improving, I shall then be able to respond to the many proposals from all
parts of Europe, and even North America, and may thus perhaps be some day
in clover.

314.

TO IGNAZ RITTER VON SEYFRIED.

1822.

MY DEAR AND WORTHY BROTHER IN APOLLO,--

I heartily thank you for the trouble you have taken in aiding my
_charitable work_.[1] I rejoice that its success is universally admitted,
and hope you will never fail to let me know when it is in my power to serve
you by my poor talents. The worthy municipal corporation is, no doubt,
thoroughly convinced of my good-will; in order to give fresh proofs of it,
we ought to have a friendly interview as to the mode in which I can best
serve the corporation. When such a master as yourself takes an interest in
us, our pinions ought never to droop.

I am, with the warmest esteem,

Your friend,

BEETHOVEN.

[Footnote 1: Seyfried, at a concert for the benefit of the Burgher
Hospital, performed Beethoven's grand fugue _Fest Ouverture_ (in C major,
in Op. 124), 1822, in celebration of the opening of the new Josephstadt
Theatre. The written parts were returned to him with the grateful thanks of
the committee.]

THIRD PART

LIFE'S TROUBLES AND CLOSE.
1823 TO 1827.

315.

TO ZELTER.[1]

Vienna, Feb. 8, 1823.

MY BRAVE COLLEAGUE IN ART,--

I write, having a favor to ask of you, for we are now so distant from each
other that we can no longer converse together, and, indeed, unhappily, we
can seldom write either. I have written a grand mass, which might also be
given as an oratorio (for the benefit of the poor, a good established
custom here). I do not wish to publish it in the usual way, but to dispose
of it to some of the leading courts alone. I ask fifty ducats for it. No
copies are to be sold except those subscribed for, so that the mass will
be, as it were, in manuscript; but there must be a fair number of
subscribers, if any profit is to accrue to the author. I have made an
application to the Prussian embassy here, to know if the King of Prussia
would vouchsafe to take a copy, and I have also written to Prince
Radziwill, to ask him to interest himself in the affair. I beg you likewise
to do what you can for me. It is a work that might likewise be useful to
the Academy of Singing, for there is scarcely any portion of it that could
not be almost entirely executed by voices. The more these are increased and
multiplied in combination with instruments, the