Manuscript for Kettles

Beethoven never had an easy time with landladies or servants. While he was working on his Mass in D—begun in 1819 and intended for the celebration of his friend Archduke Rudolph’s appointment as Archbishop of Olmütz the following year—the piece kept growing as his fascination with it deepened. By the time he finally finished it, the celebration had been over for two years.

During that long stretch, several pages of his manuscript disappeared. He searched everywhere and questioned his servant, who was as baffled as he was. At last, giving up, he sat down to rewrite the Kyrie.

That was when a bundle of loose, note-covered papers turned up in the kitchen. They were brought upstairs, grimed with soot and dust—and there was the missing music.

The servant had ‘cleared up’ his room and, not recognizing their value, had used the precious sheets to wrap old pots and kettles. As for Beethoven’s words at the discovery, the story keeps them to itself.