MUSICIANS AND COMPOSERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2686, 6 September 1905, Page 87

MUSICIANS AND COMPOSERS.

BBEPHOVEXS LOVE QUEST xvl3°« hitl ° r £slmos I mo - l ; e desirable on earth than wi-en man and wife, united in hearty W calmly rule their house, a bitter s&t to »" d ,, to tkemwlves the highest enjoyment of ?• ato W ? r<k of 0d y ss2U « ware underlined by Beethoven in his copy of the c-dyssey,' and os'cr and over again references are made in his diary to the ideal woman who haunted his music. The story ™- Ti S 5P e!ess quest ** told in Good U'orcls. Tne great musician was only 19 when the forlorn passion which was to find expression in "Adelaida " was aroused. Besthovesn's father was a drunkard, and his boyhood was speafc in extreme poverty Count Waldstein rescued him from this misery, and was kind enough, to obtain for him Lhe position of Court organist to tbe Elector, —"Adelaida."— Afterwards he was sent io Vienna to study. Then there happened the little meidont that his genuis was to weave 'into the passion and despair of "Adelaida": — "On his return to Bonn, he was asked to compose a cantata for performance during the Elector's visit to his palace at Mergenheim, and in the midst of the applause that followed the concert; the Prince asked the ladies if they had not a wreath to give the composer. Id answer to this appeal, a beautiful girl took the flowers from her hair and bJushingly bestowed them upon Beethoven. Her loveliness filled him with an exquisite delight, but the little scene was all too quickly over, and -he went back to Bonn with no hope of seeing her again. Not long after his return, however, he reotived a requeat from the* Australian Ambassador, Count Westphael, that he would teach a young relation of his; somewhat reluctantly ho accepted the task, but the btate of his feelings may be imagined when at the first glance he recognised the fair maiden of Margenheim." Not long afterwards h© showed the daughter of his friend, Madamo yon Breuning, a setting of MatIhison's song, "Adelaida." — His Confession. — This lady divined something o£ the musician's passion, and persuaded him to confide the rest. Beethoven did so, and asked her to give a copy of "Adelaida" to the young Countess. He was told that this romance of his was utterly hopeless, % and he tore up liis song and. rushed out of the home. A few days later he went to give his usual lesson, and, finding the room empty, eat down to the piano and uttered tho secret of his soul: Soft through the tender branches The whispering night airs steal; In every grassy valley The silver inaybells peal; The sea's sad waves and the nightingale's song Thy name, thy name reveal — • Adelaiclaj Adekidsi

And soon, oil ! wonder of wonders, A fiow'r from my grare shall rise, Unfolding the passionate anguish. Of the heart that hidden lies, A floiv'r vrhose leaves my life-bloodl Shall trace to moital eyes — Adelaida, Adelaida ! " How beautiful!" exclaimed a voice, aa ho finished. In an instant he was kneeling at her feet and covering her hands with kisses-, as he repeated over and over again, "I love you! I love you!"' The girl thought that lie had gone mad, and shrieked for help. Her cries brought her uncle and aunt into the room, and Beethoven was immediately ordered out of tbe house. He left Bonn for Vienna without a word of explanation. " — The Hidden Romance.— Again and again the -musician was doomed to worship a woman who "could be nothing to him except an inspiration to his genius and hi? despair. Yet h? who sought constantly the far-off and un. able was blind to the attachment «i young girl who loved him in silence. Her name was Fanny del Bio, and she was the younger daughter of his nephew's schoolmaster. "What I have often vainly wished for, that Beethoven should come to ou r house, has actually happened," she on January 25. 1816. "Yesterday afk he brought his iittl© nephew to sco i.^ Institute, and to-day everything is arrangeu. How delighted I should bo if we could really enter inte friendly relations with Beethoven, and if I might hope to mate a J f&\v hours of his life pleasant to him who has banished so many dark clouds from mine." His music had long been her great consolation, and little by littk she begar to love the man. — A Grave Fault.— It was not until the summer of 1816 that Fanny del Rio committed what she herself acknowledged to be a grave sin against the; unhappy man ol genius whom she loved : — "Staying at the same hotel with Beethoven at the bathing place to which lie had gone for the benefit of his health, she and her sifter ventured one day to look into liia private notebook. 'It was not right -of iis to have looked into the book,' she says, 'but having done so, it gave xis the opportunity of acknowledging that this noble man. is more worthy of admiration, and esteem that we had hitherto been able to judge. His c'aild-like faith and high, inspiration not only delighted v.s, but awok^ our sympathy and respect to a degree that with me at least is almost beyond expression.' But great as Fanny's fault might be,< &he was bitterly punished for her indiscretion ; on on© page of the book she saw, the words — ' My, heart ove-rSows at the sigMof lovely Nature— although without her.' Of this, "she says, -she 'thought much,' and" it was not long before her suspioions were confirmed." The last reference in her diary;' to this hopeless love ,wa,s un entry in No-, vember, 1819: "Of my heart I will say r.o : , ihing more; it is, and remains, ' empty;! the best course is to make up my mind! that I can. do nothing, alter nothing, andthat some day perhaps things will be better. I feel that no heart has ever beoten which longs sc intensely, so eagerly, and so vainly for iovc as mine docs." This woman, whose heart seems to echo so" faithfully the love-quest of Beethoven, died, unmarried, at- the age of 83.