by that time be completed.  As the editor was in the mean time taken ill, he was not able to call for the work himself, and was thus obliged to give up this interesting visit.  He therefore requested his mother to apply for the waltz, &c., and to express his thanks; but the housekeeper, to whom she gave her name, refused to admit her, saying she could not do so, ’for her master was in such a crazy mood.’  As at this very moment Beethoven chanced to put his head in at the door, she hurried the lady into a dark room, saying, ’Hide yourself, as it is quite impossible that anyone can speak to him to-day,’ getting out of the way herself as fast as she could.  A couple of days afterwards Beethoven sent the waltz, &c., to the house of the musical editor in question, with the above letter.”]

403.

TO F. RIES.

Vienna, April 9, 1825.

MY DEAR GOOD RIES,—­

I write only what is most pressing!  So far as I can remember in the score of the Symphony [the 9th] that I sent you, in the first hautboy, 242d bar, there stands [Music:  F E D] instead of [Music:  F E E].  I have carefully revised all the instrumental parts, but those of the brass instruments only partially, though I believe they are tolerably correct.  I would already have sent you my score [for performance at the Aix musical festival], but I have still a concert in prospect, if indeed my health admits of it, and this MS. is the only score I possess.  I must now soon go to the country, as this is the only season when I profit by it.

You will shortly receive the second copy of the “Opferlied;” mark it at once as corrected by myself, that it may not be used along with the one you already possess.  It is a fine specimen of the wretched copyists I have had since Schlemmer’s death.  It is scarcely possible to rely on a single note.  As you have now got all the parts of the finale of the Symphony copied out, I have likewise sent you the score of the choral parts.  You can easily score these before the chorus commences, and when the vocal parts begin, it could be contrived, with a little management, to affix the instrumental parts just above the scored vocal parts.  It was impossible for me to write all these out at once, and if we had hurried such a copyist, you would have got nothing but mistakes.

I send you an Overture in C, 6/8 time, not yet published; you shall have the engraved parts by the next post.  A Kyrie and Gloria, two of the principal movements (of the solemn Mass in D major), and an Italian vocal duet, are also on their way to you.  You will likewise receive a grand march with chorus, well adapted for a musical performance on a great scale, but I think you will find what I have already sent quite sufficient.

Farewell!  You are now in the regions of the Rhine [Ries at that time lived at Godesberg, near Bonn], which will ever be so dear to me!  I wish you and your wife every good that life can bestow!  My kindest and best regards to your father, from your friend,