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Beethoven's Heiligenstadt Testament 277

93Beethoven's Heiligenstadt Testament

This famous document, drafted in the form of a testament addressed to his twobrothers, was found among Beethoven's effects when he died. It had been writtentwenty-five years earlier in the village of Heiligenstadt, on the outskirts of Vienna, atthe most critical moment in the composer's life, when he had had to face the fact thathis deafness was progressive and, probably, incurable.

For my brothers Carl and [Johann] Beethoven.o ye men who think or declare that 1 am hostile stubborn or 1/lisanthropic, hmvyou vlrong me you do no t know the secret motive of ,vhat seems thus to you, fromChildhood my Heart and Nlind ,vere inclined to the Gentle Feeling of goodv,riJl,indeed 1 ,vas ever disposed to accomplish great Feats, but only reflect that for thelast 6 years an incurable condition has seized me, ,vorsened by senseless physicians,cheated from year to year in the Hope of improvement, finally compelled to theprospect of a lastingAilment (vlhose Cming may perhaps take years or indeed beimpossible). Born ''lith a fiery Lively Temperament susceptible even to the Diversions ofSociety, 1soon had to keep to myself, pass my life in solitude, if1 attemptedfrom time to time to lise above all this, 0 hmv harshly then ,vas 1 repulsed by thedoubly sad Expelience of my bad Healing, yet 1 could no t say to People: speaklouder, shout, for 1 am deaf, alas hmv could 1 then acknmvledge the \iVealmess of aFaculty v,rhich ought to be more perfect in me than in others, a Faculty 1 once hadto the highest e g r ~ e of Perfection, such Perfection as onlyfevl of my Callingsurelyhave or have had-o 1 cannot do it. Therefore forgive me if you see me withdrav,ring ,,,hen 1 should gladly join you. NIy misfortune afflicts me doubly, since itcauses me to be misunderstood. Diversion in Human Society, civilized Conversation, mutual Effusions cannot take place for me. All but alone, 1 enter society nomore than is required by the most urgent Necessity. 1 must live like a Banishedman; if 1 approach a company, a ho t an.\iety invades me, because 1 am afraid ofbeing exposed to the Danger of letting my Condition be noticed-and thus has itbeen this half-year too, which 1have spent in the country, my wise Physician havingordered me to spare my Healing as much as possible. He nearly met my presentDisposition, even though 1 have sometimes let myself be led astray by an Urge forSociety. But ,vhat NIortification i fsomeone s tood beside me and heard a flute fromafar and I heard nothin,&' or someone heard a Shephe7-d Singing) and 1 heardnothing. Such Happenings brought me close to Despair; 1 was no t far from endingmy mvnlife-onlyArt, only al l held me back. Ah, it seemed impossible to me that 1should leave the vlorld before 1had produced all tha t 1 felt 1 might, and so 1sparedthis ,vretched life-b-uly '''retched; a body so susceptible that a somevlhat rapidchange can talze me from the Best Condition to the Vlorst. Patience-so nmv 1must choose Her for my guide, 1 have done s0--1 hope that my decision to

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27 8 The Classical Period

A Page from Beethoven's Heiligenstadt Testament. Dated 6 October 1802,signed, and sealed; but four days later Beethoven added a heartrending postscript. Hamburg) Staats- und Universitatsbibliothe1

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/ ~ ~ & / ~ ~ '/~ . , . / J . . . . ! . J J

~ ~ M -~ ~ ~A j l ~ _

The First Reactions to Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony 279,vholly forget me in Death. I have deserved it of you, for in Life I thought of youoften, in order to make you happy, so may you b e

Ludv,rig van BeethovenHeiligenstadt6th October1802Heiligenstadt lOth Octobel' 1802 and so I bid you farevlell-and sadly too-yes thecherished Hope-vlhich I brought here v,rith me, that I might be cured at least upto a Point-i t must abandon me completely nmv, as Autumn Leaves fall aVlay,

, ~ r i t h e r ; so has-it too wilted for me, I go from here-much as I came-even theHigh Courage-that often inspired me during the Lovely Days of Summer-hasvanished-o Prmridence-grant me one day of pureJoy-the inner reverberation ofULle Joy has so long been a stranger to me-o when-o when, 0 Deity-may I feelit once more in the Temple ofNature and j\tIankind,- Never?-no-o it would betoo hard.

Piero \Veiss (ed.), Letters of Composers Through Six Centuries (Philadelphia: Chilton Books, 1967), 167-69.

94

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The First Reactions to Beethoven's"Eroica" Symphony

Beethoven's Third Symphony (the "Eroica") represented a wilful break with traditionto those who knew him only through the first two symphonies and some other, earlierworks. The sheer length ofthe "Eroica" (about twice the length of normal symphonies)was in itself bewildering, Here is a review of its first public performance, on 7 April1805, by the Vienna correspondent of a German literary journal (Der FreymOthige).

Some, Beethoven's particular friends, assert that it is just this symphony which is hismasterpiece, that this is the ULle style for high-class music, and that ifit does not pleasenow, it is because the public is no t cultured enough, artistically, to grasp all these loftybeauties; after a few thousand years have passed it v,lli no t fail of its effect. Anotherfaction denies that the work has any artistic value and professes to see in it an untamedsui,ring for singulality which has failed, however, to achieve in any of its palLS beauty orULle sublimity and power. By means of strange modulations and ,riolent u-ansitions,by combining the most heterogeneous elements, as for instance when a pastoral in thelargest style is lipped up by the basses, by three horns, etc., a celLain undesirable Oliginality may be achieved "rithout much trouble; but genius proclaims itself not inthe unusual and the fantastic, bu t in the beautiful and the sublime. Beethoven himselfproved the correctness of this a..-TIom in his earlier works. The third pal1:y, a very smallone, stands midway between the others-it admits that the symphony contains manybeauties, bu t concedes that the connection is often dislLlpted entirely, and that