His dress consisted of a light-blue coat with yellow
buttons, white waistcoat and neckcloth, such as were then worn, but
everything about him was very negligee. His complexion was florid, the
skin rather pock-marked, his hair the color of blue steel, for the black
was already changing to grey. His eyes were a bluish-grey and
exceedingly vivacious. When his hair streamed in the breeze there was a
sort of Ossian-like daemonism about him. But, when talking in a friendly
way, he would assume a good-natured, gentle expression, particularly if
the conversation was agreeable to him."
As we have seen, it had been a favorite project of Beethoven for years
to write a mass. When he started to carry out his ideas, one course only
seems to have been possible to him. This was, to project it on the
principle of his Symphonies, in which the orchestra should take the
commanding part in interpreting the emotional and dramatic possibilities
of the text. His experience with his first mass had confirmed him in the
belief that he could give the best expression to his ideas by the use of
the orchestra, on account of its greater range, its mobility, the
variety of its tones.
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