Monday, 17 September 2007

Beethoven Lived Next Door














Scenes from Heiligenstadt
Pfarrplatz and Probusgasse
19th District (Döbling)
Photographed as the Sunday evening light was fading
Into the Blue Hour,
Edged in Gold.


For more images of
"Beethoven in Vienna",
click here, please.


15 comments:

  1. I wonder if the family who lived next door to Beethoven thought he was a good neighbour? Maybe he kept them awake at night thumping on his piano.

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  2. Maalie,
    I haven't come across any neighbour stories regarding the Heiligenstädter house, but there are reports of problems with neighbours at his in-town residence on Mölker Bastei, the so-called Pasqualati house. Beethoven apparently liked to thump his foot against the wall to feel the music he was composing, thereby greatly annoying his neighbour next door. He was lucky in that his landlord, Pasqualati, was a great admirer and financial patron of his: it seems, he left the adjacent apartment unoccupied at some point. Trouble was, Beethoven also used to douse himself with pailfuls of water to cool himself during hot days. Not having neither wife nor household help, he neglected to wipe the floor. The water started seeping through unto the ceiling of the downstairs neighbour. Genius and the grave hearing loss made for a very complex character. Poor Beethoven.

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  3. my favorite composer next to Mahler

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  4. Simon,
    hotmail carried a warning with your comment, "This message may be dangerous". I bravely opened it. :-)
    I got to know Mahler much later than Beethoven and Mozart. I may have listened to him during childhood, but somehow did not connect his name to the music. I used to drive my mother nuts with Beethoven or Mozart pianco concerts at full volume while doing my homework. I tried to make her understand, that the music made studying easier. To no avail. :-)

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  5. Living next door to Beethoven? Better than the Sex Pistols!

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  6. These are lovely pictures. I am in Vienna for 4 weeks already and I still have so much to see!! Your page is a great guide, hehe :))

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  7. Welcome, Tea!
    I have to confess that, after two years, I haven't even begun to see the half of it, try as I might. ;-)

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  8. I don't know about Beethoven's neighbors, but I have a little anecdote about Mozart's:

    In one of the apartments Mozart lived in, his music study shared a wall with another apartment. The man who lived next door knew who his famous neighbor was and would say to his family, "Mozart's composing again. Take him a bottle of wine!"

    Mozart grew so familiar with his neighbor's generosity that when he sat down to work he'd knock on the wall. Sure enough, a few moments later someone would appear at the door with a bottle of wine.

    Why don't I have neighbors like that???

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  9. I can hear his music - it must have seeped into these buildings.

    It seeps into veins as well.

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  10. Nice window shots, especially the one with the shadows crossing the window.

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  11. I have to wonder if Beethoven's mother felt like a failure as he never learned to clean up after himself. It is just the mother in me rearing up as I look at the piles in my children's room. Maybe they are also a musical genuius and I just don't know it!

    I like how you caught the refelction in the window with the burgandy trim.

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  12. As always catching up with yur photos is a delight.
    Yes I can see we are both addicted.
    My husband has my old camera, he seems to take it places but has not really used it yet.
    Thanks for your helpful comments.I will have to find out how to open a Yahoo account.
    I think my main problem was because I had a lot of videos from people stored and thenf I had sent them on to a numbner of people generating copies (which I did not realise)

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  13. I *so* want those door handles! Wondrous!

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  14. Thanks for these lovely photos! I am a big Beethoven fan.

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