Journal de Genève
- On the Ruins of Sicyon
- After Death
- Poverty in Beethoven's Life
The Journal de Genève of 1 November 1926 carried a signed report by Alex. Philadelpheus, who argued that after four excavation campaigns at Sicyon he had reached the civic heart of the ancient city. As evidence he named a temple, a Bouleuterion and a great portico standing on a high plateau above the Agora. In a literary column, Raoul Patry noted that Fernand Divoire, whose survey on God the paper had already mentioned, was now asking contemporary thinkers what they believed becomes of man after death. Another piece traced Beethoven's poverty back to the age of thirteen at the Bonn court, where musicians were treated as household servants.
Translation
On the Ruins of Sicyon
As for Sicyon, I am convinced that, despite the meagre means at my disposal, I have landed in the heart of this magnificent city, because the three or four large buildings I have brought to light during my four campaigns are of what one might call an official character and could only have stood in the centre of Sicyon. They are a temple, a Bouleuterion, or Senate chamber, and a great portico which, erected on a high plateau in the middle of the area, overlooks the whole Agora and the entire city.
After Death
Mr Fernand Divoire, whose inquiry into God we reported earlier, is continuing his investigations among contemporary thinkers. This time the question put is the following: "What are your beliefs about man after death?"
Poverty in Beethoven's Life
Already at thirteen, poverty clung to his steps, never to leave him again. At the small princely court of Bonn, we find Louis van Beethoven mentioned in a Pro-Memoria as "poor" and "very poor". Since he was in the pay of a powerful master, this precarious existence can perhaps be explained. In those days musicians were regarded as servants; they belonged to the household on the same footing as the servants did.
Context
The temple, Bouleuterion and stoa Philadelpheus took as proof of the civic centre
Philadelpheus based his conviction that he had reached the heart of Sicyon on the official character of the large buildings he had uncovered: a temple, a Bouleuterion and a great portico. Present-day descriptions of the site list the same kinds of building around the Agora. One site guide describes the foundations of the Bouleuterion of Hellenistic Sicyon as a spacious square edifice, dates both the Bouleuterion and its stoa to the Hellenistic period with restorations in later periods, and identifies a temple near the Agora, dedicated to Artemis or Apollo, as an east-oriented peripteral building. The same guide places the Agora at the centre of the excavations conducted by the Archaeological Society, and records that the first excavations at Sicyon had been carried out by the American School at the theatre between 1886 and 1898. The article therefore records the excavator's own reading in 1926, after his fourth campaign, while the guide reflects how the same group of public buildings is presented to visitors today.
Why the city's public buildings stood on a high plateau
Philadelpheus describes a great portico erected on a high plateau and overlooking the Agora and the whole city. That setting goes back to a refoundation of Sicyon. According to the Wikipedia account of the city, Demetrius Poliorcetes conquered Sicyon in 303 BC, razed the old city in the plain and transferred it to the acropolis. A site guide adds that most of the public buildings were constructed under Demetrius and later under Aratus, who brought the city into the Achaean League. The centre of the city that the article calls 'magnificent' was therefore largely a Hellenistic town, although Sicyon's reputation was much older: in Archaic times it had been one of the most powerful city-states of the Greek world.
Fernand Divoire, the poet-journalist behind the inquiry into life after death
Raoul Patry presents Divoire as an investigator who had already surveyed contemporary thinkers about God and was now asking them about man after death. Divoire was a Belgian-French poet, journalist, playwright and art critic who had been publishing in Paris since 1906. Alongside his poetry he published books on occultism and philosophy, so a survey of beliefs about death fitted interests he had already pursued in print. The question stayed with him after 1926: in 1934 he published a book titled 'Néant… paradis… ou réincarnation?', which set out nothingness, paradise and reincarnation as the alternatives in its very title.
Beethoven's money troubles as later writing describes them
The article traces Beethoven's poverty to the age of thirteen and explains it by the servant status of musicians at the Bonn court. Later writing carries the picture into his Vienna years. A 2020 essay on Beethoven and money states that he struggled financially for much of his career and life, and that the severe depreciation of the Austrian currency during the Napoleonic wars cut his wealth by more than half. The same essay stresses the conditions of the music market: with royalties and international copyright essentially unknown, a composer could expect only a one-time fee for each work sold. The article appeared about five months before the 1927 centenary observances; the Vienna Philharmonic's archive lists a Beethoven Centenary Concert in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein on 28 March 1927.
Original
Sur les ruines de Sicyone
Pour Sicyone, j'ai la conviction que malgré les faibles moyens dont je dispose. je suis tombé au cœur de cette magnifique ville, parce que les trois ou quatre grandes constructions que j'ai mises au jour pendant mes quatre campagnes sont d'un caractère, pour ainsi dire, officiel et ne pouvaient qu'être situées dans le centre de Sicyonc. Il s'agit d'un temple, d'un Bouleutérion, ou chambre du Sénat, et d'un grand portique qui, érigé sur un haut plateau au milieu de la région, domine toute l'Agora et la ville entière.
Après la Mort
M. Fernand Divoire, dont nous avons signalé précédemment une enquête sur Dieu, continue ses investigations auprès des penseurs contemporains. Cette fois-ci la question posée est la suivante: «Quelles sont vos croyances sur l'homme après la mort?»
La pauvreté chez Beethoven
A treize ans déjà la misère s'attachait à ses pas pour ne plus le quitter. Dans la petite cour princière de Bonn, nous trouvons Louis van Beethoven mentionné dans un Pro-Memoria, comme «pauvre» et «très pauvre». Etant à la solde d'un maître puissant, cette existence précaire s'explique peut-être. A cette époque-là, les musiciens étaient considérés comme domestiques, ils fatsaient partic de la maison au même titre qu'eux.