189.—THE THIRTY-THREE VARIATIONS.
Beethoven was an enemy to all quackery and shallow pretensions, and disliked the meaningless style of composition that was so prevalent in his day.
Diabelli, the music publisher, importuned him to write a series of variations, which was a very popular style at that time; but Beethoven declined to write that kind of thing, till, one day, he threw a manuscript in at the publisher's door, with the exclamation:—
"Here are three and thirty for one; but now, for God's sake, leave me in peace!"
Diabelli had asked Beethoven to be one of the fifty composers to contribute to the book of fifty variations; but instead of joining the fifty and writing one, he himself wrote thirty-three variations on the Diabelli theme. This series of variations is one of the best known of his smaller works.