Beethoven

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Beethoven, by George Alexander Fischer This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: Beethoven Author: George Alexander Fischer Release Date: February 22, 2005 [eBook #15141] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEETHOVEN*** E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Karina Aleksandrova, Ralph Janke, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team Transcriber's Notes 1. Corrected spelling of Maelzel's invention in one place from 'Panharmonican' to 'Panharmonicon'. 2. In the index, corrected 'Krumpholtz' to 'Krumpholz', 'Origen of the dance' to 'Origin of the dance', and 'Neafe' to 'Neefe'. BEETHOVEN BEETHOVEN A CHARACTER STUDY TOGETHER WITH WAGNER'S INDEBTEDNESS TO BEETHOVEN BY GEORGE ALEXANDER FISCHER Es kann die Spur von meinen Erdentagen Nicht in Aeonen untergehn. GOETHE. NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1905 THE TROW PRESS, NEW YORK TO THE MEMORY OF My father CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. Early Promise 1 II. The Morning of Life 19 III. The New Path 30 IV. Heroic Symphony 40 V. Fidelio 46 VI. The Eternal Feminine 58 VII. Victory from Defeat 73 VIII. Meeting with Goethe 80 IX. Optimistic Trend 93 X. At the Zenith of His Fame 102 XI. Methods of Composition 119 XII.