Beethoven and his early works at Bonn
Beethoven is credited, according to convention/tradition, with having composed quite a number of works during his youth in Bonn. Their exact number is a subject of still ongoing study/discussion/debate. This uncertainty is hardly surprising given a number of factors. First, that early devotees of Beethoven were (after his death in 1827) keen to attribute to him evidence of his precocious talent and to compare it (whenever it was seen possible) to that of Mozart. Second, of course, was the rise of the view (true or false) that German speaking composers and not external influences were to be credited with the great music now popular in German speaking lands – a view which, at times, lurched too far in one nationalistic direction as it had so often lurched in favour of the Italians in earlier times. (It's interesting to see the dates when individual Bonn works are first attributed to the youthful composer – many of them admitted in to the Beethoven canon decades after Beethoven’s death, and many (it must be repeated) never claimed as Beethoven’s by Beethoven himself during his lifetime. Having said this, it’s a perfectly fair question to ask what the available evidence from Bonn says of Beethoven’s compositional achievements up till he left to live and work in Vienna.
Assisting us in our quest are several sorts of evidence (though much of it is fragmentary or incomplete, for sure) –
1. Musical manuscripts
2. Contemporary references/correspondence etc.
3. Claims by others regarding authorship of the works in question
4. The official records (if any) from Bonn chapel, where Beethoven studied and worked for the first 10 years or so of his musical life.
But all the above information, though fragmentary and often incomplete, must fairly be assessed within a greater Bonn context – that of the Bonn chapel whose Principal, the Kapellmeister Andrea Luchesi was an acknowledged master composer and who, from 1771 onwards (up until, in fact, the dissolution of the Bonn chapel in 1794) was the person in ultimate charge of music and of its teaching but whose compositions from the time of his own arrival (1771) until the time of his death in 1801 have virtually all disappeared without trace. Let it also be fairly acknowledged that newly composed works by any Kapellmeister were not generally credited to that person until the time of his death, or until the time of his retirement from service in that office. (The evidence of this being true is available from the archives of chapels all over Europe over centuries). The Kapellmeister often does not sign his name to his own works – this, of course, completely at odds with ordinary composers. (Only in cases where copies are made for external bodies is the name given, and even then not always).
This forum has in the recent past discussed a number of early works that are generally attributed to Beethoven – including of course two great cantatas (one for the death of the Emperor Joseph 2nd, and another for the accession of his successor, Leopold 2nd) so we do not need to focus long on individual works here as such. It is enough to say there are certain works on which there are doubts as to Beethoven’s paternity, though that paternity has long been granted to him. The same can be said of the cantata which, for a long time, was attributed to him from 1781, one written for the funeral of the English envoy, George Cressner and which, so we have been told in the past, was commissioned from Beethoven at the tender age of 11. The fact that this missing work still appears in various lists and various Beethoven publications seems to justify making brief reference to it.
There are other works (chamber works) that are the subject of fair and reasonable discussion but we do not need to focus on them either. Our aim here is simply to get a rough idea of Beethoven’s compositional achievements by the time that he left Bonn to live in Vienna – and this from as solid a perspective as we can.
Helping us in this brief study are important documents (still extant) from 1784 and beyond, the year in which the incoming new Elector of the Cologne Principality (Max Franz) succeeded Maximilian Friedrich von Koenigsegg-Rothenfels on the death of the latter. For Max Franz (a man born in 1756, the same age therefore as his friend Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) had a great love of music, being a brother to the Emperor in Vienna, Joseph 2nd, a brother too the future Emperor Leopold, a brother therefore of Marie Antoinette queen of France etc. and, of course, a son of the Empress Maria Theresa who, herself, is known to have provided all her sons with a first class musical education.
It is important to say briefly that between 1781 (when Beethoven was 11) and 1784 are the years in which Mozart was ‘kicking his heels in Vienna’ without a full time appointment. And that Mozart believed (the promise often made to him in person by Max Franz) that he, Mozart, would be appointed Kapellmeister at Bonn just as soon as Max Franz could arrange it. But 1784 came and went. The rest is history. Luchesi was not to be displaced.
The 14 year old Beethoven would have been aware that the new Elector had issued one of his very first orders shortly after his arrival in the Principality for a full inventory to be made of the musical assets of the chapel. Not content to wait for the return of its Kapellmeister (then in Italy) he appointed a panel to oversee this task – a work which they were able to complete some 11 days later in early May 1784. And it’s this inventory which we can deal with first.
In its 40 pages or so (which deals with orchestral, church music and theatre music but not with chamber music) we see no reference to Ludwig van Beethoven. This is not really so surprising, of course. But at least we are able to say with certainty that up until that time, May 1784, Beethoven had not written any works in those forms for Bonn. It is an important fact and, regardless of what is said or believed, such a fact remains a fact. Nor have we any court document which would support the assumption that Beethoven, prior to 1784, was a composer of music for Bonn. This same inventory makes no reference at all to works being in the library of the chapel by Mozart. It does mention Haydn in connection with various symphonies and masses – these, though, attributed to him between 1771 and 1784 only and whose attribution is a subject of controversy that does not involve us here.
During the first decade of his electorship (1784-1794) Max Franz is known to have added his own private library of music to the archives at Bonn.
(Various attempts were made to restore the Bonn music archives back to the city of Bonn after the Napoleonic era but they failed. It is to be regretted that these archives, now mainly at Modena in Italy were and still are the property of the Principality of Bonn and not that of the electors or their ancestors).
Now, regarding the main issue of Bonn records of Beethoven, the catalogue at Modena known as C.53.1 (a document indisputably from Bonn and containing a list of instrumental works entered in to the Bonn archives between the 1784 Inventory and the dissolution of the chapel in October 1794), a catalogue whose first title page has been ripped out, records new acquisitions by the chapel in that decade of new music.
It records, in fact, the name of Ludwig van Beethoven – 3 times. One of these works is an Organ fugue. But the autographs of all 3 works have somehow disappeared – vanished – and were lost some time between the dissolution of the chapel in 1794 and the arrival of its main part in Italy.
This small number of Beethoven pieces (3) are the only documented references we find from Bonn sources to confirm that Beethoven was a composer prior to the time he arrived in Vienna. And in full confirmation that this is the real scale of Beethoven’s achievements we have a letter (and a reply) written from Joseph Haydn to the elector Max Franz from Vienna dated 23rd November 1793 – in which Haydn asks for money for Beethoven. The Elector replied by pointing out that the 5 works written so far by Beethoven actually included 3 which he wrote while still at Bonn. And therefore, on two separate grounds (C53.1) and this Haydn/Max Franz correspondence, we see that Beethoven’s actual compositional achievements by the time he arrived in Vienna were not, in fact, as great as have so often been claimed for him.
Yes, we can and should consider chamber music possibly written/published at Bonn or elsewhere (none of which would have featured in the 1784 inventory). But these very same pieces are also known to have been written by Kapellmeister Luchesi and have vanished.
I can only conclude therefore that as far as the records of Bonn are concerned Beethoven’s compositions held at the chapel during his youth were as follows –
1. Prior to 1784 – Nil
2. Works written by Beethoven after 1784 and before leaving for Vienna – 3
Thus, if correct, Beethoven wrote 2 new works in Vienna after leaving Bonn and prior to Haydn’s letter of 23rd November 1793.
Assisting us in our quest are several sorts of evidence (though much of it is fragmentary or incomplete, for sure) –
1. Musical manuscripts
2. Contemporary references/correspondence etc.
3. Claims by others regarding authorship of the works in question
4. The official records (if any) from Bonn chapel, where Beethoven studied and worked for the first 10 years or so of his musical life.
But all the above information, though fragmentary and often incomplete, must fairly be assessed within a greater Bonn context – that of the Bonn chapel whose Principal, the Kapellmeister Andrea Luchesi was an acknowledged master composer and who, from 1771 onwards (up until, in fact, the dissolution of the Bonn chapel in 1794) was the person in ultimate charge of music and of its teaching but whose compositions from the time of his own arrival (1771) until the time of his death in 1801 have virtually all disappeared without trace. Let it also be fairly acknowledged that newly composed works by any Kapellmeister were not generally credited to that person until the time of his death, or until the time of his retirement from service in that office. (The evidence of this being true is available from the archives of chapels all over Europe over centuries). The Kapellmeister often does not sign his name to his own works – this, of course, completely at odds with ordinary composers. (Only in cases where copies are made for external bodies is the name given, and even then not always).
This forum has in the recent past discussed a number of early works that are generally attributed to Beethoven – including of course two great cantatas (one for the death of the Emperor Joseph 2nd, and another for the accession of his successor, Leopold 2nd) so we do not need to focus long on individual works here as such. It is enough to say there are certain works on which there are doubts as to Beethoven’s paternity, though that paternity has long been granted to him. The same can be said of the cantata which, for a long time, was attributed to him from 1781, one written for the funeral of the English envoy, George Cressner and which, so we have been told in the past, was commissioned from Beethoven at the tender age of 11. The fact that this missing work still appears in various lists and various Beethoven publications seems to justify making brief reference to it.
There are other works (chamber works) that are the subject of fair and reasonable discussion but we do not need to focus on them either. Our aim here is simply to get a rough idea of Beethoven’s compositional achievements by the time that he left Bonn to live in Vienna – and this from as solid a perspective as we can.
Helping us in this brief study are important documents (still extant) from 1784 and beyond, the year in which the incoming new Elector of the Cologne Principality (Max Franz) succeeded Maximilian Friedrich von Koenigsegg-Rothenfels on the death of the latter. For Max Franz (a man born in 1756, the same age therefore as his friend Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) had a great love of music, being a brother to the Emperor in Vienna, Joseph 2nd, a brother too the future Emperor Leopold, a brother therefore of Marie Antoinette queen of France etc. and, of course, a son of the Empress Maria Theresa who, herself, is known to have provided all her sons with a first class musical education.
It is important to say briefly that between 1781 (when Beethoven was 11) and 1784 are the years in which Mozart was ‘kicking his heels in Vienna’ without a full time appointment. And that Mozart believed (the promise often made to him in person by Max Franz) that he, Mozart, would be appointed Kapellmeister at Bonn just as soon as Max Franz could arrange it. But 1784 came and went. The rest is history. Luchesi was not to be displaced.
The 14 year old Beethoven would have been aware that the new Elector had issued one of his very first orders shortly after his arrival in the Principality for a full inventory to be made of the musical assets of the chapel. Not content to wait for the return of its Kapellmeister (then in Italy) he appointed a panel to oversee this task – a work which they were able to complete some 11 days later in early May 1784. And it’s this inventory which we can deal with first.
In its 40 pages or so (which deals with orchestral, church music and theatre music but not with chamber music) we see no reference to Ludwig van Beethoven. This is not really so surprising, of course. But at least we are able to say with certainty that up until that time, May 1784, Beethoven had not written any works in those forms for Bonn. It is an important fact and, regardless of what is said or believed, such a fact remains a fact. Nor have we any court document which would support the assumption that Beethoven, prior to 1784, was a composer of music for Bonn. This same inventory makes no reference at all to works being in the library of the chapel by Mozart. It does mention Haydn in connection with various symphonies and masses – these, though, attributed to him between 1771 and 1784 only and whose attribution is a subject of controversy that does not involve us here.
During the first decade of his electorship (1784-1794) Max Franz is known to have added his own private library of music to the archives at Bonn.
(Various attempts were made to restore the Bonn music archives back to the city of Bonn after the Napoleonic era but they failed. It is to be regretted that these archives, now mainly at Modena in Italy were and still are the property of the Principality of Bonn and not that of the electors or their ancestors).
Now, regarding the main issue of Bonn records of Beethoven, the catalogue at Modena known as C.53.1 (a document indisputably from Bonn and containing a list of instrumental works entered in to the Bonn archives between the 1784 Inventory and the dissolution of the chapel in October 1794), a catalogue whose first title page has been ripped out, records new acquisitions by the chapel in that decade of new music.
It records, in fact, the name of Ludwig van Beethoven – 3 times. One of these works is an Organ fugue. But the autographs of all 3 works have somehow disappeared – vanished – and were lost some time between the dissolution of the chapel in 1794 and the arrival of its main part in Italy.
This small number of Beethoven pieces (3) are the only documented references we find from Bonn sources to confirm that Beethoven was a composer prior to the time he arrived in Vienna. And in full confirmation that this is the real scale of Beethoven’s achievements we have a letter (and a reply) written from Joseph Haydn to the elector Max Franz from Vienna dated 23rd November 1793 – in which Haydn asks for money for Beethoven. The Elector replied by pointing out that the 5 works written so far by Beethoven actually included 3 which he wrote while still at Bonn. And therefore, on two separate grounds (C53.1) and this Haydn/Max Franz correspondence, we see that Beethoven’s actual compositional achievements by the time he arrived in Vienna were not, in fact, as great as have so often been claimed for him.
Yes, we can and should consider chamber music possibly written/published at Bonn or elsewhere (none of which would have featured in the 1784 inventory). But these very same pieces are also known to have been written by Kapellmeister Luchesi and have vanished.
I can only conclude therefore that as far as the records of Bonn are concerned Beethoven’s compositions held at the chapel during his youth were as follows –
1. Prior to 1784 – Nil
2. Works written by Beethoven after 1784 and before leaving for Vienna – 3
Thus, if correct, Beethoven wrote 2 new works in Vienna after leaving Bonn and prior to Haydn’s letter of 23rd November 1793.
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