Burundi: Composers, 2011

 

Burundi issued sheet of stamps in 2011. It is four stamps in a mini-sheet. My version is not perforated. I am fairly certain a perforated version is available. This sheet is Scott #975. It shows Amadeus Mozart with a keyboard and musical score; Beethoven with organ pipes; Antonio Vivaldi with a violin; and Chopin with a piano. It seems there were also issued a set of 4 individual stamps, #971-974 showing the same composers but with different background elements. (Hans Timmerman's site shows the Beethoven stamp as a sheetlet of four identical stamps. It is denominated 1020 francs, rather than 1090 as described in Scott, and it has the same background (pipes) instead of the monument described in the catalog.) It may be possible to discern what organ is shown in the Beethoven stamp, but I am not able to figure it out. My version is in mint condition, from County Stamp Center.

Burrundi: Beethoven

Burundi issued this mini-sheet of four stamps in 2011. Mine happens to be imperforate; a perforated version is available. The sheet is called "Composers" and shows portraits of Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi, and Chopin. The image of Beethoven includes organ pipes in the background. There is not quite enough detail to the rendering for me to determine if this is a specific instrument or not, and if so what instrument it might be. The sheet's selvage includes more images, presumably of (other) composers, though I cannot determine who they are. LR may be Liszt. UR looks somewhat like the Bach statue in Leipzig.

Maldive Islands: Beethoven, part 2

This is a follow-up to my original post on the Maldive Islands stamp that features Beethoven and the Court Organ at Bonn.

In the August 2013 issue of The American Organist (TAO), the journal of the American Guild of Organists, there is a review (pp. 72-73) of a recently published book on the history of the organ in the Schlosskirche zu Bonn. The compelling review mentions a few tidbits that are helpful in understanding the content of the Maldive Islands stamp. The most recent work on the organ was completed in 2012 by the Klais firm of Germany. The organ in the Schlosskirche during Beethoven's time was by Riedler. The specification of that instrument is not known. Beethoven was the second court organist, serving from 1784 when he was age 14, for 8 years. The Schlosskirche provides quite a bit of helpful information about their Klais instrument on their website, including the specification.

Maldives: Beethoven

The nation of Maldive Islands issued a large set of stamps commemorating the 150th anniversary of the death of Ludwig van Beethoven in 1977. The Maldive Islands are a collection of many small islands in the Indian Ocean. They were at one time a British Protectorate, but gained independence and formed a republic in 1965/1968. This stamp is part of a set of eight stamps (Scott 669-676), plus a small souvenir sheet (Scott 677). The low-value of the set depicts Beethoven as "court organist" in Bonn and includes a rendering of what is presumed to be the Court Organ.  I had never thought of Beethoven as an organist, but apparently early on, he did indeed play the organ.

Since this was an aspect of Beethoven I had never encountered, I did some checking of sites that included biographies of the composer:

First this: The most notable of his teacher was Christian Gottlob Neefe, who was responsible for introducing young Ludwig to the music of JS Bach. By 1782, Beethoven was already assisting Neefe as deputy court organist in Bonn, and it was in the same year that his first work, a set of variations on a march theme by Dressler, was published.



Then this: In June 1784, on Neefe’s recommendations Ludwig Van Beethoven was appointed organist of the court of Maximillian Franz, the Elector of Cologne. Beethoven was 14 years old. This post enabled him to frequent new social circles, other than those of his father and family. Here he met people who were to remain his friends for the rest of his life: The Ries family, the Von Breuning family, and the charming Elenore, Karl Amenda—the violinist, Franz Gerhard Wegeler—a doctor, and a dear friend who also went to Vienna.


And finally: By the age of eleven, Beethoven was studying with Christian Gottlob Neefe, who became court organist to the elector in 1781. Neefe gave Beethoven lessons in theory, composition, organ, piano, and continuo playing, as well as opening Beethoven up to the world of J. S. Bach. Neefe then hired the promising boy as his assistant while continuing his musical education. When Neefe left Bonn for a few weeks in 1782, the eleven year-old Beethoven successfully took over Neefe's duties.

However, despite all of this, I cannot find any information about the organ itself. I would be happy to hear from anyone who can provide such information. Though it's obvious he played the organ, I have not ever encountered any compositions for the instrument among Beethoven's oeuvre, though I've been wrong before.