Editing Ludwig van Beethoven (section)

=== 1802–1812: The "heroic" period ===
====Deafness====
[[File:Beethoven Hornemann.jpg|thumb|1803 portrait of Beethoven by [[Christian Horneman]]]]
Beethoven told the English pianist [[Charles Neate (musician)|Charles Neate]] (in 1815) that his hearing loss began in 1798, during a heated quarrel with a singer.{{sfn|Solomon|1998|p=160}} During its gradual decline, his hearing was further impeded by a severe form of [[tinnitus]].{{sfn|Swafford|2014|pp=223–224}} As early as 1801, he wrote to Wegeler and another friend, {{ill|Carl Amenda|de}}, describing his symptoms and the difficulties they caused in both professional and social settings (although it is likely some of his close friends were already aware of the issues).{{sfn|Cooper|2008|p=108}} The cause was probably [[otosclerosis]], possibly accompanied by degeneration of the [[auditory nerve]].{{sfn|Kerman|Tyson|Burnham|2001|loc=§ 5}}{{refn|The cause of Beethoven's deafness has also variously been attributed to, among other possibilities, [[lead poisoning]] from Beethoven's preferred wines.{{sfn|Stevens|2013|pp=2854–2858}} In 2024, researchers found very high lead concentrations in souvenir strands of Beethoven's hair, providing evidence for the theory of lead poisoning.<ref>{{Cite news| issn = 0362-4331| last = Kolata| first = Gina| title = Locks of Beethoven's Hair Offer New Clues to the Mystery of His Deafness| work = The New York Times| access-date = 16 May 2024| date = 6 May 2024| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/06/health/beethoven-deaf-lead-hair.html}}</ref> Another possibility is that it was caused by complications from a case of [[murine typhus]] from 1796.<ref>{{cite book|last=Caeyers |first=Jan |title=Beethoven: A Life |year=2020 |page=109 |publisher=Univ of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-34354-2}}</ref>|group=n}}

On his doctor's advice, Beethoven moved to the small Austrian town of [[Heiligenstadt, Vienna|Heiligenstadt]], just outside Vienna, from April to October 1802 in an attempt to come to terms with his condition. There he wrote the document now known as the [[Heiligenstadt Testament]], a letter to his brothers that records his thoughts of suicide due to his growing deafness and his resolution to continue living for and through his art. The letter was never sent and was discovered in his papers after his death.{{sfn|Cooper|1996|pp= 169–172}} The letters to Wegeler and Amenda were not so despairing; in them Beethoven commented also on his ongoing professional and financial success at this period, and his determination, as he expressed it to Wegeler, to "seize Fate by the throat; it shall certainly not crush me completely".{{sfn|Kerman|Tyson|Burnham|2001|loc=§ 5}} In 1806, Beethoven noted on one of his musical sketches: "Let your deafness no longer be a secret—even in art."{{sfn|Solomon|1998|p=162}}

Although Beethoven's hearing loss did not prevent him from composing music, it made playing at concerts—an important source of income at this phase of his life—increasingly difficult. It also contributed substantially to his social withdrawal.{{sfn|Kerman|Tyson|Burnham|2001|loc=§ 5}} Czerny remarked that Beethoven could still hear speech and music normally until 1812.{{sfn|Ealy|1994|p=262}} Contrary to common belief, Beethoven never became totally deaf; in his final years, he was still able to distinguish low tones and sudden loud sounds.<ref>{{cite web |title='Deaf' genius Beethoven was able to hear his final symphony after all |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/feb/01/beethoven-not-completely-deaf-says-musicologist |website=The Guardian |access-date=2 September 2021 |language=en |date=1 February 2020}}</ref>

====Heroic style====
[[File:Eroica Beethoven title.jpg|thumb|The title page of ms. of the ''Eroica'' Symphony with [[Napoleon]]'s name scored through by Beethoven]]
[[File:Rudolf-habsburg-olmuetz.jpg|thumb|Beethoven's patron [[Archduke Rudolf of Austria (1788–1831)|Archduke Rudolf]] depicted in a portrait by [[Johann Baptist von Lampi the Elder|Johann Baptist von Lampi]]]]
Beethoven's return to [[Vienna]] from Heiligenstadt was marked by a change in musical style, and is now often designated as the start of his middle or "heroic" period, characterised by many original works composed on a grand scale.{{sfn|Tyson|1969|pp=138–141}} According to Czerny, Beethoven said: "I am not satisfied with the work I have done so far. From now on I intend to take a new way."{{sfn|Cooper|2008|p= 131}} An early major work employing this new style was the [[Symphony No. 3 (Beethoven)|Third Symphony]] in E-flat, Op. 55, known as the ''Eroica'', written in 1803–04. The idea of creating a symphony based on the career of [[Napoleon]] may have been suggested to Beethoven by [[Charles XIV John of Sweden|General Bernadotte]] in 1798.{{sfn|Kerman|Tyson|Burnham|2001|loc=§ 4}} Sympathetic to the ideal of the heroic revolutionary leader, Beethoven originally gave the symphony the title "Bonaparte", but disillusioned by Napoleon [[1804 French constitutional referendum|declaring himself Emperor in 1804]], he scratched Napoleon's name from the manuscript's title page, and the symphony was published in 1806 with its present title and the subtitle "to celebrate the memory of a great man".{{sfn|Kerman|Tyson|Burnham|2001|loc=§ 6}} The ''Eroica'' was longer and larger in scope than any previous symphony. When it premiered in early 1805 it received a mixed reception. Some listeners objected to its length or disliked its structure, while others viewed it as a masterpiece.{{sfn|Cooper|2008|p= 148}}

Other middle-period works extend in the same dramatic manner the musical language Beethoven had inherited. The [[String Quartets Nos. 7–9, Op. 59 – Rasumovsky (Beethoven)|Rasumovsky]] string quartets and the ''[[Piano Sonata No. 21 (Beethoven)|Waldstein]]'' and ''[[Appassionata]]'' piano sonatas share the Third Symphony's heroic spirit.{{sfn|Kerman|Tyson|Burnham|2001|loc=§ 6}} Other works of this period include the [[Symphony No. 4 (Beethoven)|Fourth]] through [[Symphony No. 8 (Beethoven)|Eighth]] Symphonies, the oratorio ''[[Christ on the Mount of Olives (Beethoven)|Christ on the Mount of Olives]]'', the opera ''[[Fidelio]]'', and the [[Violin Concerto (Beethoven)|Violin Concerto]].{{sfn|Kerman|Tyson|Burnham|2001|loc=§ 14 and 15}} Beethoven was hailed in 1810 by the writer and composer [[E. T. A. Hoffmann]], in an influential review in the ''[[Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung]]'', as the greatest of (what he considered) the three [[Romantic music|Romantic]] composers (that is, ahead of Haydn and Mozart); in Beethoven's [[Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven)|Fifth Symphony]] his music, wrote Hoffmann, "sets in motion terror, fear, horror, pain, and awakens the infinite yearning that is the essence of romanticism".{{sfn|Cassedy|2010|pp=1–6}}

During this time, Beethoven's income came from publishing his works, from performances of them, and from his patrons, for whom he gave private performances and copies of works they commissioned for an exclusive period before their publication. Some of his early patrons, including Lobkowitz and Lichnowsky, gave him annual stipends in addition to commissioning works and purchasing published works.{{sfn|Cooper|2008|pp= 78–79}} Perhaps his most important aristocratic patron was [[Archduke Rudolf of Austria]], the youngest son of [[Emperor Leopold II]], who in 1803 or 1804 began to study piano and composition with him. They became friends, and their meetings continued until 1824.{{sfn|Lockwood|2005|pp=300–301}} Beethoven dedicated 14 compositions to Rudolf, including such major works as the [[Piano Trio, Op. 97 (Beethoven)|''Archduke'' Trio]] Op. 97 (1811).

His position at the Theater an der Wien was terminated when the theatre changed management in early 1804, and he was forced to move temporarily to the suburbs of Vienna with his friend [[Stephan von Breuning (librettist)|Stephan von Breuning]]. This slowed work on ''Leonore'' (his original title for his opera), his largest work to date, for a time. It was delayed again by the Austrian [[censorship|censor]] and finally premiered, under its present title of ''Fidelio'', in November 1805 to houses that were nearly empty because of the [[War of the Third Coalition|French occupation of the city]]. In addition to being a financial failure, this version of ''Fidelio'' was also a critical failure, and Beethoven began revising it.{{sfn|Cooper|2008|p= 150}}

Despite this failure, Beethoven continued to attract recognition. In 1807 the musician and publisher [[Muzio Clementi]] secured the rights to publish his works in England, and Haydn's former patron [[Nikolaus II, Prince Esterházy|Prince Esterházy]] commissioned the [[Mass in C major (Beethoven)|Mass in C]], Op. 86, for his wife's name-day. But he could not count on such recognition alone. A [[Beethoven concert of 22 December 1808|colossal benefit concert]] he organised in December 1808, widely advertised, included the premieres of the Fifth and [[Symphony No. 6 (Beethoven)|Sixth (''Pastoral'')]] symphonies, the [[Piano Concerto No. 4 (Beethoven)|Fourth Piano Concerto]], extracts from the Mass in C, the [[aria|scena and aria]] "[[Ah! perfido]]" Op. 65 and the [[Choral Fantasy (Beethoven)|''Choral Fantasy'' op. 80]]. There was a large audience (including Czerny and the young [[Ignaz Moscheles]]), but it was under-rehearsed, involved many stops and starts, and during the Fantasia Beethoven was noted shouting at the musicians "badly played, wrong, again!" The financial outcome is unknown.{{sfn|Thayer|1967a|pp=445–448}}

In the autumn of 1808, after having been rejected for a position at the Royal Theatre, Beethoven received an offer from Napoleon's brother [[Jérôme Bonaparte]], then king of [[Kingdom of Westphalia|Westphalia]], for a well-paid position as [[Kapellmeister]] at the court in [[Kassel|Cassel]]. To persuade him to stay in Vienna, Archduke Rudolf, [[Ferdinand, 5th Prince Kinsky of Wchinitz and Tettau|Prince Kinsky]] and Prince Lobkowitz, after receiving representations from Beethoven's friends, pledged to pay him a pension of 4000 florins a year.{{sfn|Thayer|1967a|p=457}} In the event, Rudolf paid his share of the pension on the agreed date.{{sfn|Cooper|2008|p= 195}} Kinsky, immediately called to military duty, did not contribute and died in November 1812 after falling from his horse.{{sfn|Cooper|1996|p=48}}{{sfn|Cooper|2008|p=48}} The Austrian currency destabilised and Lobkowitz went bankrupt in 1811 so that to benefit from the agreement Beethoven eventually had recourse to the law, which in 1815 brought him some recompense.{{sfn|Solomon|1998|p=194}}

The [[War of the Fifth Coalition|imminence of war]] reaching Vienna itself was felt in early 1809. In April, Beethoven completed writing his [[Piano Concerto No. 5 (Beethoven)|Piano Concerto No. 5]] in E-flat major, Op. 73,{{sfn|Cooper|1996|p=48}} which the musicologist [[Alfred Einstein]] has called "the apotheosis of the military concept" in Beethoven's music.{{sfn|Einstein|1958|p=248}} Rudolf left the capital with the Imperial family in early May, prompting Beethoven's piano sonata ''[[Les Adieux]]'' (Sonata No. 26, Op. 81a), actually titled by Beethoven in German ''Das Lebewohl'' (The Farewell), of which the final movement, ''Das Wiedersehen'' (The Return), is dated in the manuscript with the date of Rudolf's homecoming of 30 January 1810.{{sfn|Thayer|1967a|p=464}} During the French bombardment of Vienna in May, Beethoven took refuge in the cellar of his brother Kaspar's house.{{sfn|Thayer|1967a|p=465}} The subsequent occupation of Vienna and disruptions to cultural life and to Beethoven's publishers, together with Beethoven's poor health at the end of 1809, explain his significantly reduced output during this period,{{sfn|Thayer|1967a|p=467–473}} although other notable works of the year include his [[String Quartet No. 10 (Beethoven)|String Quartet No. 10]] in E-flat major, Op. 74 (''The Harp'') and the [[Piano Sonata No. 24 (Beethoven)|Piano Sonata No. 24]] in F-sharp major, Op. 78, dedicated to Josephine's sister [[Therese Brunsvik]].{{sfn|Thayer|1967a|p=475}}

====Goethe====
[[File:Goethe Kügelgen.jpg|thumb|[[Goethe]] depicted in an 1808 portrait by [[Gerhard von Kügelgen]]]]
At the end of 1809, Beethoven was commissioned to write incidental music for [[Goethe]]'s play ''[[Egmont (play)|Egmont]]''. [[Egmont (Beethoven)|The result]] (an overture, and nine additional [[entracte]]s and vocal pieces, Op. 84), which appeared in 1810, fit well with Beethoven's heroic style and he became interested in Goethe, setting three of his poems as songs (Op. 83) and learning about him from a mutual acquaintance, [[Bettina Brentano]] (who also wrote to Goethe at this time about Beethoven). Other works of this period in a similar vein were the F minor [[String Quartet No. 11 (Beethoven)|String Quartet Op. 95]], to which Beethoven gave the subtitle ''Quartetto serioso'', and the Op. 97 [[Piano Trio, Op. 97 (Beethoven)|Piano Trio in B-flat major]] known, from its dedication to his patron Rudolph, as the ''Archduke Trio''.{{sfn|Kerman|Tyson|Burnham|2001|loc=§ 7}}

In the spring of 1811, Beethoven became seriously ill, with headaches and high fever. His doctor [[Johann Baptist Malfatti von Monteregio|Johann Malfatti]] recommended he take a cure at the [[spa]] of [[Teplitz]] (now Teplice in the [[Czech Republic]]), where he wrote two more overtures and sets of incidental music for dramas, this time by [[August von Kotzebue]] – ''[[King Stephen (Beethoven)|King Stephen]]'' Op. 117 and ''[[The Ruins of Athens]]'' Op. 113. Advised again to visit Teplitz in 1812, he met there with Goethe, who wrote: "His talent amazed me; unfortunately he is an utterly untamed personality, who is not altogether wrong in holding the world to be detestable, but surely does not make it any more enjoyable&nbsp;... by his attitude." Beethoven wrote to his publishers [[Breitkopf and Härtel]], "Goethe delights far too much in the court atmosphere, far more than is becoming in a poet."{{sfn|Kerman|Tyson|Burnham|2001|loc=§ 7}} But following their meeting he began a setting for choir and orchestra of [[Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt (Beethoven)|Goethe's ''Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt'']] ''(Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage)'', Op. 112, completed in 1815. After it was published in 1822 with a dedication to the poet, Beethoven wrote to him: "The admiration, the love and esteem which already in my youth I cherished for the one and only immortal Goethe have persisted."{{sfn|Cooper|1996|p=47}}

====The Immortal Beloved====
[[File:Antonie Brentano3.jpg|thumb|An 1808 portrait of [[Antonie Brentano]] by [[Joseph Karl Stieler]]]]
While Beethoven was at Teplitz in 1812, he wrote a ten-page love letter to his "[[Immortal Beloved]]", which he never sent to its addressee.{{sfn|Brandenburg|1996|p=582}} The identity of the intended recipient was long a subject of debate, although the musicologist [[Maynard Solomon]] has argued that the intended recipient was [[Antonie Brentano]]; other candidates included Julie Guicciardi, [[Therese Malfatti]] and Josephine Brunsvik.{{sfn|Cooper|1996|p=107}}{{refn|Solomon sets out his case in detail in his biography of Beethoven.{{sfn|Solomon|1998|pp=223–231}}|group=n}}

All of these had been regarded by Beethoven as possible soulmates during his first decade in Vienna. Guicciardi, although she flirted with Beethoven, never had any serious interest in him and married [[Wenzel Robert von Gallenberg]] in November 1803. (Beethoven insisted to his later secretary and biographer, [[Anton Schindler]], that Guicciardi had "sought me out, crying, but I scorned her".){{sfn|Solomon|1998|pp=196–197}} Josephine had, since Beethoven's initial infatuation with her, married the elderly Count Joseph Deym, who died in 1804. Beethoven began to visit her and commenced a passionate correspondence. Initially, he accepted that Josephine could not love him, but he continued to address himself to her even after she had moved to Budapest, finally demonstrating that he had got the message in his last letter to her of 1807: "I thank you for wishing still to appear as if I were not altogether banished from your memory".{{sfn|Solomon|1998|pp=197–199}} Malfatti was the niece of Beethoven's doctor, and he had proposed to her in 1810. He was 40, and she was 19. The proposal was rejected.{{sfn|Solomon|1998|p=196}} She is now remembered as the possible recipient of the piano [[Bagatelle (music)|bagatelle]] known as "[[Für Elise]]".{{sfn|Cooper|1996|p=20}}{{refn|The manuscript (now lost) was found in Therese Malfatti's papers after her death by Beethoven's early biographer [[Ludwig Nohl]]. It has been suggested that Nohl misread the title, which may have been ''Für Therese''.{{sfn|Thayer|1967a|p=502}}|group=n}}

Antonie (Toni) Brentano (née von Birkenstock), ten years younger than Beethoven, was the wife of {{ill|Franz Dominicus Brentano|de}}, the half-brother of [[Bettina Brentano]], who provided Beethoven's introduction to the family. It would seem that Antonie and Beethoven had an affair during 1811–1812. Antonie left Vienna with her husband in late 1812 and never met with (or apparently corresponded with) Beethoven again, although in her later years, she wrote and spoke fondly of him.{{sfn|Solomon|1998|pp=231–239}} Some speculate that Beethoven was the father of Antonie's son Karl Josef; "the boy, born in 1813 and never seen by the composer, became ill aged four with a condition that limited his movements and mental capacity."<ref>{{Cite news|last=Thorpe|first=Vanessa|date=25 February 2017|title=Did Beethoven's Love for a Married Aristocrat and a Doomed Son Colour His Darkest Work?|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/feb/26/did-beethovens-love-for-married-aristocrat-and-a-doomed-son-colour-his-darkest-work|access-date=15 June 2021|work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>

After 1812 there are no reports of any romantic liaisons of Beethoven's; however, it is clear from his correspondence of the period and, later, from the conversation books, that he occasionally had sex with prostitutes.{{sfn|Solomon|1998|pp= 284, 339–340}}