John Dalmas wrote:

>I haven't seen any reference to William Kinderman's recent biography in
>which he suggests obliquely that the "Immortal Beloved" is Art itself.
>Now how's that for an answer, that the composer's eternal feminine is none
>other than his muse!  It certainly raises the subject above the level of
>country matters.

I checked out the "Immortal Beloved" correspondence, which I found in
English only, and while Kinderman's suggestion has its attraction, they
speak too much of matters relating to persons, such as baths, postal
schedules, transportation problems, etc., to sound convincingly as
addresses to Art itself.

And yet, Kinderman's theory is given some plausibility, at least for me,
in that the beloved is described as "Immortal" a term quite suitable in
addressing Art and, I believe, less so when addressing the object of one's
love.  I don't know the conventions of courtship in Beethoven's day, but
I would be surprised if "immortal" ("unsterblich") would be a normally
invoked term of endearment and am curious to know the actual German
expression that has been translated as "Immortal Beloved".  I wonder if
the German expression involved some word that could have been translated
into English as "divine".

Walter Meyer