were Baroness Dorothea Ertmann and Maximiliane Brentano, both of whom belonged to Beethoven’s most intimate circle of friends, and had been honoured by having works dedicated to them.  The younger Rust was gifted with an extraordinary memory, and therefore it seems more than probable that he occasionally performed some of his father’s works in that circle.  On the other hand, we have Beethoven’s energetic nature holding aloof from anything which might influence his own individuality.”

There, in a few words, is the answer to our question.  And it is about the only one we can ever hope to obtain.  Rust was altogether a remarkable phenomenon, a musician born, as it were, out of due time.  If Beethoven, as seems quite possible, was acquainted with his music, then Rust exerted an influence over the master quite equal to that of Clementi.  It almost seems as if we ought to say, greater.

CHAPTER VII

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

Bach’s forty-eight Preludes and Fugues and Beethoven’s thirty-two Sonatas tower above all other works written for the pianoforte; they were aptly described by the late Dr. Hans v.  Buelow, the one as the Old, the other as the New Testament of musical literature.  Each fresh study of them reveals new points of interest, new beauties; they are rich mines which it is impossible to exhaust.  Bach seemed to have revealed all the possibilities of fugue-form; and the history of the last seventy years almost leads one to imagine that Beethoven was the last of the great sonata writers.  To this matter, however, we will presently return.  In speaking of the various composers from Kuhnau onwards, we have tried to show the special, also the earliest, influences acting on them; and we shall still pursue the same course with regard to Beethoven.  When he went to Vienna in 1792 he found himself in the very centre of the musical world.  Haydn, though past sixty years of age, was at the zenith of his fame; and Beethoven, for a time, studied under him.  Mozart had died in the previous year, so his name was still in everybody’s mouth.  The early works of Beethoven give strong evidence of the influence exerted over him by these two composers.  Then Prince Lichnowsky, the friend and pupil of Mozart, and Baron van Swieten, the patron and friend of both Haydn and Mozart, were among the earliest to take notice of the rising genius and to invite him to their musical matinees and soirees; and one can easily guess what kind of music was performed on those occasions.  But the little story of Beethoven remaining at van Swieten’s house, after the guests had departed, in order to “send his host to bed with half a dozen of Bach’s Fugues by way of Abendsegen” reminds us of another strong, and still earlier, influence.  At Bonn, under the guidance of his master, Christian Gottlob Neefe, Beethoven was so well-grounded in the “Well-tempered Clavier,” that already, at the age of twelve,