(Reported by Holz to Fanny von Ponsing, in Baden, summer of 1858.
According to the same authority Beethoven valued Cherubini’s “Requiem”
more highly than any other.)
74. “No metronome at all! He who has sound feeling needs none, and he who has not will get no help from the metronome;—he’ll run away with the orchestra anyway.”
(Reported by Schindler. It had been found that Beethoven himself
had sent different metronomic indications to the publisher and the
Philharmonic Society of London.)
75. “In reading rapidly a multitude of misprints may pass unnoticed because you are familiar with the language.”
(To Wegeler, who had expressed wonder at Beethoven’s rapid primavista
playing, when it was impossible to see each individual note.)
76. “The poet writes his monologue or dialogue in a certain, continuous rhythm, but the elocutionist in order to insure an understanding of the sense of the lines, must make pauses and interruptions at places where the poet was not permitted to indicate it by punctuation. The same manner of declamation can be applied to music, and admits of modification only according to the number of performers.”
(Reported by Schindler, Beethoven’s faithful factotum.)
77. “With respect to his playing with you, when he has acquired the proper mode of fingering and plays in time and plays the notes with tolerable correctness, only then direct his attention to the matter of interpretation; and when he has gotten this far do not stop him for little mistakes, but point them out at the end of the piece. Although I have myself given very little instruction I have always followed this method which quickly makes musicians, and that, after all, is one of the first objects of art.”
(To Czerny, who was teaching music to Beethoven’s nephew Karl.)
78. “Always place the hands at the key-board so that the fingers can not be raised higher than is necessary; only in this way is it possible to produce a singing tone.”