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I. Introduction
The controversy between Beethoven and Mälzel over the rights to the composition known as Wellington 's Victory has been discussed by a number of biographers. The overwhelming consensus has been that Beethoven acted in an irrational and ungrateful manner toward someone who had, albeit unintentionally, rescued the composer from the depths of emotional despair and compositional inactivity. Thayer concluded his considerable analysis of the episode by stating: "Candor and justice compel the painful admission that Beethoven's course with Mälzel is a blot - one of the few upon his [Beethoven's] character, which no amount of misrepresentation of the facts can wholly efface; whoever can convince himself that the composer's conduct was legally and technically just and right, must still feel that it was neither noble nor generous."1 Solomon, who avoids the controversial aspects, writes:
The process of mourning for his beloved was not yet completed. By mid-1813 Beethoven had fallen into a state of mental and physical disorder which brought his musical productivity to a halt ... It was, therefore, fortunate late that summer when the inventor and entrepreneur Johann Nepomuk Mälzel enthusiastically brought to Beethoven the idea and a partial draft for a new composition celebrating a British victory over Napoleon in the Peninsular War.2
The purpose of this retelling is to consider afresh this controversy, giving a more complete treatment of Mälzel's character than has been attempted previously. Although it is quite true that twenty years after taking up residence in Vienna Beethoven found himself in a most precarious emotional circumstance, a question remains whether he was aided by "a brilliantly inventive man," or whether he was vulnerable to the manipulations of a pseudo-inventor and charlatan.3 The story of their association is a fascinating one, as the tale touches such notable personalities as Napoleon and Edgar Allan Poe. The convoluted plot involves a chess playing Automaton, several mechanical music-making devices, the metronome, and a forged composition.
II. Historical Overview of Napoleonic Europe
By 1800 the advent of the Industrial Revolution had provided both the scientific interest and technological means to advance mechanical instruments and measuring devices a giant step forward. However, there was one major political impediment: Napoleon's act of crowning himself Emperor of France in 1802 set in motion...