Page:Anecdotes of Great Musicians.djvu/269

Rh in his youth, he was throughout his whole life an earnest student.

The works which he performed were such as to demand constant study, for he constantly added new compositions to his repertoire, all of which he memorized. He studied them as one would study a poem, committing them to memory line by line and stanza by stanza, thus relieving himself of constant repetitions. He would so impress the notes, dynamic marks, and bowing upon his memory, that when he came to give the work audible expression, it remained only to apply the physical machinery he could so well control to its demonstration. At the proper moment every note appeared in its place with fitting finish and expression, although the artist may not previously have traced the combinations upon his instrument. An active and discriminating intelligence was at the root of all of his musical performances.  

Notwithstanding his gruffness, which frequently became out-and-out rudeness, Beethoven was a favorite with such ladies as happened to know him intimately, and many who were deprived of this privilege worshiped at a distance.

He frequently received requests for a lock of his hair; in fact, so numerous were they that his tangled locks would have showed a sad decimation had he granted all these requests. Some of his intimate lady friends and pupils were thus highly favored, but others were not so well treated, as the following incident will show.

The wife of a Vienna musician, desiring very much to possess one of his shaggy locks, one day induced her husband to ask a friend of the great composer's to intercede for her, and procure her the relic she desired.

This friend told Beethoven of her wish, but persuaded him to send her a wisp of hair from a goat's beard,