penury

[lysander]

I am interested to find out more about
Beethoven's attempts at helping the only surviving daughter of Bach, Regine Susanne Bach, who outlived her days as a spinster in Vienna in poverty and died there in 1809.
I think 'B' was about 38, then.
How old was Bach's daughter when she died.

[Andrea]

Originally posted by lysander:


I am interested to find out more about
Beethoven's attempts at helping the only surviving daughter of Bach, Regine Susanne Bach, who outlived her days as a spinster in Vienna in poverty and died there in 1809.
I think 'B' was about 38, then.
How old was Bach's daughter when she died.

Here is part of a letter that Beethoven wrote to Breitkopf and Härtel on 22 April 1801:
"When recently I visited a good friend of mine who showed me the amount which had been collected for the daughter of the immortal god of harmony, I marveled at the smallness of the sum which Germany, especially your Germany, has contributed in recognition of the person who seems to me worthy of respect for her father's sake. This brings me to the thought, how would it be if I were to publish something by subscription for the benefit of this person, acquaint the public each year with the amount and its proceeds in order to protect myself from possible attack.--You could accomplish the most in this matter. Write me quickly how this might best be managed so that something is done before this Bach dies, before this brook dries up and we be no longer able to supply it with water.--That you would publish this work is of course self-evident."

[Andrea]

I found more on this subject from Thayer's Life of Beethoven:

It was in the Intelligenzblatt of the All.Mus.Zeit. for May, 1800, that Rochlitz made a touching appeal for the last survivor of Sebastian Bach's children. "This family," he says, "has now dwindled down to the single daughter of the great Sebastian Bach, and this daughter is now very old... This daughter is starving... The publishers of the Musik Zeitung and I offer to obligate if anybody shall entrust us with money to forward it in the most expedious and careful manner, and to give account of it in the 'Intelligenzblätter.'" The first account was in the paper for December. Regina Susanna Bach published her "thanks" for 96 thalers and 5 silbergroschens contributed, as the "careful account" which was appended showed, by sixteen persons, four of whom, in Vienna, sent more than 80 florins, leaving certainly but a small sum as the offering of her native Germany. One other-and only one-account appeared in June, 1801. It was an acknowledgment by Rochlitz, Breitkopf and Härtel and Fräulein Bach of having received on 10 May the considerable sum of 307 florins Viennese (the equal of 200 thalers) "through the Viennese musician Andreas Streicher, collected by Streicher and Count Fries. At the same time the famous Viennese composer and virtuoso Herr van Beethoven declares he will publish one of his newest works solely for the benefit of it from time to time. Therefore he nobly urges that the publication be hastened as much as possible lest the daughter of Bach die before his object be attained." Whether or not any such work was published is not known.

[Peter]

Originally posted by lysander:


I am interested to find out more about
Beethoven's attempts at helping the only surviving daughter of Bach, Regine Susanne Bach, who outlived her days as a spinster in Vienna in poverty and died there in 1809.
I think 'B' was about 38, then.
How old was Bach's daughter when she died.

Regina Susanna Bach was born in 1742 and I think was the last child of J.S.Bach and his 2nd wife Anna Magdalena. In May 1800 Rochlitz had published in the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung an appeal for funds to assist her. Apparently Beethoven's plan to help came to nought.

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'Man know thyself'