Without understanding alcoholism, one cannot understand Beethoven. This includes nearly all of his biographers.
“Beethoven is one of those historical figures so famous that everything worth knowing about him has been known for a long time.”
So writes Edmund Morris in a review of Jan Swafford’s Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph in The Wall Street Journal (“The Mystery of Creativity: The madder Beethoven got, the more lucid his musical intelligence became,” August 2-3, 2014).The trouble with Morris’s observation is, knowing is not understanding.
He says Beethoven was “so unable to relate to other people’s feelings as to suggest a modern-day diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome.” (For Myers-Briggs enthusiasts, this suggests he was either INFP or INTP.) “Nor did he ever really understand love….Hence the long list of occasions when Beethoven unfeelingly hurt those who loved him and whom he loved (or imagined he loved). Hence the stupid puns and incomprehensible jokes—not to mention the fits of paranoia—that make his letters read, on occasion, like the meanderings of a madman.” This suggests alcoholism. Finally, in the 17th paragraph, his “drinking too much” is mentioned, but without any mention of cause and effect.
Matt Goldstein’s website, which is dedicated to the “art and culture of eating and drinking” (albeit moderately), gets it right in his article, “Beethoven: Classical Musical Genius, Alcoholic, Abusive, Paranoid.” Goldstein begins the piece by stating the single most important fact about this subject: Beethoven “was a drunken mess….[who] drank heavily….[and] showed the classic signs of alcoholism.” While pointing out he was famous for “legendary and pioneering classical music,” Goldstein quickly points out Beethoven “was very difficult to get along with socially. Mostly drunk, Beethoven was notoriously mean, abusive and suspicious of everyone. Beethoven hated all of his servants, thought most of them stole from him and thought some were even plotting against his life.” All of his business partners were out to steal his money. Friends and family were “abused and distrusted. An infamous womanizer, Beethoven also moved 71 times, indicative of an alcoholic.” Goldstein, as good an analyst as he is, doesn’t get everything: “Although an alcoholic, Beethoven is one of the most influential musicians of all time with an immeasurable impact upon the world.” With respect Mr. Goldstein, the correct word is not “although.” Beethoven was an alcoholic and, therefore, needed to wield power over others. The world, if not friends, family and business partners, got lucky: this need compelled him to both abuse others and to overachieve.
Biographers have long known that Beethoven was an alcoholic. They don’t get the fact that his musical genius—especially a need to continue to write music as he went deaf—is best attributable to this addiction. Knowing is not understanding. Only by understanding addiction can we understand the alcoholic subject of a biography.