1-2 BEETHOVEN They have a pleasant sweet taste, and are | deemed hy some persons more wholesome than the cabbage tribe; but in other varieties they have an earthy taste which is unpleasant. Sea j beet (B. maritima) is a perennial, and one of ' the most valuable plants known for greens. It | thrives in gardens without any sort of care, j and is increased by seeds, which it yields in great abundance. BEETHOVEN. I. Lndwlg Tan, a musician, probably a native of Maastricht in Holland, died in Bonn, Dec. 24, 1773. He was a bass singer of- considerable reputation in the elec- toral chapel at Bonn, and in opera. About 1761 he was made kapellmeister by the elector Maximilian Frederick, and seems to have held that office until the appointment of Lucchesi in 1771. He composed several operas, none I of which are now preserved. II. Lndwig Tan, one of the greatest of musical composers, son ' of Johann van Beethoven, a tenor singer in the electoral chapel at Bonn, and grandson of the preceding, born in Bonn, Dec. 16 or 17, 1770, died in Vienna, March 26, 1827. Before he was 4 years old he was placed at the harpsichord, and forced unrelentingly to perform his daily task of exercises. He soon required hetter in- struction than his father could give, and be- came successively the pupil of Pfeiffer, oboist in the chapel, and of Van der Eder, court or- ganist. In 1781 Van der Eder was succeeded by 0. G. Neefe, and the pupil was transferred to him. In a musical periodical of that day it is said that at the age of 11 years he played nearly all of Sebastian Bach's Wohltemperirtes Kla/vwr, and that Neefe had caused nine vari- ations by him upon a march to be engraved. Besides these variations, we possess a specimen of his powers at this early age in three piano- forte sonatas, dedicated to the elector and printed at Spire. Through the influence of Count Waldstein, Beethoven was in his 15th year appointed assistant court organist, and in his 18th was sent to Vienna at the elector's expense, to study with Mozart. The illness of his mother recalled him to Bonn, and her death about the end of July, 1787, doubtless was the cause of his remaining for the present there ; for, owing to the habits of his father, the sup- port of his two young brothers must in a great measure have devolved upon him. In 1792, his brothers being off his hands (Karl a music teacher, and Johann an apothecary's boy), Beethoven was again in a position to accept the elector's kindness, and returned to Vienna; which capital and its environs, save upon a . single visit to Berlin, one or two to Prague, and his summer journeys for health to various watering places, he never again left. The young composer reached Vienna a few weeks before completing his 22d year, and, modestly suppressing all his previous attempts at com- position, came before the public only as a pianoforte virtuoso. The first five years of his sojourn in Vienna were the happ'iest of the composer's life. He mincrled in the best soci- ety, was the favorite of people of the first rank, and was placed at the head of his pro- fession by the best judges. In the mean time he was making himself muster of musical form, studying successively with Haydn and the re- nowned contrapuntist Albrechtsberger, kapell- meister at St. Stephen's. The somewhat dry but thorough course of study pursued under the latter may be followed by the musical student in the work known as "Beethoven's Studies," which is made up from the lessons, original and selected, given him by his teacher, and is often enriched by the shrewd, witty, and caustic remarks of the pupil. The first impor- tant works which he sent to the press were the three sonatas, op. 2, and the three trios, op. 1, but others followed with a rapidity truly aston- ishing. It is not possible to arrange the works of this master in the order of their composition, and to decide how many, of his earlier produc- tions especially, belong to a given period. It is certain, however, that before the close of the century the list included many variations and songs, more than 20 sonatas for the pianoforte solo, three (probably more) sonatas for the pianoforte and violin, three for piano and vio- loncello, three trios for piano, violin, and violon- cello, that in B[, with clarinet, the quartet for piano and bowed instruments, the quintet for piano and wind instruments, the concertos in C and B(, for piano and orchestra, five trios, six quartets, the quintet in E[, for bowed in- struments, the septet, the ballet " Men of Pro- metheus," and the 1st and 2d symphonies! But he was already suffering from a calamity which afterward greatly limited his produc- tiveness, but which we may consider the cause of the profound depth of sentiment, feeling, and passion, which is the leading characteristic of the music of Beethoven. In a letter to his friend Dr. Wegeler, dated June 29, 1800, he says: "My hearing has been gradually becom- ing weaker for three years past." The original cause of this misfortune was a hemorrhoidal difficulty, and a consequent chronic weakness of the bowels, attended with violent colic. He describes the symptoms of his case and its treatment by physicians, and adds: "I may say that I feel myself stronger and better in consequence, only my ears they are still ever ringing and singing day and night. I can truly say that I pass a wretched existence ; for the last two years I have almost entirely shunned society, because it is impossible to tell people I am deaf! " Again : " In the theatre I am forced to lean up close to the orchestra to understand the actors. The higher tones of the voices and instruments, if I am at a little distance, I cannot hear, and it is remarkable that people do not notice it in conversation with me." In the sum- mer of 1802 he had a dangerous attack of illness. and in the prospect of death wrote a remark- able paper, addressed to his brothers, in which he paints the sufferings which he had passed through in very powerful language. We quote a few lines : " Born of an ardent, sanguine
