Beethoven Was A German Composer ( 1770-1827 )

When we talk about Beethoven people often recall him as one that was great. When you think of Beethoven you can consider him a transitional composer and that is mainly because he is the crucial transitional figure linking the Classical and Romantic eras of musical history. Beethoven's innovation was the ability to briskly establish imperishability in bringing together different keys and unexpected notes to join them. Beethoven's music was correspondent to the agreement of the music in literature. Most of his music focused on life drama of one or more individuals through hard life circumstances. Beethoven’s role as a transitional composer between the classical and romantic periods took

While composing his great works, Beethoven was struggling to come to terms with a terrible news, one that he desperately tried to hide. He was going deaf. He loss his hearing in his early 30s and by 1819 he was completely deaf. At that point of time he was devastated by his loss of his hearing but he was passionate about music that it didn’t stop him from composing music. Even with his deaf ears he composed some of his great music at that time of the

Beethoven is perhaps the most famous musician of all time. His influence on later composers was extremely huge, to the extent where many composers were intimidated by his music. Ludwig van Beethoven was born in 1770 into a family of musicians. His father and grandfather were both musicians at the court of Elector in the German town of Bonn. His grandfather was very respected, but his dad not so much given that he was an alcoholic. At a young age, Beethoven was put in charge of his family’s finances and started a job at the court. He composed music and helped look after the instrumentation. Around the same time, he began to write music. In 1790, an important visitor passed through Bonn: this was Franz Joseph Haydn. He was on his way to London for a visit when he stopped to meet Beethoven and agreed to take him on as a student when he came back from London to Vienna. In 1792, Beethoven moved to Vienna to study with Hayden. Apparently, it did not go as planned. Hayden was old fashion and a little overbearing, while Beethoven was rebellious and headstrong. Beethoven found support among the rich arts who lived in Vienna. Prince Lichnowsky gave him board and lodging at his place for in return, Beethoven would compose music and preform at evening parties.

1819 is the year in which his hearing was thoroughly depleted. He could no longer play the piano virtuously and had to communicate by text. As a result, he spent a majority of his time composing. Beethoven would sketch out his compositions in a book. These books have been maintained and it is evident that he would work on several pieces at once. During this time, his compositions ranged from simple melodies to more elaborate and edited works. In 1804 Beethoven completed his Third Symphony. This piece was originally a tribute to Napoleon Bonaparte, but when Beethoven found that Napoleon was proclaimed an emperor he deleted the dedication. At this point in his life, Beethoven seriously considered marriage. His first love was for a woman named Giulietta Guicciardi. When this relationship eventually broke, he sought the hand of Giulietta’s cousin, Josephine. The bond between them broke and the engagement was ended. Beethoven’s final attempt with a woman was with his doctor’s daughter, Therese Malfatti. As is expected, this relationship also failed and Beethoven reached the final part of his life as a bachelor. The rate and quality of his compositions slowed and he became more and more isolated. Another depressing and negative event in Beethoven’s life took place in 1815. His brother died. Caspar Anton Carl left behind a son and a widow and instructed

Ever since his father began teaching him as a child to play the violin and clavier, any keyboard instrument such as the harpsichord, Ludwig van Beethoven has been amongst the most renowned and influential composers of music. Despite the harsh punishments and mistreatment Beethoven suffered through while practicing with his father, he still managed to become a “prodigy” at a rather young age, having his first public recital at around seven years old. After his first recital role music played in his continued to grow, and soon after dropping out of school to pursue music “full time” he published his first composition.

Only a few composers in the history of time have ever successfully left their mark throughout our musical world we live in today. It’s been over two hundred years since the birth of Beethoven and his music still speaks to us today as he originally expressed and composed it. Ludwig Van Beethoven was born in the city of Bonn Germany on December 16th 1770 and has since been one of the most influential composers known to man. A common theme of early age learning and mastering seems to emerge in Beethoven’s life because while living in a musical family as a child, his father taught him how to play the piano, violin and in addition how to compose musical pieces since he was four years of age. A few short years later, he gave his first public piano performance at the age of seven. While Beethoven certainly gained a lot of knowledge from his peers, he also supported his family by giving music lessons and also by playing in the court orchestra. In the year 1792, Beethoven worked under an Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn and by the year 1800, his compositions established him as a strong Mozart successor.

Beethoven returned to Vienna in 1972 to continue his musical education. Beethoven never returned to his hometown and stayed in Vienna for a while. The in Vienna, Beethoven had valuable lessons from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Hayden, Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, Antonio Salieri, and Aloys Forster. Each of them had taught Beethoven something special. Beethoven quickly adopted a reputation as a great pianist, a child prodigy. Everyone in the music industry has learned to admire Beethoven and his talent.

“Beethoven said that it’s better to hit the wrong note confidentially than hit the right note unconfidently. Never be afraid to be wrong or to embarrass yourself; we are all students in this life, and there is always something more to learn.” – Mike Norton. This quote by Mike Norton hits spot on Beethoven’s character and his person in general. Unlike other musicians of his time, Beethoven had several unique characteristics about his compositions. In his time, he was called a revolutionary. In his later years, Beethoven became deaf and could not always verbally show his emotion, he portrayed his feelings in his music. Although considering the matters of religion and thoroughbass cut and dry, his study of aesthetics was something that he could create something of his own. Throughout several of his Sonata’s and compositions, he holds a darker style of music that shocked and disturbed rather than calmed like the traditional music in the 18th century. Much like his appearance, his contemporaries perceived his compositions as wild, bizarre and crazy. The pieces were more complicated than pieces that were being written in that time period, and Beethoven claimed he was writing them for the future. In one of his final pieces, Piano Sonata, Op. 111, he “shows his radical approach to form and his revolutionary brilliance stands out in every movement of his five Late Quartets, simply the greatest body of music ever composed” (Woods). He went against the grain of the musical society in

Ludwig van Beethoven is a world notorious and famous music composer and pianist. He composed some of the most powerful pieces of music. Beethoven created a connection between the 18th century Classical Period and the Romantic eras. His best innovations in composition came in his instrumental work, including his symphonies. He succeeded in several areas of music (music forms), which were passed down to him from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Hadyn including the sonata, concerto, and symphony (Isaac, n.d.).

His father, a heavy drinker, believed he could make Beethoven the next Mozart. The plan did not work, but Beethoven’s talent was recognized by his teachers (Eckley). Beethoven visited Vienna in 1787, and impressed Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart after playing for him, claims Columbia. He also moved the aristocracy with his own compositions, leading him to Viennese music publishers (Funk & Wagnalls). In 1792, he received piano lessons from Franz Joseph Haydn. However, his lessons were cut short. Beethoven thought Haydn’s “teaching was perfunctory” (Eckley), and Haydn disapproved Beethoven’s, according to Columbia, “unorthodox musical ideas,” says

Ludwig Beethoven was not only one of the greatest composer & musician ever born- he is a wonderful study tool for me during exam week. My faithful study partner was born in a small town, Bonn, Germany on December 16, 1770 to a family of professional musicians. Beethoven learned violin and some other instruments from his father. His father wanted him to be perfect in music, and in that endeavor he violently scolded Beethoven whenever he made any kind of mistake during practice. Even, according to one story, due to the punishments given by his father, Beethoven suffered from hearing problems in future, which basically ruined his life. (NP)

He attended the Latin grade school Tirocinium, but in 1781, at the age of 10, Beethoven withdrew from the school to study full-time under the Court Organist, Christian Gottlob Neefe. Under Neefe’s instruction, Beethoven was introduced to Johann Sebastian Bach. At the age of 12, Beethoven published his first composition, piano variations based on a theme by composer and music theorist Gallus Dressler. Beethoven was later officially appointed as Assistant Court Organist, and in 1787, the court sent him to study with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Vienna, Austria. During his audition, Mozart commented on the young Beethoven’s performance, “Keep your eyes on him; some day he will give the world something to talk about.” But his time under Mozart’s tutelage was cut short when Beethoven returned only a few weeks later to Bonn after learning that his mother was desperately ill. Her death a few months later sent Beethoven into a fit of depression that would last for years (Biography.com).

INTRODUCTION Attention getter: Whether in spite of, or because of his father’s excessive harsh and abusive methods of teaching, Beethoven was an extraordinary musician from an early age. He showed creative musicianship and imagination that reach further than any other composer ever has or possibly ever will.

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist, and the predominant musical figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras. He was born to musician Johann van Beethoven and Maria Magdalena van Beethoven, and though his exact birthdate is unknown his family celebrated it on December 16, 1770. Having been practically born into his profession, Beethoven exhibited strong musical development underneath the harsh instruction of his father. He learned to play the violin and piano, and was often ordered to perform for his father’s drinking companions with the threat of a beating if he refused. Practice would sometimes even last until morning. It is known that he began to attract attention as early as his adolescence due to his superior musical skill.

To understand how revolutionary Beethoven’s new approach to music was we must first understand the time period that young Beethoven was born into. During the 18th Century, Germany was a part of the Holy Roman Empire, an Empire that had stood at that point for almost a thousand years. At the heart of the Holy Roman Empire was its capital city of Vienna. Vienna was the center for the arts during the 18th century and most of the 19th century. However, despite all the cultural advancements, even in Vienna very strict social standards applied to every one. For example, if a middle class merchant had a son, that son was expected to become a merchant like his father and he could not become any greater. The aristocrats stayed within their group, the middle class within theirs, and the poor within theirs. There was no social climbing or intermingling, that is until Mozart came along and blurred the lines a little.