J. S. BACH Jonathan Berkahn - Victoria University - Victoria ...

voice ‘Parthie’, an oboe concerto, a set of variations for the piano and a fugue, composed by my dear
pupil Beethoven who was so graciously entrusted to me. They will, I flatter myself, be graciously
accepted by your Reverence as evidence of his diligence beyond the scope of his own studies. On the
basis of these pieces, expert and amateur alike cannot but admit that Beethoven will in time become
one of the greatest musical artists in Europe, and I shall be proud to call myself his teacher. 32
One wonders: did Haydn teach Beethoven just elementary counterpoint, or did
he also advise him upon these other works? The Elector replied:
the music of young Beethoven which you sent me I received with your letter. Since, however, the
music, with the exception of the fugue, was composed and performed here in Bonn before he
departed on his second journey to Vienna, I cannot regard it as progress made in Vienna. . . . I very
much doubt that he has made any important progress in composition and in the development of his
musical taste during his present stay, and I fear that, as in the case of his first journey to Vienna, he
will bring back nothing but debts. 33
The obvious conclusion—that Beethoven had misled Haydn about the extent of
his productivity in Vienna—may not necessarily be the case. Haydn’s descriptions are
vague, but it seems that most of the works he describes are thought to have been
written (or at least completed) in Vienna, and that for some reason the Elector was
mistaken. 34 The real mystery concerns the fugue—the only one of these pieces not
known to survive in some form. With Haydn, Beethoven studied only species
counterpoint—his first fugal exercises date from the following year. The fugato Hess
64, discussed above, would appear to have pre-dated these studies; was this the piece
that Haydn sent? The only other surviving possibility is a two-voice organ fugue
written in Bonn, WoO 31, ten years old by then. Yet the fugue was the only piece the
32 Cooper, Beethoven, p.47.
33 Ibid., p.48.
34 Ibid., p.48.
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