essay on ludwig van beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer whose Symphony 5 is a beloved classic. Some of his greatest works were composed while Beethoven was going deaf.

(1770-1827)

Who Was Ludwig van Beethoven?

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German pianist and composer widely considered to be one of the greatest musical geniuses of all time. His innovative compositions combined vocals and instruments, widening the scope of sonata, symphony, concerto and quartet. He is the crucial transitional figure connecting the Classical and Romantic ages of Western music.

Beethoven’s personal life was marked by a struggle against deafness, and some of his most important works were composed during the last 10 years of his life, when he was quite unable to hear. He died at the age of 56.

Controversial Birthday

Beethoven was born on or about December 16, 1770, in the city of Bonn in the Electorate of Cologne, a principality of the Holy Roman Empire. Although his exact date of birth is uncertain, Beethoven was baptized on December 17, 1770.

As a matter of law and custom, babies at the time were baptized within 24 hours of birth, so December 16 is his most likely birthdate.

However, Beethoven himself mistakenly believed that he was born two years later, in 1772, and he stubbornly insisted on the incorrect date even when presented with official papers that proved beyond any reasonable doubt that 1770 was his true birth year.

Beethoven had two younger brothers who survived into adulthood: Caspar, born in 1774, and Johann, born in 1776. Beethoven's mother, Maria Magdalena van Beethoven, was a slender, genteel, and deeply moralistic woman.

His father, Johann van Beethoven, was a mediocre court singer better known for his alcoholism than any musical ability. However, Beethoven's grandfather, godfather and namesake, Kapellmeister Ludwig van Beethoven, was Bonn's most prosperous and eminent musician, a source of endless pride for young Beethoven.

Childhood Abuse

Sometime between the births of his two younger brothers, Beethoven's father began teaching him music with an extraordinary rigor and brutality that affected him for the rest of his life.

Neighbors provided accounts of the small boy weeping while he played the clavier, standing atop a footstool to reach the keys, his father beating him for each hesitation or mistake.

On a near daily basis, Beethoven was flogged, locked in the cellar and deprived of sleep for extra hours of practice. He studied the violin and clavier with his father as well as taking additional lessons from organists around town. Whether in spite of or because of his father's draconian methods, Beethoven was a prodigiously talented musician from his earliest days.

Meanwhile, the musical prodigy attended a Latin grade school named Tirocinium, where a classmate said, "Not a sign was to be discovered of that spark of genius which glowed so brilliantly in him afterwards."

Beethoven, who struggled with sums and spelling his entire life, was at best an average student, and some biographers have hypothesized that he may have had mild dyslexia. As he put it himself, "Music comes to me more readily than words."

In 1781, at the age of 10, Beethoven withdrew from school to study music full time with Christian Gottlob Neefe, the newly appointed Court Organist, and at the age of 12, Beethoven published his first composition, a set of piano variations on a theme by an obscure classical composer named Dressler.

By 1784, his alcoholism worsening and his voice decaying, Beethoven's father was no longer able to support his family, and Beethoven formally requested an official appointment as Assistant Court Organist. Despite his youth, his request was accepted, and Beethoven was put on the court payroll with a modest annual salary of 150 florins.

Beethoven and Mozart

There is only speculation and inconclusive evidence that Beethoven ever met with Mozart, let alone studied with him. In an effort to facilitate his musical development, in 1787 the court sent Beethoven to Vienna, Europe’s capital of culture and music, where he hoped to study with Mozart.

Tradition has it that, upon hearing Beethoven, Mozart said, "Keep your eyes on him; someday he will give the world something to talk about.”

After only a few weeks in Vienna, Beethoven learned that his mother had fallen ill and he returned home to Bonn. Remaining there, Beethoven continued to carve out his reputation as the city's most promising young court musician.

Early Career as a Composer

When the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II died in 1790, a 19-year-old Beethoven received the immense honor of composing a musical memorial in his honor. For reasons that remain unclear, Beethoven's composition was never performed, and most assumed the young musician had proven unequal to the task.

However, more than a century later, Johannes Brahms discovered that Beethoven had in fact composed a "beautiful and noble" piece of music entitled Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II . It is now considered his earliest masterpiece.

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Beethoven and Haydn

In 1792, with French revolutionary forces sweeping across the Rhineland into the Electorate of Cologne, Beethoven decided to leave his hometown for Vienna once again. Mozart had passed away a year earlier, leaving Joseph Haydn as the unquestioned greatest composer alive.

Haydn was living in Vienna at the time, and it was with Haydn that the young Beethoven now intended to study. As his friend and patron Count Waldstein wrote in a farewell letter, "Mozart's genius mourns and weeps over the death of his disciple. It found refuge, but no release with the inexhaustible Haydn; through him, now, it seeks to unite with another. By means of assiduous labor you will receive the spirit of Mozart from the hands of Haydn."

In Vienna, Beethoven dedicated himself wholeheartedly to musical study with the most eminent musicians of the age. He studied piano with Haydn, vocal composition with Antonio Salieri and counterpoint with Johann Albrechtsberger. Not yet known as a composer, Beethoven quickly established a reputation as a virtuoso pianist who was especially adept at improvisation.

Debut Performance

Beethoven won many patrons among the leading citizens of the Viennese aristocracy, who provided him with lodging and funds, allowing Beethoven, in 1794, to sever ties with the Electorate of Cologne. Beethoven made his long-awaited public debut in Vienna on March 29, 1795.

Although there is considerable debate over which of his early piano concerti he performed that night, most scholars believe he played what is known as his "first" piano concerto in C Major. Shortly thereafter, Beethoven decided to publish a series of three piano trios as his Opus 1, which were an enormous critical and financial success.

In the first spring of the new century, on April 2, 1800, Beethoven debuted his Symphony No. 1 in C major at the Royal Imperial Theater in Vienna. Although Beethoven would grow to detest the piece — "In those days I did not know how to compose," he later remarked — the graceful and melodious symphony nevertheless established him as one of Europe's most celebrated composers.

As the new century progressed, Beethoven composed piece after piece that marked him as a masterful composer reaching his musical maturity. His Six String Quartets, published in 1801, demonstrate complete mastery of that most difficult and cherished of Viennese forms developed by Mozart and Haydn.

Beethoven also composed The Creatures of Prometheus in 1801, a wildly popular ballet that received 27 performances at the Imperial Court Theater. It was around the same time that Beethoven discovered he was losing his hearing.

Personal Life

For a variety of reasons that included his crippling shyness and unfortunate physical appearance, Beethoven never married or had children. He was, however, desperately in love with a married woman named Antonie Brentano.

Over the course of two days in July of 1812, Beethoven wrote her a long and beautiful love letter that he never sent. Addressed "to you, my Immortal Beloved," the letter said in part, "My heart is full of so many things to say to you — ah — there are moments when I feel that speech amounts to nothing at all — Cheer up — remain my true, my only love, my all as I am yours."

The death of Beethoven's brother Caspar in 1815 sparked one of the great trials of his life, a painful legal battle with his sister-in-law, Johanna, over the custody of Karl van Beethoven, his nephew and her son.

The struggle stretched on for seven years, during which both sides spewed ugly defamations at the other. In the end, Beethoven won the boy's custody, though hardly his affection.

Despite his extraordinary output of beautiful music, Beethoven was lonely and frequently miserable throughout his adult life. Short-tempered, absent-minded, greedy and suspicious to the point of paranoia, Beethoven feuded with his brothers, his publishers, his housekeepers, his pupils and his patrons.

In one illustrative incident, Beethoven attempted to break a chair over the head of Prince Lichnowsky, one of his closest friends and most loyal patrons. Another time he stood in the doorway of Prince Lobkowitz's palace shouting for all to hear, "Lobkowitz is a donkey!"

For years, rumors have swirled that Beethoven had some African ancestry. These unfounded tales may be based on Beethoven's dark complexion or the fact that his ancestors came from a region of Europe that had once been invaded by the Spanish, and Moors from northern Africa were part of Spanish culture.

A few scholars have noted that Beethoven seemed to have an innate understanding of the polyrhythmic structures typical to some African music. However, no one during Beethoven's lifetime referred to the composer as Moorish or African, and the rumors that he was Black are largely dismissed by historians.

Was Beethoven Deaf?

At the same time as Beethoven was composing some of his most immortal works, he was struggling to come to terms with a shocking and terrible fact, one that he tried desperately to conceal: He was going deaf.

By the turn of the 19th century, Beethoven struggled to make out the words spoken to him in conversation.

Beethoven revealed in a heart-wrenching 1801 letter to his friend Franz Wegeler, "I must confess that I lead a miserable life. For almost two years I have ceased to attend any social functions, just because I find it impossible to say to people: I am deaf. If I had any other profession, I might be able to cope with my infirmity; but in my profession it is a terrible handicap."

Heiligenstadt Testament

At times driven to extremes of melancholy by his affliction, Beethoven described his despair in a long and poignant note that he concealed his entire life.

Dated October 6, 1802, and referred to as "The Heiligenstadt Testament," it reads in part: "O you men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me. You do not know the secret cause which makes me seem that way to you and I would have ended my life — it was only my art that held me back. Ah, it seemed impossible to leave the world until I had brought forth all that I felt was within me."

Almost miraculously, despite his rapidly progressing deafness, Beethoven continued to compose at a furious pace.

Moonlight Sonata

From 1803 to 1812, what is known as his "middle" or "heroic" period, he composed an opera, six symphonies, four solo concerti, five string quartets, six-string sonatas, seven piano sonatas, five sets of piano variations, four overtures, four trios, two sextets and 72 songs.

The most famous among these were the haunting Moonlight Sonata, symphonies No. 3-8, the Kreutzer violin sonata and Fidelio , his only opera.

In terms of the astonishing output of superlatively complex, original and beautiful music, this period in Beethoven's life is unrivaled by any other composer in history.

Beethoven’s Music

Some of Beethoven’s best-known compositions include:

Eroica: Symphony No. 3

In 1804, only weeks after Napoleon Bonaparte proclaimed himself Emperor of France, Beethoven debuted his Symphony No. 3 in Napoleon's honor. Beethoven, like all of Europe, watched with a mixture of awe and terror; he admired, abhorred and, to an extent, identified with Napoleon, a man of seemingly superhuman capabilities, only one year older than himself and also of obscure birth.

Later renamed the Eroica Symphony because Beethoven grew disillusioned with Napoleon, it was his grandest and most original work to date.

Because it was so unlike anything heard before it, the musicians could not figure out how to play it through weeks of rehearsal. A prominent reviewer proclaimed "Eroica" as "one of the most original, most sublime, and most profound products that the entire genre of music has ever exhibited."

Symphony No. 5

One of Beethoven’s best-known works among modern audiences, Symphony No. 5 is known for its ominous first four notes.

Beethoven began composing the piece in 1804, but its completion was delayed a few times for other projects. It premiered at the same time as Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6, in 1808 in Vienna.

In 1810, Beethoven completed Fur Elise (meaning “For Elise”), although it was not published until 40 years after his death. In 1867, it was discovered by a German music scholar, however Beethoven’s original manuscript has since been lost.

Some scholars have suggested it was dedicated to his friend, student and fellow musician, Therese Malfatti, to whom he allegedly proposed around the time of the song’s composition. Others said it was for the German soprano Elisabeth Rockel, another friend of Beethoven’s.

Symphony No. 7

Premiering in Vienna in 1813 to benefit soldiers wounded in the battle of Hanau, Beethoven began composing this, one of his most energetic and optimistic works, in 1811.

The composer called the piece “his most excellent symphony." The second movement is often performed separately from the rest of the symphony and may have been one of Beethoven’s most popular works.

Missa Solemnis

Debuting in 1824, this Catholic mass is considered among Beethoven’s finest achievements. Just under 90 minutes in length, the rarely-performed piece features a chorus, orchestra and four soloists.

Ode to Joy: Symphony No. 9

Beethoven’s ninth and final symphony, completed in 1824, remains the illustrious composer's most towering achievement. The symphony's famous choral finale, with four vocal soloists and a chorus singing the words of Friedrich Schiller's poem "Ode to Joy," is perhaps the most famous piece of music in history.

While connoisseurs delighted in the symphony's contrapuntal and formal complexity, the masses found inspiration in the anthem-like vigor of the choral finale and the concluding invocation of "all humanity."

String Quartet No. 14

Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 14 debuted in 1826. About 40 minutes in length, it contains seven linked movements played without a break.

The work was reportedly one of Beethoven’s favorite later quartets and has been described as one of the composer’s most elusive compositions musically.

Beethoven died on March 26, 1827, at the age of 56, of post-hepatitic cirrhosis of the liver.

The autopsy also provided clues to the origins of his deafness: While his quick temper, chronic diarrhea and deafness are consistent with arterial disease, a competing theory traces Beethoven's deafness to contracting typhus in the summer of 1796.

Scientists analyzing a remaining fragment of Beethoven's skull noticed high levels of lead and hypothesized lead poisoning as a potential cause of death, but that theory has been largely discredited.

Beethoven is widely considered one of the greatest, if not the single greatest, composer of all time. Beethoven's body of musical compositions stands with William Shakespeare 's plays at the outer limits of human brilliance.

And the fact Beethoven composed his most beautiful and extraordinary music while deaf is an almost superhuman feat of creative genius, perhaps only paralleled in the history of artistic achievement by John Milton writing Paradise Lost while blind.

Summing up his life and imminent death during his last days, Beethoven, who was never as eloquent with words as he was with music, borrowed a tagline that concluded many Latin plays at the time. Plaudite, amici, comoedia finita est , he said. "Applaud friends, the comedy is over."

QUICK FACTS

• Name: Ludwig Beethoven
• Birth Year: 1770
• Birth date: December 16, 1770
• Birth City: Bonn
• Birth Country: Germany
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer whose Symphony 5 is a beloved classic. Some of his greatest works were composed while Beethoven was going deaf.
• Astrological Sign: Sagittarius
• Nacionalities
• Interesting Facts
• Beethoven's father was an alcoholic who beat his son into practicing music.
• Many of Beethoven's most accomplished works were created during the time he was deaf.
• Death Year: 1827
• Death date: March 26, 1827
• Death City: Vienna
• Death Country: Austria

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CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Ludwig van Beethoven Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/musicians/ludwig-van-beethoven
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: July 13, 2021
• Original Published Date: April 3, 2014
• Never shall I forget the time I spent with you. Please continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours.
• Anyone who tells a lie has not a pure heart and cannot make good soup.
• Love demands all and has a right to all.
• Recommend to your children virtues that alone can make them happy. Not gold.
• I shall seize fate by the throat.
• Music is the mediator between the spiritual and sensual life.
• To play without passion is inexcusable!
• Ever thine, ever mine, ever ours.
• Don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine.
• Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.

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Beethoven 250

Beethoven's life, liberty and pursuit of enlightenment.

Tom Huizenga

A portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven, painted in 1804 by W.J. Mähler. Wikimedia Commons hide caption

A portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven, painted in 1804 by W.J. Mähler.

Two-hundred-fifty years ago, a musical maverick was born. Ludwig van Beethoven charted a powerful new course in music. His ideas may have been rooted in the work of European predecessors Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Josef Haydn , but the iconic German composer became who he was with the help of some familiar American values: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That phrase, from the Declaration of Independence, is right out of the playbook of the Enlightenment, the philosophical movement that shook Europe in the 18th century.

"One way to look at it is what happened after Newton created the scientific revolution: Basically, people, for the first time, developed the idea that through reason and science, we can understand the universe and understand ourselves," says Jan Swafford, the author of Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph , a 1,000-page biography of the composer.

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Swafford says the Enlightenment idea embodied in the Declaration of Independence is that the aim of life is to serve your own needs and your own happiness. "But you can only do that in a free society," he says. "So freedom is the first requirement of happiness."

Other key components of the Enlightenment — including a cult of personal freedom and the importance of heroes — were vibrating in the air in Beethoven's progressive hometown of Bonn when he was an impressionable teenager. "There was discussion of all these ideas in coffeehouses and wine bars and everywhere," Swafford adds. "Beethoven was absorbed into all that and he soaked it up like a sponge."

You can hear ideas from the Enlightenment in Beethoven's Third Symphony, nicknamed "Eroica" — heroic. "There's an amazing place near the end of the first movement of the 'Eroica' where you hear this theme which I think represents the hero," Swafford points out. "It starts playing in a horn, and then it's as if it leads the whole orchestra into a gigantic proclamation, as if that is the hero leading an army into the future."

The hero of the "Eroica" Symphony was originally Napoleon — until Beethoven found out he was just another brutal dictator, and tore up the dedication page of the score. Overall, the hero of much of Beethoven's music is humanity itself.

"He was a humanist, above all," says conductor Marin Alsop, who had planned to mount Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on six continents this year, before the pandemic hit. Beethoven, she says, believed that each of us can surmount any obstacle.

"You can hear his perspective on this new philosophy of the Enlightenment, because it's very personal to Beethoven," Alsop says. "Throughout all of his works, you have this sense of overcoming."

You can hear that journey from darkness to light in pieces like the "Eroica," in the famous Fifth Symphony — and, Alsop says, at the very beginning the groundbreaking Ninth Symphony.

"It opens in the most unexpected way for a piece that's about to make a huge statement," Alsop says. "You can't even tell if it's a major or a minor key. It's kind of fluttering with a tremolo sound in the strings. It's this idea of possibility, an empty slate."

From there, Alsop adds, "Beethoven builds this whole journey of empowerment of unity. There's a lot of unison where the orchestra shouts out as one."

Those unisons are the way Beethoven depicts the connections between people – a pretty important thing for a man who began to go deaf before he was 30. He's a perfect symbol for this era of COVID, Alsop says, because of his severe isolation. That solitude sent the composer out for long walks in the woods outside Vienna.

"Beethoven absolutely loved and cherished nature, and thought of nature as a holy thing," says conductor Roderick Cox, who led performances of Beethoven's Symphony No. 6, the "Pastorale," this fall in Fort Worth, Texas. "Those are some of the principles of Enlightenment, of this music, the liberation of the human mind."

Cox also points to another Beethoven obsession: freedom, which is captured on stage, he says, in the composer's politically fueled opera Fidelio . "It really is the epitome of this Enlightenment spirit: This governmental prisoner, speaking out against the government for individual rights and liberty, has been jailed." In the opera, when the chorus of political prisoners leave their dungeon cells for a momentary breath of fresh air, Beethoven has them sing the word "Freiheit" — freedom.

Two and a half centuries after his birth, Beethoven continues to loom large over today's composers — literally, in some cases. American composer Joan Tower has a picture of Beethoven over her desk, and says he even paid her a ghostly visit once while she was trying to write music.

"He walked into the room right away," Tower says," and I said, 'Listen, could you leave? I'm busy here.' He would not leave. So I said, 'OK, if you're going to stay, then I'm going to use your music.' " And she did, in her piano concerto: Dedicated to Beethoven, the piece borrows fragments from three of his piano sonatas, including his final sonata, No. 32 in C minor.

"The thing I relate to is the struggle, because I struggle the way he does," Tower adds. "He was slow, and I'm slow. So there are certain connections that I'm so happy to have with him."

Everyone can connect to Beethoven, according to Alsop. "This is art that defies time, that defies culture, that defies partisanship, that unifies. And it can speak to each individual differently, but it speaks loudly to each of us," she says.

It's music that speaks to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness — things we're all yearning for right now.

• Ludwig van Beethoven
• Marin Alsop

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Ludwig van Beethoven: Biography, Essay, Speech

Introduction.

Ludwig van Beethoven lived a life that was not spectacular on the surface, yet emotionally and spiritually saturated. He created his masterpieces “in the face of his severe personal adversities” (Wikipedia, 2006). Beethoven’s deafness was one of such tribulations. However, none of the challenges prevented him from giving expression to his feelings and talent.  Ludwig van Beethoven’s life story is truly an example of how human spirit finds its way through difficulties and limitations.

Early Years

Ludwig van Beethoven was born in 1770 in the small German town of Bonn, in the family of a court musician Johann van Beethoven, a native of Belgium. Johann became his son’s first music teacher; however, his limited talents and knowledge of music and heavy drinking prevented him from making another child prodigy in the style of Mozart out of his son. When Ludwig was only 9, he became a student with organist Christian Gottlob Neefe and published his first sonatas entitled “Kurfürst” (“Elector”) sonatas in 1783 (Wikipedia, 2006).

In 1792, seeking access to the throbbing musical life of the Austrian capital, Beethoven moved to Vienna. Some researchers insist that “in 1787 Beethoven made a brief, abortive journey to Vienna to see Mozart” in Vienna and impressed the renowned composer with his music (Kinderman 1997:16). Moving permanently to Vienna, Beethoven succeeded in obtaining a grant from his patron, “Elector” of Bonn Maximilian Franz, to sponsor his music education.

Moving to Vienna

Although there are hypotheses that Beethoven was eager to study music from Mozart himself, his teachers became Haydn, and later Albrechtsberger and Salieri (Prevot 2001). Beethoven succeeded in establishing his reputation in Vienna with his innovative, even if disturbing, music. His career started with the composition of opus 1 and his first symphony presented in 1800 that many people found “strange, overly extravagant, and even risqué” (Prevot 2001).

Although his music did seem unconventional, Beethoven in Vienna was able to find many admirers who proved his faithful supporters. The list of aristocrats that financially contributed to the career of the musician included “Prince Joseph Franz Lobkowicz, Prince Karl Lichnowsky, and Baron Gottfried van Swieten” (Wikipedia, 2006). Beethoven’s income also came from his teaching work. His students included Ferdinand Ries who was later to write a book on his communication with Beethoven, Carl Czerny who later became a music teacher, and even Archduke Rudolph, son of the Austrian emperor Leopold II. It was later Archduke Rudolph who together with three other aristocrats offered Beethoven a ‘scholarship’ in 1824 to keep him in Vienna when the composer received an offer from Jerome Bonaparte for a position at Westphalia court.

In 1803, Beethoven devoted much of his time to the composition of the Ninth (“Eroica”) Symphony in which the new path he decided to take in music composition “ascended to a lofty summit with a commanding position in the history of the symphonic genre” (Kinderman 1987:96). The same time period marks the beginning of the composer’s heroic struggle with gradual loss of hearing. The causes of his deafness are not clear and have been attributed to a range of causes from syphilis to lead poisoning. Deafness was a trial for the composer who depended on his ears to govern his work. Apart from affecting his creative process, it also had a disastrous effect on his social life. To his friend Wegeler he wrote in 1801:

For almost two years I have ceased to attend any social functions, just because I find it impossible to say to people: I am deaf. (Hamburger 1952:61).

Deafness, however, did not stop his composition. More than ever, Beethoven retreated into music to find consolation for other grievances. In the same letter, he wrote to Wegeler: “I live entirely in my music” (Hamburger 1952:62). There are even speculations that loss of hearing made Beethoven more committed to art, isolating him from the world of people. In any case, his ability to compose music remained with him and enabled Beethoven to create more masterpieces such as the Third through Eighth Symphonies, Waldstein, Appassionata, Fidelio, and the Violin Concerto produced in his so-called Heroic, or Middle period that lasted from 1802 to 1812 – right at the time when he was growing increasingly deaf. In any case, this period is marked by the creation of Beethoven’s greatest works that formed the pinnacle of his genius, and in the opinion of many, of mankind’s music history as well.

Beethoven’s Love and Family Life

While it is commonly agreed that love life can be a powerful influence on the artist’s creative activity, Beethoven’s relationship with women remains a mystery to a great extent. Some researchers will even say that he “was never involved in a love-affair”, while others claim that he had many alternating love stories during his lifetime (Sterba 1994:97). Abstention from romantic involvement is explained partly by his involvement with music composition that he allegedly found more important than romance.

An intriguing episode in his biography is the composition of the epistle addressed to “The Immortal Beloved” during his course of hydrotherapy at Teplitz in 1812, to be later found with the Heiligenstadt Testament (Prevot 2001). Since it was known Beethoven was prone to start affairs with his female students, some of them were believed to be the addresses of this message. However, no hypothesis has received adequate documentary support, and at this point the mystery is likely to remain unresolved.

Although the composer never married, a remarkable event in 1815 exposed him to parental concerns. Following the death of his brother Kaspar Karl, Ludwig van Beethoven became the guardian of this son Karl. Beethoven accepted these responsibilities with great ardour. He began to live with the child, then 9, in order to insulate him from the harmful influences of his mother Johanna. However, Beethoven’s difficult character, a generation gap , and Johanna’s attempts to win back her child through litigation poisoned many years of Beethoven’s life.

Receiving many invitations to play at the Congress of Vienna in 1814, Beethoven experienced one of the greatest moments of recognition in his life. His later period, however, was not as productive as the previous ones. His most renowned creations for that period include “five piano sonatas and the Diabelli Variations, the last two sonatas for cello and piano, the late quartets” (Wikipedia 2006). The two large works include the Missa Solemnis and the Ninth Symphony that was first played in 1824. This work brought the composer more recognition, but little financial reward.

Financial difficulties continued to plague the composer in his later life as many of his benefactors withdrew their support for various reasons. Thus, Prince Lobkowitz was beset by financial problems, and Prince Kinski died from an accident, with his heirs deciding to discontinue the support for Beethoven (Prevot 2001). Compounding financial problems was the failing health including jaundice that affected the composer’s liver starting in 1821. After a prolonged struggle with the disease, Beethoven died in 1827 to be buried in Vienna.

The artistic work of Ludwig van Beethoven, although strange and scary to many of his contemporaries, has turned into classics of world music and fascinates the minds of many people. The fact that much of this work was completed despite personal challenges boosts interest in his creation and biography. Beethoven’s life exemplifies the struggle of the creator to accomplish his work despite inner contradictions and external challenges. His life is an ode to the human spirit that can overcome enormous barriers to accomplish one’s vocation.

This biography essay is sponsored by https://smartwritingservice.com online custom writing service.

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Ludwig van Beethoven: Life and Works Essay (Biography)

General overview of the genre, analysis of the specific work, analysis of the ninth symphony (choral work), works cited.

Ludwig van Beethoven was born on December 17 th , 1770 in a place called Bonn (“Life of Beethoven- ‘Childhood’ ” par. 1). He was the first born son and his father was so determined to mold him into a musician. His father used to give him violin and piano classes when he was a child.

At eight years of age, he learned theory and keyboard under the instruction of van den Eeden who was the former chapel organizer (par. 2-3). He also received piano lessons from Tobias Friedrich Pfeiffer while Franz Rovantini gave him violin and viola lessons (Schindler p. 40).

Equipped with the basics, his father forced him to stage a public performance at only twelve years of age (“Life of Beethoven- ‘Childhood’” par. 3). During his teenage years, Beethoven concentrated more on performances than composition (“Life of Beethoven- ‘Youth’ ” par. 1). In 1787, Beethoven visited Vienna and it is believed that he may have attended some classes with Mozart, a famous symphony composer at the time.

His visit was, however, cut short by the news of his ailing mother who later died in July the same year (par. 4-5). His father was so much affected by the loss that he resorted to heavy drinking leaving Beethoven with no option, but to assume the role of the family head. Beethoven even sort court proceedings to allow him to receive a portion of his father’s salary to take care of the family.

Having assured the welfare of his younger siblings, Beethoven eventually moved permanently to Vienna in 1792 (Schindler p. 48). While there he studied courses like choral fugues, double fugue and canon. In his adult years, he concentrated more on music composition and composed many symphonies.

In the year 1800, he made a performance of his first symphony (Schindler p. 54). Between the year 1801 and 1806, he composed his 2 nd 3 rd and 4 th symphonies making him a successful composer with the best symphonies in the industry. Beethoven excelled in his career as a symphony composer until his death on 26 March, 1827 in Vienna.

A symphony is an extended musical composition in the western classical music (“Symphony” par. 1). It contains both instrumental passages and overtures or interludes. The usage of the word symphony dates back to the 17 th century tracing its origin from Greek word συμφωνία meaning agreement or concord of sound.

Symphonies written in the past had three movements namely; quick-slow-quick. They were mainly used as overtures to introduce a stage work (“Symphony” par. 1). A piece originally written as an overture could be used as a symphony and a symphony could also be used as an overture.

The three movements in the 17 th century symphony were later replaced by four movements in the 18 th and 19 th centuries. The change from three to four movements originated from German composers especially Haydn and Mozart. The four movements were: the opening, slow movement, a minute with trio, and an allegro (“Symphony” par. 6). There were, however, variations in this layout in terms of style and content.

In the 19 th century, symphonies became very popular among the music fans. Beethoven expanded symphony very fast with his compositions. His ninth symphony was the best ever composed making a summary of the previous eight. By the end of the 19 th century, instruments that allowed an orchestral approach to symphonies were introduced by French organizers.

In the 20 th century, symphony experienced further diversification in style and content, but still mentioned the old format. Symphonies still remained to be orchestral works even with diversification of style and content. However, most symphonies composed in the 20 th century had variations distinguishing them from the earlier genre.

Beethoven composed a total of nine symphonies commonly classified as No. 1-9, though they had names as we will see below. His first and second symphonies were a continuation of Haydn’s and Mozart’s work (Comini p. 124, 130). His third symphony was called ‘Eroica’, which was a romantic symphony. It marked the start of his best compositions.

In his fourth symphony, he featured strong programmatic background. This symphony also marked the start of the fading away of the classical symphony. His fifth symphony was unique. This is so because of its sonata that made it stand out from his previous compositions.

The sixth symphony called the pastoral is a series of symphonic poems interconnected through related melodic motifs (Comini p. 135). The seventh and the eighth symphonies has new element of aesthetics. The ninth symphony is in the form of a choral. It represents the summit of the Beethoven Symphony (Cook p. 64).

It also represents all the musical means of expression utilized by himself up to that point of his composition (Cook p. 64). Beethoven once said that symphonies were a true representation of him. Through them you would get to know his likes and dislikes. Beethoven is the best known composer in the world both during his time and in the current world.

His compositions were a great breakthrough for this genre of music. They were all unique from the other artists’ compositions. Each prepared a way for the next. They were like a continuation of each other. Some of his best compositions were symphony No. 3, 5 and 9. They were the most popular and the most listened to during his time. Beethoven’s compositions are known to many in the history of this genre of music.

Composed in the early 19 th Century, Symphony No. 9 is the summary of all Beethoven’s symphonies (Comini p. 138). This composition includes all his previous eight compositions. It has all the ideas of the previous symphonies summarized into one composition. Its tone is that of happiness hence considered by many as the symphony of joy (Cook p. 67).

Part one of this symphony has an everlasting moment in the creation of the composition and Beethoven is viewed as a genius for this. Its content presents the horrors of war in the world at that time. The music background is composed of violins and the cellos. The first theme is introduced with much effort contrasting with the secondary themes and motives (p. 65).

Part two of the symphony is joyful. It has great intense and depth, which often made the crowd happy and cheerful during performance. Part three creates a different atmosphere altogether. It is like the beginning of a new cycle (p. 70). There are movements of lyrics allowing for dancing during the performance. Finally, part four is the summary of the whole symphony (p. 72). It creates the most memorable page in the book of universal culture.

Comini, Alessandara. The Changing Image of Beethoven: A Study in Mythmaking . New Mexico: Sunstone Press, 2008. Print.

Cook, Nicholas. Beethoven Symphony, Issue 9. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Print.

“Life of Beethoven.” All About Beethoven.com . Web. < http://www.all-about-beethoven.com/beethovenlife.html >.

Schindler, Anton. Beethoven as I knew him: A Biography . Canada: General Publications Co. 1996. Print.

“Symphony.” Oxford Grove Music Encyclopedia . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Web.

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Why Beethoven’s Loss of Hearing Added New Dimensions to His Music

As he went deaf, the composer’s disability inspired a novel sonic universe.

Portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven when composing Missa Solemnis, painted by Joseph Karl Stieler 1820. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons .

by Robin Wallace | July 28, 2019

Ludwig van Beethoven occupies a larger-than-life place in our imaginations, all the more so because late in his life he accomplished the seemingly impossible: He continued to compose beautiful and enduring music even as he went deaf.

This achievement is often seen as an example of super-heroic determination, a triumph of the human spirit that tests the boundaries of our species’ ingenuity. But Beethoven the man was not the Beethoven of our imaginations. His story, for all its wonder, is no myth; it offers unfussy but lasting lessons about music, hearing, and disability.

To begin with, accounts of Beethoven’s triumph are often overdone. He did not completely lose his hearing until the last decade of his life, if even then. For most of his adulthood he experienced progressive hearing loss, as many of us do as we age. When he wrote the Fifth Symphony, his most recognizable work, he could hear well enough to correct mistakes in the performance.

And Beethoven wasn’t a “ supercrip ,” the term for a person who responds to a disability in ways that inspire others but also set unreasonable expectations. He never claimed to be overcoming his hearing loss. Indeed, he accepted it and adapted to it, and this left recognizable marks on his music.

Beethoven’s manuscript of the piano sonata in E Major, Op. 109, shows him creating music on paper, getting carried away with rhythmic, repetitive writing patterns that mirror the emphatic rhythms of much of his music. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons .

Where can those marks be found? The most obvious answers to that question are probably wrong, or at least misleading. Beethoven wrote a lot of loud music, but for someone with hearing loss, loud music is not necessarily better. Indeed, loud music can be painful to failing ears. Listening to a quiet piano sonata in an environment without distractions would likely be more pleasant than hearing a dramatic symphony.

Instead, look for his use of repeating phrases. Repetition is particularly important to someone who is unable to absorb everything on first hearing. Beethoven’s music abounds in repetition, especially repetition of short, highly recognizable units. Musicians call them motives. Beethoven established motives as the building blocks of his longer pieces, a process imitated by many later composers.

This is why the four-note motive at the beginning of the Fifth Symphony is repeated throughout the work. When he wrote this music, Beethoven needed to augment his perception of aural cues, much as a person with progressive hearing loss might augment their understanding of speech by beginning to read lips even if they’re not conscious they’re doing so.

Another sign can be found in his pianos, which changed over Beethoven’s lifetime. The early Viennese pianos he played as a young man had a clear, bell-like sound that was evidently easy for him to hear even as his hearing faded. As he grew older, he became more, not less, attached to his pianos, but what he needed from them was different.

The English Broadwood piano he owned during the last decade of his life was both louder and muddier sounding than the ones with which he grew up—again, the exact opposite of what someone with hearing loss would seem to require.

But Beethoven fell in love with the Broadwood for another reason entirely. It was vibrationally alive. The soundboard, which amplifies the vibrations produced by the strings, was connected directly to the body of the instrument, conveying those vibrations back to the keys and even to the floor beneath the instrument. Thus, though he was increasingly deaf, Beethoven began to feel sound in an entirely new way.

Late in his life, Beethoven commissioned the creation of a specially designed resonator that would be placed over his piano to magnify both sound and vibration. Recently researchers recreated the resonator; the results can be heard on a new recording of his last three sonatas made by fortepianist Tom Beghin. The preparations for Beghin’s recording made it clear just how important touch had become in Beethoven’s experience of music in his last years. The piano music he wrote at this time incorporated powerful repeated chords, new ways of resolving harmonies, and carefully synchronized passages in which the two hands combine to set the frame of the instrument vibrating from top to bottom.

Beethoven also used his eyes to create music. It has been said that both Mozart and Beethoven would compose an entire piece of music in their heads before writing it down. Scholars have known for decades that neither composer ever claimed to have done anything of the sort, but the story persists—perhaps because it provides an idea that is easy to grasp. If this story were true, it would demystify how Beethoven composed in his late years after his ears had failed him.

But Beethoven’s creative process was actually less daunting than the myth would have us believe. When you look at virtually any Beethoven manuscript or sketch, you can see that he was creating music on paper, frequently crossing out and replacing things that didn’t look right, or getting carried away with rhythmic, repetitive writing patterns that mirror the emphatic rhythms of much of his music. He heard what he saw and felt as his pen crossed the paper again and again in arcs and arabesques of musical creativity.

His final string quartets —actual products of his deafness—have a reputation for a kind of profundity that few nonmusicians could describe in words. There is no easy triumph or memorable musical tidbit to be found in them, but they contain a novel sonic universe that seems all the more remarkable when we know that they were written by a man who could not hear. Beethoven created these new textures and sonorities because he was being led by his eyes as much as by his memories of sound. Rather than detracting from his creative process, his deafness added dimensions to these late works that would not have been there otherwise.

Today, Beethoven says less to us about genius and more about how to come to terms with a disability. His experience resonates in an era where forms of human difference have been given unprecedented respect, and words like neurodiversity have entered our vocabulary. Neurodiversity—the idea that all humans occupy a spectrum that includes conditions once considered to be tragic illnesses—has helped bring autism, bipolarity, and depression out of the shadows. In this context it is easier to understand Beethoven’s hearing problems as a normal part of human experience.

Music is a multifaceted medium that inspires people to move, to feel, to watch, to think, and to share experiences with others. If composition were a magical superpower, the music of the great composers would not speak to the rest of us. The story Beethoven tells us is not one of triumphing over adversity, but one of acceptance of what cannot be changed, and of creative adaptation employing the tools at hand. It’s time we welcomed Beethoven on his own terms.

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Ludwig Van Beethoven Essay

German composer and pianist, Ludwig van Beethoven, was born December 1770 and spent most of his life in Vienna, Austria. His first teacher was his alcoholic father, who worked as a musician at the Court of Bonn. Teaching him day and night, Ludwig suffered from his father's harsh and erratic behavior. For a time, he and his father played at the Church. As his father's alcoholism increased, Ludwig became the main musician. Beethoven's talents were discovered at an early age, and he was sent to Vienna to study under different teachers including Mozart and Hayden. There, Beethoven quickly adopted a reputation of a great piano player, a child prodigy. He gave his first public performance at the age of eight and published his first …show more content…

Music was his life and he was deeply depressed and angry at the thought of being deaf. He even became suicidal. His relationship to his music was very serious, and though he continued to compose music, he never performed again following a failure to perform his Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor" in 1811. Following many personal crises in his life, Beethoven's music reflected his mood. His masterpieces depicted struggle followed by triumph. Later, his worked was influence by the ideals of Enlightenment, leading him to dedicate the symphony "Erotica" to Napoleon. The symphony "Ode to Joy" was believed to be about the brotherhood of humanity. His works are admired for intellectual depth, intense expression, and experimental forms. He is considered one of the greatest minds of humanity. His ambitious works made him prominent in the transition between eras of Classical and Romantic music. Music had driven Beethoven's life from a small child to an adult. It helped him overcome an alcoholic father, his mother's death, failed love, and provided a means of support for his family. It carried him through personal crises including the loss of his hearing and won him critical acclaim in social circles. His life ended in 1826 following complications of a cold and chronic health problems. He used his music to preach through art and has remained a model to later composers in the use of classical principles of

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Ludwig Van Beethoven was one of the greatest musical composers of his time. Starting very young in his studies of music, he held many important positions they would develop him into the composer he became. Born in Bonn, Germany to a singer, he held his first position at the church. He later moved to Vienna where his composed several pieces, and even an opera. He created a new style of music, cyclic form.

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Ludwig Van Beethoven Analysis Persuasive Essay Example

• Pages: 4 (1030 words)
• Published: September 5, 2018
• Type: Case Study

Ludwig van Beethoven is considered to be one of the greatest creators of the world. His work can be referred both to classicism and romanticism; his creative life goes beyond these definitions. Beethoven’s music is the expression of his genius. The birthplace of the famous composer was Bonn, small Pyrenees town, the residence of the Prince of Cologne. There exist evidences that the date of his baptism was 17 December.

Many traits of his character Ludwig inherited from the grandfather, Louis Beethoven. Such qualities as pride, the independent attitude, perseverance and industry helped a little musician to become a truly talented artist. The brilliant abilities of a little boy appeared at age four. The father immediately took it as a new source of income. Ludwig had to develop, practice with a capabl

e teacher, but his father had the only one method for upbringing - coercion and beatings.

Only some of Ludwig’s teachers were good musicians and none of them had a significant effect on the talented child. The goal of Ludwig’s father was to prepare a little son for concerts. He believed that the sooner the concerts will begin the sooner money will flow into the pocket. The first concert was held in Cologne, where the eight-year boy was presented as six years musician. At the age of 12, he was a virtuoso player on the harpsichord, violin, and organ. During this year, a crucial event in the life of the young Beethoven happened; this event determined the rest of his life and career.

Christian Gottlob Neefe nave became the new director of the court chapel in Bonn. This man became a true teacher o

young Ludwig van Beethoven; he sparked the interest of a young artist by the music of Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mozart; Beethoven learned the subtleties of contemporary piano style on the samples of Bach’s keyboard music. With the help of the Neefe Nine variations on a march by Dressler and three piano sonatas were published. Nave knew that the development of some musical ability can not exist without proper eduction. Beethoven gladly began to study classical languages, literature, and philosophy. His admired of Schiller and Goethe, and he was just in love in Shakespeare's creative life.

Since 13 years, Ludwig had to work in order to maintain a family. He worked as an organist’s assistant at the Chapel, turned a penny in the theater, learned roles with the singers and accompanied them during rehearsals. The young musician dreamed of recognition of the leading musicians and the Mozart’s lessons. Beethoven could be a good musician in Bonn, as well as his grandfather, but in order to be a truly brilliant artist he had to move in Vienne. Having overcome all kinds of difficulties, 17-year-old Ludwig arrived at the famous city. There he met Mozart. Maestro was thoroughly absorbed by the work on his opera "Don Giovanni" and, therefore, he listened rather absently the play of a young musician, and modestly praised a boy. Beethoven requested to give him a topic for improvisation; the ability to improvise on a given theme was widespread among pianists. Mozart asked to play two lines of polyphonic presentation. The young talent coped with the task particularly well and affected famous composer by his abilities.

According to Rowbotham (2007) Beethoven's happiness, however, was

soon to be clouded by sorrow, for shortly after his return to Bonn his mother died. (p.229) Ludwig had to care about the family as his father also died very soon after his wife. The young Beethoven was forced to take the extra work as well as to increase the number of lessons. These overstrain sapped health of Ludwig; he suffered from fever and smallpox.

Beethoven was a true virtuoso; his talent was on the same level with the major pianists of Europe. As a composer, he needed to improve his talent, new ideas, feelings and experiences. The young musician waited in the wings. He became acquainted with Haydn. Works of the young man impressed the famous composer; he pledged full support and advised Beethoven to go to Vienna again. In 1792, Beethoven was the author of over 50 works. Soon tthe young Ludwig was one of the first virtuosos of Vienna; his play was phenomenal. He is considered as one of the most prosperous musicians. Sometimes his play was called revolutionary thus, he played entirely new music. From 1775 to 1802 the composer wrote 19 piano sonatas, three piano concerto with orchestra, two symphonies, six string quartets, piano and string trio, as well as many other works. Ludwig gets into the high society of the Viennese aristocracy. Then he fell in love with a young girl, Juliette. Unfortunately, he was the object of ridicules for Juliette and soon she married another man.

Encyclopaedia Britannica (2012) relates “A change in direction occurred with Beethoven’s gradual realization that he was becoming deaf. The first symptoms had appeared even before 1800, yet for a few years his

life continued unchanged: he still played in the houses of the nobility.”

Ferris (1891) gave a picture of Beethoven of those days: "The Square Cyclopean figure attired in a shabby coat with torn sleeves." Everybody will remember his noble, austere face, as seen in the numerous prints: the square, massive head, with the forest of rough hair; the strong features, so furrowed with the marks of passion and sadness; the eyes, with their look of introspection and insight; the whole expression of the countenance as of an ancient prophet.”

In conclusion it should be said that on almost all the portraits of those times that have survived to the present days, Beethoven is depicted morose and unsociable; his appearance repulsed people, but under this stone mask was a man able to feel. Ludwig van Beethoven is not just a name in history; he was a talented person, he lived, enjoyed, suffered, solved his problems, and, like any true artist, thought about the fate of the world. It is not difficult to understand his music because he expressed his thoughts, sentiments in it; he wrote for those who wanted to listen. The conflicting feelings such as activism, passion, desire for peace and humility were combined harmoniously in his music.

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