Comparing Beethoven And Michelangelo

“In comparing Beethoven to Michelangelo, I have been strongly influenced by the fact that most persons spend far more time listening to music than they do looking at a painting or sculpture. For this reason, I think that musical composers are generally more influential than painters or sculptors whose eminence in their own field is equivalent” (Hart 235). When one thinks of classical music, one may think of probably the greatest and most influential composers of their time. Ludwig Van Beethoven lived a short life of 56 years after dying of dropsy (generalized swelling caused by the accumulation of excess water in the body.) Being a deaf composer, it was really hard for Beethoven to hear his works and enjoy them thoroughly. Despite his disability, Beethoven was able to become one of the most prominent and influential composers of all time.

Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany. Beethoven was baptized on December 17th, 1770 into the Catholic religion. When he was twelve years old, he left to Vienna, and studied under Haydn who was the leading Viennese composer at the time. He stayed in Vienna for quite some time until he returned home because his mother had tuberculosis and died. His works were able to be published without any difficulty. He wrote symphonies 2, 3, and 4 all before 1806. As his life progressed to his twenties, Beethoven’s first signs of deafness started appearing and he starting contemplating suicide. As his hearing got worse, he started to seclude himself and became kind of a misanthrope. He was socially withdrawn and never married. Despite his disability, he wrote symphonies 2, 3, and 4 all before 1806. Because his works became so prominent, he had some sort of alliance with the king and his th...

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...eautiful pieces being played. Ludwig’s impact on the world is quite a big one if you think about how people, to this day, still listen to and play his music in an orchestra or a concert band. I feel that if Beethoven would never had followed his father’s teachings and learned how to play the piano and violin and learned how to read music, then there wouldn’t be the musical and emotional impact that went along with his journey. Beethoven is not only one of the most influential people to ever have lived, he is also a great role model. His constant act of perseverance up until the point of his death illustrates how if you thoroughly enjoy doing something, don’t let anything, not even a disability, barricade you to reach your goal. Although he had some unpublished works, the ones that were published were beautiful pieces in which people still listen to 300 years later.