BEE 



161 



BEE 



the name of sugar from beet-root. Five tons of clean roots 

 produce 9bout -li c\vt. of coarse sugar, which give about 

 160 Ibs. of double-refined sugar, and 60 Ibs. of inferior lump- 

 sugar. The rest is molasses, from which a good spirit is 

 distilled. The dry residue of the roots, after expressing the 

 juice, consists chiefly of fibre and mucilage, and amounts to 

 about one-fourth of the weight of the clean roots used. It 

 contains all the nutritive part of the root, with the exception 

 of 4i per cent, of sugar, which has been extracted from the 

 juice, the rest being water. Two pounds of this dry residue, 

 and half a pound of good hay, are considered as sufficient 

 food for a moderate-sized sheep for a day, and will keep it 

 in good condition ; and cattle in proportion. 



As the expense of this manufacture greatly exceeds the 

 value of the sugar produced, according to the price of co- 

 lonial sugar, it is only by the artificial encouragement of a 

 monopoly and premiums that it can ever be carried on to 

 advantage. The"prooess is one of mere curiosity as long as 

 sugar from the sugar-cane can be obtained, and the import 

 duties laid upon it are not so excessive as to amount to a 

 prohibition ; and in this case it is almost impossible to pre- 

 vent its clandestine introduction. 



By allowing the juice of the beet-root to undergo the 

 vinous fermentation and by distilling it, a more profitable re- 

 sult will be obtained in a very good spirit. A kind of beer 

 may also be made of it, which is said to be pleasant in warm 

 weather and wholesome. 



Another mode of making sugar from beet-root, practised 

 in some parts of Germany, is as follows, and is said to make 

 better sugar than the other process. The roots having been 

 washed are sliced lengthways, strung on packthread and 

 hung up to dry. The object of this is to let the watery 

 juice evaporate, and the sweet juice, being concentrated, is 

 taken up by macerating the dry slices in water. It is ma- 

 naged so that all the juice shall be extracted by a very 

 small quantity of water, which saves much of the trouble of 

 evaporation. Professor Lampadius obtained from 110 Ibs. 

 of roots 4 Ibs. of well-grained white powder-sugar, and the 

 residuum afforded 7 pints of spirit. Achard says that about 

 a ton of rools produced 100 Ibs. of raw sugar, which gave 

 55 Ibs. of refined sugar, and 25 Ibs. of treacle. This result 

 is not very different from that of Chaptal. 



BEETHOVEN, LUDYV1G VON, one of the three 

 great German composers who may be said to have flou- 

 rished in our time, was born on the 17th of December, 1770, 

 at Bonn. His father :nid grandfather were both musicians 

 by profession ; the former occupied the situation of principal 

 vocal tenor, and the latter that of first base singer, and 

 subsequently kapellmeister, in the chapel of the elector of 

 Cologne. In the Dictionnaire des Musiciens it is said, 

 that he was the reputed son of Frederick William II. of 

 Prussia, but there seems to have been no ground whatever 

 for a rumour which, in all probability, originated in court 

 scandal. Beethoven's father was so much addicted to in- 

 temperance that he was often disqualified from performing 

 his duties ; hence he neglected the education of his son, who, 

 however, by the assistance of friends, was enabled to gain 

 some knowledge of Latin, of French, of arithmetic, &c., as 

 taught in the schools of Germany. 



From the earliest age Beethoven evinced a disposition 

 for music; or, in other words, he learnt the language of 

 music and his mother-tongue both at the same time : and 

 as modulated sounds seldom fail to make a deep impression 

 on a young fervid mind, when they are almost constantly 

 presented to it, as was the case in the present instance, he 

 soon acquired, and as speedily manifested, a taste for the art 

 of which they are the foundation. His father began to in- 

 struct him when he was only in his fifth year, but soon de- 

 livered him over to M. Von der Eden, esteemed the best 

 pianist in Bonn, who dying shortly after, the youthful pupil 

 wns transferred to M. Neefe, his successor, the Archduke 

 Maximilian of Austria defraying the expense of his tuition. 

 This excellent master initiated his pupil in the works of 

 Sebastian Bach, particularly in those extremely laboured 

 studies entitled ' Le Clavecin bien tempere ;' or the Forty- 

 eight Preludes and Fugues in every key. At the age of 

 thirteen he published at Mannheim and at Spires, in his 

 own name, Variations on a March, Sonatas, and Songs. 

 But at this time his genius displayed itself more decidedly 

 in musical improvisation. His extempore fantasias are men- 

 tioned by Gerber in his Lexicon (' Tonkunstler- Lexicon '), 

 as having excited the admiration of the most accomplished 

 musicians of the time. 



The elector of Cologne now sent his protege, in the cha 

 racter of court organist (in which office he had succeeded 

 Neefe), to Vienna, to study under Joseph Haydn ; but 

 the great composer, being then on the point of setting out 

 for England in furtherance of his engagement with Mr. 

 Salomon, placed his intended pupil in the hands of the 

 eminent theorist, Albrechtsberger, who first gave him me- 

 thodical instructions in counterpoint. After having com- 

 pleted his time with that master, he returned to Bonn ; but 

 the capital of the Austrian empire had now more charms 

 for him than his native city. His patron, too, died, and war 

 raged in its worst form in the north of Germany ; Beethoven, 

 therefore, left for ever the place of his birth, and settled 

 in Vienna, which city and the adjoining country he never 

 afterwards quitted. 



About this time (1791 ?), says the Chevalier von Seyfried, 

 Beethoven most successfully tried his strength in the quartet 

 style, ' a noble style, reformed, or, more properly speaking, 

 created by Haydn, enriched by the universal genius of 

 Mozart with greater depth and gravity, though not at the 

 expense of grace, and carried by Beethoven to a degree of 

 superior power that few will attempt to attain, and perhaps 

 none will ever surpass.' Happily for him he was at that 

 time on terms of intimate friendship with three artists in 

 the service of Prince Rasumowski ; and whenever he had 

 finished a work, he communicated to them his intentions in 

 regard to its character and expression. Hence it became a 

 saying in Vienna, ' Those who would well understand the 

 chamber-music of Beethoven must hear it executed by 

 Schuppanzigh, Weiss, and Liuke.' f 



He now was strongly pressed to compose an opera, and 

 ML Sonnleithner undertook to arrange the opera ofLeonore, 

 "rom a French piece named I' Amour conjugal. Beethoven 

 then went to reside in the very theatre for which he was 

 writing, and laboured at his work with ardour and satisfac- 

 tion. This opera, better known under the title of Fidelia, 

 was not received with much applause ; with the exception 

 of three, the performers were not equal to the tasks assigned 

 them. Moreover, the war and progress of the French 

 armies absorbed the attention of nearly every inhabitant of 

 Vienna. The next year the managers of the Karnthnerthor 

 Theatre gave Fidelia for their benefit. The work then 

 ook the form which it now bears ; it was reduced to two acts, 

 and preceded by an imposing overture in E major. The com- 

 poser also added the short march, the air of the jailer, and 

 he finale of the first act, cutting out a trio in B Hat, and a 

 luet for a soprano, with violin and violoncello obligati ac- 

 companiments, in c, nine-eight time, neither of which are to 

 ie found in the score. 



In 180'J Beethoven determined to accept the place of 

 kapellmeister to the king of Westphalia, Jerome Buona- 

 larte, which was offered to him with many advantageous 

 conditions. It was then that three lovers and patrons of the 

 arts, the archduke Kodolph, and the princes Lobkowitz and 

 (insky, came forward, and, in terms the most flattering, 

 executed a deed by which an income of 4000 florins (about 

 100/.) was secured to the great composer, till he should 

 ibtain some appointment of equal value, the only condition 

 if which was, that it should be expended in the Austrian 

 dominions. 



It is to be feared that untoward events frustrated, in a 

 considerable degree, the good intentions of Beethoven's 

 >atrons. Prince Lobkowitz was soon involved in such 

 Uter ruin that his palace in Vienna was converted into 

 an hotel. Prince Kinsky fell in the French war, and 

 the archduke remained his only protector. He now ex- 

 >ressed a strong desire to travel, and especially wished 

 o see England. He had been invited to this metro- 

 x>lis by the Philharmonic Society of London, who proposed 

 a him liberal terms, and he made preparations for the 

 ourney ; but when the moment for decision arrived, he 

 could not summon up sufficient courage for, what appeared 

 :o him to be, so vast an undertaking. He was suffering 

 from an infirmity severe to all afflicted by it, but doubly so 

 :o a musician deafness. This calamity came on gradually, 

 but from the first defied all remedies and every effort of 

 skill, till at length the sense became so wholly extinct that 

 he could only communicate with others by writing. The 

 consequences of so severe a deprivation were, as his friend 

 Seyfried feelingly but candidly remarks, ' a habit of gloomy, 

 anxious distrust,' and a violent desire of solitude, the usual 

 precursors of hypochondria. To read, to stroll into the 

 country, were his most agreeable occupations ; and a small, 



NO. 225. 



[THE PENNY CYCLOPEDIA.] 



VOL. IV.-Y 



