Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1881-06-08

NO. 1874.
BeethOven's Funeral.

| The great Beethoven died in comparative
poverty His body was cruelty mutilsted.
| "Dr. Wagner cut away the temporal muscles.
which. with the acoustic organs, he preserved
as anatomical specimens. The last toilet
then performed and the body placed in the
same room where Beethoven died. Owing.
| however. to the operation performed BY DIR.
Wagner, the lower jaw was no longer held up.
and the face. which had changed very much.
resembled little what it was in life" The
funeral WAS very grand. admiration and SYM
patty denied in life coming too late to the
dead man. One of his biographers gives
the details:
On the day named, every one of note in
art or literature at Vienna hastened 90 accom-
pany the singer of Leonore TO his last home.
DIR, Won Breuning estimates ut 10000 the
number of persons scattered about the ground
of the Notifications and in the neighboring
streets. All who had come not from mere
idle curiosity but to render homage to the
illustrious deceased were in deep mourning,
Al 3 o'clock the coffin was brought down
stairs and placed on the shoulders of eight
| artists from the Imperial opera house. Seven
singers and member of the band had begged
for the sad honor. No insignia Of any orders
glistened on the pail Beethoven had never
had any such marks of distinction conferred
npon him. but TO make up for this the bier dis
appeared beneath crowns and wreaths. After
the customary prayers had been recited by the
priest, the procession set out, keeping step
to the rhythm of solemn chorale by Bernard
Weber. First after the cross walked four
trombone PLAYERS, the notes from, whose in
struments alternated with the voices Of a
male choir singing the "Mserere" TO a soft
chorale written by Beethoven himself; then
came Immediately before the coffin. the rep
| resentativcs of the church. The procession
reached the Church of the Trinity, where
the Minorite Fathers then oficated. while
a priest was pronouncing the absolution. the
singers struck up Seyfrieds Liberia, arranged
a cdpeiid for the occasion, the coffin was
hoisted on to a hearse decked out 18th plumes
and drawn by four horses, and the procession
at once started for Wahring Cemetery,
which, on account of the great crowd, was
not reached till nightfall.
A halt was made before the gate, and some
one advanced towards the sarcophagus round
which all present had grouped themselves
in silence; it was Anschutz the actor, who
was to pronounce the funeral oration written
by Grillparzer in Beethovens honor. While
he was speaking and causing the tears of his
hearers to flow copiously, copies of verses by
Castelli and other poets, glorifying the i'm
mortal genius whose loss was so deplored by
art. were distributed among the crowd. AT
emn course, rendered even slower than be-
fore by the narrowness of the tomb -bordered
| paths and the body of the illustrious but un-
| fortunate musician was lowered into its last
resting place amid shower of flowers and
| crowns. His old and faithful friends.
Breunng and SCHNEIDER, together with his
most ardent admirers, llummel and Schubert
were the last to take farewell Of him, not
leaving until the grave digger's spade had
completely filled up the grave. kreisle tells
us that, after quitting the cemetery, the com
poser of the 'Erlkonig' stopped with some
friends at a wine-shop in the Mehlgrube.
| there he ordered a bottle of wine, and. fill
ing the glasses. raised his own with the
words "Gentlemen, | drink to the glorious
| memory of Beethoven and to whichever of
us is first summoned to follow him to the
tomb" Poor, grand Schubert. He little
| thought he was proposing this funeral toast
to himself few months later, on the 10th
| of November, 1888, he was sleeping near his
| illustrous predecessor; so near, indeed, that
his dust may have mingled with that of the
wonderful man whose disciple he felt hon
ored to be.
Beethoven lies near the outer wall in that
part of the cemetery which overlooks the city
| Six PAGES off is Schubertss tomb. The
| earth in which the remains of the glorious
author of the Ninth Symphony repose is ser
| mounted by a dark marble sarcophagus sup
porting pyramid ornamented with Tyre
and a butterfly, the symbol Of Immortality.
| There is no inscription save the masters
| name. In 1868 the Vienna Musical Union
| (Musikverein) caused Beethovens tomb and
Schuberts to be opened and the remains of
| the two musicians to be be placed in leaden
coffins. Advantage was taken Of the exhu
nation to obtain cast and photograph of
| Beethoven's skull. Pkrenologists stated that
| it was colossal and one of the most remarka-
| BILE skulls ever known The bone was enor-
mously thick. The dimensions of the for
head ere something extraordinary; in height
it comes Immediately after Napoleon's; in
breadth il greatly exceeds the latter.