WorkLudwig van Beethoven

(Dial article)

InferredNo work is named. Fuller refers to Ludwig van Beethoven — “I think Beethoven was just what he needed to be at that period of his experience. You ask if I can conceive of orchestral music greater than his.” — and the passage does not identify a specific writing.

AnalyzedQuotedReadMentioned

Documented 1844–1846

Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

Letters • Essays • Manuscripts

Selected engagements, in chronological order.

Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →

Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this work is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →

When Fuller engaged with this work

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed

IV. Transcendentalist

V. New York4records

VI. Europe5records

✦. Memoirs (1852)

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

1844—

The Letters of Margaret Fuller, Vol. III: 1842-1844

letter_0499.txt

analyzed · read

“I think Beethoven was just what he needed to be at that period of his experience. You ask if I can conceive of orchestral music greater than his.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Inferred No work is named. Fuller refers to Ludwig van Beethoven — “I think Beethoven was just what he needed to be at that period of his experience. You ask if I can conceive of orchestral music greater than his.” — and the passage does not identify a specific writing.

1845—

Letter to James Nathan

Letter XXV, p.68

quoted · read

“And yet," said Beethoven at such a time, " there is the god-like in man!”

Fuller, Margaret. Love-Letters of Margaret Fuller, 1845-1846. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1903.

Inferred Only a short quoted aphorism attributed to Beethoven, not a sustained excerpt.

1845—

Music in New York.

“Music in New York.”

mentioned

“We had so long been intoxicated and upborne by the passions and prolonged inspirations of that god of modern music, Beethoven”

Fuller, Margaret. "Music in New York." New-York Daily Tribune, 18 January 1845. · 18 January 1845

1845—

Review.

“Review.”

quoted · read5 selected passages

“I seized upon the pianoforte works of Beethoven as they successively appeared, and in them found a solace and delight such as no other composer afforded me.”

“I could not converse with you and yours with that peace mind which I could have desired, for the late wretched altercation was hovering before me, showing me my own despicable conduct.”

“I had been wrought into this burst of passion by many an unpleasant circumstance of an earlier date. I have the gift of concealing and restraining my irritability on many subjects”

“My compositions are well paid, and I may say I have more orders than I can well execute; six or seven publishers and more being ready to take any of my works”

“This beautiful country of mine, what was my lot in it? The hope of a happy futurity. This might now be realized if I were freed from my affliction.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Review." New-York Daily Tribune, 7 February 1845.

1846—

Music.

“Music.”

mentioned

“We must all have felt it to be a privilege of priceless value, that we are born in an age, through which are transmitted the inspirations of Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven”

Fuller, Margaret. "Music." New-York Daily Tribune, 31 January 1846. · 31 January 1846

1846—

‘Darkness Visible.’

“‘Darkness Visible.’”

mentioned

“repeating the cant and drivel of the Harbinger about Dante and Beethoven, or praising the chaste ‘creations’ of that most chaste and ‘spiritual’ creature, George Sand.”

Fuller, Margaret. "‘Darkness Visible.’." New-York Daily Tribune, 10 March 1846. · 10 March 1846

1846—

Dolores. By Harro Harring.

“Dolores. By Harro Harring.”

mentioned

“We see the poet, like Beethoven, is not inclined to take off his hat to a King, merely as King”

Fuller, Margaret. "Dolores. By Harro Harring." New-York Daily Tribune, 25 April 1846. · 25 April 1846

1846—

Mr. Fontana’s Concert.

“Mr. Fontana’s Concert.”

mentioned

“Haydn, Handel, Mozart, Bach and Beethoven, each in a different way, actually fulfilled vast desires of the soul”

Fuller, Margaret. "Mr. Fontana’s Concert." New-York Daily Tribune, 3 January 1846. · 3 January 1846

1846—

Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . IV.

“Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . IV.”

mentioned

“Monuments that have risen from the same ideas and in such quick succession, to Schiller, to Goethe, to Beethoven and to Scott”

Fuller, Margaret. "Things and Thoughts in Europe . . . IV." New-York Daily Tribune, 5 November 1846. · 5 November 1846

Undated

Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.

n.d.—

Miscellaneous Fragments

M-008.txt, Page 8 (lines 384-392)

quoted · readManuscript page

“Most men" said Beethoven "are touched by something good, but they are no artist-natures. — Artists are ardent. They do not weep.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Miscellaneous Fragments." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Inferred Recorded as a spoken saying attributed to Beethoven, not tied to Fuller reading a specific text.

n.d.—

On Beethoven

M-055.txt, Page 6

quoted · read2 selected passagesManuscript page

“it was his last wish that whatever might be said of him in his biography, "strenge der Wahrheit getreu, nach allen Beziehungen hin, gesagt werde...”

Inferred No work is named. The passage quotes, in German, Beethoven’s wish that his biography be “strenge der Wahrheit getreu”; no source text for the quotation is identified.

“Nur Liebe – ja nur sie vermag dir ein glücklicheres Leben zu geben!...”

Inferred Single truncated German sentence quoted, too short to meet the substantial-excerpt bar.

Fuller, Margaret. "On Beethoven." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

n.d.—

Letter to James Nathan

Letter XLII, p.137

mentioned

“we must pay our ransom out of our own earnings either in this world or the next, and the Beethovens the heaviest.”

Fuller, Margaret. Love-Letters of Margaret Fuller, 1845-1846. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1903.

Inferred No work is named. Fuller refers to Ludwig van Beethoven — “we must pay our ransom out of our own earnings either in this world or the next, and the Beethovens the heaviest.” — and the passage does not identify a specific writing.

Preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

Undated

Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.

n.d.—

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli

Mem-2-06, line 13960

analyzed · read

“she treated, in turn, Goethe and Beethoven, the Rhine and the Romaic Ballads”

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.