choose words to be used in the mass to be composed for the emperor. On the count’s letter Beethoven wrote the memorandum: “Treat the gradual as a symphony with song—does it follow the Gloria?” Here we have some light on the subject which came up for thought during the account of Beethoven’s negotiations with publishers for the Mass in D. It would seem to appear that Beethoven was much pleased with the interest manifested in his application by Count Dietrichstein, and looked with auspicious eye upon the latter’s plan to put him into the Emperor’s good books. There can scarcely be a doubt but that he gave considerable thought to the proposed mass even while still at work on the Mass in D. He conceived the plan of accompanying the Kyrie with wind-instruments and organ only in a “new mass,” as he designates it, and sketches for a Dona nobis pacem which have been found “for the mass in C-sharp minor” point to a treatment which may be said to be in harmony, so far as can be seen, with Count Dietrichstein’s suggestions. On one occasion he writes to Peters that he had not made up his mind which mass he should have, and on another that he had three masses, two other publishers having asked for such works. He tells Schindler that reports that the Mass in D was not finished were to be denied because they were not true, the unfinished numbers being additions. So also he writes to the Archduke. These additions were to be a gradual, an offertory, and a setting of the hymn Tantum ergo sacramentum, and it is a fair presumption, since appropriate texts for the first two were sent to Beethoven by Count Dietrichstein, that they were contemplated in connection with the mass for the emperor and that possibly after the abandonment of that project they were associated with the Mass in D. Nothing is known of the music which Beethoven had in mind for these additional numbers, but many sketches are lost and there is no knowing how much music which was never written out Beethoven carried in his head.[83]
Beethoven spoke of the “second” mass to others besides the publishers. Nothing came of it, however. He decided to postpone work on the mass for the Emperor, pleading the pressure of other obligations in the letters of thanks which he sent to Counts Lichnowsky and Dietrichstein. They and Archduke Rudolph were greatly disappointed and, if Schindler is to be believed, the Archduke and Lichnowsky rebuked him.[84]