Inseparable part of Beethoven’s image is his hair. Both in his life and after, those locks were the aim of great attention and desire. Owning some of it was a great honor and represented a memorabilia for a life and even for generations to come.
|Related: Famous Beethoven hair locks
A funny anecdote is connected to one such hair lock. One day Anton Halm, formerly a Lieutenant in the Austrian military who in 1811 resigned from his duties and started his second career as a pianist and composer, approached Karl Holz who was Beethoven’s factotum at the time. He asked Holz if he could talk to the master and ask for a lock from his hair. The gift would be for his wife, he had informed Holz.
The coveted lock was delivered soon to Maria Holz and she was delighted! The wife was telling everyone how lucky she is and what a treasure she has in her possession. Little did she know that the hair was part of a practical joke and in fact from a goat!
In those days Anton Halm was working on the transcription of Beethoven’s Große Fuge, Op. 133, to make it into a four-hand piano version. When he was finished, he brought the manuscript to Beethoven for approval (something he finally did not give and made his own version) and the topic of the hair was brought up.
Beethoven at this point revealed the fact, that they were cheated by Halm and said, “You have been cheated with the lock of hair! You see, I am surrounded by such terrible creatures that they put aside all the respect they owe respectable people. You have the hair of a nanny-goat.”
To make up for the disappointment, he handed over a bigger lock of hair covered in a paper on which he had written: That is my hair!
The wife, Maria, did not forgive Halm until they both stood at the grave of Beethoven. Halm was weeping bitterly and dared not to look at the Holz family. At that point Maria, moved by the situation, reached out with her hand and over the grave of Beethoven they reconciled.
Another version of this story was told by Schindler, who said that the joke was done by Beethoven, but later put the blame on Halm.
