British Library Blog » Classical music
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This blog is written by the British Library's music curators, led by Richard Chesser. Here we report the latest news about our classical music collections and related services. The music collections of the British Library are amongst the finest in the world, encompassing materials in all formats (e.g. manuscripts, printed editions, recordings, literature) from all periods.
British Library Blog » Classical music
1y ago
Two of the items from the BL Zweig manuscripts currently on display show a very humdrum side of Beethoven’s life: . The latter gives a glimpse into Beethoven’s diet: a lot of meat, bread and potatoes, spiced with mustard and horseradish, and washed down with wine and rum. Vegetables do feature, but usually lumped together as ‘Zuhspeis’ (literally a ‘side-dish’). Perhaps this was one of the reasons for his frequent ill health, referred to with a dash of self-deprecating humour in a letter of 1817 inviting his friend Johann Bihler to visit and mentioning that ‘Dr Sassafras’ will also be in atten ..read more