Ludwig van Beethoven Early Years He was born

Ludwig van Beethoven

Early Years He was born in Bonn, in Germany. At an early age he was taught to play piano, the organ, the viola and the violin. He came from a musical family – his father played in the Prince’s court.

Vienna He moved to Vienna in 1792 to improve his performance skills whilst working under Haydn. During this time, he was led to believe that he was Mozart’s successor. In Vienna, he began to compose and his compositions matured. The first time his compositions were published, they were so successful they covered his living expenses for a year! He is one of the few composers who knew great success whilst he was alive.

Loss of Hearing By the age of 26, Beethoven began to lose his hearing. This led to him avoiding social situations and moving to a small town in Austria to better cope with the loss. This made playing the piano at concerts very difficult for him as he could not hear the audience or the music. By 1814 he was completely deaf and so had to have conversations by writing them down in books.

Change in musical style His move from Vienna to Heiligenstadt is marked by a change in the style of his compositions. They became much bigger, longer and more complicated. This change is known as the ‘Middle Period’ in his musical career. It is the work of this period that cemented his reputation as a ‘master composer’.

Patronage Beethoven not only earned money from performing and publishing his work, but also from having a patron. His most important patron was the Archduke Rudolph who he taught to play the piano. The two men became friends and Beethoven dedicated music to the Archduke including the great ‘Missa Solemnis’

His Loves Beethoven had many great loves but could not marry most of them due to the class difference between them (he was a commoner and they were nobility). Many of his most famous works are dedicated to the women he loved: His ‘Moonlight’ sonata is dedicated to Julie Guiccardi ‘Für Elise’ is for Therese Malfatti ‘An die ferne Geliebte’ was dedicated to Josephine Brunsvik

Personal Difficulties In October 1812 he visited his brother Johann to stop him living with Therese Obermayer – his brother ignored him and married her despite the fact she had an illegitimate child. In 1815, his brother Carl died from consumption and Beethoven entered a custody battle with his wife Johanna, over their son Karl. Beethoven won custody but he and Karl did not get along and became estranged. During times of personal difficulty, Beethoven hardly wrote any music.

Death In the last few months before his death, Beethoven was seriously ill and spent most of his months in bed. He died on 26th March 1827 at the age of 56 during a thunderstorm – people at the time thought this was a sign of his greatness. No-one knows how he died but some people think he may have been accidentally poisoned. 20 000 people attended his funeral and he was buried in Vienna.

Music He composed in several different genres and for many different instrument combinations. His only opera is ‘Fidelio’. He wrote 32 piano compositions. His career can be divided into 3 periods: Early: until 1802. Influenced by Haydn and Mozart. Middle: from 1803-1814. Just after he discovered he was going deaf. Produced his most famous piano sonatas. Late: from 1815. Music has a highly personal expression. His famous Ninth Symphony was composed in this period.