Ludwig Van Beethoven

Ludwig Van Beethoven

Ludwig Van Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany. He was the third child of Johann and Johanna Beethoven. Ludwig had a terrible childhood because his dad was an alcoholic. He woke him up in the middle of the night and made him play the piano until dawn. He would smack him every time he made a mistake. His father was a musician as was his grandfather. Ludwig loved spending time with his grandfather. His grandfather died when Beethoven was only three years old.

At age four, he wasn't allowed to play with his friends, instead he had to stay inside and practice the piano. Beethoven's father wanted Ludwig to be the next Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

At age 11, Ludwig quit school to study full time on music. He learned how to play the violin, viola, organ, and the piano. He started composing music for the piano and other instruments of the orchestra.

By age 12, he was supporting his family by performing and selling his music. Beethoven wanted to change the world through his music even though he had to overcome unfortunate events that occurred during his life.

Beethoven lived during the Classical and Romantic era. He composed his music in what was called the Classical Era. Music was very important to society in Europe because people liked to dance to music. Musicians would provide music for royal parties. Also, during this time Napoleon was the dictator of France which caused the French Revolution because people weren't allowed to speak freely. Another reason that the Revolution happened was all of the middle class people had to pay a lot of taxes because the poor people didn't have enough money and the rich people didn't want to give money.

This effected Ludwig because music was a way for him to speak out to the world. As you will soon find out Beethoven studied with many famous composers.

There were many legendary composers that lived during Beethoven's lifetime such as Mozart, Haydn, and many others. Beethoven had many teachers. His first teacher was his father. Then, he took lessons with Herr Pfeiffer who made his dad's cruel teaching methods look kind. A teacher named Heff Neefe taught him. He took piano lessons from composers such as Haydn, Albrechtsberger, and Salieri.