Beginning of Essay
"My angel, my all, my very self--Only a few words today and at that with pencil (with yours)…can our love endure except through sacrifices…" These lines are from the "" letter, a document found among Beethoven's papers after his death. Throughout his life, Be ....

Middle of Essay
.... clues, scholars have proposed several women from Beethoven's circle of acquaintances as "" candidates. Was she Beethoven's piano student, the Countess Giulietta Guicciardi? Or her cousin, the widowed Countess Joshphine Deym? Or could she have been Antonie Brentano, the wife of one of Beethoven's friends, as Maynard Solomon suggested. Even once candidates are proposed, the question remains: why was this letter in Beethoven's possession? Did he never send it, or was it returned to him? Although the debates continue, the answers to the riddle of the may have followed Beethoven to his grave. In the history of music, no "riddle", as Maynard Solomon in B ....