When you hear the name Beethoven, you probably connect it to one of those classical music guys or that

one guy who was really good at playing the piano. But he was so much more than that. In fact, Beethovens expressive and passionate style greatly influenced other composers of the Age of Enlightenment and continues to amaze people far and wide today. Beethoven grew up in Bonn, Germany where he took piano lessons from his father. Beethoven switched piano teachers very frequently due to his frustration with each teacher. He claimed that his teachers were too strict about teaching by the book. There was no originality to their music playing, which greatly irritated Beethoven. During Beethovens later years, he developed a ringing in his ears which eventually led to complete deafness. As you can probably imagine, this is a musicians greatest horror. He became deeply depressed and began pushing himself away from family and friends. Though Beethovens hearing loss was the worst possible fate to encounter, it was actually a blessing in disguise which brought him to create some of his most passionate and original works. He poured his emotions of despair, depression, and rage into each of his pieces. His deafness seemed to allow him to pursue new ideas and musical stories. He began splashing dramatic effects throughout his pieces such as violent contrasts, jumps from high to low registers, and starting a song out as a whisper only to end the song with an explosion of sounds. Each work of Beethovens was created in a form of its own. Beethoven is known for his development of motifs, or musical ideas. He had the ability to write many original memorable melodies with a lyric bend. In fact, most of Beethoven's themes rely on outlining chords, playing one note at a time in an arrogated fashion. Every one of his symphonies demonstrated this. Beethoven received many of his composing ideas from nature. He liked taking long walks throughout the day, during which he planned his music. He would make notes in a notebook about all of the captivating scenes nature had to offer. Then in the evening after dinner, he would write music from about 7:30 to 10:00 p.m... If he was dining out and didn't have his notebook with him, he would write on the back of a menu. Once he even wrote on a window shade. Beethovens music is compared to that of Mozarts, even though his education never exceeded elementary level. When he was a young boy, Beethoven played his piano for Mozart. Mozart claimed that Beethoven was a musical genius and would certainly surpass him. In the end, Beethoven surpassed nearly all of the Romantic composers. Beethoven swore that fate would never drag him down. With Beethoven as an opponent, fate didnt have a chance.