THE LIFE OF LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
VOLUME I
LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
After the Bust by Franz Klein
1812
The Life of
Ludwig van Beethoven
By Alexander Wheelock Thayer
Edited, revised and amended from the originalEnglish manuscript and the German editionsof Hermann Deiters and Hugo Riemann, concluded,and all the documents newly translated
By
Henry Edward Krehbiel
Volume I
Published by
The Beethoven Association
New York
SECOND PRINTING
Copyright, 1921,
By Henry Edward Krehbiel
From the press of G. Schirmer, Inc., New York
Printed in the U. S. A.
in profound reverence this work
is dedicated by the editor
To the Memory of
Alexander Wheelock Thayer and Dr. Hermann Deiters
also in grateful appreciation
to
THE BEETHOVEN ASSOCIATION
and with a large measure of gratitude and affection
to his friend and colleague
RICHARD ALDRICH
Introduction
If for no other reasons than because of the long time andmonumental patience expended upon its preparation, thevicissitudes through which it has passed and the varied andarduous labors bestowed upon it by the author and his editors,the history of Alexander Wheelock Thayer’s Life of Beethovendeserves to be set forth as an introduction to this work. Hiswork it is, and his monument, though others have labored longand painstakingly upon it. There has been no considerable timesince the middle of the last century when it has not occupied theminds of the author and those who have been associated withhim in its creation. Between the conception of its plan and itsexecution there lies a period of more than two generations. Fourmen have labored zealously and affectionately upon its pages, andthe fruits of more than four score men, stimulated to investigationby the first revelations made by the author, have been conservedin the ultimate form of the biography. It was seventeen yearsafter Mr. Thayer entered upon what proved to be his life-taskbefore he gave the first volume to the world—and then in a foreigntongue; it was thirteen more before the third volume came fromthe press. This volume, moreover, left the work unfinished, andthirty-two years more had to elapse before it was completed.When this was done the patient and self-sacrif