Editing Ludwig van Beethoven (section)

===1813–1822: Acclaim===
====Family issues====
[[File:Karl van Beethoven Miniature Portrait.jpg|thumb|Karl van Beethoven depicted in a {{Circa|1820}} miniature portrait]]
In early 1813, Beethoven apparently went through a difficult emotional period, and his compositional output dropped. His personal appearance degraded—it had generally been neat—as did his manners in public, notably when dining.{{sfn|Solomon|1998|pp=284–285}}

Family issues may have played a part in this. Beethoven had visited his brother Johann at the end of October 1812. He wished to end Johann's cohabitation with Therese Obermayer, a woman who already had an illegitimate child. He was unable to convince Johann to end the relationship and appealed to the local civic and religious authorities, but Johann and Therese married on 8 November.{{sfn|Solomon|1998|p= 282}}

The illness and eventual death of his brother Kaspar from [[tuberculosis]] became an increasing concern. Kaspar had been ill for some time; in 1813 Beethoven lent him 1500 [[Austro-Hungarian florin|florins]], to procure the repayment of which he was ultimately led to complex legal measures.{{sfn|Solomon|1998|pp=301–302}} After Kaspar died on 15 November 1815, Beethoven immediately became embroiled in a protracted legal dispute with Kaspar's widow [[Johanna van Beethoven|Johanna]] over custody of their son [[Karl van Beethoven|Karl]], then nine years old. Beethoven had successfully applied to Kaspar to have himself named the sole guardian of the boy. A late [[codicil (will)|codicil]] to Kaspar's will gave him and Johanna joint guardianship.{{sfn|Solomon|1998|pp=302–303}} While Beethoven was successful at having his nephew removed from her custody in January 1816, and had him removed to a private school,{{sfn|Solomon|1998|p=303}} in 1818 he was again preoccupied with the legal processes around Karl. While giving evidence to the court for the [[nobility]], the [[Landrecht (medieval)|Landrechte]], Beethoven was unable to prove that he was of noble birth and as a consequence, on 18 December 1818 the case was transferred to the civil [[magistrate]] of Vienna, where he lost sole guardianship.{{sfn|Solomon|1998|p=303}}{{refn|Their ruling stated: "It&nbsp;... appears from the statement of Ludwig van Beethoven &nbsp;... is unable to prove nobility: hence the matter of guardianship is transferred to the Magistrate".{{sfn|Solomon|1998|p=303}}|group=n}} He regained custody after intensive legal struggles in 1820.{{sfn|Solomon|1998|pp=316–321}} During the years that followed, Beethoven frequently interfered in his nephew's life in what Karl perceived as an overbearing manner.{{sfn|Solomon|1998|pp=364–365}}

====Post-war Vienna====
[[File:Beethoven Mähler 1815.jpg|thumb|Beethoven depicted in an 1815 portrait by [[Joseph Willibrord Mähler]]]]
Beethoven was finally motivated to begin significant composition again in June 1813 when news arrived of the French defeat at the [[Battle of Vitoria]] by a coalition led by the [[Duke of Wellington]]. The inventor [[Johann Nepomuk Maelzel]] persuaded him to write a work commemorating the event for his mechanical instrument the [[Panharmonicon]]. This Beethoven also transcribed for orchestra as ''[[Wellington's Victory]]'' (Op. 91, also known as the ''Battle Symphony'').{{refn|The work is not a true symphony, but a [[programme music|programmatic]] piece including French and British soldiers' songs, a battle scene with artillery effects and a [[fugal]] treatment of "[[God Save the King]]".{{sfn|Cooper|1996|p=220}}|group=n}} It was first performed on 8 December, along with his [[Symphony No. 7 (Beethoven)|Seventh Symphony]], Op. 92, at a charity concert for victims of the war, a concert whose success led to its repeat on 12 December. The orchestra included several leading and rising musicians who happened to be in Vienna at the time, including [[Giacomo Meyerbeer]] and [[Domenico Dragonetti]].{{sfn|Thayer|1967a|pp=559–565}} The work received repeat performances at concerts staged by Beethoven in January and February 1814.{{sfn|Thayer|1967a|pp=575–576}} These concerts brought Beethoven more profit than any others in his career, and enabled him to buy the bank shares that were the most valuable assets in his estate at his death.{{sfn|Scherer|2004|p=112}}

Beethoven's renewed popularity led to demands for a revival of ''Fidelio'', which, in its third revised version, was also well received at its July opening in Vienna, and was frequently staged there during the following years.{{sfn|Solomon|1998|pp=288, 348}} Beethoven's publisher, [[Artaria]], commissioned the 20-year-old Moscheles to prepare a piano score of the opera, which he inscribed "Finished, with God's help!"—to which Beethoven added "O Man, help thyself."{{refn|"''Fine'' mit Gottes Hülfe" – "O, Mensch, hilf dir selber."|group=n}}{{sfn|Conway|2012|p=129}} That summer Beethoven composed a piano sonata for the first time in five years, his [[Piano Sonata No. 27 (Beethoven)|Sonata in E minor, Opus 90]].{{sfn|Solomon|1998|p=292}} He was also one of many composers who produced music in a patriotic vein to entertain the many heads of state and diplomats who came to the [[Congress of Vienna]] that began in November 1814, with the cantata ''[[Der glorreiche Augenblick]] (The Glorious Moment)'' (Op. 136) and similar choral works which, in the words of Maynard Solomon, "broadened Beethoven's popularity, [but] did little to enhance his reputation as a serious composer".{{sfn|Solomon|1998|p=287}}

In April and May 1814, playing in his ''Archduke'' Trio, Beethoven made his last public appearances as a soloist. The composer [[Louis Spohr]] noted: "the piano was badly out of tune, which Beethoven minded little, since he did not hear it&nbsp;... there was scarcely anything left of the virtuosity of the artist&nbsp;... I was deeply saddened."{{sfn|Thayer|1967a|pp=577–578}} From 1814 onward Beethoven used for conversation [[ear-trumpet]]s designed by [[Johann Nepomuk Maelzel]] (a number of these are on display at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn).{{sfn|Ealy|1994|pp=266–267}}

His 1815 compositions include an expressive second setting of the poem ''An die Hoffnung'' (Op. 94) in 1815. Compared to its first setting in 1805 (a gift for Josephine Brunsvik), it was "far more dramatic&nbsp;... The entire spirit is that of an operatic scena."{{sfn|Lockwood|2005|p=278}} But his energy seemed to be dropping: apart from these works, he wrote the two [[Cello Sonatas Nos. 4 and 5 (Beethoven)|cello sonatas Op. 102 nos. 1 and 2]], and a few minor pieces, and began but abandoned a sixth piano concerto.{{sfn|Cooper|1996|pp=24–25}}

====Pause====
[[File:Beethoven 7.jpg|thumb|Beethoven in 1818 by {{interlanguage link|August Klöber|de|August von Kloeber}}]]
Between 1815 and 1819, Beethoven's output dropped again to a level unique in his mature life.{{sfn|Solomon|1998|p=296}} He attributed part of this to a lengthy illness that he called an inflammatory fever that he had for more than a year starting in October 1816.{{sfn|Cooper|2008|p= 254}} Solomon suggests it is also doubtless a consequence of the ongoing legal problems concerning his nephew Karl,{{sfn|Solomon|1998|p=297}} and of Beethoven finding himself increasingly at odds with current musical trends. Unsympathetic to developments in German romanticism that featured the supernatural (as in operas by Spohr, [[Heinrich Marschner]] and [[Carl Maria von Weber]]), he also "resisted the impending Romantic fragmentation of the&nbsp;... cyclic forms of the Classical era into small forms and lyric mood pieces" and turned towards study of Bach, [[Handel]] and [[Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina|Palestrina]].{{sfn|Solomon|1998|p=295}} An old connection was renewed in 1817 when Maelzel sought, and obtained, Beethoven's endorsement for his newly developed [[metronome]].{{sfn|Thayer|1967b|pp=684–686}} During these years the few major works he completed include the 1818 [[Hammerklavier Sonata|''Hammerklavier'' Sonata]] (Sonata No. 29 in B-flat major, Op. 106) and his settings of poems by [[Alois Jeitteles]], ''[[An die ferne Geliebte]]'' Op. 98 (1816), which introduced the [[song cycle]] into classical repertoire.{{sfn|Swafford|2014|pp=675–677}} In 1818 he began musical sketches that eventually formed part of his Ninth Symphony.{{sfn|Solomon|1998|p=322}}

By early 1818 Beethoven's health had improved, and his nephew Karl, now aged 11, moved in with him in January (although within a year Karl's mother had won him back in the courts).{{sfn|Cooper|1996|p=41}} By now Beethoven's hearing had again seriously deteriorated, necessitating that he and his interlocutors write in notebooks to carry out conversations. These 'conversation books' are a rich written resource for his life from this period onward. They contain discussions about music, business, and personal life; they are also a valuable source for his contacts and for investigations into how he intended his music should be performed, and of his opinions of the art of music.{{sfn|Cooper|1996|pp=164–167}}{{Refn|It was suggested by Beethoven's biographer [[Alexander Wheelock Thayer]] that, of 400 conversation books, 264 were destroyed (and others were altered) after his death by his secretary Schindler, who wished only an idealised biography to survive.{{sfn|Clive|2001|p=239}} The music historian [[Theodore Albrecht]] has, however, demonstrated that Thayer's allegations were over the top. "[It is now] abundantly clear that Schindler never possessed as many as c. 400 conversation books, and that he never destroyed roughly five-eighths of that number."{{sfn|Albrecht|2009|p=181}} Schindler did however insert a number of fraudulent entries that bolstered his own profile and his prejudices.{{sfn|Cooper|1996|p=52}}{{sfn|Nettl|1994|p=103}} Presently 136 books covering the period 1819–1827 are preserved at the [[Staatsbibliothek Berlin]], with another two at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn.{{sfn|Hammelmann|1965|p=187}}|group=n}} His household management had also improved somewhat with the help of [[Nannette Streicher]]. A proprietor of the Stein piano workshop and a personal friend, Streicher had assisted in Beethoven's care during his illness; she continued to provide some support, and in her he finally found a skilled cook.{{sfn|Cooper|2008|p= 260}}<ref>{{cite news |last=Morrisroe |first=Patricia |date=6 November 2020 |title=The Woman Who Built Beethoven's Pianos |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/arts/music/beethoven-piano.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=10 November 2020 |archive-date=9 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109161026/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/arts/music/beethoven-piano.html |url-status=live }}</ref> A testimonial to the esteem in which Beethoven was held in England was the presentation to him in this year by Thomas Broadwood, the proprietor of the company, of a [[John Broadwood & Sons|Broadwood piano]], for which Beethoven expressed thanks. He was not well enough, however, to carry out a visit to London that year which had been proposed by the [[Philharmonic Society]].{{sfn|Thayer|1967b|pp=696–698}}{{refn|The Broadwood piano is now in the collection of the [[Hungarian National Museum]] in [[Budapest]].{{sfn|Cooper|1996|p=43}}|group=n}}

====Resurgence====
[[File:Ludwig Van Beethoven LCCN2003663902.jpg|thumb|Beethoven in 1819 depicted in a portrait by {{interlanguage link|Ferdinand Schimon|de|Ferdinand Schimon}}]]
{{Listen|type=music|image=none|help=no|filename=Beethoven - Piano sonata in C minor (opus 111), movement 1.ogg|title=Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111 (1st movement)|description=written between 1821 and 1822, during Beethoven's late period}}
Despite the time occupied by his ongoing legal struggles over Karl, which involved continuing extensive correspondence and lobbying,{{sfn|Thayer|1967b|p=790}} two events sparked off Beethoven's major composition projects in 1819. The first was the announcement of Archduke Rudolf's promotion to [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|Cardinal]]-[[Archbishop]] as Archbishop of [[Olomouc]] (now in the Czech Republic), which triggered the [[Missa solemnis (Beethoven)|Missa solemnis]] Op. 123 (1823), intended to be ready for his installation in Olomouc in March 1820. The other was the invitation by the publisher [[Antonio Diabelli]] to 50 Viennese composers, including Beethoven, [[Franz Schubert]], Czerny and the 8-year-old [[Franz Liszt]], to compose a variation each on a theme which he provided. Beethoven was spurred to outdo the competition and by mid-1819 had already completed 20 variations of what were to become the 33 ''[[Diabelli Variations]]'' op. 120. Neither of these works was completed for a few years.{{sfn|Kerman|Tyson|Burnham|2001|loc= § 8}}{{sfn|Cooper|1996|p=45}} A significant tribute of 1819, however, was Archduke Rudolf's set of 40 piano variations on a theme written for him by Beethoven (WoO 200) and dedicated to the master.{{sfn|Thayer|1967b|pp=741, 745}} Beethoven's portrait by {{interlanguage link|Ferdinand Schimon|de|Ferdinand Schimon}} of this year, which was one of the most familiar images of him for the next century, was described by Schindler as, despite its artistic weaknesses, "in the rendering of that particular look, the majestic forehead&nbsp;... the firmly shut mouth and the chin shaped like a shell,&nbsp;... truer to nature than any other picture".{{sfn|Thayer|1967b|p=742}} [[Joseph Karl Stieler]] also created [[Beethoven (Stieler)|his own portrait of Beethoven]].{{sfn|Thayer|1967b|p=760}}

Beethoven's determination over the following years to write the ''Mass'' for Rudolf was not motivated by any devout [[Catholicism]]. Although he had been born a Catholic, the form of religion as practised at the court in Bonn where he grew up was, in the words of Solomon, "a compromise ideology that permitted a relatively peaceful coexistence between the Church and [[rationalism]]".{{sfn|Solomon|1998|p=54}} Beethoven's ''Tagebuch'' (a diary he kept on an occasional basis between 1812 and 1818) shows his interest in a variety of religious philosophies, including those of India, Egypt and the Orient and the writings of the [[Rig-Veda]].{{sfn|Cooper|1996|pp=146–147}} In a letter to Rudolf of July 1821, Beethoven shows his belief in a personal God: "God&nbsp;... sees into my innermost heart and knows that as a man I perform most conscientiously and on all occasions the duties which Humanity, God, and Nature enjoin upon me." On one of the sketches for the Missa solemnis he wrote "Plea for inner and outer peace".{{sfn|Solomon|1998|p=342}}

Beethoven's status was confirmed by the series of ''Concerts sprituels'' given in Vienna by the choirmaster [[Franz Xaver Gebauer]] in the 1819/1820 and 1820/1821 seasons, during which all eight of his symphonies to date, plus the oratorio ''Christus'' and the Mass in C, were performed. Beethoven was typically underwhelmed: when in an April 1820 conversation book a friend mentioned Gebauer, Beethoven wrote in reply "Geh! Bauer" (Begone, peasant!){{sfn|Thayer|1967b|pp=770–771|loc=(editor's translation)}}

In 1819, Beethoven was first approached by the publisher [[Moritz Schlesinger]], who won the suspicious composer round, while visiting him at [[Mödling]], by procuring for him a plate of roast veal.{{sfn|Thayer|1967b|pp=734–735}} One consequence of this was that Schlesinger secured Beethoven's three last piano sonatas and his final quartets; part of the attraction to Beethoven was that Schlesinger had publishing facilities in Germany and France, and connections in England, which could overcome problems of copyright piracy.{{sfn|Conway|2012|pp=185–187}} The first of the three sonatas, for which Beethoven contracted with Schlesinger in 1820 at 30 [[Ducat#Spread of the ducat|ducat]]s per sonata (further delaying completion of the Mass), was sent to the publisher at the end of that year (the [[Piano Sonata No. 30 (Beethoven)|Sonata in E major, Op. 109]], dedicated to {{ill|Maximiliane von Blittersdorf|de}}, Antonie Brentano's daughter).{{sfn|Cooper|1996|pp=27–28}}

In early 1821, Beethoven was once again in poor health with [[rheumatism]] and [[jaundice]]. Despite this, he continued work on the remaining piano sonatas he had promised to Schlesinger (the [[Piano Sonata No. 31 (Beethoven)|Sonata in A flat major Op. 110]] was published in December), and on the Mass.{{sfn|Thayer|1967b|pp= 776–777, 781–782}} In early 1822 Beethoven sought a reconciliation with his brother Johann, whose marriage in 1812 had met with his disapproval, and Johann now became a regular visitor (as witnessed by the conversation books of the period) and began to assist him in his business affairs, including lending him money against ownership of some of his compositions. He also sought some reconciliation with the mother of his nephew, including supporting her income, although this did not meet with the approval of the contrary Karl.{{sfn|Solomon|1998|pp= 362–363}} Two commissions at the end of 1822 improved Beethoven's financial prospects. In November the [[Philharmonic Society]] of London offered a commission for a symphony, which he accepted with delight, as an appropriate home for the Ninth Symphony on which he was working.{{sfn|Thayer|1967b|pp= 833–834}} Also in November Prince [[Nikolai Borisovich Galitzin|Nikolai Galitzin]] of [[Saint Petersburg]] offered to pay Beethoven's asking price for three string quartets. Beethoven set the price at the high level of 50 ducats per quartet in a letter dictated to his nephew Karl, who was then living with him.{{sfn|Thayer|1967b|pp=815–816}}

During 1822, Anton Schindler, who in 1840 became one of Beethoven's earliest and most influential (but not always reliable) biographers, began to work as the composer's unpaid secretary. He later claimed that he had been a member of Beethoven's circle since 1814, but there is no evidence for this. Cooper suggests that "Beethoven greatly appreciated his assistance, but did not think much of him as a man".{{sfn|Cooper|1996|pp=52, 309–310}}