The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

[Born at Bonn, in Rhenish Prussia, 1770. Died at Vienna, 1827. Aged 57.] This great composer was taught music from his childhood; but it was not until his twelfth year that he at all developed his genius. Sent to Vienna, he was placed there under the care of the Chapel-Master, Albrechtsberger, in spite of whose cold and conventional instruction he advanced in knowledge and strength, and excited general attention by his extraordinary gift of improvisation, and marvellous execution. In 1805, he composed “Fidelio;” then followed his oratorio of “Christ on the Mount of Olives,” the “Heroic” and “Pastoral” symphonies, and his pianoforte Concertos. At this time Beethoven had scarcely the means of subsistence, and to save him from want, a pension of four thousand florins was settled upon him by the Austrian government. He fixed his abode at the village of Baden, near Vienna, and his life became one of retirement and self-nurture. He composed his music in his solitary rambles. The wildest scenery to him was the choicest, for he shrank from intercourse with men. His habits were known and respected. He died unmarried. From his twenty-sixth year he had been deaf; but he was otherwise robust. He was passionately fond of Scott’s romances, and these works, with the “Odyssey” of Homer, were his consolations during the illness of which he died. His fertility and variety of production are marvellous. The passionate soul of melody possessed him. His works are rich in harmony, tinctured it may be with the delicate mysticism that ruled his genius in its silent haunts. [By Ernst Hähnel, of Dresden. Plaster. 1847. In the possession of the artist, who executed the large statue of Beethoven in bronze, which stands in the Place at Bonn. This was the study from the life, for the head of the statue.] 321*. FERDINANDO PAER. _Musical Composer._ [Born at Parma, in Italy, 1771. Died 1839. Aged 68.] At sixteen, Paer began to write for the stage. Before he was twenty-six he had already produced twenty-two operas, all in the conventional style of the old Italian operas, and after the manner of Cimarosa and Paisiello. After 1797, a laudable change is remarked in his style--more force in the harmonies, more variety in the modulations, with richer and more effective instrumentation. In 1801, appointed by the Elector of Saxony Chapel-Master in Dresden, and, favoured by the repose afforded here, Paer still improved his style. In 1806, Dresden was taken by the French. The musician transferred his services to Napoleon, and accompanied his new master to Paris. In 1810, revisited his native city, and there composed his master-piece, the opera of Agnèse. His subsequent career is remarkable for little more than for petty intrigues against rival composers, and--after his appointment as Director of the Italian Opera in Paris in 1812--for miserable squabbles with actors and musicians. He ceased to be an artist, and condescended to become a mere courtier and “homme de salon.” His death was accelerated by long-continued habits of intemperance. Paer was gifted with great fluency, and his works have brilliancy and spirit; but he is without originality, force, and dramatic power. [Bust to come.]