Page 18 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • November 30, 2011 living, and they didn’t always keep their word. Things got worse. Just as Beethoven was hitting his stride as a performer and composer in his twenties, he realized that he was starting to go deaf. So he was not just an abused child but a handicapped adult. The deafness that he couldn’t acknowledge also messed up his ability to reach out to women and find the romantic and domestic companion he always longed for, and never found. The deafness obviously impacted his viability as a performer and interfered with his work. Except in his imagination, he could never hear a distant flute, the song of a quail or cuckoo, or a far-off shepherd singing to his flock. He recorded these sounds in his Sixth Symphony, illustrated in Walt Disney’s original “Fantasia.” Critics disagree over whether the real Beethoven would have found the Disney version sympathetic or synergistic, but I’ve always liked it. In the “Heiligenstadt Testament,” written to his two beloved younger brothers and not published until 10 years after his own death, Beethoven confessed to Carl and young Johann that he was distraught over losing his hearing and was contemplating suicide. He urged them to divide up the small amount of money he was leaving to them and to take care of themselves. Fortunately for the human race, friends talked him out of it and he dedicated the rest of his life to his art rather than seeking social adjustment. Beethoven also became disenchanted with politics. Like a lot of European artists who had to depend on the effete nobility for a pittance, Beethoven had hoped that General Bonaparte would extend the liberty, equality, and fraternity of the French Revolution – minus the Reign of Terror, which Napoleon never approved of – to the stodgy monarchies of Austria and the German states. Beethoven wrote the Third Symphony, the “Eroica,” in honor of Napoleon, the liberator of mankind – but when he learned that Napoleon had crowned himself Emperor of the French, Beethoven tore the original dedication to Napoleon off the manuscript copy and wrote: “To the memory of a great man.” He spent the rest of his life writing music for Napoleon’s enemies. “The Lord Nelson Mass” is still famous. This work was dedicated to the British Admiral Horatio Nelson who was killed fighting Napoleon’s admiral a year after the “Eroica.” “Wellington’s Victory” honored the Iron Duke for throwing Napoleon’s troops out of Spain, and “Yorck’s March” honored the Prussian Field Marshal Yorck von Wartenburg for “turning traitor” and turning his cannon on Napoleon’s forces while the French-Prussian Alliance was still temporary in force. Yorck’s “treason” was nullified when the rest of the Prussians joined him and helped the Russians, the Austrians, and the British put Napoleon out of business. The Fifth Symphony – the one everybody knows – was written to bury Napoleon rather than to praise him. The resonant motive of the first movement – dot dot dot DAHHHHH – became, some years after Beethoven died, Morse code for the letter V. Both sides borrowed that in World War II propaganda: the British said Beethoven’s V stood for “victory” and the theme is sometimes played at the end of British newsreels. The Germans said the v stood for “Vergeltung” (payback) and named the V-1 proto-cruise missile and the V-2 ballistic missile after the payback concept for Allied incendiary raids on German cities. One suspects that Beethoven would have hated Hitler far more than he hated Napoleon, but one also suspects that given British capers in Ireland and India and the alliance with the arch murderer Stalin, he wouldn’t have liked Churchill much either. Beethoven never cared for tyrants, foreign or domestic. His hatred for them was uncompromising and not affected by ethnicity. He was not impressed with royals either. He once criticized Johannes Wolfgang von Goethe, “the last Renaissance man” and the reigning genius of the age, for bowing to the nobility. “It is for them to bow to us, not for us to bow to them,” Beethoven said. His remarks on Clemens von Metternich, the Austrian foreign minister who helped get rid of Napoleon but later used his genius for temporizing to postpone the rise of democracy in Europe, are such that they cannot be quoted in a family newspaper. People may have missed the marathon in which all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas were played, back to back, by some very dedicated pianists. They may not go out and buy the 85-CD collection of every composition Beethoven ever wrote, although Jeff Spurgeon on WQXR said this collection is about the size of a lunchbox. Some of the pieces on it don’t show up on the radio, but they are delightful, even if some of them sound more like Mozart or Hayden than the Fifth Symphony. People who visit New York or see it on TV can hardly have missed the posters and announcements unless they don’t have access to WQXR (105.9 FM) or PBS (Channel 13). If the don’t support these two superb outlets of music and self-education, they might as well live in the world of the ice storm aftermath, because the rest of what is available without cable is an argument in favor of hibernation. The only bad thing you can say about Beethoven was that he wasn’t an American – but based on the way he felt about tyrants, tyranny, and pretentious purse-proud snobbery, his struggle with hardships, and the fact that he spent a large part of his life on the verge of going broke, he was a prototype of modern Americans. Or is that too much to hope for? Beethoven Month is coming to a close. As bad as things may look, we should all be thankful that there actually was a Beethoven Month and that the twin pillars of culture, WQXR and PBS, made it possible for everyone with an FM radio or a non-cable TV to know about it and enjoy it. The theme of Beethoven’s life seems to have been to defy threatening or hostile circumstances and get on with producing works that were never adequately appreciated during his lifetime, though they achieved world-wide fame afterward. During his lifetime and for generations afterward, Vienna was the world capital of music, but even in Vienna, his middle symphonies – every one between the third and the seventh – got largely negative reviews. The jolly eighth was well-liked, and the ninth, which was first performed when Beethoven couldn’t hear it, was hailed as a work of genius. Serious composers always knew Beethoven had what it took. When Josef Hayden, Vienna’s reigning composer at the time, first heard the young Beethoven perform, Hayden is said to have told Beethoven: “It is you who will console us for the death of Mozart.” I have always thought that the American equivalent would have been Don Siegel embracing John Milius and saying: “It is you who will console us for the death of Sam Peckinpaw.” Ideas like that convince me that no matter I how much I dabble in European culture, I am quintessentially American. Beethoven has it all for the 21st century. First of all, he was an abused child. His father, Johann, was just musician enough to recognize Ludwig’s talent and hired a fine music tutor for him, but he also forced little Ludwig to practice an absurd number of hours, and told people the boy was six when he was almost eight, so Beethoven could be the next Mozart, a child prodigy and a huge money-maker for a struggling family. Johann, who had a drinking problem besides his economic problems, sometimes beat Ludwig to make him practice harder, criticized him harshly when he made mistakes, and generally made his life miserable. When Beethoven went to Vienna and played for Mozart, Mozart found his playing noisy, but was not as impressed as Hayden would be. Beethoven also studied with Antonio Salieri. F. Murray Abraham made Salieri infamous in the 1985 movie “Amadeus” as the man who killed Mozart through obsessive malice, though this story is controversial at best and dubious at worst. The real Salieri, like the movie character, had enough talent to recognize Mozart’s far greater talent, though not to emulate it. However, Salieri helped Mozart sell his works and took care of Mozart’s two sons after Mozart died, either from a poisoning by a different rival or by plague, according to the two latest theories. Beethoven’s economic life was a teeter-totter – especially after his beloved and kindly mother died when he was 17 and his father took a deeper dive into drinking. Eventually, Beethoven had to get a court order to keep the old man from wasting his own salary and the money the composer was sometimes able to send home. Like most composers of his era, including Mozart, Beethoven depended on rich patrons who recognized his gifts for a large part of his Let’s be thankful for Beethoven Letters to the Editor Dear Editor: On Tuesday, Nov. 8, Midland Park chose us to be their town leaders and we thank you. Democracy took another step forward by all of us who took the time to vote. We respect your choices and we promise to keep everyone in mind while we make the important decisions for Midland Park. We want to hear from you. Come to our council meetings and state your concerns and ideas. Council meetings are held on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month at 8 p.m. unless otherwise posted on the town bulletin board. Once again, we thank you. Patrick “Bud” O’Hagan Mike Junta Nick Papapietro Midland Park Dear Editor: Thank you to those who voted for me for Wyckoff Township Committee. Although we came up short, I am especially grateful for the unwavering support I received from family, friends, and neighbors throughout the campaign. I am keenly aware that the greatest gifts in life are family and friends, and with these, I am truly blessed! Wyckoff is a wonderful town in which to live and raise a family. My whole life has been dedicated to helping people and promoting youth, including serving 12 years on the Ramapo Indian Hills BOE, coaching, hosting children from overseas receiving life-saving open heart surgery, and providing scholarships for our high school seniors. Candidates thank supporters Most sincerely, I want to let all of my Wyckoff neighbors know that it has been an honor and privilege to serve on the township committee. I am proud and thankful of the many outreach activities I have been involved with in the Wyckoff community over the years and I look forward to continuing these efforts for the betterment of our community. Thomas J. Madigan Wyckoff Expression of gratitude