these lessons.  There is no doubt however, that Beethoven learned a great deal from him, as is evident from the exercises still in existence from this period, embracing the various forms of fugue and counterpoint, simple, double, and triple, canon and imitation.  He was thorough in his teaching and Beethoven was eager to learn, so they had at least one point in common, and the pupil made rapid headway.  But his originality and fertility in ideas, which showed itself at times in a disregard for established forms when his genius was hampered thereby—­qualities which even in Albrechtsberger’s lifetime were to place his pupil on a pinnacle above all other composers of the period, were neither understood nor approved by the teacher.  Under the circumstances, it is not surprising that the lessons continued but little over a year.  His studies in theory and composition seem to have come to an end with Albrechtsberger; we hear of no other teacher having been engaged thereafter.

Shortly after Beethoven came to Vienna, his father died, and soon after the two brothers Johann and Caspar, having no ties to keep them in Bonn, followed the elder brother, who kept a fatherly watch over them.  They gave him no end of trouble for the rest of his life, but Beethoven bore the burden willingly and was sincerely attached to them.  All the honor and nobility of the family seems to have centered in him.

On his arrival in Vienna he carried letters of introduction from Count Waldstein and from the Elector, which opened to him the doors of the best houses.  His intrinsic worth did the rest.  One of his earliest Vienna friends was Prince Lichnowsky, a person who seems to have possessed a combination of all those noble qualities that go to make up the character of a gentleman.  Highly cultivated and enthusiastic on the subject of music, he had the penetration to see that in Beethoven he had before him one of the elect of all time.  The Prince had been a pupil of Mozart and an ardent admirer of the deceased master.  Providentially, Beethoven appeared on the scene soon after Mozart’s decease, and received the devotion and admiration that had formerly been given Mozart.  In this he was ably seconded by his wife, who shared with him the admiration and reverential wonder which such highly endowed people would be apt to accord to a man of genius.  One of the first acts of this princely couple was to give Beethoven a pension of 600 florins per year.  This was but the beginning of unexampled kindness on their part.  They followed this by giving him a home in their residence on the Schotten bastion, and we find him well launched in the social life of the gayest capital in Europe.