Alyssa Regner

Core 4
December 9
th
, 2013
Ludwig van Beethoven
Everyone knows Beethoven, but not everyone knows specific details and moments in his life, that
helped form his famous impact on music. What was his childhood like? How was music involved in his
childhood? He did so many outstanding things, but what were his most famous symphonies and compositions?
What were his lifes accomplishments? These are many of the questions that allow us to discover deeper
information about why certain things in Beethovens life happened the way they did. Ludwig van Beethoven had
a very musical childhood and a dream of composing which lead to many famous compositions.

Beethovens childhood reflects on his future. The musical involvement and the way he was taught all
shows why and how he became a famous composer. As he once said, There are and always will be thousands of
princes, but there is only one Beethoven! Beethovens exact birthdate is unknown because his birth record is
missing. However, his baptism record is still in possession. His baptism record shows that he was christened on
December 17 of 1770. This would tell us that he was actually born on December 16
th
of 1770; since in this time
infants were baptized on the day after birth. (Beethoven) Beethovens birth was the beginning to a highly
achieved musician and composer. Unfortunately, Beethovens parents were not the best of them all.
Beethovens father and mother had very different personalities. His father, Johann van Beethoven, (Ludwig
van Beethoven (German Composer)) was a heavy drinker (Beethoven) and his mother, Maria Magdalena van
Beethoven, (Ludwig van Beethoven (German Composer)) was the closest person to him in the world.
However, she couldnt make her husbands drinking problem, any better. (Beethoven) When Beethoven was

young, he had found out that he had inherited his grandfathers musical talent. (Beethoven) Johann
(Beethovens dad) had recognized his sons musical talent for playing the piano. Since his son had such talent
already, his father had tried to make him a child prodigy like Mozart (who was another very talented musician
for his age). (Ludwig van Beethoven (German Composer)) Beethovens father was very strict with his son
during the learning and practicing process of the clavier. Beethoven was so little at this point in time, that he
had to stand on a stepstool to reach the keys of the clavier. For any mistake or hesitation that young Beethoven
made, his father would beat him. Beethovens neighbors would recall that Beethoven was weeping while he was
playing the clavier. All in all, Beethovens father was very serious about making his son the best and better than
Mozart. In 1778, Beethovens dad put together his sons first public performance, which was to take place on
March 26, 1778. His father named the performance, Little son of six years. Even though Beethoven was seven
years old at the time, he performed impressively. (Ludwig van Beethoven Biography) As much as his father
tried to make Beethoven better than Mozart, he did not succeed in doing so. (Ludwig van Beethoven (German
Composer)) Daily, young Beethoven was locked in the cellar and lost lots of sleep from extended hours of
practice. Beethoven had studied the clavier (an instrument in his time that is similar to a modern-day piano) and
violin with his father and took outside lessons from organists. Overall, Beethoven was young and probably
learned to be serious at a young age when fun is usually an important aspect in childs life. Not only did he have
trouble with his family, but he also struggled academically.
Beethovens talent with music was a bit stronger than it was at school. Beethoven had struggled with math
and spelling his whole life. However, he was still considered an average student as a child. Biographers have
hypothesized that he might have had mild dyslexia. This was assumed because of what Beethoven had once
said: Music comes to me more readily than words. At age ten, Beethoven left school and went to studying
music full time with Christian Gottlob Neefe, the newly appointed Court Organist. (Ludwig van Beethoven
Biography)The court organist of Christian Gottlem Neefe, a Protestant from Saxony, became Beethovens
teacher. Neefe was a man of high ideas and wide culture, a man of letters and a man of songs and light pieces. It

was Neefe that in 1783, Beethoven would have his first extant composition published at Mannheim. By June
1782, Beethoven had become Neefes assistant as court organist. (Ludwig van Beethoven (German Composer)).
Clearly, he was on his way to success in his future. This was the first of many of Beethovens accomplishments in
life.

Beethovens career started early when he began to perform and study music at an early age. In 1783,
Beethoven also was appointed continuo player to the Bonn opera. Because of Beethovens progress, by 1787,
(Maximilian Francis, archbishop-elector since 1784), was persuaded to send him to Vienna to study with Mozart.
Mozart was very impressed with Beethovens improvisation level and told some friends; This young man will
make a great name for himself in the world. (Ludwig van Beethoven (German Composer)) Also at his arrival,
Beethoven had auditioned for Mozart and he said, Keep your eyes on him; some day he will give the world
something to talk about. (Ludwig van Beethoven Biography) A few weeks after Beethoven arrived in Vienna,
he learned that his mother had been desperately ill. This made him immediately rush home to Bonn. Several
months later, she died. This made Beethoven depressed for several years. As he remained in Bonn, Beethoven
continued to carve out his reputation as the citys most promising court musician. (Ludwig van Beethoven
Biography) It was for five years, that Beethoven remained in Bonn, attending court duties and playing the viola
in the theatre orchestra. (Ludwig van Beethoven (German Composer)). Even though Beethovens career was
going better than ever, he was interrupted with family problems when he was to return home to his mother
who was suffering from an illness. Despite his loss, things began to pick up as he became more joyful with
friends that took him into their home.

Beethovens friends helped him in many ways. With the help of the chancellor, Joseph von Breuning, he
became the music teacher to two of her four children. On from that moment, the Breunings house became a
second home for him that was also far more friendly, pleasant and enjoyable than his own. Through Mme von

Breuning, Beethoven gained a number of wealthy pupils. His most useful social contact came in 1788, with the
arrival in Bonn of Ferdinand, Graf (count) von Waldstein. He was a member of the highest Viennese aristocracy
and a music lover. Waldstein became part of the Breuning circle, where he heard Beethoven play and at once
became one of his admirers. (Ludwig van Beethoven (German Composer)) Clearly these friendships helped pick
up his career which lead to more accomplishments.

By now, Beethovens talent was known and because of this, he was invited to compose a piece for a funeral.
It was by 1790, when the leaders of Bonn knew about Beethovens talent. (Beethoven) It was also in 1790,
when Joseph II (Ludwig van Beethoven (German Composer)) (the popular Habsburg emperor) (Beethoven),
died. Through Waldstein, Beethoven was invited to compose a funeral ode for soloists, chorus and orchestra.
(Ludwig van Beethoven (German Composer)) Beethoven was 19-years old at this time. (Ludwig van
Beethoven Biography) However, the scheduled performance was cancelled because the wind players found
that certain passages were too difficult for them to play. Beethoven then added it to the complementary piece
celebrating the accession of Josephs brother, Leopold II. Neither one was ever performed until the end of the
19
th
century, when the manuscripts were rediscovered in Vienna and were pronounced authentic, by Johannes
Brahms. (Ludwig van Beethoven (German Composer))Beethoven did many things in his childhood that were
related to music and that helped him form his future career. As Beethovens life continued to unravel, his
musical talent grew larger and his career began early. Even though his troubles drowned him, he was still able to
pull it off and create a different kind of music that no one had ever heard before.

When in Vienna, Beethoven had several positive experiences. He had fallen in love with his friend,
Eleonore von Beunigh. She however, did not want a romantic relationship. Beethoven was now moved
permanently to Vienna and he would write to Eleonore from there to repair whatever damage he had caused.
When Beethoven had left Bonn to come to Vienna, he was 21-years old. His father died shortly after he left. He

was very satisfied when Joseph Hayden (the most-famous composer in Europe), had invited him to be a pupil.
From this experience, Hayden had learned that Beethoven was brilliant. Hayden had also observed that
Beethoven was a young man in a hurry (as he said it). He believed that one day, people everywhere would
know about him. (Beethoven) Beethovens life progressed, as he continued to perform and meet new people.
No matter what people said, Beethoven stuck to what he believed was best and what made sense for him to do.

Beethovens intention was to do what he thought was best and made sense. Although, Hayden thought
that the public might not even be ready for such emotional works. Beethoven ignored Haydens comments and
wanted to make his works distinctive. He wasnt interested in copying what others did. Finding his own way, he
would compose what made sense to him and not what made sense to others. He applied these same words and
concepts to his piano playing. His skill for playing the piano was extraordinary and his unique ability to improvise
constantly helped him to go higher to the top of Viennas most sought-after performers. (Beethoven) Even
though he was playing the same type of music that other skilled piano players were playing, he was controlling it
in a different way, which had made him unique. Using this idea, he composed a song to reflect off of events that
occurred in his life.

Beethoven composed a song to represent his life. In 1801, he had dedicated his Sonata No. 14 in C sharp
minor (also known as the Moonlight Sonata after Beethovens death), to his pupil, Coutess Giulietta Guicciardi.
He had given it the subtitle of, Sonata in the Manner of Fantasia. However, the Moonlight Sonata that
Beethoven had written reflected on his life or the time period in which he wrote it. The composition begins with
slow movement-, which was rare for the time period when he wrote it- and reflects his incredible talent for
improvisation. Overall, the sonata reflects on the fact that Beethoven had fallen in love with another pupil.
(Beethoven) Beethoven was rewarded from all his hard work in his childhood with more opportunities to do
better and continue to use those as lessons to help form powerful and meaningful music that would change the

way people think about music. Everything doesnt always go perfect, Beethoven realized as he continued his
career and something crept up on him.

Troubles approached and were resolved with a new opportunity. By 1800, Beethoven had become
aware of his advancing deafness, which would be his most horrible fate as a musician and unendurable to a
composer. (Ludwig Van Beethoven) The first symptoms of Beethovens deafness occurred even before 1800.
(Ludwig van Beethoven (German Composer)) It all started when Beethoven was going for a walk with his
friend. Beethoven and his friend, were very deeply into a conversation when, the soft sounds of a flute filled the
air. His friend had commented on how beautiful it was. Beethoven questioned the noise because he couldnt
hear the sound of the flute. His friend replied saying the sounds of the flute were so simple, yet so beautiful.
Beethoven had thought that his friend was joking because he didnt hear the sound of the flute. Beethovens
ears would buzz and hum all day and night long. This was going to be a disaster for an accomplished musician
that was building a career. At this point, Beethoven knew that he was deaf and he didnt find a reason why he
should tell anyone that he was going deaf. Over a ten-year period, his deafness continued to approach him.
Once it was hard for him to understand what people were saying to him, he got very frustrated and started to
panic. To cope with his growing deafness, Beethoven decided to write symphonies. (Beethoven) By 1802, his
deafness was almost permanent and progressive. Then by 1812, his deafness was completely permanent where
it was to the point where people had to write down what they were going to say, and then give him the piece of
paper and then he would respond orally. (Ludwig van Beethoven (German Composer)) Because of his deafness,
Beethoven had considered the fact of committing suicide. He was determined to continue on composing and to
no longer perform. He was also unhappy with his compositions up to this point and he just decided that he
would now be starting over with a fresh start. He had begun composing music that had never been heard
before. These compositions were the ten famous symphonies that he conducted. (See table 1. for symphonies,
concerti, and other orchestral compositions) (Ludwig Van Beethoven). Beethovens deafness approached him

and began to make him frustrated until he decided that there could possibly be a solution. He went with his idea
and composed all different kinds of outstanding and breath-taking symphonies.

Conducting and composing was a success considering Beethoven was fully deaf. However, his
compositions from the time he started composing full time, because he was deaf, got better. His symphony no.
3 in E-flat was completed in 1804. This symphony was almost twice as long as any symphony that had been
written, up to that time. Beethoven began to take classical symphonies as a starting point. It introduces more
themes, contrasts, instruments, weight, and drama than what has previously been heard in the symphonic form
of music. Overall, in his career of conducting, he had a total, of sixteen string quartets. (Ludwig Van
Beethoven) Nevertheless, Beethovens symphonic compositions were a success as they outstood many of the
other music in the classical music category. Although he had these great compositions, troubles occurred where
others werent always there to help.

The solution to Beethovens problems allowed him to go further into his musical study. He was having
technical problems since he was just starting to conduct and compose symphonies It seemed as though Hayden
wasnt the best person to help him with these problems. Even though they had a good friendship, Beethoven
soon found himself taking extra lessons in secret. He had taken lessons from an organist, learned contrapuntist
that helped him learn the technique that he needed. During this time, he had also studied vocal composition.
(Ludwig van Beethoven (German Composer)) Beethoven found a solution to overcome his troubles and found
an alternative. From then on, he performed at theatres to show his work.

Beethovens work strategies reflected the way that his music turned out. Many of Beethovens musical
ideas came to him while he took long walks in the country. He would keep track of his ideas by noting them
down in sketchbooks. To our advantage, many of these sketchbooks have been preserved which reveals

Beethovens working methods. It seemed as though that Beethoven would work on more than one composition
at a time. He also never seemed to be in a hurry to finish anything that he was working on. The next few years,
were those of Beethovens short-lived connection with the theatre. In 1801, he had provided the score for the
ballet, Die Geschpfe des Prometheus (The Creatures of Prometheus). Two years later, he was offered a contract
for an opera on a classical subject with a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder, who had accomplished fame and
wealth as the librettist of Mozarts The Magic Flute and who was then impresario of the Theatre an der Wien.
(Ludwig van Beethoven (German Composer)) Beethovens musical strategies and performances in the theatre
revealed how he achieved greatness. As his greatness is withdrawn, his lifes story was analyzed and compared,
to those who were similar.

The ways that Beethoven maintained his successful career were similar to those of others. During all this
time, Beethoven (like Mozart), had maintained himself without the advantage of an official position. With far
greater success in it so far, he also had no family to support. His reputation as a composer was steadily soaring
both in Austria and abroad. . (Ludwig van Beethoven (German Composer)) Based on his overall lifes success,
Beethoven shares similarities with another musician. This relates because he also greatly improved classical
music like Beethoven had. However, the influences that Beethoven had in his childhood and throughout his life,
as well as his different ways of thinking and coming up with ideas, were what made him different from others.

The influences that Beethoven had were also similar to those of other composers in his time. He was
similar to other composers in his generation and was subjected to the influence of popular music and folk music.
However, Beethovens influence was particularly strong in the Waldstein ballet music of 1790 as well as several
of his early songs and unison choruses. Beethoven was raised on the sonatas and teachings of Carl Philipp
Emanuel Bach (the chief exponent of expressive music at the time when music was regarded as the art of
pleasing sounds), just like all of the pianists of the late 18
th
century were raised on. Beethovens response to

these sonatas was a bit different from the ways that Hayden and Mozart had thought of them to be. Hayden and
Mozart thought of them having quirks of rhythms and harmony and their occasional wordless recitative, were
equally familiar to them. In Beethoven, they evoked a much readier response, not only for reasons of
temperament, but also because of the rational rather than emotional climate in which he, himself, was reared.
(Ludwig van Beethoven (German Composer)) The ways that Beethoven thought of things and his influences,
created his musical career. Even though he went from his amazing musical talent, to composing the greatest
symphonies of his time, it doesnt last forever.

Beethoven squeezed out a few more compositions before his struggling health and death. Because of
his deafness, Beethoven became more withdrawn from the world than he had ever before. His rate of
composition had also began to decrease. The works written between 1815 and 1827 comprise a mere fraction of
his output after 1792. However, they have a density of musical thought far surpassing anything that he had
composed before. Though he now went less into society, he concerned himself more and more with business
matters, but not always with happy results. In 1815, all prospects of foreign travel were cut short for Beethoven
by the death of his brother, Caspar Anton Carl. Beethoven had written three final piano sonatas (between 1820
and 1822) and had worked desultorily on the symphonic sketches. The mass was followed by his last important
piano work (which was completed in 1823), variations on a theme that the publisher and composer, Anton
Diabelli, had sent to a number of composers, including Beethoven. Beethoven spent the summer of 1826, on the
estate belonging to his surviving brother, Nikolaus Johann. On his return to Vienna, he contracted pneumonia,
from which he never fully recovered. He remained bedridden and died from cirrhosis of the liver in Vienna on
March 26, 1827. His funeral took place three days after his death with an attendance of twenty-thousand
people. (Ludwig van Beethoven (German Composer)) Beethovens struggling only allowed for a few more
compositions to fit in before his health started to struggle and his death took him away. Before Beethovens life
was over, many accomplishments concluded his great use of life and improvement in the world at this time.


Beethovens most successful achievement, was raising the expectations and performance of classical
music. Beethovens greatest achievement was to raise instrumental music; including inferior and vocal, all to the
best that they can be related to the art of music. During the 18
th
century, music was ranked below literature and
painting. However, its highest manifestations were held to be those in which it served a text that is cantata,
opera, and oratorio. Altogether, Beethoven made the late-romantic dictum possible to the English essayist and
critic Walter Patter say: All arts aspire to the condition of music. After Beethoven, it was no longer possible to
speak of music as merely as the art of pleasing sounds. His instrumental works had put together a forceful
intensity of feeling with unimagined perfection of design. He carried to a further point of development than his
predecessors all the inherited forms of music (with the exception of opera and son), but particularly the
symphony and the quartet. In this, he was the heir of Hayden rather than Mozart, whose most striking
achievements lie more in opera and concerto. (Ludwig van Beethoven (German Composer)) Overall,
Beethovens work helped raise the expectations of music and put together a new feeling when it was played.
The different sort of feeling that Beethoven moved into music progressed into three different periods of work.
The developments in Beethovens life are separated by three periods. Beethovens biographer, Wilhelm
von Lenz, decided to separate Beethovens life into three periods to show the years of his apprenticeship in
Bonn. The first period begins with the completion of the Three Trios for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Opus 1, in 1794
and ends in about 1800, the year of the first public performance of the First Symphony and the Septet. Overall, it
consists mostly of chamber music. (See table 2 for his chamber music accomplishments). Most of this kind of
music was based on Beethovens own piano and music. The second period goes from 1801 to 1814, from the
Piano Sonata in C-sharp Minor (also known as the Moonlight Sonata) to the Piano Sonata in E Minor, Opus 90.
The second period began in the piano music with two sonatas; quasi una fantasia, Opus 27, of 1801, and the
Fourth Piano Concerto (1806). The last period runs from 1814 to 1827, when Beethoven died. This period indeed

was marked by a growing concentration of musical thought combined with an increasingly wider range of
harmony and texture.
(Table 1)
Orchestral Music
Symphonies Concerti (piano) Other Orchestral
Compositions
No. 1 in C Major, op. 21 (1800) No. 1 in C Major, op. 15 (1798) Two romances for violin
and orchestra
No. 2 in D Major, op. 36 (1802) No. 2 in B-flat Major, op. 19 (in fact
composed first 1795, revised 1798)
Various overtures,
including Coriolan, op.
62 (1807)
No. 3 in E-flat Major, op. 55 (Eroica;
1804)

No. 3 in C Minor, op. 37 (1803, perhaps
earlier)
Leonore No. 1, op.
138; 2, op. 72A; and 3,
op. 72B
No. 4 in B-flat Major, op. 60 (1806) No. 4 in G Major, op. 58 (1806)


No. 5 in C Minor, op. 67 (1808)

No. 5 in E-flat Major, op. 73 (Emperor;
1809). (Violin): Violin Concerto in D
Major, op. 61 (1806); Triple Concerto in C
Major, op. 56 (violin, cello, piano; 1804).

No. 6 in F Major, op. 68 (Pastoral; 1808)
No. 7 in A Major, op. 92 (1812)

No. 8 in F Major, op. 93 (1812)
No. 9 in D Minor, op. 125 (Choral;
1824).Wellingtons Victory, op. 91 (also
known as The Battle of Vitoria and
the Battle Symphony; 1813).






String Quartets Other Chamber
Work
Piano Music Vocal Music

Theatre Music

No. 16, op. 18
(17981800)
Octet, op. 103
(winds; 1792)
32 sonatas,
including Sona
ta in C-sharp
Minor, op. 27,
no. 2
(Moonlight;
1801)
Missa Solemnis (mass in
D major; 1823)
One opera, Fidelio (1805;
revised versions, 1806,
1814the final version is
the one usually heard
today)
No. 13, op. 59
(Razumovsky;
1806)
Septet (strings
and wind; 1800)
Sonata in F
Minor, op. 57
(Appassionata;
1804)
Mass in C Major, op. 86
(1807)
One ballet, Die Geschpfe
des Prometheus (1801)
op. 74
(Harp 1809)
Sextet for Horns
and String
Quartet, op. 81B
(1795)
3 sets of
Bagatelles
Christus am
lberg(oratorio 1803)
Egmont, op. 84 (1810)
(Table 2)
Chamber Music

op. 95 (1810)

Quintet for Piano
and Winds, op.
16 (1796)
20 sets of
variations
Various smaller works for
chorus and orchestra
including Choral
Fantasia, op. 80 for
piano, chorus, and
orchestra (1808)
Knig Stephan, op. 117
(1811)
The late quartets
(182426)
String Quintet in
C Major, op. 29
(1801)
4 rondos songs, including the
cycle An die ferne
Geliebte, op. 98 (1816)
Die Weihe des Hauses, op.
124 (1822).

op. 127, 130,
131, 132, 133
(Grosse Fuge,
originally the
finale to op. 30)
and op. 135.
7 piano trios Goethe and Gellert
settings

5 string trios Scottish, Irish, and Welsh
folk-song settings

10 sonatas for
violin and piano,
including Sonata
in A
Major (Kreutzer;
1803)


Source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/58473/Ludwig-van-Beethoven/21590/Reputation-and-
influence#toc21591

Beethovens musically engaged childhood produced an early start at a career of composing and from
there, led to many astonishing accomplishments. His childhood was strict, yet valuable for his successful career
and for popularity to start early. As he got older, he ran into his major problem in his musical career, his
deafness. He assembled a conclusion of composing symphonies and found that Hayden was no longer to any
need to help him with the problems he ran into during this process. During his lifespan, he created a new
collection of music that changed how people thought of any kind of music at that time. The similarity that he
shares with another talented musician, compares him to others, but doesnt nearly match his strategic thinking
and influences throughout life. Later in life, he got pneumonia after a trip and a year later, he died from cirrhosis
of the liver on March 26
th
, of 1827 with a highly attending funeral. The ways that Beethoven improvised and
improved the way music is known today was sorted from a collection of his own knowledge, influences, and the
strictness of his childhood. Throughout life, mistakes are made. From most of them that Beethoven made, he
recovered and sometimes his new idea created new success. Beethoven once said: Nothing is more intolerable
than to have to admit to yourself your own errors.
Works Cited

"Beethoven." BEETHOVEN. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.
5 sonatas for
cello and piano;
sonata for horn
and piano.



"Ludwig Van Beethoven Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television,
n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.

"Ludwig Van Beethoven (German Composer)." Encyclopedia Britannica
Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2013.

"Ludwig Van Beethoven." Music History 102. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov.
2013.