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Beethoven's life and music
Beethoven's life and music
Beethoven's life and music
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I think Beethoven’s personal life shaped him into becoming a gifted and well-known composer. His harsh upbringing involved his alcoholic father who forced Beethoven into music as a child. This lead to his father pushing him to perform for the public. Beethoven used his life struggles to develop a different outlook than others; this was noticeable when he played in Vienna. Even though Beethoven was forced into music, he developed a love for his art. This love later helped him in his struggles in life when he lost his hearing. His love for music kept him from giving up. Could he have been a great composer without these struggles? I believe so, but I do not think he would have had as much determination that lead to becoming an unforgettable artist.
Beethoven was a political composer. He stubbornly dedicated his art to the problems of human freedom, justice, progress, and community. The Third Symphony, probably Beethoven's most influential work, centers around a funeral march provoking patriotic ceremonies from the French Revolution. Beethoven was a long time admirer of Napoleon Bonaparte. So he dedicated the symphony to Napoleon, but when Napoleon was proclaimed the Emperor of France, he scratched the dedication to Napoleon. This Symphony is cited as the marking end of Beethoven's classical era and the beginning of musical Romanticism. But what of Beethoven after Napoleon? Beethoven's life and music became worse after the Third Symphony was composed because of his reaction to Napoleon becoming Emperor, his deafness, and through his personal and family difficulties.
Traditional analysis of Beethoven's use of Sonata Allegro form tends to focus on harmonic or melodic movement and key relationships. This study stretches such investigations to include questions of historical context and philosophic motivations that drive a composer to structure music in a certain way. Ultimately this leads to an inquiry about how these traditions affect us as listeners, and more specifically how they relate to gender issues in a musical tradition primarily made up of male composers.
Beethoven’s early life was one out of a sad story book. For being one of the most well-known musicians one would think that sometime during Beethovens childhood he was influenced and inspired to play music; This was not the case. His father was indeed a musician but he was more interested in drinking than he was playing music. When his father saw the smallest sliver of music interest in Beethoven he immediately put him into vigorous musical training in hopes he would be the next Mozart; his training included organ, viola, and piano. This tainted how young Beethoven saw music and the memories that music brought. Nevertheless Beethoven continued to do what he knew and by thirteen he was composing his own music and assisting his teacher, Christian Neefe. Connections began to form during this time with different aristocrats and families who stuck with him and became lifelong friends. At 17 Beethoven, with the help of his friends, traveled to Vienna, the music capitol of the world, to further his knowledge and connection...
Out of all of Beethoven’s one hundred and ten works, he wrote thirty-two piano sonatas. Of those thirty-two piano sonatas, the thirty-first piano sonata was one of the most important and was composed in the year 1821towards the end of Beethoven’s life. It is one of Ludwig van Beethoven’s final sonatas for the piano, given the full name: Piano Sonata No. 31 in A-flat major, op. 110. I am writing about a video performance – found on YouTube – by Richard Goode in 1993. The performance piece is a sonata which is defined by Kerman as “a chamber-music piece in several movements” (Kerman, 427)
Although he is often considered a musical genius, which he is, his lack of God, and his lack of a spiritual life centered in Christ, affected his music, his view of life, and how he was remembered. Born in 1770, Beethoven grew up with a great interest in music and his father gave him piano lessons at an early age. Even so, he was never close to his father, probably because of the abuse he endured. When his father became unable to care for his family due to an alcohol addiction, Beethoven felt it was his responsibility to take care of his three remaining siblings and his mother. So, at age 12, he began publishing music to help support his family.
Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany in 1770 to Johann van Beethoven and his wife, Maria Magdalena. He took his first music lessons from his father, who was tenor in the choir of the archbishop-elector of Cologne. His father was an unstable, yet ambitious man whose excessive drinking, rough temper and anxiety surprisingly did not diminish Beethoven's love for music. He studied and performed with great success, despite becoming the breadwinner of his household by the time he was 18 years old. His father's increasingly serious alcohol problem and the earlier death of his grandfather in 1773 sent his family into deepening poverty. At first, Beethoven made little impact on the musical society, despite his father's hopes. When he turned 11, he left school and became an assistant organist to Christian Gottlob Neefe at the court of Bonn, learning from him and other musicians. In 1783 he became the continuo player for the Bonn opera and accompanied their rehearsals on keyboard. In 1787, he was sent to Vienna to take further lessons from Mozart. Two months later, however, he was called back to Bonn by the death of his mother. He started to play the viola in the Opera Orchestra in 1789, while also teaching in composing. He met Haydn in 1790, who agreed to teach him in Vienna, and Beethoven then moved to Vienna permanently. He received financial support from Prince Karl Lichnowsky, to whom he dedicated his Piano Sonata in C minor, better known as The Pathétique .
Beethoven, I believe, was ahead of his time. To me, he is the greatest composer of all time. His music is not just sounds of music played together in harmony, but a way of life. The music he created for the world is not just to listen to it, but grabs onto the emotion he was setting up. Beethoven's unordinary style cannot ever be copied by any composer or music artist.
with what would be his greatest downfall; deafness. This occurred in 1802 when doctors learned that he was in fact becoming deaf and there was nothing that could be done to help. This impairment reshaped his music. This led the way to a very tense and exciting side of his pieces. Beethoven's music differs with Mozart's in that is more intense and has a greater range of pitch and dynamics. Beethoven's greatest pieces are his symphonies, which can be heard today as often as in his days. Beethoven was a very good innovator
On March 26, 1827, Beethoven passed away. His autopsy revealed that his cause of death was due to post-hepatitic cirrhosis of the liver. His deafness was believed to be caused by contracting typhus in the summer of 1796. In his will that he had wrote a couple days before he passed, he left his estate to his nephew Karl. Ludwig Van Beethoven is considered to be one of the greatest composers of all time. The fact that he was composing such beautiful music pieces while was deaf made him a genius.
Beethoven was born on December 17, 1770 in Bann, Germany. From a young age Beethoven was involved with music because he came from three generations of musicians. He received instruction from his father on the piano and violin. One of his earliest concerts was in front of his father’s peers against his will. Beethoven had a fiery temper and was somewhat introverted in his school years. Beethoven went to school until the age of ten. At this time his family’s finances prevented his family from affording the education that he needed. In July of 1787, Beethoven’s life was further thrown into disarray with the death of his mother. Despite Beethoven’s misfortune he would still achieve monumental amounts of success while in Vienna. His success can be attributed to the fact that he crafted relatio...
By this time, Beethoven wasn 't a very approachable man. He was known to be about 5’4”, messy and crazy hair, pocketed face from smallpox, and a split personality. François Mai better describes Beethoven’s personality, he states, “He had episodes of depression accompanied by suicidal ideas, and rarer episodes of elation with flights of ideas. The latter are reflected in some of his letters. He had a low frustration tolerance and at times would become so angry that he would come to blows with others such as his brother Carl, or he would throw objects at his servants.”
Beethoven slowly began showing his emotions, and feelings, but very subtly. His work began to have a very sublime feeling to it, very deep and not knowing what to expect. It was after those first two that Beethoven had a big life crisis. (Sayre 407) He then began seeing life as a shorter journey than previously sought, and stopped caring about what consequences would arise from what he wanted to do. Which was to show strong emotion in his music. It was his escape from his impending doom, which was becoming deaf. He released music very quickly over the next decade. This shows how Beethoven’s own life experiences changed the direction of his
Ludwig van Beethoven was an extraordinary music composer, especially considering he was deaf most of his life and career. He was born in Germany on December 16, 1770. Many obstacles were hurled at him, but he triumphed over them, and even deafness didn’t stop him from composing some of the worlds greatest, and most recognized music compositions (Rosenwald 167). His life, music, and his musical styles and techniques all contribute to his life story.