Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany in December … but no one is sure of the exact date! He was baptised on 17 December, so he was probably born the day before. His birthplace pictured is now the Beethoven-Haus museum. This may have been a deliberate deception on the part of his father pictured to make the musical prodigy seem younger — and therefore, more advanced for his age — than he actually was.
As a young boy, Beethoven played the violin, often enjoying improvisation rather than reading the notes from a score. After the death of Mozart in , musicians in his hometown of Vienna were in need of a new genius. No pressure then. Finding a wig maker? Noting the address of a dance teacher? Oh, and finding a piano, of course. Beethoven kept a diary of his day-to-day activities when he moved to Vienna in , giving us insights into his personality.
By , aged just 22, Beethoven often played the piano in the salons of the Viennese nobility. Composing anything at all is a challenge, even for a musical genius. He communicated using conversation books, asking his friends to write down what they wanted to say so he could respond. Beethoven was 30 when his first symphony was first performed in the Burgtheater in Vienna pictured , and it went where no symphony had ever gone before.
Despite his increasing deafness, by Beethoven was almost at breaking point. His compositions during this period consisted mainly of works for his main instrament, the piano. Beethoven's hearing was also beginning to deteriotate at this point, however, he went to great lengths to hide this fact from those around him.
A picture of the apparatus used by Beethoven to hear is pictured below. Beethoven is a transistion figure in the history of western music. He is generally known as the father of the Romantic era.
However, during the first period most of his compositions were classical ie Hadyn and Mozart in nature. However, in Beethoven is reported to have turned his friend Krumpholz and said, "I am not very well satisfied with the work I have thus far done. From this day on I shall take a new way. Beethoven abandoned the classical forms of the previous century and set out for a more expressive Romantic musical voice. His musical imagination began to grow beyond that of the piano. This period, which later became known as the Heroic Period because of the larger than life nature that his compositions took on, saw the creations of such masterpieces as the Tempest Sonata, Op.
Some say that this middle period was Beethoven's greatest. It certainly was his most productive. In about a decade Beethoven produced countless masterpieces in every genre. In , however, his musical output began to drop, possibly in connection to his declining health and mental state. Around the famous Immortal Beloved affair occured which left Beethoven in deep depression and contemplating suicide. In Beethoven's first published work, a set of keyboard pieces, appeared, and in the s he produced portions of a number of later works.
In he traveled to Vienna, Austria, apparently to seek out Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — as a teacher. He was forced to return to Bonn to care for his ailing mother, who died several months later. His father died in In Beethoven went back to Vienna to study with the famous composer Joseph Haydn — Beethoven was not totally satisfied with Haydn's teaching, though, and he turned to musicians of lesser talent for extra instruction.
Beethoven rapidly proceeded to make his mark as a brilliant keyboard performer and as a gifted young composer with a number of works to his credit. In his first mature published works appeared, and his career was officially launched. Beethoven lived in Vienna from to his death in , unmarried, among a circle of friends, independent of any kind of official position or private service. He rarely traveled, apart from summers in the countryside. In he made a trip to northern Germany, where his schedule included a visit to the court of King Frederick William of Prussia, an amateur cellist.
Later Beethoven made several trips to Budapest, Hungary. In Beethoven received an invitation to become music director at Kassel, Germany. This alarmed several of his wealthy Viennese friends, who formed a group of backers and agreed to guarantee Beethoven an annual salary of 1, florins to keep him in Vienna. He thus became one of the first musicians in history to be able to live independently on his music salary. Although publishers sought out Beethoven and he was an able manager of his own business affairs, he was at the mercy of the crooked publishing practices of his time.
Publishers paid a fee to composers for rights to their works, but there was no system of copyrights the exclusive right to sell and copy a published work or royalties profits based on public performances of the material at the time.
As each new work appeared, Beethoven sold it to one or more of the best and most reliable publishers. But this initial payment was all he would receive, and both he and his publisher had to contend with rival publishers who brought out editions of their own.
As a result Beethoven saw his works published in many different versions that were unauthorized, unchecked, and often inaccurate. Several times during his life in Vienna Beethoven started plans for a complete, authorized edition of his works, but these plans were never realized. Beethoven's two main personal problems, especially in later life, were his deafness and his relationship with his nephew, Karl. Beethoven began to lose his hearing during his early years in Vienna, and the condition Ludwig van Beethoven.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress. So severe was the problem that as early as he actually considered suicide. In he gave up hope of performing publicly as a pianist. After he was no longer able to carry on conversations with visitors, who were forced to communicate with him in writing. The second problem arose when he became Karl's guardian upon the death of his brother in Karl proved to be unstable and a continuing source of worry to an already troubled man.
Beethoven's deafness and his temper contributed to his reputation as an unpleasant personality. But reliable accounts and a careful reading of Beethoven's letters reveal him to be a powerful and self-conscious man, totally involved in his creative work but alert to its practical side as well, and one who is sometimes willing to change to meet current demands.
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