Ludwig Van Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany. He grew up in a very unhappy home, being forced to practice the piano by his father, an abusive alcoholic who would punish him when he made mistakes.
On March 26th 1778, at the age of 7 1/2, Beethoven gave his first public performance in Cologne. His father announced that he was 6 years old. Because of this, Beethoven always thought that he was younger than he actually was. Even much later, when he received a copy of his baptism certificate, he thought that it belonged to his brother Ludwig Maria, who was born two years before him, and had died as a child.
By the time he was twelve, Beethoven was earning a living for his family by playing organ and composing. At seventeen, he took off for Vienna. Even though Vienna was to be his home for the rest of his life, this first visit was short. On hearing that his mother was dying, he quickly returned to Bonn. Five years later, he finally moved to Vienna to live and work.
Beethoven never married, even though he proposed to plenty of women who rejected him (he wasn't very attractive and he had a rather nasty temper).
By 1800, Beethoven had become aware of his advancing deafness - surely a most horrible fate for a musician and unendurable to a composer. Agonizing over his fate, Beethoven contemplated suicide, but in the end embraced life, determined to go on composing.
Beethoven's first two symphonies were very much in the same style and form as those of composers that came before him, most notably Franz Joseph Haydn, his teacher. Unhappy with these first compositions, Beethoven began composing music in a style that had never before been heard. His Symphony no. 3 entitled the "Eroica", was completed in 1804. This Third Symphony was so different from the ones that had come before that it changed music forever. Its originality and innovation inspired others to change the way that they composed. It was originally dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte. But when Beethoven heard that Napoleon had proclaimed himself Emperor, he went into a rage and destroyed the title page.
Although Beethoven gradually lost his hearing, he continued composing. He composed many of the most famous musical works of all time, such as his Ninth Symphony, after he had become totally deaf. But life wasn't easy for him. Beethoven was seriously ill. He moved more than 52 times during his final years. He also took it upon himself to get custody of his nephew Karl. He won, but Beethoven pushed his nephew too hard. He tried to mold Karl into what he wanted but it didn't happen.
Beethoven died an in Vienna, Austria on March 26, 1827. When he died at the age of 56, almost 30,000 people attended his funeral. Unlike some other composers of that time, Beethoven had enjoyed recognition prior to his death.
Beethoven was an innovator, widening the scope of sonata, symphony, concerto, and quartet, and combining vocals and instruments in a new way. His personal life was marked by a struggle against deafness, but that didn't prevent him from becoming one of the greatest composers of all times.
No comments:
Post a Comment