t deinem Gnaediger
Herr. Gott allein kann nur gnaedig geheissen werden._

BEST RAMPEL,--

You can come to-morrow morning, but go to the devil with your
"Gracious Sir," (Gnaediger Herr). God alone should be addressed as
"Gracious Lord."

This letter was published in the Beethoven number of _Die Musik_,
February, 1902.

CHAPTER XVII

LAST QUARTETS

Every extraordinary man has a certain mission, which he is called
upon to accomplish. If he has fulfilled it he is no longer needed
on earth, in the same form, and Providence uses him for something
else. But as everything here below happens in a natural way, the
daemons keep tripping him up until he falls at last. Thus it was
with Napoleon, and many others. Mozart died in his thirty-sixth
year. Raphael at the same age. Byron a little older. But all these
had perfectly fulfilled their missions, and it was time for them to
depart that others might still have something to do in a world made
to last a long while.
--GOETHE, _Conversations with Eckermann_.

In the midst of these ironies of fate, this satyr-play of the nether
forces with the master, in which he occupies at times so undignified a
position, it is gratifying to note that the artist-life goes on apace.
In the last quartets which now come up for consideration, the labors of
the tone-poet are brought to a close.

The quartet was a favorite musical form with the master. Here the more
intimate side of his nature is revealed. A more personal relation is
established between composer and audience than is the case in the other
forms in which he worked. As we have seen, the quartet, in the time of
which we write, was universally in use at informal gatherings for the
delectation of friends in the privacy of the home, and was not intended
for concert use. The stateliness which characterizes the large
symphonic forms is absent in chamber-music, but it has qualities of its
own which we value as much.

The last quartets owe their existence to Prince Galitzin, a Russian
nobleman, who had spent some time in Vienna in 1805, and became
acquainted with Beethoven at the house of the Russian Ambassador, Count
Rasoumowsky, for whom it will be remembered Beethoven composed three
quartets, opus 59. In November of 1822 the Prince wrote Beethoven in the
most flattering terms, asking him to compose three quartets at his own