Great Personalities

Beethoven

Beethoven is a very familiar name not only among classical music lovers, but also among everyone else too.
Ludwig van Beethoven is one of the greatest musicians and pianists in the history. He is considered the bridge between Classical and Romantic western music periods. His music is still loved and appreciated throughout the world. He has influenced musicians such as Brahms.

Early Life

Though his date of birth is uncertain, he was baptised on 17th of December 1770, probably the day after his birth. Ludwig’s grand father and father were musicians. He was named after his grand father whose name was Ludejik van Beethoven. His father’s name was Johann van Beethoven, and his mother’s name was Maria Magdalena. Ludwig’s childhood was a very unpleasant one. Beethoven’s father was aware of the success of Mozart, the ‘the child prodigy’. Therefore, Beethoven’s father gave him a hard time so he too would make his first public appearance while he was young. This fact caused Beethoven to have a very unpleasant childhood. Beethoven was forced to make his first public appearance when he was seven years old although his posters stated that he was only six. His first music teacher was his father, afterwards, he learned from several music teachers.

Late Life

In 1789, he went to Vienna to learn music from Mozart. It is not clear if he had done so, because he had to return to Bonn after five weeks because of his mother’s ill health. There, his mother died and since his father had become addicted to alcohol, he had to take care of his two brothers. He stayed in Bonn for about five years. During his stay at Bonn, he gave piano lessons to children and played the viola in the court orchestra.
In 1792, once again he set off to Vienna, this time, to learn music from another famous musician called Joseph Hayden. Shortly after his arrival at Vienna, his father died. However, at Vienna, Beethoven first studied and learnt to play the piano from Hayden, learnt to play the violin from another teacher. Even after Hayden’s departure to London, Beethoven chose to remain in Vienna to take instructions and lessons from other teachers.
By 1793, Beethoven has gained a good reputation as a piano virtuoso among the noble men and women in Vienna.
In 1794, he started composing music. He publicized a piano concerto through a concert and later, ‘piano trios of opus 1’ gave fame and money to Beethoven.
In the year 1796, he travelled through Europe giving concerts and writing new music.
He returned to Vienna in 1797 and while in his second visit to Prague in 1798, he realized that he had hearing problems and this caused him to abandon concert touring entirely.
Between 1798 and 1802, he took to composition. In 1800 and in 1802, he composed his first and second symphonies.
After this, he was acclaimed a most important young musician following Hayden and Mozart.
Though his music influenced Hayden and Mozart, his music echoed his individuality and his music was considered as one of the difficult music to play. By 1800, he was famous among nobility.
He also taught music to several students.
Around 1796, he began to lose hearing and the ringing in his ear deprived him to listen and appreciate music. Because of this, he even abandoned conversations. Even though his hearing loss did not stop him from composing, his public concerts did. After the failed attempt to play his own piano concerto in 1811, he never performed in public again.
Around 1814, he became totally deaf. He used notebooks to converse with friends. But even his deafness did not stop him from composing new music.
Although Beethoven proposed to several ladies, he never married.
Mainly because of his deafness, Beethoven had a quite rough character. Nevertheless, he had a circle of close friends.
Beethoven was quite ill for some years and like his father, he was addicted to alcohol. Due to liver damage, this greatest musician died on 26th of March 1827.

His works

His works, apart from his famous nine symphonies, include ‘Fur Elise’, ‘The Moonlight Sonata’, ‘Christ in the mount of Olives. The opera, ‘Fidelio’, many piano concertos, piano trios, string quartets, piano sonatas and many other numerous works.