Ludwig Van
Beethoven
Salieri had said that
Mozart’s music sounded
like the voice of God.
If Mozart was God’s Voice
then, certainly, Beethoven
was God’s
FIRE.
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 good-humored. 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 Beethoven
Ludwig’s 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
boy’s viola.
You’d 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.
Beethoven’s 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 didn’t 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 city’s
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
competition…and he always
did.
Video of Beethoven in an improvising contest.
He could be very
stubborn when he
wanted to be, which was
most of the time. If he
didn’t feel like it, he
wouldn’t 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 wasn’t 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 Beethoven.”
As you might expect with
such a hot temper, Beethoven
had real trouble keeping
servants. They just wouldn’t
put up with him. He didn’t 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 hadn’t
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 man’s
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
composer
too.
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?
In 1805, a performance of Beethoven’s
only opera, "Fidelio,” was announced
and he insisted upon conducting it. By
this time, his deafness, although never
admitted by himself, was common
knowledge in society. At the first playing
there was some confusion. The orchestra
played ahead of the singer. Nobody had
the heart to tell Beethoven that all was
wrong. Finally, one of the violinists
pretended to be sick in order to allow a
short pause and start again.
However, the second time was even worse. A friend wrote "Go Home" on a piece
of paper and passed it to Beethoven. Finally he realized what was happening .
He threw his baton down and stormed out of the building. He never really
recovered from this. He was found at home with his face buried in his 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.
Even after he was completely deaf, Beethoven
composed a large number of pieces, including one of
his most famous symphonies. He might have heard
them in his head, but he never got to hear them out
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 religious activity.
The music could be enjoyed for its
own sake.
At Beethoven’s 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 ?”)