A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Maelzel, Johann Nepomuk
MAELZEL, Johann Nepomuk, born Aug. 15, 1772, at Ratisbon, son of an organ builder. In 1792 he settled in Vienna, and devoted himself to teaching music, and to constructing an automaton instrument of flutes, trumpets, drums, cymbals, triangle, and strings struck by hammers, which played music by Haydn, Mozart, and Crescentini, and was sold for 3000 florins. His next machine was the Panharmonicon, like the former, but with clarinets, violins, and cellos added. It was worked by weights acting on cylinders, and was exhibited in Vienna in 1804. Maelzel then bought Kempelen's Chessplayer; and took it with the Panharmonicon to Paris. The Chessplayer he afterwards sold to Eugene Beauharnais. He next constructed a Trumpeter, which played the Austrian and French cavalry marches and signals, with marches and allegros by Weigl, Dussek, and Pleyel. In 1808 he was appointed court mechanician, and about that time made some ear trumpets, one of which Beethoven used for years. In 1812 he opened the 'Art Cabinet,' among the attractions of which were the Trumpeter and a new and enlarged Panharmonicon; and soon afterwards made public a musical chronometer, an improvement of a machine by Stöckel, for which he obtained certificates from Beethoven and other leading musicians. Maelzel and Beethoven were at this time on very friendly terms. They had arranged to visit London together, and Maelzel had meantime aided the great master in his impecuniosity by urging on him a loan of 50 ducats in gold. In order to add to the attractions of the Panharmonicon, which they proposed to take with them, Maelzel conceived and sketched in detail the design[1] of a piece to commemorate the Battle of Vittoria (June 21, 1813), which Beethoven composed for the instrument. While it was being arranged on the barrel, Maelzel further induced him to score it for the orchestra, with the view to obtain funds for the journey; and it was accordingly scored, and performed at a concert on Dec. 8, 1813, the programme of which consisted of the Symphony No. 7; the marches of Dussek and Pleyel, by the automaton, and the Battle-piece. The concert was repeated on the 12th, and the two yielded a net profit of over 4000 florins. At this point Beethoven took offence at Maelzel's having announced the Battle-piece as his property, broke completely with him, rejected the Trumpeter and his marches, and held a third concert (Jan. 2, 1814) for his own sole benefit. After several weeks of endeavour to arrange matters, Maelzel departed to Munich with his Panharmonicon, including the Battle-piece, and also with a full orchestral score of the same, which he had obtained without Beethoven's concurrence and caused to be performed at Munich. Beethoven on this entered an action against him in the Vienna courts, and it is his memorandum of the grounds of the action, as prepared for his advocate, which is usually entitled [2]his 'deposition.' He further addressed a [3]statement to the musicians of London, entreating them not to countenance or support Maelzel. The action came to nothing, and Maelzel does not appear to have gone to London. He stopped at Amsterdam, and there got from Winkel, a Dutch mechanic, the idea of employing a new form of pendulum as a metronome. He soon perfected the instrument, obtained a patent for it, and in 1816 we find him in Paris established as a manufacturer of this metronome, under the style of 'Mälzl et Cie.' Winkel claimed it as his invention, and the claim was confirmed, after examination, by the Dutch Academy of Sciences, A wish to repurchase Kempelen's Chessplayer and to push his Metronome took him back to Munich and Vienna in 1817. Beethoven's good word was oF more consequence than any one else's, and knowing Maelzel's cleverness, Beethoven's amenability to a good companion, and the fact that the performance on which the lawsuit was grounded having taken place out of Austria, the action could not lie, it need not surprise us to find that the suit was given up, and the costs divided equally. After this Maelzel travelled much, and even reached the United States, where he passed the rest of his life, except a voyage or two to the West Indies, exhibiting the Chessplayer, the Conflagration of Moscow, and his other curious inventions[4]. He was found dead in his berth on board the American brig Otis, July 21, 1838. Maelzel was evidently a sharp, shrewd, clever man of business, with a strong propensity to use the ideas of others for his own benefit.
For the details of his Metronome see the article under that head. It was entirely different from the Stöckel-Mälzel 'Chronometer,' and it was upon the latter, and not upon the Metronome, that Beethoven wrote the catch which is connected with the Allegretto of his Symphony No. 8.