Thayer’s industry in the gathering and ordering of material for this biography, let it be remarked here in grateful tribute, is illustrated in the fact that he made practically a complete transcript of the Conversation Books, laboriously deciphering the frequently hieroglyphic scrawls, and compiled a mass of supplementary material for the purpose of fixing the chronological order of the conversations. The dates of all concerts and other public events alluded to were established by the examination of newspapers and other contemporaneous records and the utility of the biographical material greatly enhanced.
[11] Madame Pessiak-Schmerling, a daughter of Nanni, recounted this incident twice in the letters to Thayer. Madame Pessiak possessed a copy of the song. Her mother had jealously preserved the original, but, together with Beethoven’s letters to Giannatasio, it was stolen. In 1861 Thayer found song and letters among the autographs owned by William Witt of the firm of Ewer and Co. in London, and obtained copies of them, but Thayer’s copy of the song was not found by this Editor among the posthumous papers of the author when he examined them in order to set aside the needful material for the completion of this biography. The music of Miss Nanni’s hymeneal ode was forty years later put to a right royal use. Transposed from C to A major it was published for the first time by Ewer and Co. as a setting to English words on the occasion of the marriage of Victoria, eldest daughter of Queen Victoria, to Frederick William of Prussia (afterwards Emperor Frederick III) on January 25, 1858. The title of this publication, which is now out of print, was “The Wedding Song, written and by gracious permission dedicated to Her Royal Highness Victoria, Princess Royal, on her Wedding Day, by John Oxenford. The music composed by L. van Beethoven. Posthumous Work.” The inscription on the original manuscript, according to Thayer, was “Am 14ten Jenner 1819--für F. v. Giannatasio de Rio von L. v. Beethoven.”
At the Editor’s request Mr. J. S. Shedlock, in 1912, kindly made an investigation and reported that so far as could be learned from the public records the song had no place in the wedding ceremonies in 1858. Messrs. Novello and Co. most courteously brought forth the old plates from their vaults and had a “pull” of them made for this Editor’s use. The music can not be said to have any other than a curious interest. A single stanza will suffice to disclose the quality of Mr. Oxenford’s hymeneal ode:
