Your loving

FATHER,

Who fondly embraces you.

450.

TO THE ABBE MAXIMILIAN STADLER.

February 6, 1826.

REVEREND AND HONORED SIR,—­

You have really done well in rendering justice to the manes of Mozart by your inimitable pamphlet, which so searchingly enters into the matter [the Requiem], and you have earned the gratitude of the lay and the profane, as well as of all who are musical, or have any pretensions to be so.  To bring a thing of this kind forward as H.W.[1] has done, a man must either be a great personage, or a nonentity.  Be it remembered also that it is said this same person has written a book on composition, and yet has ascribed to Mozart such passages as the following:—­

[Music:  Bass clef]

and has added such things as,—­

[Music:  Treble clef, B-flat major.  A-gnus de-i pec-ca-ta mun-di.]

[Music:  Treble clef, B-flat major.  Qui tol-lis pec-ca-ta, qui tol-lis pec-ca-ta,]

as samples of his own composition!  H.W.’s astonishing knowledge of harmony and melody recall the old composers of the Empire,—­Sterkel, [illegible,] Kalkbrenner (the father), Andre, &c.

Requiescant in pace! I especially thank you, my dear friend, for the pleasure you have conferred on me by your pamphlet.  I have always accounted myself one of Mozart’s greatest admirers, and shall continue to be so to my last breath.  I beg, venerable sir, for your blessing, and I am, with sincere esteem and veneration, yours,

BEETHOVEN.

[Footnote 1:  Gottfried Weber, the well-known theorist, who was one of those engaged in the dispute as to the genuineness of Mozart’s Requiem.]

451.

TO GOTTFRIED WEBER.

April 3, 1826.

Holz tells me that it is your intention to publish a larger size of the engraving representing Handel’s monument, in St. Peter’s Church in London.  This affords me extreme pleasure, independent of the fact that I was the person who suggested this.  Accept my thanks beforehand.

I am your obedient

BEETHOVEN.

452.

TO HERR PROBST, MUSIC PUBLISHER,—­LEIPZIG.

Vienna, June 3, 1826.

SIR,—­

I always consider myself in some degree bound to make you the offer of my compositions when it is possible to do so.  I am at this moment more at liberty than usual.  I was obliged to give my minor works to those who took the greater ones also, as without the former they refused to accept the latter.  So far as I remember, however, you wished to have nothing to do with the greater works.  In this view, I offer you an entirely new Quartet for two violins, viola and violoncello; you must not, however, be surprised at my demanding the sum of 80 gold ducats for it.  I assure you, upon my honor, that the same sum has been remitted to me for several quartets.  I must request you, in any event, to write to me on this point