The Portal of the House of the Teutonic Order in Frankfurt

On this speical page of our Biographical Pages we invite you to join us in follow Beethoven on his journey from Bonn to Mergentheim in the year 1791.   With respect to the occasion of this journey, Thayer Forbes reports:  

"At Mergentheim, the capital of the Teutonic Order, a grand meeting of commanders and knights took place in the autumn of 1791, the Grand Master Maximilian Franz presiding, and the sessions continuing from September 18 to October 20, as appears from the records at Vienna.  . . . " [Thayer-Forbes:  101 ].

The reason why Beethoven could also take part in this journey becomes clear from Thayer-Forbes' following lines: 

"The Elector's stay there seems to have been protracted to a period of at least three months.  During his visit there of equal length two years before, time probably dragged heavily, so this time ample provision was made for theatrical and musical amusement.  . . . Simonetti, Maximilian's favorite and very fine tenor concert-singer, and some twenty-five members of the electoral orchestra, with Franz Ries as conductor--Reicha was too ill--including Beethoven, the two Rombergs and the fine octet of wind-instruments, formed an equally ample provision for the strictly musical entertainments" [Thayer-Forbes: 101-102].

As TF [p. 102] further reports, the young actors, singers and musicians [with the exception of Simonetti and the female singers] travelled in two large boats up the Rhine and Main rivers.  What the Rhine might have looked like in those days can be seen from this Bonn picture from Beethoven's time:   

View of the Rhine at Bonn during Beethoven's Time

With respect to the beginning of the journe, Thayer-Forbes reports:  

"Before leaving Bonn the company assembled and elected the bass singer, Lux, king of the expedition, who in distributing the high offices of his court conferred upon Berhard Romberg and Ludwig van Beethoven the dignity of, and placed them in his service as, kichenboys--scullions.  It was the pleasentest season of the year for such a journey, the summer heats being tempered by the coolness of the Rhine and the currents of air passing up and down the deep gorge of the river.  Vegetation was at its best and brightest, and the romantic beauty of its old towns and villages had not yet suffered either by the desolations of the wars soon to break upon them or by the resistless and romance-destroying march of "modern improvement."  Coblenz and Mainz were still capitals of states, and the huge fortress Rheinfels was not yet a ruin.  When Riesbeck passed down the Rhine ten years before, his boat "had a mast and sail, a flat deck with a railing, comforbable cabins with windows and some furniture, and in a general way in style was built like a Dutch yacht."  In boats like this, no doubt, the jolly company made the slow and, under the circumstances, perhaps, tedious journey against the current of the "arrowy Rhine."  Want of speed as no misfortune to them, and in Beethoven's memory the little voyage lived bright and beautiful and was to him "a fruitful source of loveliest visions."" [TF: 102-103].

Let us also take a look at images of some of the places the two boats must have passed on their way from Bonn to Bingen:  

View of Drachenfels

Koblenz

Ehrenbreitstein

Lahnstein

St. Goar

Bacharach

Bingen

Let us read on in Thayer-Forbes's report:  

"The Bingerloch was then held to be a dangerous, as it certainly was a difficult pass for boats ascenting; for here the river, suddenly contracted to half its previous width, plunged amid long lines of rugged rocks into the gorge.  So leaving the boats to their conductors, the party ascended to the Niederwald; and there King Lux raised Beethoven to a higher dingity in his court--Wegeler does not state what it was--and confirmed his appointment by a diploma, or letters patent, dated on the heights above Ruedesheim.  . . . " [TF: 103].

Rüdesheim at the Rhine

As TF [p. 103] further reports, the diploma was "attached by a thread ravelled from a sail," and on a small box, a huge pitch seal was applied, so that the entire instrument looked very impressive.  Relying on Wegeler, writes that as late as in 1796, when Wegeler was still in Vienna, Beethoven still had the dimploma. 

Thayer-Forbes then discusses the first stopover of the musicians in Aschaffenburg:  

Aschaffenburg-Stich Merians

"At Aschaffenburg-am-Main was the large summer palce of the Electors of Mainz; and here dwelt Abbé Sterkel, now a man of 40 years; a musician from his infancy, one of the first pianists of all germany and without a rival in this part of it, except perhaps Vogler of Mannheim.  His style both as composer and pianist had been refined and cultivated to the utmost, both in Germany and Italy, and his playing was in the highest degree light, graceful, pleasing--as Ries described it to Wegeler, "somewhat ladilike."  Ries and Simrock took the two young Rombergs and BEethoven to pay their respects to the master, "who, complying with the general request, sat himself down to play.  Beethoven, who up to this time, knew noting of the finer nuances in the handling of the instrument; his playing was rude and hard.  Now he stood with attention all on a strain by the side of Sterkel"; for this grace and delicacy, if not power of execution, which he now heard were a new revelation to him.  After Sterkel had finished, the young Bonn concertlayer was invited to take his place at the instrument; but he naturally hesitated to exhibit himself after such a display.  The shrewd  Abbé, however, brought him to it by a pretence of doubting his ability.

   A year or two before, Kapellmeister Vincenzo Righini, a colleague of Sterkel in the service of the Elector of Mainz, had published Dodeci Ariette, one of which, "Vieni (Venni) Amore," was a melody with five vocal variations, to the same accompaniment.  Beethoven, taking this melody as his theme, had composed, dedicated to the Countess of Hatzfeld and published twenty-four variations for the pianoforte upon it.  Some of these were very difficult, and Sterkel now expressed his doubts if their author could himself play them.  His honour thus touched, "Beethoven played not only these variations so far as he could remember them (Sterkel could not find them), but went on with a number of others no less difficult, all to the great surprise of the listeners, perfectly, and in the ingratiating manner that had struck him in Sterkel's playing" [TF: 103-104].

Via what route the Bonn musicians went from Aschaffenburg-am-Main to Mergentheim at the Tauber river is not known from Thayer-Forbes.  One possibility would have been that they might have travelled on up the Main river with their boats, passing Miltenberg and, from Wertheim on, the place where the Tauber river flows into the Main, following the Tauber river by land to Mergentheim.   

Miltenberg-am-Main

View of Wertheim

With respect to the "actual" purpose of this journey, the meeting of the Teutonic Order at Mergentheim, we might wish to take a look at the Deutscherrenschloss at Mergentheim:  

 

Side View of the Deutschordenschloss

 

However, let us return to Thayer-Forbes's report in order to find out whose acquaintance the Bonn musicians made there, as well:  

"Once in Mergentheim the merry monarch and his jolly subjects had other things to think of and seem to have made a noise in the world in more senses than one.  At all events Carl Ludwig Junker, Chaplain at Kirchberg, the residence of Prince Hohenlohe, heard of them and then went over to hear them. . . . " [TF: 104].

Kirchberg

What did Junker have to do with music?  

"Junker was a dilletante composer and the author of some half-dozen small works upon music--musical almanacs published anonymously, and the like, all now forgotten save by collectors, as are his pianoforte concertos--but at that time he was a man of no small mark in the musical world of Western Germany.  He came over to Mergentheim, was treated with great attention by the Elector's musicians, and showed his gratitude in a long letter to Bossler's Musikal. Correspondenz (Speyer, November 23, 1791), in which superlatives somewhat abound, but which is an exquisite piece of gossip and gives the liveliest picture that exists of the "Kapelle." . . . " [TF: 104].

Let us gain our own impression:  

" . . . Here I was also an eye-witness to the esteem and respect in which this chapel stands with the Elector.  Just as the rehearsal was to begin Ries was sent for by the Prince, and upon his return brought a bag of gold.  'Gentlemen,' said he, 'this being the Elector's name-day he sends you a present of a thousand thalers.'  And again, I was eye-witness of this orchestra's surpassing excellence.  Herr Winneberger, Kapellmeister at Wallenstein, laid before it a symphony of his own composition, which was my no means easy of execution, especially for the wind-instruments, which had several solos concertante.  An hour after the dinner-music the concert began.  It was opened with a symphony of Mozart; then followed a recitative and air sung by Simonetti; next, a violoncello concerto played by Herr Romberger [Bernhard Romberg]; fourth, a symphony by Pleyel; fifth, an air by Righini, sung by Simonetti; sixth, a double concerto for violin and violoncello played by the two Rombergs; and the closing piece was the symphony by Winneberger, which had very many brilliant passages.  The opinion already expressed as to the performance of this orchestra was confirmed.  It was not possible to attain a higher degree of exactness.  Such perfection in the pianos, fortes, rinforzandos--such a swelling and gradual increase of tone and then such an almost imperceptible dying away, from the most powerful to the lightest accents--all this was formerly to be heard only  in Mannheim.  It would be difficult to find another orchestra in which the violins and basses are throughout in such excellent hands. . . . The members of the chapel, almost without exception, are in their best years, glowing with health, men of culture and fine personal appearance.  They form truly a fine sight, when one adds the splendid uniform in which the Elector has clothed them--red, and richly trimmed with gold" [TF: 104-105].

 In his report, Junker also mentions Beethoven: 

'I heard also one of the greatest of pianists--the dear, good Bethofen, some compositions by whom appeared in the Speier Blumenlese in 1783, written in his eleventh year. True, he did not perform in public, probably the instrument here was not to his mind. It is one of Spath's make, and at Bonn he plays upon one by Steiner. But, what was infinitely preferable to me, I heard him extemporize in private; yes, I was even invited to propose a theme for him to vary. The greatness of this amiable, light-hearted man, as a virtuoso, may in my opinion be safely estimated from his almost inexhaustible wealth of ideas, the altogether characteristic style of expression in his playing, and the great execution which he displays. I know, therefore, no one thing which he lacks, that conduces to the greatness of an artist. I have heard Vogler upon the pianoforte--of his organ playing I say nothing, not having heard him upon that instrument--have often heard him, heard him by the hour together, and never failed to wonder at his astonishing execution; but Bethofen, in addition to the execution, has greater clearness and weight of idea, and more expression--in short, he is more for the heart--equally great, therefore, as an adagio or allegro player. Even the members of this remarkable orchestra are, without exception, his admirers, and all ears when he plays. Yet he is exceedingly modest and free from all pretension. He, however, acknowledged to me, that, upon the journeys which the Elector had enabled him to make, he had seldom found in the playing of the most distinguished virtuosi that excellence which he supposed he had a right to expect. His style of treating his instrument is so different from that usually adopted, that it impresses one with the idea, that by a path of his own discovery he has attained that height of excellence whereon he now stands.

'Had I acceded to the pressing entreaties of my friend Bethofen, to which Herr Winneberger added his own, and remained another day in Mergentheim, I have no doubt he would have played to me hours; and the day, thus spent in the society of these two great artists, would have been transformed into a day of the highest bliss.'"  [TF:104-105].

That at Mergentheim, Beethoven also made music elsewhere and that there is even a "Beethoven-Haus" there, is what the following pictures indicate:  

 

The Deutschordenplatz at Mergentheim

 

 

The Memorial Plaque at the "Mergentheim Beethoven-Haus" at the Deutschordenplatz 1 [The above plaque indicates that in 1791, in this building, the 21-year-old Beethoven, violist in the orchestra of the Grand Master Maximilian Franz of Austria, played for the family of the Chancellor of the Order, [von] Breuning.]

As we learned from Junker's report of the concert he heard, no work by Beethoven was played.  With respect to this, TF lets Wegeler report:  

" . . . Later this cantata was supposed to be performed in Mergentheim, but several places were so difficult for the wind players that some musicians explained that they couldn't be played and the performance was cancelled" [TF: 105].

TF points out that this cantata must have been the Joseph Cantata. 

After Junker's above report of the 'dear Beethoven', In conclusion, it might be fitting round out our image of Beethoven during this journey, to insert a more 'hefty' memory that touches on the topic of Beethoven and women.  Nikolaus Simrock recalls this event:  

" . . . upon he journey to Mergentheim recorded in the earlier pages of this work, it happened at some place where the company dined, that some of the young men prompted the waiting-girl to ply off her charms upon Beethoven.  He received her advances and familiarities with repellent coldness; and as she, encouraged by the others, still persevered, he lost his patience, and put an end to her importunities by a smart box on the ear" [TF: 245].

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Bibliography: 

Thayer's Life of Beethoven, edited by Elliott Forbes. Princeton, New Jersey Princeton University Press, 1964.