Beer

(bar), (1) Jacob Liebmann. MEYER BEER. (2) Josef, Griinwald, Bohemia, 1744—Potsdam, 1811; player of the clarinet, for which he key. (3) Max Josef, Vienna, Aug. 25, 1851—Nov. 25, 1908; pianist; pupil of De off; lived in Vienna; composed 4 operas, incl. the succ. ‘“‘Der Striek der Schmiede” (Augsburg, 1897), etc. Beer-Walbrunn, Anton, Kohlberg, June 29, 1864—Munich, March 22, I929; Rheinberger, leader in Regensburg orch., later lived in Munich; taught piano and theory at Akad. there after 1901; prof., 1908; c. operas, many orch., chamber, piano works, etc. (bat’-ho-fén, not ba-td’vén), Ludwig van, b. Bonn-on-Rhine, Dec. 16 (baptised, Dec. 17, 1770) (Beethoven said Dec. 16, 1772), d. Vienna, March 26, 1827; grandson of Ludwig van B. (a native of Maestricht, ba singer, opera composer, and conductor to the Elector Clemens August, at Bonn), 2d child of Jn. van B. (a tenor singer in the Electoral choir), who had m. a widow, Magdelena Laym (née Keverich), a daughter of the chief cook at Ehrenbreitstein. B. studied at the public schools at Bonn till 14. From his fourth year, his father taught him music with great severity till 1779. He played the vln. well at 8; at 11 he knew Bach’s “‘W ohltemperirte Clavier.’ Became pupil of Pfeiffer, a music-dir. and oboist; and Van der Eeden, court-organist, predicted that he would be ‘‘a second Mozart”; 1785, studied vln. with Franz Ries; 1787, took a few le ons of Mozart; 1792, Haydn, pa ing through Bonn, praised a cantata of his (now lost). The Elector sent B. to Vienna, where he studied cpt. with Haydn, who seemed to neglect him, so that he secretly studied with Schenck; later he went to Albrechtsberger, who said ‘‘he has learnt nothing, and will never do anything in decent style’; he studied the vln. with Schuppanzigh and consulted Salieri and Aloys Forster; 1781, he is believed to have written a Funeral Cantata in memory of the English chargé d'affaires at Bonn, who had advanced money to the family; 1781 (1782?), his first publication, 3 pf.sonatas, 1782; deputy organist, 1783; cembalist for rehearsals of the operaorch., without compensation 178492; a t. organist at an annual salary of 150 florins (about $63); from 1788 also 2d viola of the theatre orch. Visited Vienna, 1787, and made a sensation by extemporising, Mozart exclaiming ‘‘He will make a noise in the world some day.” In July his tender-hearted mother died of consumption; his father lost his voice and became a sot. B.’s only home was in the family of the widow von Breuning, to whose daughter and son he gave le ons. Here he acquired his pa ion for English literature. He now made acquaintance of oung Count Waldstein, who became is life-long patron, and in 1792 sent him to Vienna, where he henceforward lived. The decade 1782-92 does not show much fertility in composition, half a dozen songs, a rondo, a minuet, and 3 preludes for pf., 3 pf.-quartets, a pf.-trio, a string-trio, op. 3; 4 sets of pf. variations; a rondino for wind; the ‘‘Ritter Ballet’ with orch. (pub. 1872); ‘‘The Bagatelles,” op. 33; 2 vin.-rondos, op. 513° the ‘‘Serenade Trio’ op. 8; the lost cantata, a lost trio for pf., flute, and ba oon, and an Allegro and Minuet for 2 flutes. 1792, he was sent to Vienna by the Elector, who paid him his salary for 2 years; he had growing royalties from his comps., 600 florins annually from Prince Lich now sky, his warmest admirer. March 29, 1795, he played his C major pf.-concerto in the Burg theater, his first public appearance; 1796, he played before King Fr. Wm. II.; 1798, at Prague, he gave 2 sensational concerts and met two piano virtuosi: Steibelt who challenged B to extemporise and was sadly worsted, and Wolff, who. became his friend. 1800 ends what is called (after von Lenz’s book ‘‘B. et ses trois styles’’) his ‘‘first period” of composition; the ‘‘second period,” extending to 1815; the ‘‘third” to 1827. This first period includes op. 1-18, pf. and string-trios, string-quartets, 9 pf.sonatas, 7 variations on ‘‘God Save the Queen,” and 5 on ‘‘Rule Britan- 9, nia,” the aria ‘Ah perfido,” etc. Now a severe and early venereal trouble affected his liver, and began to ruin his hearing, which by 1822 was entirely gone. Though he had always been brusque (especially with the aristocracy, among whom he had an extraordinarily long list of friendships and love-affairs), his former generosity and geniality speedily developed into atrocious suspiciousne and violence toward his best friends. The wild life of a nephew whom he supported brought him great bitterne . Until the beginning of the “third period,” however, he had large stores of joy in life, open-air Nature, and the details of his compositions which were worked up with utmost care from ‘‘sketch-books,”? always carried with him, and still extant as a unique example of genius at work. In the arbitrary but somewhat conveuient von Lenz cla ification the 2d period includes the symphonies III—VIII; the opera “Fidelio”; the to ‘‘Egmont”’; the ballet ““Pro me the us”; the Ma in C, op. 86, the oratorio ‘‘Christ us am Oelberg” (1803); the ‘‘Coriolanus” overture; 2 pi.-concertos, 1 vin.-concerto; 3 quartets; 4 pf.-trios and 14 pf.- sonatas (among them op. 27, op. 28, Bingeng. 2) 953.” O7ieaned OL)s> che “‘Tiederkreis,”’ etc. The “‘third period” incl. the five pf.-sonatas, op. 101, 111, the ‘“‘Mi a solennis,” the Ninth Symphony, the overture ‘‘Ruins of Athens,” the overtures op. 115, 124; the grand fugue for string-quartet, and the string-quartets op. 127, 130, 131, 132, 135 (F). ‘Fidelio,’ first named ‘‘Leonore,’’ was prod. Nov. 20, 1805, just a week after the French army entered Vienna. It was withdrawn after three consecutive performances; and prod. March 29, 1806, but withdrawn by B. after two performances. Once more revised, it was revived in 1814, very succe fully; the present overture is the result of various versions known as the Leonore overtures I, 2, and 3. The ‘‘Eroica’’ symphony (No. 3) was called “‘Sinfonia grande Napoleon Bonaparte” in honour of his advocacy of ‘‘liberty, equality, and fraternity.” Napoleon proclaimed himself emperor, B. tore up the title-page in wrath and changed the name to Sinfonia eroica compos i a per fest egg i are il sovvenire d’un gran uomo.® (Heroic symphony, composed te celebrate the memory of a great man.) In the Ninth Symphony, a choral Finale is used as the final addition to the orchestral climax of ecstasy (the words from Schiller’s “Hymn to Joy’). In 1809 Jerome Bonaparte invited B. to become conductor at Ca el with a salary of 600 ducats (about $1,500); but his Viennese patrons Archduke “Rudolf and the Princes Lobkowitz and Kinsky, settled on him an annuity of 4,000 florins ($2,000). Dec., 1826, a violent resulted in pneumonia; dropsy followed, B. saying to the doctors who tapped him three times and drew out the water, ‘‘Better from my belly than from my pen.” an illne of 3 months he took the Roman Catholic sacraments, a two: days’ of semi-consciousne followed and he died, just after shaking his clenched fist in the air, during a terrific thunderstorm, the evening of March 26, 1827. 20,000 persons attended his funeral. His complete works comprise 138 opus-numbers and about 70 unnumbered comp. those published. Instrumental.— 9 Symphonies—No. 1, op. 21, in C; 2, op. 36, in D; 3, op. 55, in Eb (the ““Eroica”’); 4, op. 60, in Bb; 5, op. 67, in C min.; 6, op. 68, in F (‘‘Pastoral”); 7, op. 92, in A; 8, op. 93, in F; 9, op. 125, in D min. (‘‘Choral’’). “The Battle of Vittoria” (op. 91); music to the ballet ‘‘ Pro me the us”. (op. 43), and to Goethe’s ‘‘ Egmont” (op. 84), both with overtures, besides, nine overtures—‘‘Coriolanus’’; “*Leonore”’ (Nos. 1, 2, and 3):/**7delio”; ‘‘ King Stephen”; ‘‘Ruins of Athens”; ‘* Namensfeier,” op. 115; “We the des Hauses” (op. 124). for orch.; Allegretto in Eb; March from ‘‘Tarpeia,” in C; “Military March,” in D; ‘‘Ritter-Ballet’’; 12, Minuets; 12, ‘‘deutsche Tanze’’; 12, Contretanze; violin-concerto, op. 61. Five pf.-concertos, the last op. 73, in « E (‘Emperor’); also a pf.-concerto arranged from the violin-concerto. A triple-concerto, op. 56, for pf., vin., ’cello and orch.; a “Choral Fantasia” for pf., chorus and orch.; a Rondo in B, for pf. and orch,; cadences to the pf.-concertos. Two Octets for wind, both in Eb. Septet for strings and wind: Sextet for strings and 2 horns. One sextet for wind, Eb. Two quintets for strings; fugue for string-quintet; also quintet arr. from pf.-trio in C min. string-quartets; Op. 18, Nos. 1-6 in F, G, D, C min., A and Bb (first period); op. 59, Nos. 1-3; op. 74, in Eb (the ‘‘ Harfenquartett”’); vocal canons. 7 books of English, Scotch, Irish, Welsh, and Italian songs, with pf., vIn, and ’cello. A symphony supposed to be a youthful work of his was discovered 1911 in the library of the University of Jena, by Prof. Fritz Stein, was performed there Jan. 17, 1910, and published Igi1; performed in Leipzig, Nov., 1911, and by Boston Symph., 1912. It is not generally accepted as Beethoven’s but is found weak and uninteresting, of Haydnlike simplicity, with echoes of Mozart. best biography is Alex. W. Thayer’s. Partial collections of Beethoven’s letters are pub. and his sketch-books are discu ed in Ignaz von Seyfried’s “Tudwig van Beethoven’s Studien op. 95 (second period); op. 127; op. 130; Op. 131; Op. 132; op. 135. A grand fugue for string-quartet, op. ¥33, in Bb (third period). One pf.quartet (arr. from the pf.-quintet); 3 juvenile pf.-quartets; five string trios; eight pf.-trios, that in Eb being juvenile; an arr. of the ‘‘Eroica” symphony. trios for pf., clar. and ’cello op. 11; in Bb and in Ep (arr. from septet, op. 20); trio for 2 oboes and cor anglais, in C op. 87. Ten sonatas for pf. and violin, incl. op. 47 (‘‘ Kreutzer’); rondo for pf. and vln.; 12 variations for do. Five sonatas and 31 variations for pf. and ’cello. Sonata for pf. and horn. Sonata for pf., 4 hands. 38 Sonatas for piano, incl. op. 27. Nos. t and 2 (‘‘Quasi Fantasia’), op. 28 (‘‘Pastorale’”) in D3; op. 53 (‘‘Waldstein’’) in C; op. 57 (‘A ppa tonata’”’) in F min.; op. 81 (‘‘Caractéristique’”—‘‘ Les adieux, V absence, le retour”) in Ep. Also 6 easy sonatas, 3 of them composed at age of 10; 21 sets of variations for pf.; 3 sets of bagatelles; 4 rondos; fantasia in G min.; 3 preludes; polonaise; andante in F (‘‘Favori”); 7 minuets; 13 Landler, for 4 hands; 3 marches; 14 variations. Vocat.—Opera ‘‘Fidelio,” ’ in 2 acts, op. 72. 2 Ma es, in C and D (‘“Solennis”). -Oratorio ‘‘Christ us am Oelberg,” op. 85. Cantata ‘Der Augenblick,’ op. (1814); also arr. as Preis der TonRunst. Meere tille und Gliickliche Fahrt, op. 112 (poem by Goethe). Scena and aria for soprano, Perfido,”’ with orch., op. 65. ‘‘Ak for soprano, tenor, and ba , ‘‘Tremate, Empt, Tremate,” op. 116. “‘Opferlied” for soprano solo, chorus, and orch. ‘‘Bundeslied” for 2 solo voices. 3-part chorus and wind. “‘Elegischer Gesang’”’ for 4 voice-parts and strings; 66 songs with pf.accomp.; one duet, ‘“‘Gesang der Ménche; 3 voice-parts a capp. 18 tm General ba , Kontrapunkt und in der Kompositionslehre.” from these have been published; a complete edition projected (1935) in Germany. Biogs. also by Schindler,. Nohl, Crowest, etc. Wagner wrote an estimate. The vast Beethoven literature includes studies of the composer by Bekker, Grace, Grove, Kalischer, Kerst, Herriot, Kullak, Mason, d’Indy, Mies, Newman, Roll and, Marion Scott, Sonneck, Specht, J. W. N. Sullivan, Ernest Walker, etc. Behrend, Elterlein, Harding, Marx, McEwen, Milne, Shedlock and Tovey; of the symphonies, by Berlioz, Edwin Evans, Sr., Grove, Tovey, and Weingartner; the string quartets by J. de Marliave (1928). A thematic index of his works was made by Nottebohm. (See article, page 485.) Beffara (béf’-fa-ri), Louis Franco is, Non an court, Eure, 1751—Paris, 1838; 1792-1816, commi aire de police, at Paris; musical historian.