Beethoven's Language

[spaceray]

Beethoven was pro French for a while,did he speak French or any other than the German language?

[Rod]

Originally posted by spaceray:
Beethoven was pro French for a while,did he speak French or any other than the German language?

He on occasion wrote in French, so I presume he had some ability to speak the language as well.

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

[lysander]

It would seem that Beethoven also understood Latin.

Attending Mass, he would have understood the responses in Latin.
I should imagine all Roman Catholic Masses were said in Latin then as now.

Were his last words on his death bed said in Latin?
"Plaudite, amici, comoedia finita est"

(Applause friends, the comedy is over).


Now I would like to pose this question;-

Did Beethoven in his deepest insight, see life in terms of comedy?

[Rod]

Originally posted by lysander:



Were his last words on his death bed said in Latin?
"Plaudite, amici, comoedia finita est"

(Applause friends, the comedy is over).


Now I would like to pose this question;-

Did Beethoven in his deepest insight, see life in terms of comedy?

No these were not quite his last words. I think they were 'Pity..Pity...too late' concerning the arrival of some alcohol he was too far gone to sample. The quote you mention was not in fact of Beethoven's invention in any case, it was always said, I believe, at the end of a comic play in Roman times. Nevertheless it says alot of Beethoven to have had these words in his mind at that fateful time.


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

[This message has been edited by Rod (edited February 07, 2003).]

[Sorrano]

Originally posted by Rod:
No these were not quite his last words. I think they were 'Pity..Pity...too late' concerning the arrival of some alcohol he was too far gone to sample. The quote you mention was not in fact of Beethoven's invention in any case, it was always said, I believe, at the end of a comic play in Roman times. Nevertheless it says alot of Beethoven to have had these words in his mind at that fateful time.

And I had thought that the pity comment came in regards to receiving the complete works of Handel.

[Chaszz]

Originally posted by lysander:


It would seem that Beethoven also understood Latin.

Attending Mass, he would have understood the responses in Latin.
I should imagine all Roman Catholic Masses were said in Latin then as now.

Were his last words on his death bed said in Latin?
"Plaudite, amici, comoedia finita est"

(Applause friends, the comedy is over).


Now I would like to pose this question;-

Did Beethoven in his deepest insight, see life in terms of comedy?

Rembrandt painted a series of great self-portraits in old age that may be called tragic (he was living in near-poverty and had lost both his beloved wife and young adult son to illness).

However, in one of these he shows himself laughing.

The old age self-portraits start at about the year 1656. The 'laughing' one is third from the bottom of the page.

At this level, I think tragedy and comedy merge into the same thing.

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http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/r/rem...ort/index.html

(When clicking to enlarge the thumbnail, when the large image comes up, click on 'fit height' to view the entire painting properly. However you may also want to click on 'fit width' afterwards to view the marvellous paint handling - almost sculpting).



[This message has been edited by Chaszz (edited February 07, 2003).]

[Rod]

Originally posted by Sorrano:

And I had thought that the pity comment came in regards to receiving the complete works of Handel.

No, it concerned wine! He had time to browse through the Handel volumes. But with the poignant 'applause friends' quote the humour is, of course, tinged with irony, self mocking in a sence.

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

[This message has been edited by Rod (edited February 07, 2003).]

[John Rasmussen]

Originally posted by spaceray:
Beethoven was pro French for a while,did he speak French or any other than the German language?

Any educated man or woman of the time would most likely have spoken Latin and French, and any musician would have a working knowledge of Italian since musical directions are usually written in that language. Some nobleman said (I forget who), "I speak Spanish to God, French at court, German to my coachmen--and Italian to women."