\section{Ludwig van Beethoven}

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770\EnDash{}1826) a composer certainly as famous as Mozart. He was born in Bonn. In 1787, at age 17, he visited Vienna\EmDash{}and met Mozart. In 1792, at age 22, he visited Vienna again\EmDash{}a year after
\iftth
\begin{html}<a href='../virtuosi/kirchgaessner.php'>Kirchgaessner</a>\end{html}
\else
Kirchgaessner 
\fi
performed Mozart's new works for the armonica and Mozart's death, and a year after 
\iftth
\begin{html}<a href='../virtuosi/roellig.php'>Roellig</a>\end{html}
\else
Roellig 
\fi
moved to Vienna. In 1794 Beethoven moved to Vienna and made it his 'base of operations' for the rest of his life\EmDash{}as Mozart had before him. 

Unlike Mozart, there is no evidence that Beethoven was interested at all in the \glassarmonica{}. Its delicate sound, after all, hardly fits with Beethoven's musical aesthetic. 
%In 1806, when Kirchgaessner performed in Vienna again, Beethoven would have been in the city. Yet a search of his extant letters from 1790 to his death in 1826 yields no mention of either the armonica, Roellig, or Kirchgaessner.[ ??? K\"{o}chel, Beethoven's Letters 1790-1826, Vols. I \& II); 'Project Gutenberg' (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/13065); performed a text search for 'armonica', 'armonika', 'roellig', 'rollig', and 'kirch'. No mention of either the armonica, Roellig, nor Kirchgesnner. Beethoven did write a small Melodrama for the armonica in 1815, but it would appear that it wasn't important enough to warrant mention in his correspondence.]

The \Title{Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung} for April 1805 \footnote{col. 432} mentions a Kirchgaessner concert (``her last before her departure for Breslau'') and a repetition of a new symphony in D (no. 2) by Beethoven (``performed this time with much greater precision'')\EmDash{}both concerts taking place in Vienna.

In 1815 Beethoven was commissioned to write the incidental music 
(Op.202/WoO 96\iftth\begin{html}&mdash;click <a href='/armonica/scores/BeethovenMelodrama.pdf' target='_blank'>here</a> for the score\end{html}\fi) 
for a tragic play written by Friedrich Duncker (the King of Prussia's secretary) called Leonore Prohaska.\footnote{\BrThayer{}, 619} The play ``tells the story of a maiden who, disguised as a soldier, fought through the war of liberation.'' Among the movements for your usual Beethoven orchestra and chorus is a short little ``Melodrama'' for armonica and narrator\EmDash{}at the point in the play when the heroine Leonore is speaking to her true love from beyond the grave. The narration (written by Duncker) is as follows:

\begin{verse}
I entwined for you\\
Two flowers: one for love, and one for constancy.\\
Alas! All I have for you now are death's flowers!\\
And yet, from the earth on my tomb\\
The lily and the rose bloom anew.
\footnote{
Du, dem sie gewanden,\\
es waren dein zwei Blumen f\"{u}r Liebe und Treue.\\
Jetzt kann ich nur Todtenblumen dir weihn.\\
Doch wachsen am meinem Leicherstein\\
Die Lilei und Rose auf's neue.
}
\end{verse}

Due to financial problems the production of the play never occurred, so the piece wasn't performed in Beethoven's lifetime.\TODO{??? verify}

