Anecdotes of Great Musicians/Anecdote 71
71.—MANUSCRIPT FOR KETTLES.
Beethoven had a hard time of it with his landladies and servants. Evidently these necessary personages were not easier to get along with in his day than in ours. One of the latter class caused him a deal of trouble once upon a time.
Beethoven was working upon the great mass in D. He began the work in 1819, and was to have had it ready for the celebration of the appointment of his friend, Archduke Rudolph, to the archbishopric of Olmutz, which was to take place the next year. But the mass grew in magnitude as Beethoven grew more interested in it, and when it was finally completed the celebration had been over for two years.
During its progress the composer missed certain sheets of his manuscript. He searched high and low, but nowhere could he find them. He called in the servant, but she was as ignorant as he of their whereabouts. Finally, when he had given up the search and was about to sit down to rewrite the Kyrie, the missing part, some loose papers with notes on them were discovered in the kitchen. They were brought up to his room, and there, begrimed by soot and dust, was the missing music.
The servant had removed them from his room one day when "clearing up," and had used the precious sheets to wrap some superannuated pots and kettles! As to Beethoven's words on this interesting occasion, deponent sayeth not.