The brilliant piano virtuoso Ludwig van Beethoven has provided the world with glorious music.
One of his most beautiful piano pieces is Fur Elise, “Bagatelle in A minor” composed in 1810 for a lady love who rejected him. His “Moonlight Sonata” is another outstanding melody. Both I never tire of hearing. The classical composers have given us the most stirring music. A day is incomplete without their music.
Ludwig van Beethoven was born December 17, 1770 in Bonn, Germany which was part of the Holy Roman Empire. Of the seven children born to Johann van Beethoven, only Ludwig and two younger brothers survived infancy. His first public performance at age seven was in March 1778. He moved to Vienna at age 21 and studied composition with Joseph Haydn. He soon was courted by Karl Alois, Prince Lichnowsky for compositions which resulted in Opus 1 in 1795.
The Munsterplatz in Bonn, Germany holds the city’s monument to him. Bonn’s new university, where the young composer briefly enrolled, was fertile ground for Enlightenment age ideas about democracy and equality.
By 1801 van Beethoven’s fame increased with the six String Quartets and for the ballet The Creatures of Prometheus. During this period, his hearing began to deteriorate, but he continued to conduct and premiered his third and fifth symphonies in 1804 and 1808. His condition worsened to almost complete deafness by 1811 when he gave up performing and appearing in public.
Beethoven composed nine symphonies, five piano concertos, one violin concerto, 32 piano sonatas, 16 string quartets, two masses and the Opera Fidelio. “Fur Elise” was discovered after his death and is considered an historic musical achievement. His legacy is characterized by the innovative compositions, combinations of vocals and instruments, and widening the scope of the sonata symphony, concerto, and quartet.
In May 1787 Ludwig learned that his mother was ill and he returned quickly to Bonn. His mother died shortly thereafter and his father lapsed deeper into alcoholism. As a result Beethoven became responsible for the care of his two younger brothers and spent the next five years in Bonn.
During those years he played viola in the court orchestra. He taught piano to children and encountered German and classical literature. He composed a significant number of works that demonstrated his growing range and maturity. The two Emperor Cantatas he scored were never performed at that time and they remained lost until the 1880s.
Fired with zeal by the ideas of liberty and equality that he considered embodied in Napoleon, Beethoven decided to dedicate his Third Symphony to the French commander. Beethoven had a portrait done which depicts the composer holding a lyre, symbol of the god Apollo. The classical symbol shows his association with the heroic.
In Spring 1804 news came to Vienna that Napoleon had declared himself emperor of France. Beethoven’s response was a frantic diatribe against Napeleon. Beethoven heavily struck through Napoleon’s name with a pen. He decided to dedicate the Symphony instead to Prince Lobkowitz who was one of his first patrons in Vienna. It premiered in 1805. Vienna critics proclaimed it a triumph.
Beethoven discarded one piano after another trying to find the perfect one. He wandered the Banks of the Schwechat River immersing himself in the natural world as he fled the streets of Vienna and the turmoil of the Napoleonic Wars. “What a life full of upheavals around me. Nothing but drums, cannons, human misery of every kind,” he wrote of the difficult five months of occupation.
Ludwig van Beethoven died March 26, 1827 in Vienna of liver failure. Some sources suggest his last words were “Applaud, my friends, the comedy is over.” He is buried in Vienna.
Almost 200 years later, his music sings in our hearts forevermore.