Ludwig Van Beethoven is one of the greatest figures in the history of classical music and one of the most brilliant composers of all times. His instrumental music forms a peak in the development of tonal music and is one of the crucial evolutionary developments in the history of music as a whole.
Background
Ethnicity:
Beethoven's grandfather was Flemish, born in Mechelen, town that is a part of today's Belgium.
Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn in 1770. Although his date of birth isn't confirmed, it is believed that he was born on December, 16th. In that time, the law dictated that newly-born babies have to be baptized in the first 24 hours from birth, and Beethoven was baptized on December 17th, which leads to a conclusion that he was born a day before that. His father Johann and his grandfather Ludwig were both professional musicians. His mother, Maria Magdalena Keverich, was the daughter of the head chef of the Trier's court.
Education
Ludwig started showing his talent for music as very young, which was quickly noticed by his father. This doesn’t come as strange, considering that he was born into a music family. His father started teaching him but Ludwig didn’t enjoy this because Johann was a very harsh instructor, often waking him up in the middle of the night just to play with him and his friend. At the time, Leopold Mozart was making huge profits with his son Wolfgang, so Beethoven’s father tried to exploit him in the same way.
It was in 1780 when Beethoven started working with Gottlob Neefe, which might have been one his most important teacher in his early life. It remains remembered that Neefe was impressed by young Ludwig’s skills and written that he has the chance of becoming the successor of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart if he continues working hard.
In 1792 Beethoven went to Vienna to study with Haydn, helped on his way by his friend Count Ferdinand von Waldstein, who wrote prophetically in the 22-year-old Beethoven's album that he was going to Vienna "to receive the spirit of Mozart from the hands of Haydn." What he actually received from Haydn in lessons was little enough, and Beethoven turned to others of lesser talent in Vienna for help with counterpoint, including the contrapuntal theorist J. G. Albrechtsberger. Beethoven rapidly proceeded to make his mark as a brilliant keyboard performer and improviser and as a gifted young composer with a number of works to his credit and powerful ambitions.
Career
When he left for Vienna in 1792, Beethoven got a permission by the court in Bonn where he was employed for an absence of six months. However, he never returned to his hometown and lived in Vienna for the remainder of his life.
Unfortunately, Mozart had died only a year before and Beethoven didn’t get the opportunity to work for him. On the other hand, Joseph Haydn acted on his promise to teach him and they started working together. Beethoven met a lot of people from the social elite of Vienna, and some of the most influential patrons when it comes to music took him under their wing. Prince Lichnowsky encouraged him to participate in improvisation contests and try his luck against Vienna’s piano virtuosos. Not much time has passed before Beethoven had defeated them all and became the greatest piano virtuoso in the whole Vienna.
Beethoven’s brother Caspar Carl had moved to Vienna and started helping in the management aspect of Beethoven’s career, succeeding in his intention to improve the revenue that Beethoven made from his music. The first public performance in Vienna came in 1795, where he premiered one of the two piano concertos he has composed. The same year he published Piano Trios op.1, which were dedicated to Prince Lichnowsky and turned out to be a great success. Beethoven performed the Trios before Haydn but his teacher wasn’t thrilled with the third one, making Beethoven pretty mad. They’ve settled their differences when the Beethoven dedicated the Piano Sonatas he composed to Haydn.
In 1796, Prince Lichnowsky decided to take him on a tour around Europe. Beethoven first gave a concert in Prague before moving on to Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin, where he composed the Cello Sonatas op.5. He was working hard at the time but in the summer of 1797, he became seriously ill. It is thought to be typhus, which could be the initial cause of him slowly going deaf.
He was incredibly creative in 1798 and completed the Piano Sonatas op.10, as well as the three String Trios op.9, the three Violin Sonatas op.12, and the Trio op.11. It was in this year he composed the gigantic Pathetique Sonata op.13. The following year he met Domenico Dragonetti, the double bass virtuoso, and they performed a cello sonata together. When he defeated Daniel Steibelt, the renowned Prussian piano virtuoso, in 1800, he was never asked to take part in improvisation contests again. He undoubtedly became the greatest piano virtuoso in Vienna.
Beethoven also organized his first benefit concert in 1800. It was in the Burgtheater in Vienna, where he performed the First Symphony and the Septet for the first time, along with some improvisations on the piano. This is where he met Archduke Rudolph, who was accompanied by the Empress Theresia, his mother.
In a letter to his old friend from Bonn in 1801, Beethoven mentions his problems with hearing, complaining that in the last three years his hearing has become worse. However, he continued working, and love might be what kept him running at the time. He dedicated his Piano Sonata No. 14 to the Countess Giulietta Guicciardi. This Beethoven’s work will be named the Moonlight Sonata years after his death, thanks to a description from a music critic. In 1802, he decides to take a summer off and moves to Heiligenstadt to relieve his hearing. It is in his Heiligenstadt Testament that he mentions his deafness publicly for the first time, stating that people have the wrong impression of him thinking that he is stubborn and hates mankind, but the truth is – he is deaf. Some sources state that Beethoven even wanted to commit suicide because of his hearing problems but managed to bounce back and move on with his career.
In 1803, he organized a benefit concert in the Theater an den Wien, where he was appointed as a composer. It was at this concert that he premiered the First Symphony and the Second Symphony, which he finished only a year before that. During this year, he composed the Eroica Symphony and the Waldstein Sonata. In 1804, when he heard that Napoleon became an Emperor of France, Beethoven tore up the first page of Eroica withdrawing the dedication of the symphony to him. His contract with the theater was terminated during this year.
Beethoven finished his opera Leonore in 1805. It was censored from performing in public at first but was eventually performed in November this year, when the censor lifted the ban. The revised version was performed during 1806 in the Theater an den Wien but Beethoven withdrew Leonore from the repertoire, accusing Baron Braun of cheating him of receipts.
During the following years, Beethoven finished Fourth and Fifth Symphony, as well as Pastoral Symphony and Fourth Piano Concerto and Violin Concerto. He was offered the position of Kapellmeister to Napoleon’s younger brother, King Jerome of Westphalia, in 1808. Although it offered great salary, Beethoven eventually refused the post after Archduke Rudolph, Prince Kinsky, and Prince Lobskowitz agreed to pay Beethoven an annuity until he dies, with the only condition to stay in Vienna. When Austria declared war on France, Beethoven took shelter in his brother’s basement, composing the Piano Sonata op.81a, also known as ‘Les Adieux’, dedicated to Archduke Rudolph.
In 1810, Beethoven meets the Malfatti family, composing the Bagatelle WoO 59 for Therese Malfatti and making a deal with Dr. Giovanni Malfatti to become his doctor. Two years later, Beethoven left for Prague, and then Teplitz, where he meets Goethe a couple of times. Despite falling ill, he makes a sudden move of traveling to Linz to try and stop his brother Johann from marrying his housekeeper, who was deemed unsuitable by Beethoven because of having an illegitimate child. However, Johann did marry her by the end of 1812.
In 1813, Beethoven makes a deal with the German inventor Johann Maelzel. The composer will come up with a piece for the panharmonicon, the mechanical instrument that was invented by Maelzel, and the inventor will construct an ear trumpet, the first ever made, for Beethoven. This piece became known as the Battle Symphony op.91 after it was orchestrated.
When Beethoven’s brother Carl dies in 1815, he makes his wife Johanna and the composer co-guardians of Karl, his only son. Beethoven tried to make his brother delete Johanna but she managed to get her name in the will. The composer then appealed to the court of the nobility, the Landrecht, which marked the beginning of an exhausting battle for custody. In the end, the court ruled in Beethoven’s favor in 1816, claiming him the only Karl’s guardian. He then sent his nephew to a boarding school, making sure he receives piano lessons, but Karl ran away back to his mother, which then used this to try to regain custody of him, which she managed to do in 1819, but only for a short period, as the final ruling was again in Beethoven’s favor.
In the meantime, Beethoven had continued working on his music but he was obviously influenced by deteriorated health and the legal battle for custody. He was invited to London in 1817 and even got a new grand piano from Thomas Broadwood, but he had to cancel the trip due to his health problems. Beethoven was working on the Hammerklavier Sonata and the Missa Solemnis, which was intended for the enthronement of Archduke Rudolph in 1820 but wasn’t finished until the end of 1821. Beethoven even revised parts of it after that.
When he met Franz Liszt in 1821, he marked him as his successor. In 1823, he retreats to Baden due to his bad health. Here he finished the Ninth Symphony, which was performed at the Kartnertor theater in Vienna for the first time in 1824, along with Missa Solemnis. Beethoven was on stage giving the beat to the Umlauf, and sources state that Karoline Unger, the contralto, turned him round so he can see the applause. It is presumed he had gone completely deaf at this point. In 1825, the Ninth Symphony got its premiere in London without Beethoven, although he was supposed to participate in the performance.
In 1825, he creates the Cavatina of op. 130. Influenced by knowing that Karl was living with his mother, and being of a notably deteriorated health, Beethoven said that this piece brought him tears of grief as no other piece he composed in his career. When Karl tried to commit suicide in 1826, Beethoven finds the strength to take him to his brother Johann at Gneixendorf. However, they leave his estate after a fight and Beethoven fall seriously ill.
During 1827, Karl departed for military service in Bohemia, while Beethoven was getting worse and worse. He had four operations but eventually died on the March, 26. His funeral was attended by two hundred thousand people.
Beethoven was baptized immediately after being born, however he wasn't very devouted to religion. He hadn't been seen at Masses often and perhaps his most constant contact with religion was Archduke Rudolph, his lifelong patron who was also the Cardinal Archbishop of Olmutz.
The famous composer did mention religion on a couple of occasions. During his final months, he even wrote a letter to a friend where he stated that he was operated four times and he prays to the Almighty to give him strength to endure the pain.
Politics
Being born as a commoner who was received to the upper-class thanks to his music talent, Beethoven hated class divisions. The Age of Enlightement was something that he was attracted to, and he strongly supported enlightening social and political philosophy.
When he heard that Napoleon was coming from France to free western and central Europe from the bonds of hereditary rule, Beethoven decided to dedicate him his Third Symphony. But when Napoleon made his ambitions to become an emperor in 1804, Beethoven tore the title page of the Symphony in anger.
Views
Beethoven had great respect for music and his own work. He knew, and he was probably right, that the clock doesn’t know when inspiration is going to hit, so he was often so dedicated to composing that he missed meals and showed up at meetings wearing dirty clothes. The music had an absolute priority for Beethoven and he demanded respect for it.
According to critics, Bethoveen often explored the inner struggle of a man in his works, with the ultimate triumph of faith and life over doubt. Although he wasn't depicted as a truly religious man, his music was inspiring and managed to put faith in people, even in times when skepticism towards traditional religion was growing.
Quotations:
“Music is ... A higher revelation than all Wisdom & Philosophy.”
“Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine.”
“Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.”
“To play without passion is inexcusable!”
“Music is like a dream. One that I cannot hear.”
“Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman.”
“Music is like a dream. One that I cannot hear.”
“Never forget the days I spent with you. Continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours.”
“Nothing is more intolerable than to have admit to yourself your own errors.”
“Only the pure of heart can make a good soup.”
Personality
Beethoven was claimed to be difficult to get along with, since he showed no respect for authority. While he was living in the Prince Lichnowski's home in Vienna, he often was late for meals.
When he started going deaf in 1797, after having suffered from typhus, it caused him even more trouble in his personal life. Some sources state that he treated other people badly, but when he wrote his Heiligenstadt Testament, he accused the mankind of thinking falsely that he is a bad man, simply because of the fact that he was deaf.
Some sources state that he was so proud of his music that he would stop playing if people in the audience would chat among themselves.
Physical Characteristics:
His physical appearance wasn't on the highest level, which in combination with shyness, caused him trouble in communicating with women. There are certain sources that claim that Beethoven would sometimes wear dirty clothing, despite the fact that he maintained his hygiene on a high level.
Quotes from others about the person
Gottlob Neefe: "He plays the clavier very skilfully and with power [and] reads at sight very well ..... This youthful genius is deserving of help to enable him to travel. He would surely become a second Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were he to continue as he has begun."
Pyotr Ilich Tchaikovsky: "I bow before the greatness of his works – but I do not love Beethoven. My attitude toward him reminds me of what I experienced in childhood toward the God Jehovah…a feeling of wonder, but at the same time also of fear."
Interests
Philosophers & Thinkers
Christian Gottlob Neefe
Politicians
Archduke Rudolph
Writers
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Music & Bands
Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Luigi Cherubini, Franz Liszt
Connections
Beethoven never married but was really close with his two brothers Carl and Johann, as well as his nephew Karl. He even fought for custody over his nephew after his brother died.