Maelzel's mechanic organ

[chopithoven]

I heard in a radio programme that Maelzel had invented a mechanic organ that played musical pieces automatically, and he arranged with Beethoven to play his Battle Symphony on the artifact, but when Ludwig van listened how his music sounded on it, he got angry and said the little organ was a bullshit, and they resulted in an engagement. Is this fact true? Was there any repercussion of this?

[Peter]

The instrument concerned was the panharmonicon - It was Maelzel who requested an orchestral arrangement from Beethoven, so the issue was not over Maelzel's invention but over ownership of the work. A legal dispute followed but the action was eventually dropped.

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'Man know thyself'

[Rod]

It would be something to actually here this piece performed on a panharmonicon! Do any of these instruments (if there was more than one!) still exist?


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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[~Immortal Beloved~]

Originally posted by Rod:


It would be something to actually here this piece performed on a panharmonicon! Do any of these instruments (if there was more than one!) still exist?

Good question rod.

[Andrea]

Wellington's Victory, the Battle of Vitoria or simply the Battle Symphony; this has always been one of my favorite Beethoven pieces. When I used to work at the Hollywood Bowl back in the 1970s the Los Angeles Philharmonic would perform this piece with some of the Bowl employees dressed up as Napoleon and his french troops and Wellington and his british troops. They would march up to the stage and have a mock battle of Vitoria instep to the music. Then at the end there would be fireworks celebrating Wellington's victory over Napoleon. It was spectacular to say the least.

[Andrea]

Mälzel was quite a character. He and his brothers actually made Beethoven 4 ear trumpets at different times in his life. When Mälzel invented his panharmonicon he saw its commercial potential as an entertainment gimmick. So when Mälzel saw Wellinton's victory over Napoleon as an exploitable event, he approached Beethoven to help him and compose a battle symphony for his invention. B. agreed but Mälzel had a big hand in designing it. Moscheles, a witness to the origin and progress of this work, said that Mälzel wrote all the drum-marches and the trumpet flourishes of the French and English armies; he even gave Beethoven hints like how he should depict the horrors of war and arrange "God Save the King" as an effect representing the jubilent crowds.
Mälzel needed money to go to England so he suggested to Beethoven that a charity concert be held for the soldiers wounded at the Battle of Hanau. He anticipated a success and that this would lead to more concerts, with the profits being divided between them. Beethoven needed the money too and then arranged to rewrite the Battle Sym. for orchestra and then suggested that his yet unheard 7th sym. be included in the programme as well. This concert was fixed for 8 Dec. 1813 and it brought Beethoven at last popular fame. Mälzel promoted this concert as an anticipated celebrity event. Schuppanzigh led the violins, Spohr was second violin, Dragonetti led the double-basses, Romberg led the bassoons, Salieri directed the battle percussion, Meyerbeer and Hummel played the drums, Moscheles played the cymbals, and Beethoven conducted. Wow, what a line-up! I wish I had a front row seat for that!

[Andrea]

As what Peter had said about the legal dispute between Mälzel and Beethoven occured after this Dec. concert. Beethoven then tried to ensure that any profits from the forthcoming concerts that featured his Battle Sym. would remain his alone and not shared with Mälzel as originally agreed. As Thayer says, "What Mälzel feelings were now (Jan. 1814), to find himself deprived of all share in the benefit resulting from (his original services), and therefore left without compensation, may readily conceived." Beethoven's Battle sym. gained in popularity, but Mälzel got nothing. He then tried, unsuccessibly, to obtain the right of the first performance in England because Beethoven continued to raise objections. At this point Mälzel managed to obtain, by devious means, performing parts and he reconstructed the work to his liking. Beethoven proceeded to sue him but by then Mälzel was headed to England and was no longer under the jurisdiction of Austrian law. This lawsuit dragged on until finally in 1817 Mälzel returned to Vienna, Patched up his differences with Beethoven, split the costs of the case, and once again became Beethoven's friend. On Beethoven's part he pubically praised Mälzel's newly developed metronome. Mälzel then ended up leaving Vienna and died in 1838 while on an American brig sailing from Philadelphia and the West Indies.