CHAPTER III

THE NEW PATH

I tremble to the depths of my soul and ask my daemon:  “Why this cup
to me?”
—­Wagner.

Life at last has found a meaning. 
—­Wagner:  Letter to Frau Wille.

Reference has already been made to the fact that Beethoven’s opus 1 was published in 1795, something like three years after taking up his residence in Vienna, and when he was twenty-four years of age.  It consists of three Trios for piano and strings.  When Haydn returned from London and heard these Trios, the master criticised one of them and advised him not to publish it.  Beethoven thought this particular one the best of the three, and others concur with him in this opinion.  Shortly after, he published his opus 2, consisting of three sonatas dedicated to Haydn, besides variations and smaller pieces.  But this does not by any means give the amount of his compositions for this period, some of which were not published until many years afterward.

All this time, Beethoven, though playing frequently at the houses of his aristocratic friends, had not yet made his appearance in public, but about the time that his opus 1 appeared, he played at a concert given in aid of the Widow’s Fund of the Artists’ Society.  He composed for this occasion a Grand Concerto (opus 15) in C major for piano and orchestra, taking the piano part himself.  It was finished on the day preceding that on which the concert was held, the copyists waiting in another room for their parts.  At the rehearsal, the piano being one-half note out of tune, he transposed it into C sharp, playing it without the notes.  Very soon after, he appeared again in public, at a concert given for the benefit of Mozart’s widow, when he played one of Mozart’s concertos.  The beginning once made, he appeared rather frequently as a performer, not only in Vienna, but extended his trips the next year as far as Berlin, where he encountered Huemmel.

But Beethoven’s mind was always turned toward composition.  It had been the aim of his life, even at Bonn, to become a great creative artist.  For this he had left his native city, and the larger opportunities for musical culture afforded by his life in Vienna must have directed his thoughts still more strongly into this channel.  An important social event of the period was the annual ball of the Artists’ Society of Vienna.  Suesmayer, pupil and intimate friend of Mozart, the composer of several of the “Mozart Masses,” had composed music for this ball and Beethoven was asked to contribute something likewise, with the result that he composed twelve waltzes and twelve minuets for it.  He also had in hand at the same time piano music, songs, and studies in orchestral composition.  Nothing which he produced in these years, however, gave any forecast of what he would eventually attain to.  This is paralleled in the case of Bach, who, up to his thirtieth year was more famous as a performer than as composer.