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good use, especially in his fanciful improvisations. One of Beethoven’s pupils observed, “He knew how to produce such an impression on every listener that frequently there was not a single dry eye, while many broke out into loud sobs, for there was something magical about his playing.”
The aristocracy was captivated. One patron put a string quartet at Beethoven’s disposal, another made it possible for the composer to experiment with a small orchestra, and all showered him with gifts. He acquired well-to-do pupils; he sold his compositions (“I state my price and they pay,” he said with pride in 1801); and he requested and eventually received an annuity from three noblemen so that he could work undisturbed. The text of this arrangement in- cludes the following provisions:
It is recognized that only a person who is as free as possible from all cares can consecrate himself to his craft. He can only produce these great and sublime works which ennoble Art if they form his sole pursuit, to the ex- clusion of all unnecessary obligations. The undersigned have therefore taken the decision to ensure that Herr Ludwig van Beethoven’s situa- tion shall not be embarrassed by his most necessary requirements, nor shall his powerful Genius be hampered.
What a contrast between Beethoven’s contract and the one signed by Haydn four decades earlier (see Chapter 7)! Music was no longer merely a craft and the composer a servant. It had now become an exalted Art, and the great cre- ator a Genius who must be protected and nurtured—a new, Romantic notion of the value of music and the importance of the composer. Beethoven himself promoted this belief that the artistic genius was cut from a different cloth than the rest of humanity. He claimed he spoke with God. And when one patron de- manded that he play for a visiting French general, Beethoven stormed out of the salon and responded by letter: “Prince, what you are, you are through the ac- cident of birth. What I am, I am through my own efforts. There have been many princes and there will be thousands more. But there is only one Beethoven!” What Beethoven failed to realize, of course, is that he, too, owed much of his success to “the accident of birth”—coming from a long line of musicians, he had been born with a huge musical talent.
Piano Sonata, Opus 13, the “Pathétique”
Sonata (1799)
The bold originality in Beethoven’s music can be heard in one of his most cel- ebrated compositions, the “Pathétique” Sonata. A Classical sonata, as we have seen (Chapter 9, “The Sonata”), is a multimovement work for solo instrument or solo instrument with keyboard accompaniment. This particular sonata, for solo piano, is identified as Beethoven’s Opus 13, denoting that it is the thirteenth of 135 works that Beethoven published. (Composers often use the term opus— Latin for “work”—with a number to identify their works.) But Beethoven himself also supplied the sonata with its descriptive title—“Pathétique” (“Plaintive”)— underscoring the passion and pathos he felt within it. Its great drama derives in large part from the juxtaposition of extremes. There are extremes of dynamics (from fortissimo to pianissimo), tempo (grave to presto), and range (from very
154 chapter ten beethoven: bridge to romanticism
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