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A Brief History of Beethoven

Ludwig Van Beethoveen was born in 1770 in Bonn, Germany as the son of a court musician. His talent for the piano was soon realized and he gave his first public performance at the age of eight. Beethoven's father wanted to promote him as the next child prodigy, another Mozart. (This most surely led to Beethoven's absolute distaste for child prodigies later in his life.) Nevertheless, Beethoven was employeed as a court musician in Bonn from 1787. During this time he studied briefly under both Haydn and Mozart, although it was certainly not a satisfying relationship for Beethoven. It turns out that events in Beethoven's life greatly affected (or seem to have affected) him writing. Because of this Beethoven's musical output is very episodic. As we shall see, there are three main periods in Beethoven's life, known simply as the early, middle, and late periods.

In 1792, Beethoven relocated to Vienna. This is the beginning of his early period which lasted rougly until 1800. During this time Beethoven quickly made a name for himself as a virtuoso pianist. He

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Musicologists often point out that Beethoven’s music was transitional—that is, it pointed the way from the high-Classical style of Mozart and Haydn toward the Romanticism of Mendelssohn and Chopin. In other words, Beethoven was at once the last of the Classicists and the first of the Romantics, yet somehow neither. However, he lived during a time of transition.

Enlightenment philosophers and writers were changing the way the world thought, and aristocracies were crumbling (witness the American and French revolutions), giving way to democracies and republics. The role of musicians in European society was likewise in transition, and it was the collapse of the aristocracy that affected Beethoven’s lifestyle most directly. Until Beethoven’s time, composers and performers found success through patronage: An appointment as court Kapellmeister meant a secure income, as well as a freedom from business concerns that allowed creative juices to flow unfettered. Joseph Haydn, Austria’s “national composer” (and, for a brief time, Beethoven’s t

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Ludwig van Beethoven, one of the most famous composers of all time, was born in Bonn, Germany in 1770. His father, however, claimed he was born 2 years later in order to make him an even younger prodigy than he actually was in order to compete for recognition with the young Mozart. His father was also a tyrant and an alcoholic who made the child practice day and night or face the consequences a drunken rage.

Musically, Beethoven was a transitional figure working between the Classical and Romantic eras. He changed the musical landscape forever with a number of daring innovations. By bringing vocalists into instrumental compositions, he re-invented the symphony. He also expanded the boundaries of chamber music and sonatas. His last quartets are almost contemporary. Many people know that he was deaf in 1824 when he conducted his last symphony, The Ninth, also known as The Choral. But most don’t know that his deafness actually began when he was 25 in 1796. It is said he sawed the legs off his piano so he could sit on the floor and feel the vibrations as he worked.

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