Seume. Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner Schriften (1898). Seume and Beethoven Seume died in Teplitz in June 1810. Ludwig van Beethoven spent three weeks in August 1811 and another short period during the summer of 1812 at Teplitz. He is known to have visited Seume's grave, and wrote to a music teacher from Cassel, Georg Christoph Grosheim (1764–1841), telling him of the feelings of admiration for Seume that that occasion had produced in him. In his letter to Beethoven of 10 November 1819, Grosheim talks of a "marriage" of Seume's poem "Die Beterin" ("The Pleader") with Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata. It is unclear whether this was a reference to an idea that had been previously discussed between the two men, or a new idea of Grosheim's. Thayer also reports that Grosheim had tried to persuade Beethoven to arrange the slow opening movement of the "Moonlight" Sonata for voice and piano, to the words of Seume's poem Die Beterin. Beethoven is said to have agreed to the idea, but nothing ever came of it. Nevertheless, in the minds of some writers the association between "Die Beterin" and the sonata came to assume more solidity than it ever had in reality. "Die Beterin" was also sometimes said to be a painting. In the 1954 edition of Grove's Dictionary of Music, it is specifically denied that the "Moonlight" Sonata has any connection with "a picture, Die Beterin (The Pleader)". Beethoven had two volumes of Seume's works in his possession when he died. References External links 1763 births 1810 deaths People from Lützen People from the Electorate of Saxony German male writers Leipzig University alumni