He himself often joked about his almost illegible characters, and used to add, by way of excuse, ‘Life is too short to paint letters or notes, and fairer notes would hardly rescue me from poverty,’ (punning upon the words noten and nöthen.)
The whole of the morning, from the earliest dawn till dinner time, was employed in the mechanical work of writing: the rest of the day was devoted to thought, and the arrangement of his ideas. Scarcely had the last morsel been swallowed, than, if he had no more distant excursion in view, he took his usual walk; that is to say, he ran in double quick time, as if hunted by bailiffs, twice round the town. Whether it rained, or snowed, or hailed, or the thermometer stood an inch or two below freezing point—whether Boreas blew a chilling blast from the Bohemian mountains,—or whether the thunder roared, and forked lightnings played,—what signified it to the enthusiastic lover of his art, in whose genial mind, perhaps, were budding, at the very moment when the elements were in fiercest conflict, the harmonious feelings of a balmy spring?
Beethoven permitted himself but rarely, even among his intimate friends, to express his opinions of contemporary artists. His own words, however, will attest what he thought of the four following masters:—
‘Cherubini is, in my opinion, of all the living composers, the most admirable. Moreover, as regards his conception of the requiem, my ideas are in perfect accordance with his, and some time or other, if I can but once set about it, I mean to profit by the hints to be found in that work.’
‘C. M. Weber began to learn too late: the art had not time to develope itself, and his only and very perceptible effort was, to attain the reputation of geniality.’
‘Mozart’s Zauberflöte will ever remain his greatest work; for in this he first showed himself the true German composer. In Don Giovanni he still retained the complete Italian cut and style, and moreover the sacred art should never suffer itself to be degraded to the foolery of so scandalous a subject.’[10]
‘Handel is the unequalled master of all masters! Go, turn to him, and learn, with few means, how to produce such effects[11]!’