Joyce Maier wrote:
>No, that's not correct, or, rather, incomplete. Beethoven's "van" is a
>true Dutch/Flemish "van" and it says nothing, absolutely nothing about the
>class. The same is the case with the Dutch prefix "de". One can find all
>classes among Dutch and Flemish people with names with "de" or "van" or
>"van de" or "van der" or the like.
Turning again to one of my favorite writers on history, geography,
politics, the arts, and the meaning of life, Hendrik Willem van Loon, on
Beethoven:
>"As many of the aristocrats of the end of the Rococo period
>happened to be men of taste and discrimination, and as all of them were
>more or less tinged with a touch of the dangerous Rousseau doctrines
>about 'equality,' Beethoven had an easier time of it than those who came
>after him. Besides, absurd though it may seem to modern ears, that 'van'
>made it a little easier to associate with him than with a plain Herr
>Mozart. The 'van' means the same thing it means in my own name--just
>exactly nothing. But it could be abbreviated into a single small 'v.' A
>symphony by Ludwig v. Beethoven looked much more imposing than one by
>plain Johann Kuhnau. As you may remember, even poor Sebastian Bach had
>not been able to escape fromthe illusion that the title of a 'royal court
>*Kapellmeister*' would help him in his struggles with the town counselors
>and church authorities of Leipzig.
>
>"The Beethoven brothers had the same name and yet, as you may
>well object, it did not do them any good. Of course not. They were just
>common ordinary people. But a small 'v.' plus genius--that was a
>combination which meant a great deal in Vienna during the beginning of
>the nineteenth century...."
----*The Arts*, pp.518-519
Walter Meyer
|