Before I again take up the thread of events in Beethoven's life, I think this may not be an unfit place for a cursory notice of the proceedings of a small association, composed of professional men and accomplished amateurs, which, though it was not intimately connected with the events of Beethoven's life, and neither had, nor could have, any influence upon them, yet furnishes occasion for showing in what favour and honour Beethoven's compositions, especially the chamber music, that really inexhaustible mine of the profoundest and most expressive musical poetry, was held by the better portion of the Vienna dilettanti and performers. The task undertaken by this modest society was to execute classic music in the chamber style, and Beethoven's in preference, before a small circle of auditors, capable of relishing its beauties. M. Carl Czerny gave the impulse to this society, so worthy of record in the history of the art, and was upon the whole its guiding principle. The meetings were held at his residence in the forenoon of every Sunday, and were continued with gradually increasing interest for three successive winters. It was another sort of divine worship, to which every one without exception and without announcement had free access. To the peculiar gratification of M. Czerny, Beethoven previously went through several of his greatest works with him, and frequently attended the performance at his side, and his presence had the effect of heightening the interest felt by all the members of the society to the warmest enthusiasm. At the pianoforte M. Czerny had worthy assistants in the accomplished Baroness Dorothea von Ertmann (to whom Beethoven dedicated his Sonata, Op. 101), and in Messrs. Steiner, von Felsburg, and Pfaller, in the civil service of the Imperial government. The concourse to this musical stoa, where every one might make himself acquainted with all that was most sublime, or at least acquire clearer conceptions of it, was always extraordinary; and kindred spirits there found opportunity for learning to know and to esteem each other. All foreign professional men and connoisseurs, who in their own countries could gain but obscure notions of the spirit of Beethoven's music, here found themselves at the fountain-head of the purest poesy, which never flowed so clear and so brilliant since those memorable parties at Prince Lichnowsky's (of which mention has been made in the first period), and perhaps never may again in that place where this gigantic genius, so far in advance of his age, lived and wrought. For, indeed, so totally is everything, both in prose and poetry, changed there since his time, that this master-mind is become almost a stranger in his earthly home. The doors of that memorable school, which powerfully elevated the mind and heart of all who frequented it, closed at the end of the third winter course for ever, because M. Czerny began thenceforward to devote himself to composition; and, with the opening of the Italian Opera, which speedily followed, all incitement to the cultivation of Beethoven's pianoforte music ceased. Thus it would be very likely that foreigners might now in vain seek an opportunity to hear a Sonata of Beethoven's in Vienna; for the banners of the present day are no longer inscribed with his immortal name.
The next event, directly affecting Beethoven, before the suit with his sister-in-law was quite over, and requiring to be recorded here, is the death of Prince Kinsky, whose heirs refused to pay the stipulated portion of the pension granted in 1809. The matter was accordingly brought into court, and Beethoven was more fortunate in this instance than he had been with regard to the share of Prince Lobkowitz. He recovered rather more than 300 florins, so that, with the 600 contributed by the Archduke Rudolph, he received thenceforward a yearly pension of 900 florins (about 600 rix-dollars), which he enjoyed without further diminution as long as he lived.[53]
The nomination of his most illustrious pupil, the Archduke just mentioned, whom he had raised to a high degree of proficiency, and who was the only one of his scholars that Beethoven had at the same time instructed in the theory of harmony—the nomination of this accomplished prince to be Archbishop of Olmütz, brought back our master to that branch of music which is the most sublime and likewise the most difficult, and for which, together with the Symphony, he had the greatest predilection, as he frequently declared. He resolved, namely, to write a grand Mass for the installation of the Archduke in his archiepiscopal see, which was fixed for the 9th of March, 1820. It was in the winter of 1818-19, that he set about this new work; the first movement of which, however, was of such vast dimensions, that it was impossible to calculate what time it would take to complete the work upon the same scale. It is necessary here to observe that, in those years, Beethoven, in spite of the troubles which he had undergone, enjoyed excellent health. At the very commencement of this new labour, he seemed to be quite a different man. The change was more particularly noticed by his earlier friends; and I must confess that, never, before or since that time, have I seen Beethoven in such a state of absolute abstraction from the world as was the case, more especially in the year 1819. Nay, were I not already past the age of forty, and had to judge of that state of mind and soul of my noble friend with the understanding of a youth of twenty, I should have many anecdotes of that remarkable period to relate, as another has done of earlier years, but which, after all, are but anecdotes, and ought no more to have been brought before a public forum than the table-talk of Martin Luther should have been.[54]
In the year 1819, while engaged in the composition of his second Mass, Beethoven was truly the boisterous, heaven-storming giant, and more particularly in the autumn, when he wrote the Credo, with the exceedingly difficult fugue. He lived at that time at Mödling, in the Hafner House, as it is called, where I paid him frequent visits, and witnessed most extraordinary incidents, many of them arising from the mismanagement of his domestic affairs: for he had continued to keep house ever since 1816, though his nephew was at an academy, and he, of course, quite alone. To enable the reader to form a clear conception of his domestic life at that period, and thence to draw the conclusion under what a yoke, imposed in a great measure by himself, this man sighed and suffered, and in what a state of constant irritation his temper was kept by it, I need but lay before him a short extract from his journal, which, for a period of several years, I possess in his own hand-writing.
"1819.
"31st January. Given warning to the housekeeper.
15th February. The kitchen-maid came.
8th March. The kitchen-maid gave a fortnight's warning.
22nd of this month, the new housekeeper came.
12th May. Arrived at Mödling.