Spelling Beethoven Unlike The Beatles Poem by gershon hepner

Spelt in many different ways, his name’s not mud.
We spell it “hoven, ” while preceding it with “Beet, ”
Spelt as in “beetle” not in “Beatles”, although Lud-
wig surely would have thought their music hard to beat.

In the “Great Composers” segment of his broadcast on KUSC this morning Dennis Bartel asked listeners to identify a composer who spelt his name in many different ways until he was 46. The answer was Beethoven. In spite his surname, Johann van Beethoven was only one half Flemish; his father Lodewijk was the last van Beethoven to be fully Flemish. Most of van Beethoven's most recent family came from what is now Germany, mostly the Rhineland Palatine area. Johann's son Ludwig is considered to be German, and people occasionally spell his name as von Beethoven, which is incorrect. His name is sometimes spelled as “Ludwig Beehoven”.

1/20/10