D-DGla, KK II Nr. 3019 (Minutes of the Privy State Council, 1787)

Bonn, January to December 1787

Location: Duisburg, Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen (D-DGla), Abteilung Rheinland, Kurköln II Nr. 3019, I and II

During the reign of Elector Maximilian Franz, most petitions and decrees were decided upon in meetings of the so-called Geheime Staats-Conferenz. These bulky protocol books are seldom consulted by music historians, and were largely overlooked by Thayer for his Beethoven biography (and as a result they appear in no later scholarship that relies on him). Their value is especially critical when the corresponding petitions and decrees have not survived, as is very often the case with court musicians. In cases where they have survived, the records here can sometimes clarify points of chronology or details of the decision-making process. One important subtlety has to do with the chain of command. Most petitions were not handled by the elector directly, so when a first decision is marked "dependirt von höchster Gnad," which can be understood as "referred to the highest authority," it is a sign that the matter was considered unusually important.

An index, organized roughly alphabetically by last names of petitioners, appears in the second volume from fol. 781r.

Here, the entries pertaining to court musicians are excerpted.

Transcription

[114v]
Bonn den 23. März 1787

514 gnädigste Anstellung des Joseph
Bachmeÿer als Hautboist bei
der Kurfürstl. Hof- und HofKap-
-pellen Musik auf die folgende
fünf Jahren à Dato des vorhe-
rigen Decrets mit 200. f. jährlichs.

[384r]
Bonn den 24. Julius 1787

[...]

[right side]
1318 Hofmusicus van Bethoven stellt
g[e]h[orsam]st vor, daß er durch die Langwierige
und anhaltende Krankheit seiner Frau
in sehr mißliche Umstände gerathen
und bereits genötigt worden seÿn,
seine effecten theils zu verkaufen,
theils zu versetzen, und daß er
sich dermalen mit seiner kranken
Frau und vielen Kinder nicht mehr
zu helfen wiße, er bittet: ihm
in mildem betracht deßen eine summe
von 100 rtl. vorschußweise auf sein
Gehalt mildest angedeihen zu laßen./.

[left side]
[first answer, struck through vertically]
dependirt von höchster
Gnad.

[final answer]
Ihro churfürstl. Dhlt haben
die Bittschrift zu sich
genohmen.

[490v]
1702 Beckenkamp

Translation

[114v]
Bonn, 23 March 1787

514 most gracious appointment of Joseph
Bachmeyer as oboist in
the electoral court music
and chapel for the coming
five years from the date of the preceding
decree, at an annual salary of 200 Florins.

[384r]
Bonn, 24 July 1787

[...]

[right side]
1318Court Musician van Beethoven testifies
most obediently that he, due to the prolonged
and continued illness of his wife,
has come into very adverse circumstances
and has already been required
to sell or to pawn his effects
and that he therefore
no longer knows how to help
his sick wife and many children.
He requests, in gracious acknowledgement
of this fact, that a sum of 100 Reichsthaler
be graciously granted him as an advance
on his salary.

[left side]
[first answer, struck through vertically]
referred to the highest authority

[final answer]
Your Electoral Highness has
taken possession of this
petition.

___

Further Reading

• Alexander Wheelock Thayer, Ludwig van Beethovens Leben, 3rd edition revised by Hermann Deiters and Hugo Riemann (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1917), I: 218.
• Theodore Albrecht (trans. and ed.), Letters to Beethoven and Other Correspondence (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1996), I: 7.