, "I
have already composed music for this calamity," evidently referring to
the "Funeral March" in this symphony.

The opera of "Fidelio," which he composed about the same time, may be
considered, in the severe sense of a great and symmetrical musical work,
the finest lyric drama ever written, with the possible exception of
Gluck's "Orpheus and Eurydice" and "Iphigenia in Tauris." It is rarely
performed, because its broad, massive, and noble effects are beyond
the capacity of most singers, and belong to the domain of pure music,
demanding but little alliance with the artistic clap-trap of startling
scenery and histrionic extravagance. Yet our composer's conscience shows
its completeness in his obedience to the law of opera; for the music he
has written to express the situations cannot be surpassed for beauty,
pathos, and passion. Beethoven, like Mendelssohn, revolted from the idea
of lyric drama as an art-inconsistency, but he wrote "Fidelio" to show
his possibilities in a direction with which he had but little sympathy.

He composed four overtures for this opera at different periods, on
account of the critical caprices of the Viennese public--a concession to
public taste which his stern independence rarely made.

IV.

Beethoven's relations with women were peculiar and characteristic, as
were all the phases of a nature singularly self-poised and robust. Like
all men of powerful imagination and keen (though perhaps not delicate)
sensibility, he was strongly attracted toward the softer sex. But a
certain austerity of morals, and that purity of feeling which is the
inseparable shadow of one's devotion to lofty aims, always kept
him within the bounds of Platonic affection. Yet there is enough
in Beethoven's letters, as scanty as their indications are in this
direction, to show what ardor and glow of feeling he possessed.

About the time that he was suffering keenly with the knowledge of his
fast-growing infirmity, he was bound by a strong tie of affection to
Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, his "immortal beloved," "his angel,"
"his all," "his life," as he called her in a variety of passionate
utterances. It was to her that he dedicated his song "Adelaida," which
as an expression of lofty passion is world-famous. Beethoven was very
much dissatisfied with the work even in the glow of composition. Before
the notes were dry on the music paper, the composer's old friend Barth
was announced. "Here," said Beethoven, putting a