Yeah its not really my choice, I have to do it for homework tomorrow n I don't even know who he is...what I do know is that he had a lot of drinks though....like on his sixth. But if you could give some to me it would be great! thanks So you don't have to read through an entire website's biography on him I'll give you seven.
1. He started to go deaf when he was about thirty (and is still generally thought to be one of if not the greatest musician who ever lived)
2. He wasn't prolific (meaning he did not write alot of music) compared to the other composers of the time.
3. He was incredibly famous in his day and still to this day is.
4. He wrote nine Symphonies Sixteen String Quartets, thirty two Piano Sonatas and five (or six) Piano Concertos.
5. His Father beat him.
6. His late music is considered the begining of the romantic era or the end of the classic era.
7. He was German but lived in Vienna for much of his life. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_van_... His deafness was apparently caused by the amount of lead in the cup he used to drink from and also the fact that they used to add lead to wine in those days. The discovery came about only this century when a sample of his hair was analyzed in a lab, and it had high lead contact. Ludwig van Beethoven Quick Facts
German composer
Birth December 16?, 1770
Death March 26, 1827
Place of Birth Bonn, Germany
Principal Residence Vienna, Austria
Milestones 1792 Traveled to Vienna to study with Austrian composer Joseph Haydn and settled in the city
1798 Completed the Sonata in C minor op. 13 (Path茅tique)
1801 Composed the Sonata in C-sharp minor op. 27/2 (Moonlight)
1804 Completed the Symphony No. 3 in E-flat major op. 55 (Eroica)
1805 Completed the Sonata in F minor op. 57 (Appassionata)
1808 Completed the Symphony No. 5 in C minor op. 67
1809? Was granted an annual salary by Archduke Rudolph and other members of the nobility, which allowed him to live as an independent musician
1818 Completed the Sonata in B-flat major op. 106 (Hammerklavier)
1823 Completed the Mass in D major op. 123 (Missa Solemnis)
1824 Completed the Symphony No. 9 in D minor op. 125 (Choral)
Did You Know In 1812 Beethoven wrote-but did not mail-a love letter to an unidentified woman whom he referred to as 'Immortal Beloved.'
Beethoven never married and was often unhappy in his personal life, which suffered because of his health problems and his constant worrying about his nephew Karl, over whom he had guardianship.
Beethoven acknowledged in the early 1800s that he was losing his hearing; he became completely hearing-impaired around 1819. He lived from 1770-1827
He was born in Bonn, Germany and was the son of the town drunk.
He learned a lot about music from Joseph Haydn.
He wrote 9 great symphonies, 32 superb piano sonatas, and 16 masterful string quartets.
He dedicated his 3rd Symphony (The Heroic") to Napoleon.
He was the first composer to use a chorus in a symphony (i.e., his 9th Symphony aka "The Choral Symphony")
Physically he was short, stocky, pockmarked, syphilitic, and finally deaf. Learn to read , think, learn, and mainly listen. Intelligent people love his music. What does this tell you? Beethoven's parents were Johann van Beethoven (1740 in Bonn 鈥?792) and Maria Magdalena Keverich (1744 in Ehrenbreitstein鈥?787). Magdalena's father Johann Heinrich Keverich had been Chef at the court of the Archbishopric of Trier at Festung Ehrenbreitstein fortress opposite to Koblenz.[2] Beethoven was, like their first child Ludwig Maria, named after his father's father Lodewijk van Beethoven (1712鈥?773), a musician of Roman Catholic Flemish ancestry who was at one time Kapellmeister at the court of Clemens August of Bavaria, the Prince-Archbishop-Elector of Cologne, and who married Beethoven's grandmother Maria Josepha Ball (1714鈥?775) in 1733.
Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany in 1770. Of the seven children born to Johann Beethoven, himself the only survivor of three, only second-born Ludwig and two younger brothers survived infancy. Beethoven was baptized on December 17, 1770.[3][4] Although his birth date is not known for certain, his family celebrated his birthday on December 16.
A portrait of the thirteen-year-old Beethoven by an unknown Bonn masterBeethoven's first music teacher was his father, who was a tenor in the service of the Electoral court at Bonn. He was reportedly a harsh instructor. Johann later engaged a friend, Tobias Pfeiffer, to preside over his son's musical training, and it is said Johann and his friend would at times come home late from a night of drinking to pull young Ludwig out of bed to practice until morning. Beethoven's talent was recognized at a very early age, and by 1778 he was studying the organ and viola in addition to the piano. His most important teacher in Bonn was Christian Gottlob Neefe,[5] who was the Court's Organist. Neefe helped Beethoven publish his first composition: a set of keyboard variations.
In 1787, the young Beethoven traveled to Vienna for the first time, in hopes of studying with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is not clear whether he succeeded in meeting Mozart, or if he did whether Mozart was willing to accept him as a pupil; see Mozart and Beethoven. In any event, the declining health of Beethoven's mother, dying of tuberculosis, forced him to return home after only about two weeks in Vienna. Beethoven's mother died on July 17, 1787, when Beethoven was 16.[6]
Due to his father's worsening alcohol addiction, Beethoven became responsible for raising his two younger brothers which was a fairly hard job.
The move to Vienna
In 1792, Beethoven moved to Vienna, where he studied for a time with Joseph Haydn: his hopes of studying with Mozart had been shattered by Mozart's death the previous year. Beethoven received additional instruction from Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (Vienna's pre-eminent counterpoint instructor) and Antonio Salieri. By 1793, Beethoven established a reputation in Vienna as a piano virtuoso.[7] His first works with opus numbers, a set of three piano trios, appeared in 1795. He settled into the career pattern he would follow for the remainder of his life: rather than working for the church or a noble court (as most composers before him had done), he supported himself through a combination of annual stipends or single gifts from members of the aristocracy; income from subscription concerts, concerts, and lessons; and proceeds from sales of his works.
Beethoven鈥檚 patrons loved his music but were not quick to support him. He eventually came to rely more on patrons such as Count Franz Joseph Kinsky, (d. 1811), Prince Joseph Franz Maximilian Lobkowitz (1772-1816) and Karl Alois Johann-Nepomuk Vinzenz, F眉rst Lichnowsky, and as these patrons passed away or reneged on their pledges, Beethoven fell into debt. In 1807, Prince Lobkowitz advised Beethoven to apply for the position of composer of the Imperial Theatres, but the nobility who had newly been placed in charge of the post did not respond. Beethoven considered leaving Vienna: in the fall of 1808, he was offered a position as chapel maestro at the court of Jerome Bonaparte, the king of Westphalia, which he accepted. To persuade him to stay in Vienna, the Archduke Rudolf, Count Kinsky and Prince Lobkowitz, after receiving representations from the composer鈥檚 friends, pledged to pay Beethoven a pension of 4000 florins a year. Only Archduke Rudolf paid his share of the pension on the agreed date. Kinsky, immediately called to duty as an officer, did not contribute and soon died after falling from his horse. Lobkowitz stopped paying in September 1811. No successors came forward to continue the patronage, and Beethoven relied mostly on selling composition rights and a smaller pension after 1815.
Loss of hearing
Beethoven in 1803Around 1796, Beethoven began to lose his hearing.[8] He suffered a severe form of tinnitus, a "ringing" in his ears that made it hard for him to perceive and appreciate music; he also avoided conversation. He lived for a time in the small Austrian town of Heiligenstadt, just outside Vienna. Here he wrote his Heiligenstadt Testament, which records his resolution to continue living for and through his art. Over time, his hearing loss became profound: there is a well-attested story that, at the end of the premiere of his Ninth Symphony, he had to be turned around to see the tumultuous applause of the audience; hearing nothing, he began to weep.[9] Beethoven's hearing loss did not prevent his composing music, but it made concerts鈥攍ucrative sources of income鈥攊ncreasingly difficult.
Beethoven used a special rod attached to the soundboard on a piano that he could bite鈥攖he vibrations would then transfer from the piano to his jaw to increase his perception of the sound. A large collection of his hearing aids such as special ear horns can be viewed at the Beethoven House Museum in Bonn, Germany. By 1814 Beethoven was totally deaf, and when visitors saw him play a loud arpeggio or thundering bass notes at his piano remarking, "Ist es nicht sch枚n?" (Isn't that beautiful?), they felt deep sympathy, and saw his courage and sense of humor.[10]
Ludwig van Beethoven: detail of an 1804 portrait by W.J. M盲hlerAs a result of Beethoven's hearing loss, a unique historical record has been preserved: his conversation books. His friends wrote in the book so that he could know what they were saying, and he then responded either verbally or in the book. The books contain discussions about music and other issues, and give insights into his thinking; they are a source for investigation into how he felt his music should be performed, and also his perception of his relationship to art. Some of the conversation books were altered or destroyed after Beethoven's death by Anton Schindler.[11]
Illness and death
After Beethoven lost custody of his nephew, he went into a decline that led to his death on March 26, 1827 during a thunderstorm. [12]
A Viennese pathologist and forensic expert Christian Reiter (head of the Department of Forensic Medicine at Vienna Medical University) claimed that Beethoven's physician, Andreas Wawruch, inadvertently hastened Beethoven's death. According to Reiter, Wawruch worsened Beethoven's already lead poisoned condition with lead poultices applied after repeated surgical draining of his bloated abdomen. Various theories attempt to explain how Beethoven's lead poisoning first developed, and he was very sick years before his death in 1827 at the age of 56.[13] Reiter's hypothesis however is at odds with Wawruch's written instruction "that the wound has to be kept dry all the time". Furthermore human hair is a bad indicator of lead contamination.
Character
Beethoven's personal life was troubled. His encroaching deafness led him to contemplate suicide (documented in his Heiligenstadt Testament). Beethoven was often irascible, and may have suffered from bipolar disorder,[citation needed] and irritability brought on by chronic abdominal pain beginning in his 20s which has been attributed to his lead poisoning.[13] He nevertheless had a close and devoted circle of friends all his life, thought to have been attracted by his reputed strength of personality. Towards the end of his life, Beethoven's friends competed in their efforts to help him cope with his incapacities,[14] and after his death Anton Schindler destroyed and altered many of the conversation books to protect Beethoven's reputation.[11]
Sources show Beethoven's disdain for authority, and for social rank. He stopped performing at the piano if the audience chatted among themselves, or afforded him less than their full attention. At soir茅es, he refused to perform if suddenly called upon to do so. Eventually, after many confrontations, the Archduke Rudolph decreed that the usual rules of court etiquette did not apply to Beethoven.[15]
Romantic difficulties
The women who attracted Beethoven were unattainable because they were either married or aristocratic. Beethoven never married, although he was engaged to Giulietta Guiccardi. Her father was the main obstacle to their marriage. Giulietta's marriage to a nobleman was unhappy, and when it ended in 1822, she attempted unsuccessfully to return to Beethoven. His only other documented love affair with an identified woman began in 1805 with Josephine von Brunswick, young widow of the Graf von Deym. It is believed the relationship ended by 1807 because of Beethoven's indecisiveness and the disapproval of Josephine's aristocratic family.[16]
In 1812, Beethoven wrote a long love letter to a woman he identified only as "Immortal Beloved". Several candidates have been suggested, including Antonie Brentano, but the identity of the woman to whom the letter was written has never been proven.
Custody struggle
This section needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
This section has been tagged since November 2007.
On 15 November 1815 Beethoven's brother Karl van Beethoven died of tuberculosis leaving a son Karl, Beethoven's nephew. Although Beethoven had shown little interest in the boy up to this point, he now became totally obsessed with the possession of this nine year old child. The fight for custody of his nephew brought out the very worst aspects of Beethoven's character.[original research?] In the lengthy court cases Beethoven stopped at nothing[citation needed] to ensure that he achieved this goal. At this time Beethoven stopped composing for long periods.
The Austrian court system had one court for the nobility, The R&I Landrechte, and another for commoners, The Civil Court of the Magistrate. Beethoven disguised the fact that the Dutch "van" in his name did not denote nobility as does the Germanic "von",[citation needed] and his case was tried in the Landrechte. Due to his influence with the court, he felt assured of a favorable outcome.[citation needed] Beethoven was awarded sole guardianship. Karl's mother, Johanna, a commoner and a widow with little money, was not only refused access to her son, except under exceptional circumstances, but Beethoven insisted that she pay for her son's education out of her inadequate pension. While giving evidence to the Landrechte, however, Beethoven inadvertently[citation needed] admitted that he was not nobly born. The case was transferred to the Magistracy, where he lost sole guardianship.
Beethoven appealed, and regained custody of Karl. Johanna's appeal for justice and human rights to the Emperor was not successful: the Emperor "washed his hands of the matter". Beethoven stopped at nothing to blacken both their characters, as can be read in surviving court papers. When Karl could stand his tyrannical uncle no longer, he attempted suicide on 31 July 1826 by shooting himself in the head. He survived, and later asked to be taken to his mother's house. This desperate action finally freed Karl from the bonds of Beethoven.
Beliefs and their musical influence
Beethoven in 1823; copy of a destroyed portrait by Ferdinand Georg Waldm眉llerBeethoven was attracted to the ideals of the Enlightenment and by the growing Romanticism in Europe. He initially dedicated his third symphony, the Eroica (Italian for "heroic"), to Napoleon, believing that the general intended to sustain the democratic and republican ideals of the French Revolution. But in 1804, when Napoleon's imperial ambitions became clear, Beethoven took hold of the title-page and scratched the name Bonaparte out so violently that he created a hole in the paper. He later changed the title to "Sinfonia Eroica, composta per festeggiare il sovvenire di un grand Uomo" ("Heroic Symphony, composed to celebrate the advent of a great Man"). The fourth movement of his Ninth Symphony features an elaborate choral setting of Schiller's Ode An die Freude ("Ode to Joy"), an optimistic hymn championing the brotherhood of humanity. Since 1972, an orchestral version of this part of the fourth movement, arranged by the conductor Herbert von Karajan, has been the official anthem of the European Union.
Scholars disagree about Beethoven's religious beliefs, and about the role they played in his work: see Ludwig van Beethoven's religious beliefs. It has been asserted, but not proven, that Beethoven was a Freemason.[17]
Like the earlier composer Handel, Beethoven worked freelance鈥攁rranging subscription concerts, selling his compositions to publishers, and gaining financial support from a number of wealthy patrons鈥攔ather than seeking out permanent employment by the church or by an aristocratic court.
Music
Further information: Beethoven's musical style and innovations, Beethoven and C minor, and List of compositions by Ludwig van Beethoven
Beethoven is acknowledged as one of the giants of Western classical music; occasionally he is referred to as one of the "three Bs" (along with Bach and Brahms) who epitomize that tradition. He was also a pivotal figure in the transition from 18th Century musical classicism to 19th Century romanticism, and his influence on subsequent generations of composers was profound.[18]
Overview
Beethoven is regarded as one of the greatest masters of musical construction, sometimes sketching the architecture of a movement before he had decided upon the subject matter.[citation needed] He was one of the first composers to systematically and consistently use interlocking thematic devices, or "germ-motives," to achieve inter-movement unity in long compositions. Equally remarkable was his use of "source-motives," which recurred in many different compositions. He made innovations in almost every form of music he touched. For example, he diversified even the well-crystallized form of the rondo, making it more elastic and spacious, and also bringing it closer to sonata form.
Beethoven composed in various genres, including symphonies, concerti, piano sonatas, other sonatas (including for violin), string quartets and other chamber music, masses, an opera, and Lieder. He is viewed as one of the most important transitional figures between the Classical and Romantic eras of musical history.
Beethoven adopted the principles of sonata form and motivic development that he inherited from Haydn and Mozart, and he greatly extended them, writing longer and more ambitious movements.
The three periods
Beethoven's compositional career is usually divided into Early, Middle, and Late periods.[19] In this scheme, his early period is taken to last until about 1802, the middle period from about 1803 to about 1814, and the late period from about 1815.[20]
In the Early period, he is seen as emulating his great predecessors Haydn and Mozart, while exploring new directions and gradually expanding the scope and ambition of his work. Some important pieces from the Early period are the first and second symphonies, the first six string quartets, the first three piano concertos, and the first twenty piano sonatas, including the famous "Path茅tique" and "Moonlight" sonatas.
The Middle period began shortly after Beethoven's personal crisis brought on by his recognition of encroaching deafness. It is noted for large-scale works that express heroism and struggle, many of which have become very famous. Middle-period works include six symphonies (Nos. 3鈥?), the fourth and fifth piano concertos, the triple concerto and violin concerto, five string quartets (Nos. 7鈥?1), the next seven piano sonatas (including the "Waldstein" and the "Appassionata"), and Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio.
Beethoven's Late period began around 1815. Works from this period are characterized by their intellectual depth, their formal innovations, and their intense, highly personal expression. For example, the String Quartet, Op. 131 has seven linked movements, and the Ninth Symphony adds choral forces to the orchestra in the last movement.[21] Other compositions from this period include the "Missa Solemnis", the last five string quartets (including the massive "Grosse Fuge") and the last five piano sonatas, of which the "Hammerklavier" Sonata is the best known. |
