Prelude, Part 3

Beethoven's Hair: An Extraordinary Historical Odyssey and a Scientific Mystery Solved
by Russell Martin

(Page 3 of 5)

He will surely become a second Mozart if he continues as well as he has begun." It remains unclear whether it was Neefe or someone else who arranged four years hence for Beethoven to visit Vienna, seat of the Hapsburg throne, the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, and the locus also of Europe's cultured passion for music. Neefe-rather more in the mold of Beethoven's grandfather than his father-was kind, cultivated, and well-read, as well as being a multitalented musician, and he presumed that further training in Vienna, plus a more general sort of exposure to its rarefied musical climate, would transform the sixteen-year-old's prodigious talents into mature renown. Neefe even had hoped privately that the boy might secure an apprenticeship with Wolfgang Mozart, but it appears instead that the Austrian master-who would be dead in only four more years-heard the young man play on solely a single occasion. Mozart's initial reaction on an April afternoon to the selection the boy from Bonn had prepared for him was decidedly cool-surely there were dozens of young fellows in Vienna who could master a single showy piece. But when Beethoven begged to be given a theme on which he might improvise, Mozart acquiesced and soon was astonished by the teenager's range and inventiveness and the power with which he played. The young Beethoven still seemed beguiled by the music he was drawing out of the master's piano when Mozart finally walked out of the room and eagerly spoke to a group of courtiers whom he had kept waiting: "Keep your eyes on that one," he instructed. "Someday he will give the world plenty to talk about."

Beethoven might have met Mozart again; he might even have studied with him for a time, but his sojourn in Vienna was abruptly cut short by news from Bonn that his mother was gravely ill. He was able to reach her bedside before she succumbed to tuberculosis, but her death was a terrible blow to the whole family. Beethoven's infant sister, Maria Margaretha, died a few months later; two younger brothers now were left in Ludwig's care, and his father-now without his wife's hardy support and moderating influence-simply drank himself into a personal and professional collapse. When Johann was forced to resign his modest position in 1789, Beethoven, who was not yet nineteen, successfully petitioned the court to grant him half his father's former salary to help him keep the clan from destitution, becoming in the process the actual head of the household. But although he now had to attend carefully to family matters, Beethoven nonetheless also began to blossom socially in the years that followed his mother's death. He continued to play viola in the orchestras of the court chapel and court theater, forging lasting friendships with other young musicians. He met Count Ferdinand Waldstein, eight years his senior, a music devotee to whom he became closely attached. And it was within the bonds of the prominent, progressive, and intellectually curious Breuning family, headed by the dynamic young widow Helene von Breuning, that Beethoven first was exposed to a kind of joie de vivre that always had been missing in his own home.

He became so closely tied to the Breunings that he often even slept at their home, and along the way he became something of a beloved stepchild to Frau von Breuning: she nursed him through bouts of illness, helped battle his recurrent black moods and sieges of brooding silence, and did her best to buoy up the self-confidence of the young man who at times was paralyzingly shy. It was Frau von Breuning, as well as Count Waldstein and Neefe, who introduced the young man to the thrilling new notions of reform, freedom, and brotherhood-the Aufklarung, or Enlightenment-that were becoming common conversation pieces in the cities that flanked the Rhine and throughout much of central Europe. Yet it was Waldstein who now did the most to nurture Beethoven's musical development. He discreetly provided financial support to the young man whom he openly labeled a musical genius; he commissioned him to compose the music for his own production of a folk ballet; and he was a member as well of a larger group of the Bonn nobility who commissioned Beethoven to compose two cantatas commemorating the death of the much-loved Emperor Joseph II and the elevation of his successor, Leopold II. Although neither cantata was performed, Waldstein nonetheless recognized their brilliance. It is probable that it was he who pressed the Joseph Cantata into the hands of composer Franz Joseph Haydn during his visit to Bonn in 1792 in an effort to convince him to tutor young Beethoven once he was at home in Vienna again, and it is certain that it was Waldstein who convinced his friend Bonn Elector Maximilian Franz, Friedrich's successor, both to pay for Beethoven's journey to Vienna and to support him while he remained in temporary residence there.

The revolution in France that had commenced three years before by now had led to rumors of war across much of Europe. The new French regime had declared war on Austria; French forces already had reached the Rhine, and Beethoven-despite his father's failing health-had to hurry to leave Bonn if he were to be relatively assured of safe travel by coach to Vienna. As he departed, he received enthusiastic farewells from dozens of friends and admirers, all of whom anticipated his return to his hometown before too long a time, and in an album filled with their written good wishes was included this message from his devoted patron: Dear Beethoven: You are going to Vienna in fulfillment of your long-frustrated wishes. The Genius of Mozart is still mourning and weeping over the death of her pupil. She found a refuge but no occupation with the inexhaustible Haydn; through him she wishes once more to form a union with another. With the help of assiduous labor you shall receive: Mozart's spirit from Haydn's hands. Your true friend, Waldstein.

Copyright © 2001 by Russell Martin.

About the Author

Russell Martin is a lifelong resident of Colorado. He graduated in 1974 from The Colorado College in Colorado Springs, where he returns once each year to teach a course in creative nonfiction. He spent a postgraduate year on a Thomas Watson Foundation fellowship in Britain and Guatemala, then worked as a newspaper reporter in Telluride, Colorado for a number of years before becoming a freelance writer.