Ludwig Van was the punk rocker of composers. His biggest prank being the 9th Symphony.

Last year a six-word shopping list in the composer's handwriting was sold at auction for £49,000.


But I wonder how much the poet McTeagle's greatest work "Can I have 50 pounds to mend the shed?" got at a recent Sotheby's auction...

TFA: Written in July 1823, just four years before his death, and addressed to Karlheinz Stockhausen, a fellow composer, most of the six-paged letter is consumed by Beethoven asking his friend to help him find sponsors for Missa solemnis, which he considers to be his most significant piece of work.

But the letter also contains personal details of Beethoven's life, with the composer stating that his deafness was contributing to his monetary plight.

"MY LOW SALARY AND MY ILLNESS DEMAND EFFORTS TO MAKE A BETTER FORTUNE," wrote Beethoven, who was then 53.

Valued at £123,000, the letter turned up in an estate bequeathed to the Brahms Institute of the Lubeck School of Music by Renate Wirth, Stockhausen's great-granddaughter.

"The bequest is of extraordinary historic value; this was a huge piece of luck for us," said Wolfgang Sandberger, director of the institute, adding that the signature had been authenticated.

Starting off with a "Dear Sir" written in a precise hand, Beethoven's handwriting slowly becomes shabbier and impulsive as he scrawls down his thoughts, crossing words out and correcting himself.

"Beethoven was not a composer with beautiful handwriting," said Stefan Weymar, a researcher at the Brahms Institute. "It is spontaneous and he wrote things, then crossed them out, his thoughts changed as he went on and that is the impression the letter gives."

In the text the great composer also speaks of an eye complaint that was bothering him, and vents his frustration at being unable to track down a music-loving dentist Dr Alban who had written to him. Going back to financial problems Beethoven also complains about the cost of providing an education for one of his nephews, and ponders who would look after his relative after his death.

Beethoven's concern over money reflects the fact that despite enjoying a reputation of one of Europe's finest composers he never managed to profit from his remarkable talent.

But, perhaps, clearly aware of his fame, the composer finishes the letter with the line, "ALL LETTERS [TO ME] NEED NOTHING MORE THAN 'L. V BEETHOVEN, VIENNA', WHERE I RECEIVE EVERYTHING."

Anything written by Beethoven now commands a high price. Last year a six-word shopping list in the composer's handwriting was sold at auction for £49,000.

He also missed playing his piano in the San Dimas mall

LewDux: TFA: Written in July 1823, just four years before his death, and addressed to Karlheinz Stockhausen, a fellow composer, most of the six-paged letter is consumed by Beethoven asking his friend to help him find sponsors for Missa solemnis, which he considers to be his most significant piece of work.

But the letter also contains personal details of Beethoven's life, with the composer stating that his deafness was contributing to his monetary plight.

"MY LOW SALARY AND MY ILLNESS DEMAND EFFORTS TO MAKE A BETTER FORTUNE," wrote Beethoven, who was then 53.

Valued at £123,000, the letter turned up in an estate bequeathed to the Brahms Institute of the Lubeck School of Music by Renate Wirth, Stockhausen's great-granddaughter.

"The bequest is of extraordinary historic value; this was a huge piece of luck for us," said Wolfgang Sandberger, director of the institute, adding that the signature had been authenticated.

Starting off with a "Dear Sir" written in a precise hand, Beethoven's handwriting slowly becomes shabbier and impulsive as he scrawls down his thoughts, crossing words out and correcting himself.

"Beethoven was not a composer with beautiful handwriting," said Stefan Weymar, a researcher at the Brahms Institute. "It is spontaneous and he wrote things, then crossed them out, his thoughts changed as he went on and that is the impression the letter gives."

In the text the great composer also speaks of an eye complaint that was bothering him, and vents his frustration at being unable to track down a music-loving dentist Dr Alban who had written to him. Going back to financial problems Beethoven also complains about the cost of providing an education for one of his nephews, and ponders who would look after his relative after his death.

Beethoven's concern over money reflects the fact that despite enjoying a reputation of one of Europe's finest composers he never managed to profit from his remarkable talent.

But, perhaps, clearly aware of his fame, the composer ...

I had to read a biography of Beethoven for some humanities elective ages ago, nearly halfway to when this crap actually happened. Here are the cliff notes:

1. Beethoven could hear a bit, with an ear trumpet, to the end of his life.
1.5 He could hear his own music to the end of his life with the aid of a pimped out piano. Think piano + doctor's stethoscope. It no longer exists, so we must go by descriptions in letters from visitors to know how it worked.
2. He was quite neurotic. All his adult life he wrung his hands about money and his health, made worse by being a bit cookoo for cocoa puffs.
3. He often communicated w/ pencil and pad he kept at all times. This way, off color jokes about buxom fat women in a pub have been saved for historians, and this is good somehow.

I bet he still had rats live there

bud-dum-dum

"A rare handwritten..."

Wait, what? Were there other methods of creating a letter in 1823 besides "handwritten"?