Ludwig van Beethoven (December 16, 1770 to March 26, 1827) was a German pianist and composer widely considered the greatest of all time, whose innovative compositions combined vocals and instruments, widening the scope of sonata, symphony, concerto and quartet. He is the crucial transitional figure connecting the Classical and Romantic ages of Western music. Beethoven’s personal life was marked by a struggle against deafness, and some of his most important works were composed during the last 10 years of his life, when he was quite unable to hear. He died at the age of 56. Beethoven learned his music from his father, who was a court musician, who pushed him to learn instruments at a very young age. His childhood was harsh without a mother and a loveless alcoholic father that would do anything to get his son to succeed his musical talents. Beethoven had two particular composers that influenced his development. Those two composers are the very famous and widely known Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and …show more content…
His long-standing friend, the Countess Anna Marie Erdody, kept him at Vienna with the help of his wealthiest admirers: the Archbishop Rudolph, the Prince Lobkowitz, and the Prince Kinsky. These men gave Beethoven and annual grant of 4,000 florins, allowing him to live without financial constraint. The only condition was that Beethoven was not to leave Vienna. Beethoven accepted. This grant made him the world's first independent composer. Before this contract musicians and composers alike (even Bach, Mozart, and Haydn), became servants in the houses of wealthy aristocratic families. They were thus part of the domestic staff, with no more rights than any other, but with the added task of composition and performance. Thus, for the musician of the day, Beethoven had outstanding circumstances and he was free to write what he wanted, when he wanted, under command or not, as he
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.
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...
At the age of twenty-two Beethoven moved to Vienna; it was there where he would stay the rest of his life. In Vienna Beethoven played for Mozart, and it is believed that Mozart even gave him ...
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. Unfortunately, his lack of money was always an issue throughout his life. At age 22...
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was one of the most prolific and important musical innovators we have ever seen. His style of music helped re-shape music and the Classical period. Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria in 1756. Mozart was a child prodigy, claiming most success as a youth. At the age of six, Mozart could play the harpsichord and violin, improvise fugues, write minuets, and read music perfectly. At the age of eight, he wrote a symphony and at eleven, an oratorio. Then amazingly, at the age of twelve he wrote an opera. Mozart's father was Leopold Mozart, a court musician. Both Mozart and Beethoven had help from their fathers in different ways. Mozart's father helped him travel around as a young musician and with this he traveled many places and seen many well-known people and aristocrats. With Mozart's early successes came many challenges to his life. He had greater expectations from the community and from his father. Unlike, Beethoven, Mozart was a bit spoiled as a youth and because of this he would not tolerate to be treated as a servant. He completely relied on his father to help him and would not work with the archbishop. This would become a problem when Mozart did not develop enough initiative and could not make decisions on his ow...
But, to tell the truth, I want to give only main important information related to the prominent composer, Ludwig van Beethoven. Ludwig van Beethoven was really a famous and influential German composer and was born in 1770 in Bonn, Germany. Actually, first of all, he was able to learn and display his musical talents from his father whose name was Johann van Beethoven and from his most significant teacher and composer whose name was Christian Gottlob Neefe at the young ages. After that, when Ludwig van Beethoven was at the young ages, he moved and began to study the music and composition with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn, then was able to establish his essential and indispensable career in Vienna, Austria and finally was able to acquire and achieve a reputation as magnanimous pianist and famous teacher. Then, he began to live in Vienna, Austria until the end of his
5, Op. 67 in C Minor, Ludwig Von Beethoven is one of the most well-known composers of all time. Beethoven was born in Bonn in 1770. Beethoven was a child prodigy, publishing his first work at age eleven and with this first piece he was already being compared to Mozart. He soon became the principal financial breadwinner in his family due to his talents and his father’s alcoholism. He was sent by Prince Maximillian Franz to Vienna, to further his music education in 1787, where he would spend the rest of his life (Biography: Beethoven 's Life, n.d.). He was widely recognized as a prolific composer, as well as a piano virtuoso. However, he began to lose his hearing in his late twentys, causing him great emotional distress to the point he eventually stopped performing in public. Upon his death in 1827, he was herald a national hero (Bonds, 2011). Beethoven is widely considered one of the greatest composers of all time, leaving behind a body of work that is still thoroughly enjoyed till this day, nearly two hundred years after his
“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.
...cal and romantic eras. He is one of the most well-known composers of all time. By the last decade of his life, Beethoven was almost completely deaf. He gave up conducing and peforming for audiences, and instead took to composing.
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.
Soon, Beethoven was trying to change music and by the age of twelve he finished his first real piece. It was in an unusual key and very difficult. His father also tried to force Beethoven to become a child prodigy, similar to Mozart, but it wasn’t until he was a teenager that he received any attention from the public. He was actually given his dead brother’s baptism certificate and it was announced that he was six, although he was actually almost eight. (Ludwig van Beethoven Biography, http://www.lvbeethoven.com/Bio/BiographyLudwig.html) (Ludwig Van Beethoven, Germany Composer, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ludwig-van-Beethoven)
In this essay, I’m going to discuss two composers- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. I will first tell you about the life of these men. Then, I’ll compare and contrast their music, the time period of which they lived in, the purpose of their music and more.
Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany in 1770. His works are traditionally divided into three periods. In his early period, he focused on imitating classical style, although his personal characteristics of darker pieces, motivic development, and larger forms are already evident or foreshadowed. In his middle period, he is beginning to go deaf, and has realized that he cannot reverse the trend. His works express struggle and triumph. He stretches forms, with development sections becoming the bulk of his works. He is breaking from tradition and laying the groundwork for the romantic style period. In his late period, he breaks almost completely with classical forms, but ironically starts to study and use baroque forms and counterpoint. He is almost completely deaf, and his works become much more introspective with massive amounts of contrast between sections, ideas, and movements. He dies in Vienna in 1827.