Johann van Beethoven

Johann van Beethoven

Johann van Beethoven^[1][2] (14 November 1740 – 18 December 1792) was a German musician, teacher, and singer who sang in the chapel of the Archbishop of Cologne, whose court was at Bonn. He is best known as the father of the celebrated composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827). Bonn was the place of his birth and death.

Life

Johann van Beethoven was the son of Ludwig (Lodewijk) van Beethoven^[3][4] (1712 in Mechelen – 1773 in Bonn) and Maria Josepha Ball (married 1733). His father was probably born in or near the Brabantian town of Mechelen (now in Flanders, Belgium), and had served as a musician in several communities in Flanders before moving to Bonn in 1733. There he served as a musician at the court of Prince-Archbishop-Elector of Cologne Clemens August of Bavaria , rising to the post of Kapellmeister in 1761. Johann also showed musical talent, and joined the court, primarily as a singer, in 1764. In addition to singing (his range, while usually described as that of a tenor, may have extended into alto and even higher registers), he played the violin and zither, and played and taught keyboard instruments of the day, including the harpsichord and the clavichord.

He probably met his future wife, Maria Magdalena Keverich (1746–1787), on a trip to Ehrenbreitstein. She was the daughter of the head chef to the Archbishop of Trier, whose court was there, and she had family connections in the court orchestra at Bonn. Already widowed at the age of nineteen, she and Johann were married on 12 November 1767 in the Catholic St. Remigius church, Bonn. Their first child, Ludwig Maria, was born in early April 1769, and died several days later. On about 16 December 1770 their second son was born; he was baptised Ludwig, after his grandfather, the next day. They had two more children that survived to adulthood, Karl (1774–1815) and Johann (1776–1848).

Johann realized Ludwig's talent and became his first teacher. It is said^{[by whom?]} that Johann was a violent father when it came to his son's playing. Whenever Ludwig played poorly, Johann would exclaim that it was an embarrassment to the family. Johann was an alcoholic, a situation that worsened when Maria died in 1787, after which time the family was increasingly dependent on young Ludwig for support. In 1789 the 18-year-old Ludwig obtained an order resulting in one half of Johann's pay being turned over to him for support of the family.

Johann died in 1792, not long after Ludwig moved to Vienna to study with Joseph Haydn. His employer the Elector wrote sardonically to a friend, "The revenues from the liquor excise [tax] have suffered a loss in the death of Beethoven."^[5]

Flemish ancestry

Despite his surname, Johann van Beethoven was only one half Flemish^[6][7][8]; his father Lodewijk was the last van Beethoven to be fully Flemish. Most of van Beethoven's most recent family came from what is now Germany, mostly the Rhineland Palatine area. Johann's son Ludwig is considered to be German, and people occasionally spell his name as von Beethoven, which is incorrect.

The Nazis were especially interested in Beethoven's background: "After making sure that Beethoven had no suspicious racial or national tinge of the non-Germanic in his background (clear evidence of his Flemish ancestry was denied in a series of articles), the masters of the Nazi propaganda and cultural machinery promoted his works as the essence of Germanic and Aryan strength".^[9]

Descendants

Johann's famous son Ludwig van Beethoven never married. Johann's second son Karl did have children, but none of his living descendants bears the name van Beethoven (the last to bear that name, Karl Julius Maria van Beethoven, died in 1917).

Notes

1. ^ Johann van BEETHOVEN, Tenorist an der kurfürstlichen Hofkapelle zu Bonn, geboren um 1740 in Bonn? (Religion: rk), gestorben am 18.12.1792 in Bonn, Sohn von Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (siehe IIb) und Maria Josepha BALL. Kirchliche Trauung am 12.11.1767 in Bonn, St.Remigius mit Maria Magdalena KEVERICH, 20 Jahre alt, geboren am 19.12.1746 in Ehrenbreitstein (Religion: rk), gestorben am 17.07.1787 in Bonn mit 40 Jahren. Schwindsucht, Tochter von Johann Heinrich KEVERICH, Kurfürstlich Trierscher Oberhofkoch, und Anna Clara WESTORFF. [1]
2. ^ Johan Van Beethoven, dus vermoedelijk geboren te Bonn omstreeks 1739. Hij werd opgeleid om zijn vader op te volgen, en werd tenslotte als hofmusicus aangesteld. Hij huwde te Bonn in de St.-Remigiuskerk op 12 november 1767 met Maria-Magdalena Keverich, geboren te Ehrenbreitstein bij Koblenz op 19 december 1746 en overleden te Bonn op 17 juli 1787. Johan stierf 4 jaar later op 18 december 1792. [2]
3. ^ Ludwig van BEETHOVEN, Kapellmeister der kurfürstlichen Hofkapelle zu Bonn, getauft (rk) am 05.01.1712 in Mecheln, St.Katharina, gestorben am 24.12.1773 in Bonn mit 61 Jahren, Sohn von Michael van BEETHOVEN (siehe I) und Marie Louise STUYCKERS. Aufgebot am 26.08.1733, kirchliche Trauung mit 21 Jahren am 07.09.1733 in Bonn , St. Remigius mit Maria Josepha BALL, geboren um 1714 in ? Gestorben am 30.09.1775 in Bonn. [3]
4. ^ Lodewijk Van Beethoven, gedoopt te Mechelen op 5 januari 1712. Na 12 jaar koraalschool en twee jaar bij meester Colfs was hij in 1727 haast 16 jaar oud : een degelijk gevormd koorzanger en organist. Op 2 november werd hij aangesteld tot plaatsvervangend tenor en enkele dagen later als plaatsvervangend dirigent van het koor van de Luikse St. Lambertuskathedraal. Daar, te Luik , moet de Keulse aartsbisschop hem gehoord hebben en troonde hem mee naar Bonn. In deze residentiestad der Keulse keurvorsten werd Lodewijk vanaf 1733 aangesteld tot bassist van het hofkoor met een jaarwedde van 400 gulden. Hij huwde te Bonn in de St.-Remigiuskerk op 17 september 1733 op 21-jarige leeftijd met Maria-Jozef Poll, een meisje uit Bonn. Lodewijk stierf te Bonn op 24 december 1773 in de ouderdom van 62 jaar. Maria-Jozef overleed op 30 september 1775. [4]
5. ^ MacArdle (1949, 537)
6. ^ R. Capell, Beethoven, in Music & Letters, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Oct., 1938), pp. 375-390
7. ^ Ernest Closson and Gustave Reese, Grandfather Beethoven, in The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Oct., 1933), pp. 367-373
8. ^ TF Howell, Beethoven's nationality, in The Musical Times, 1915. "The chief hereditary character of Beethoven was Flemish, and all else was what we now label German."
9. ^ Lewis Lockwood: Beethoven: the Music and the Life (W.W.Norton, 2005) p.419

References

• MacArdle, Donald W. (1949) The Family van Beethoven. The Musical Quarterly 35:528-550.

External links

• (German) Descendants of Michael van BEETHOVEN (1684-1749)
• Ludwig Van Beethoven: Family Tree
• "The 'Van' of Beethoven" by Herbert Antcliffe in The Musical Times, Vol. 77, No. 1117 (Mar., 1936), pp. 254-255 - Article explains how "A certain Ludwig (Lodewijk) van Beethoven was born at Mechelen as the son of Michiel and the grandson of Cornelius and of Catherina Leempoels..."

Persondata
Name	Beethoven, Johann van
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	14 November 1740
Place of birth
Date of death	18 December 1792
Place of death