474 BEETHOVEN in vain. In August, 1826, the youth, then about 20 years of age, unable to pass the ex- aminations of the school to which he belonged, filled up the measure of his ingratitude by shooting himself in the head. The wound was not fatal, and at length he recovered. By the laws of Austria he was an offender against public morals and the church, and for some months was deprived of liberty. When at length restored to his uncle, it was with the order to leave Vienna in 24 hours. In his ex- tremity Beethoven accepted the invitation of his brother to retire with Karl to Johann's estate on the Danube, some 80 miles above Vienna, until such time as a place in the army could be found for the young man. The place and the society of his brother's family soon became insupportable to the composer, and he determined to return to the capital. This journey of two days, in cold, wet weather, was too much for his feeble constitution, and he reached Vienna, Dec. 2, 1826, with his nephew, laboring under the effects of a very severe cold. Violent inflammation of the lungs set in, suc- ceeded by dropsy, under which he sank. In the catalogue of Beethoven's works, we find hardly a branch of the art in which ho had not wrought, but the preponderance of the instru- mental over the vocal music is striking. For the full orchestra he has left us 9 symphonies, 11 overtures, the Egmont music, the " Battle of Vitoria," and some shorter pieces. Of cham- ber music the compositions among them 16 grand quartets, and 4 trios for bowed instru- ments, from the grand concerto and septet down to the romanza sfnd sonata are very numerous. There are 32 grand sonatas for the pianoforte solos, and more than 100 other com- positions, varying from the grand concerto to the variations upon a melody for that instrument nlone or combined with others. Two masses, one sacred cantata, and a number of songs, be- long to the branch of sacred music ; an opera, and a vast variety of songs, trios, &c., fill up the catalogue of his vocal music. Beethoven's mis- sion, if we may use the term, was to perfect in- strumental music as the language of feeling and of the sentiments. Under Bach, Haydn, and Mozart, the sonata and the symphony had attain- ed their complete development in form. Tinder Beethoven, a new soul was infused into them. Something had already been done in this direc- tion. We perceive traces of it in Bach and in Mozart, dementi had written a sonata for the pianoforte, entitled Dido AUandonata, and Haydn, in quartet and symphony, was in the habit of imagining some story, the situations of which, in their corresponding emotions, he endeavored to depict. Beethoven went further. He not only painted character as no other master had done in music (see his overtures to "Prometheus" and " Coriolanus "), but made his music the medium of communicating the feelings which swelled his own breast. We feel this continually in his pianoforte sonatas, nor is the explanation of the fact difficult. The unremitting practice to which he was forced by his father during childhood, together with the course of instruction then in vogue, which aimed rather at making sound musicians than masters of finger gymnastics, gave him that power over the pianoforte and the organ with- out which no one can be said to have a mas- tery over those instruments. Beethoven's extemporaneous performances were as free from false harmonic relations as the speak- ing of an accomplished orator from errors in the use of articulate speech. Upon his ar- rival in Vienna men who had known Mozart and fully appreciated his marvellous powers, confessed their astonishment at the force, vigor, and fire of the young Rhinelander when, giving his fancy the rein, his flying fingers inter- preted the current of his musical thoughts. In his earliest published works will be found much of that pensive feeling which distin- guished his extemporaneous efforts, and this quality in his sonatas became more marked as he advanced in years. When writing for the orchestra the grandeur of his thoughts rose with the increase of means at his command, and he reached heights beyond all that com- posers before him or since have attained. Justice has not usually been done to Beethoven on the score of intellect. His large head was in fact filled with a brain capable of intensely energetic and long-continued action. He was an insatiable reader, especially of history, and none followed with a deeper interest the rapidly changing scenes of that great political drama which began in his 19th year in Paris, and ended at the congress of Vienna in 1815. Born upon the Rhine, reared under the re- markably liberal institutions of the electorate of Cologne, and subjected to the direct influ- ence of those ideas which set France in a blaze, he was early and for life a republican in his politics. In whatever sphere of mental ac- tivity Beethoven had been placed, he would have been a man of mark. Great preparations had been made long in advance for the cele- bration of Beethoven's centenary anniversary throughout Germany in December, 1870 ; but owing to the Franco-German war then raging they were only partially carried out, and in Bonn the commemoration was held on a large scale in August, 1871. There are a number of biographies of Beethoven, the earliest being that by his friend A. Schindler (Biographic von Ludwig van Beethoven, 2 vols. 8vo, Mini- ster, 1838 ; 2d ed., 1860). On his deathbed the composer expressed a wish that his life should be written by Fr. Rochlitz, the author of the work Fur Freunde der Tonkunst ; but the state of Rochlitz's health prevented his undertaking the work, and it devolved upon Schindler, whose long and intimate acquaint- ance with Beethoven gave him many ad- vantages for performing the task. Schindler's work was translated into English and edited by Moscheles. Among the other lives of Bee- thoven, the most voluminous is by Mr. Alex-
