Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 02.djvu/782

BEET. BEET, Joseph Agar (1840 — ). An English divine, lecturer, and author. He was born at Shelfield, was educated at Wesley College, Shef- field, and at Wesleyan College, Richmond; was engaged for twenty-one years in pastoral work, and "then accepted" a call to the chair of sj-s- teniatic theology at Wesleyau College, Rich- mond. He delivered the Fernley Lecture on the "Credentials of the Gospels" in 1889, and came to America in 1896, where he gave a series of lectures at the University of Chicago, at the summer schools of Chautauqua, and at Ocean Grove. Two of his theological works have been translated into Japanese, and have been adopt- ed as text-books in Japan. His publications in- clude: Cotiimentarics on ^aint Paul's Epistles; Through Christ to God: The Nea- Life in Christ; The Last Thiiir/s (1897) — in all of which he brings the methods of science and philosophy to bear upon the theological questions which he treats.

BEETHOVEN, ba'to-ven, Ludwig van (1770- 1827). A German composer, the greatest master of the classical school. He was born December 10, 1770, at Bonn. His father was Johann van Beethoven, tenor singer in the Chapel of the Elector of Cologne, who had married Maria Slag- clalena Laym, .a widow, the daughter of a cook, named Kev/erich, at the Elector's palace. The father's income was small (about .$1.50), and he began Ludwig's musical education at four years, in the hope of making money with him as a musical prodigi,-. The boy's talent was obvious. Van den Eeden and Xeefe were among his teach- ers. Neefe employed the eleven-year-old boy as his assistant at the organ in the Elector's Chapel, and prophesied that he would become 'a second Mozart.'

In 1784 he was appointed second Court or- ganist, with a salary of about .$75. At this time several music lovers in Bonn, among them the von Breunings, extended aid to the family on account of the interest they took in the boy, and in 1787 the Elector Max Franz paid his traveling e.xpenses to Vienna. There he met Mozart, who was so surprised by the boy's powers of improvisation that, stepping softly into the next room, he whispered to his friends: "Mark him well; some day he will make a stir in the world."

Beethoven was summoned from Vienna to his mother's deathbed. Her loss was a sevei'e blow to him. His father, shiftless and a drunkard, had been a hard taskmaster, but his mother had been kind and gentle; "my best friend," he calls her in one of his letters. Beethoven now began to give lessons, and to play occasionally in pub- lic. Notwithstanding his' unpleasing home sur- roundings, he must have had natural refine- ment, for he became intimate in several families of high standing. His early friends included, lie- sides the von Breunings, Arcluhike Rudolph, Baron Van Swieten, and Count Waldstein. These names, and those of futiire intimates, are found among his dedications (e.g. the 7?f(- sou)iioicsk-t/ Quartettes, the ^yaldstein Sonata). From this period dates an early love affair with Babette Koch, the pretty daughter nf the proprietress of the Zehrgarten. She subsequent- ly became Countess Belderbusch. Th? atTair terminated in 1792, when the Elector sent Bee- thoven to Vienna, where he became a pupil of Haydn and Albrechtsberger in theory and oom- position, and of Schuppanzigh in violin. With Haydn he studied Fux's (Iradus ad Par- nassvm, and there exist over 200 of his exer- cises, only 42 of which Haydn corrected. Neither the latter nor Albrechtsberger appreciated his pupil. Beethoven asserted that he had not learned anything from Haydn. Haydn criti- cised the three pianoforte trios {Opiis /.), at least one of which, the C minor, is a master- piece, in a manner which betrayed his lack of sympathy, and advised against their publica- tion ; Albrechtsberger despaired of Beethoven because his originality often asserted itself by breaking away from rule and rote. Such dis- regard of tradition was characteristic. His friend and pupil, Ferdinand Ries, relates that he once called the composer's attention to eon- ^ccutive fifths in the C minor Quartet, and in the discussion which followed enumerated vari- ous theorists who forbade them. "They have forbidden them!" cried Beethoven. "Well, I allow them." A'ith Schuppanzigh he got along very well, and when later the violinist became very fat, Beethoven playfully dubbed him '^My Lord Falstafl'.'

The trios, Opus I., were played at Prince Lichnowski's, one of the noble patrons whom the composer had already found in Vienna. In his association with these noblemen, Beethoven always presei-ved his independence of character. He considered that his genius made him the equal of any one. Once, when the 'van' before his name had been mistaken for a mark of nobility, he placed his hand successively to his head and over his heart with the exclama- tion, "My patent of nobility is here, and here!" Prince Lobkowitz having at a rehearsal ventured a remark which Beethoven considered ignorant, the composer, after the rehearsal, ran into the courtyard of his patron's palace and shouted, "Ass of a Lobkowitz! Fool of a Lobkowitz!" Self-reliance was an equally conspicuous trait of his character. His brother .lohann. whose wealth had made him arrogant, once called on Beethoven, and, not finding him at home, left his card:

JO HANK VA'N BEETHOYETSi, Land Proprietor. Beethoven returned the card, with the added inscription:

LVDM'IG T'ly BEETHOVES, ^ Brain Proprietor. ^

Moscheles submitted to him the MSS. of the pianoforte arrangement of Fidelio, on which was inscribed "With God's Help." Beethoven returned it with the addition, "O man, help tliyself." It must not be inferred from this that he was not religious. He was a Roman Catholic; and that he was deeply religious is vouched for by his lifelong friend. Pastor .^menda. These facts are mentioned thus early in this biography because they show why Bee- thoven was able for years to Ijear up under an infliction which would have crushed a less self- reliant and devout nature. The deafness which crept over him, and which to a composer must have seemed even more terrible than blindness to a la nan, did not come to imbitter merely the closing years of a haiipy life. Beethoven was stone-deaf before middle" age, and had been for