The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-05-01

LOT giving me the opportunity VI IedIh
ing to look upon death as the key that
unlocks the gate of true bliss
Rossini at the hight of his own glory
conscious of his own prodigious natural
gifts, pronounced the final judgment on
Mozart so far as this century is con-
cerned: He is the greatest; he is
master of us all; he is the only one
whose genius was as great as his
knowledge and whose knowledge
equaled his genius.
The Van Beethovens were simple
Flemish peasants, who ate beans dur
! ing the week and welcomed the sight
of bacon on Sunday. Van is not in
Dutch sign of nobility, nor was the
| spelling of the name invariable since
! there were at least six different ways
! of spelling it, About 1850 one of these
tillers of the soil grew weary of the
calling of his forefathers, the smell of
! fresh earth and the companionship of
! the gentle beasts, and getting him to
Antwerp to seek his fortune he took to
| himself a wife, begot son and named
him Guillaume. This babe was the
great grea grandfather of the COM
poser of the nine symphonies Gull
! laume or Wilhelm. trafficked in wines
! and was held in esteem. His grandson
/ Louis Beethoven was brought up in the
! Antwerp choirs and became a singer.
| His son in turn was a fine tenor and
| court singer in 1876. He married in
| 1867 and to this marriage was born
| Ludwig, the great composer, in the year
ITO. 1t was his father who first
/ taught Ludwig the rudiments of his
art. Reports are unanimous to the
! fact that when the boy was but four
years old he was obliged to practice
for hours upon the pianoforte and was
often urged by blows. In after years
there was no childish sport in the cool
depths Of green woods-no prayerful
| guidance from loving father 10 look
back upon as in the lives of Gluck and
| Mozart. His father, often crazed by
| drink, thought only of turning the
/ fountain of divine harmonies into du-
cats for his own selfish greed He
was soon put under the instruction of
Tobias Pfeffer, the tenor of strolling
company, who was a good musician,
| but man of unquenchable thirst. He
and Johann LudWig'S father would
spend hours together in the tavern, I'M
til Pfeffer suddenly remembering that
his pupil had received no lesson that
day, would return home, drag him
from his bed and keep the poor sleepy
lad at the instrument till daybreak be-
fore releasing him. AT other times,
locked in room, young Ludwig prac-
ticed on his violin until he had finished
his daily allotted task, which seems in
his case to have been weary and al
most endless one. Before he was thir-
teen his father declared that his schol-
astic education was finished This
limited education was the source of
| endless modification to Beethoven
throughout his life, and no doubt
strongly affected his character
He spelled atrociously, and was never
sure of the proper way to express him
self, often holding fiery argument
with his washerwoman, over his addi-
ton and subtraction of which she dis
puted the correctness.
After the death of his grandfather
poverty entered the house, and the sec
| ond- buyer became the warm
friend of the Beethoven family At this
time Van der Eeden gave the boy a few
! gratuitous lessons, and his successor
Neefe took charge of Ludwig, giving
him his first instruction in composition
Meanwhile the patient mother was al
| ways sewing and mending, that the
baker at least might be paid and Jo-
ham over his cups dreamt of the pos
sible fortune to be gained by his son.
According to Neefe. Beethoven at this
time played the pianoforte with ''ener-
getic skill He played 'fuently''
| Bach's We'll Tempered clavi-chord,"
To encourage him he had nine varia-
tons which the child wrote on a march
theme engraved at Mannheim This
young genius he said deserves a
subsidy that he may travel If he goes
on as he has begun he will be a sec
ond Mozart" Years afterward. Bee
thoven acknowledged gladly his many
obligations to this master In 1892
Neefe went TO Munster on a visit and
Ludwig, then eleven years of age. took
his place at the organ. During the
following student years of his life he
is remembered as somber and melan-
choly of disposition, never entering into
the sports enjoyed by most lads of his
age. Once a year he assisted in the
celebration of his mothers birthday.
There was music, eating and drinking,
then dancing in stockings that the
neighbors might not be disturbed.
| In 1888 Beethoven published the first
three sonatas dedicated to the Elector
A year later he was named second or