Ludwig Van

Beethoven

Salieri had said that

Mozarts music sounded
like the voice of God.
If Mozart was Gods
Voice then, certainly,
Beethoven was Gods

Of all the great composers, Beethoven was

probably the one most inclined to brood. He
was moody, arrogant, and often insulting. He
could also be warm, affectionate and goodhumored. You just had to catch him on the
right day.

Ludwig Van
Beethoven was
born on
December 16th,
1770, in Bonn,
Germany, in a
little house on
Bonngasse
River.

His father was merely a mediocre

musician, and sorry to say, a
drunk.

Johann Van

Ludwigs father would come home

sometimes late at night, wake the
boy from his sleep, and force him to
practice the piano or viola until the
morning church bells sounded. It is
said that his sole companion was a
spider who would crawl out of the
corner and perch on the boys viola.

Youd think that after that kind of treatment, music

would be the last thing Ludwig wanted to do with his
life. In spite of his father, he grew to love music, and
became a skilled pianist.

Beethovens father very much

wanted the boy to become a
musical prodigy like Mozart.
Little Beethoven started piano
lessons when he was very
young, in fact so small that he
had to stand on the piano
bench to reach the keys.
His father also told everyone
that he was two years younger,
just to make him seem more
talented. Beethoven himself
didnt know his real age for
much of his life.

Beethoven was a grubby little

boy, the type who always
forgets to wash behind his
ears. He quit school at 11 and
by 16 was court organist to the
elector. He was already
beginning to compose small
pieces and was an absolute
whiz at sight reading.

Mozart
Young
Beethoven

In 1792, he moved to Vienna, where he was

introduced to a 30-year-old Mozart. Armed with a
letter of introduction from a friend, whom Mozart
knew, he gained entry into Mozart's home and was
ushered into the music room to meet his great idol.
Mozart was in no mood to receive him. His health
was plaguing him - his untimely death at the age of
35 was less than five years away - and he did not
want to stop working to listen to a child prodigy
from somewhere hundreds of miles away.
"Play something," he told Beethoven. Beethoven
played the opening of Mozart's C minor Piano
Concerto. "Not that,"said Mozart. "Anybody can play
that. Play something of your own."
Beethoven did, and when the young man had
finished, Mozart walked into the adjoining room
where his wife Constanze was entertaining friends.
"Stanzi, Stanzi," he said, pointing back into the
music room, "watch out for that boy. One day he will
give the world something to talk about."

Mozart agreed to take Beethoven on as a pupil, but when Beethoven

returned to his lodgings there was an urgent telegram from his father
telling him to return home immediately - his mother was seriously ill and
doctors feared for her life. Beethoven had no choice but to leave.
Less than two weeks after arriving in Vienna, he left for home- without
ever achieving his ambition of taking lessons with Mozart.
By the time he returned to Vienna in November 1792, Mozart was dead.
Instead, he did take lessons from Haydn and Salieri for a short while. He
was too pig-headed to learn much from either of them, though.

Haydn

Salieri

Beethoven did stay in

Vienna this time, and was
quite a hit as a concert
pianist. He was regarded
as the citys foremost
improviser. Contenders
would spar in a contest
where each would have to
improvise on a wellknown piece of music. To
maintain his position, he
would have to crush the
competitionand he
alwayscontest.
did.
Video of Beethoven in an improvising

He could be very
stubborn when he
wanted to be, which
was most of the time.
If he didnt feel like it,
he wouldnt play when
you asked him, even
if, like the Countess
Thun, you got down
on your knees and
begged him.

The aristocracy
expected him to
be subservient and
to know his place.
Beethoven knew his place it just
wasnt the same place they expected of
him.

He once told off

his patron,
Prince
Lichnowsky,
with the remark,

There are, and

there will be
thousands of
princes, but there is
only one

As you might expect with

such a hot temper,
Beethoven had real
trouble keeping servants.
They just wouldnt put up
with him. He didnt get
along very well with
landlords either, so he had
to move every few
months. He was a slob,
basically. When
Beethoven came visiting,
it was a good idea to hide
away the fine porcelain.
He dropped things.

He was no better in
restaurants. He would
leave without paying a
bill, or sometimes
absent-mindedly pay for
a meal he hadnt
ordered. He scribbled
music on the napkins,
tablecloths or menus. He
once got so angry at a
waiter that he dumped
his plate of veal and
gravy over the mans
head.

He was hardly the tall,

dark, and handsome type.
He had good teeth,
piercing eyes, and a stern,
pock-marked face. He was
only 5 feet 4 inches tall.

Even
though he
was rough
around the
edges, all
seemed to
be going
well for
Beethoven
in Vienna.
He was
gaining
popularity
not only as
pianist, but
as a
talented

Beethoven video

Beethoven
video
He began to notice his hearing loss when he was about
30. After a while, it was difficult for him to hear what
people were saying, so he just stayed at home as much
as possible. He wanted it to remain a secret. If it got
any worse, what kind of life waited for a deaf musician?
Would there be any hope of marriage?

In1805,aperformanceofBeethovens
onlyopera,"Fidelio,wasannounced
andheinsisteduponconductingit.By
thistime,hisdeafness,althoughnever
admittedbyhimself,wascommon
knowledgeinsociety.Atthefirstplaying
therewassomeconfusion.The
orchestraplayedaheadofthesinger.
NobodyhadthehearttotellBeethoven
thatallwaswrong.Finally,oneofthe
violinistspretendedtobesickinorder
toallowashortpauseandstartagain.

However,thesecondtimewasevenworse.Afriendwrote"GoHome"ona
pieceofpaperandpassedittoBeethoven.Finallyherealizedwhatwas
happening.Hethrewhisbatondownandstormedoutofthebuilding.Henever
reallyrecoveredfromthis.Hewasfoundathomewithhisfaceburiedinhis
hands.

Before the age of 50,

Ludwig had lost his
hearing entirely. As the
years wore on, he broke
more and more strings on
his piano by pounding the
keys trying to hear the
sounds.

Evenafterhewascompletelydeaf,Beethoven
composedalargenumberofpieces,includingoneof
hismostfamoussymphonies.Hemighthaveheard
theminhishead,buthenevergottohearthemout
loud.

In the end, he fell apart

completely and died in 1827. A
witness at his bedside reported
that Beethoven came out of his
coma and raised an angry fist at
the heavens.

Ludwig van Beethoven may

have been rude, clumsy,
unrefined, and even deaf, but he
is considered among the
greatest composers that ever
lived. He wrote 9 symphonies,
five piano concertos, 16 string
quartets, 10 sonatas for violin
and five for cello, 30 piano
sonatas, two masses, more
chamber music than we can
name, and one opera called
Fidelio. All of it is remarkably
original and emotional. He gave
future composers the freedom of
expression without the music
being tied to any social or

At Beethovens funeral, a
crowd of 20,000 lined the
streets to pay their last
respects.

Listening:
1) Symphony No.
5
2) Symphony No.
9 (sometimes this is
referred to as Ode to ?)