Chapter One: Family Background

Ludwig van Beethoven, born 1770 in the city of Bonn.

Beethoven’s family tree:

Grandfather: Ludwig van Beethoven, the elder; Court Kappelmeister

in Bonn, in charge of music at the chapel, concert hall, theater, and
court ballroom. Well-paid, he also had a wine business, and was
considered financially successful. He was born in the Netherlands, on
land now part of modern Belgium, under the name “Lodewijk van
Beethoven”.

Father: Johann van Beethoven, sang in the court chapel at Bonn, also
a music teacher. He earned a modest amount, but was an alcoholic
and there are reports of him also being abusive. Compared to his
father, he was not as successful a musician.

Mother: Maria Magdalena Keverich, seemed unhappy about her

marriage due to her husband’s alcoholism and the deaths of so many
of her children. Three out of seven of their children survived.

Beethoven had a younger brother also named Ludwig, two years old,
who died after only 6 days. This gave Beethoven some confusion about
what year he was born in. Later, there were rumors that Beethoven
was the illegitimate son of a king of Prussia, either Friedrich Wilhelm II
or Frederick the Great. Beethoven did not deny this, perhaps feeling
uneasy about his own family. The Dutch origins of his name, from his
grandfather, may have lead some to assume he was an aristocrat.
According to Maynard Solomon, the unhappy circumstances of his
family life may have lead Beethoven to distance himself from his
family.

Brothers: Caspar Carl (banker) and Nikolaus Johann (pharmacist).

Chapter Two: Childhood

Beethoven worshipped his grandfather, whom he viewed as a musical

hero. He did not feel the same way about his father. His grandfather
died when Beethoven was 2 years old.
Beethoven began studying the piano and violin at the age of four.
Beethoven’s father gave him a harsh education in music, often using
violence against him. He would sometimes shut Beethoven in the
cellar and would shake him awake in the middle of the night, while he
was drunk, to make Beethoven practice. Beethoven’s father wanted
him to be another court musician in the family. Reports of Beethoven
as a child was that he was lonely and withdrawn.

Beethoven’s earliest instrumental teachers:

Gilles van den Eeden, organ
Friar Willibald Koch, organ
Zensen, organ
Franz Rovantini, violin
Franz Ries, violin
Nikolaus Simrock, horn

Maynard Solomon’s idea of Beethoven’s “Family Romance”

Family Romance is when the child replaces one or both parents with
other people in the same role, psychologically. They could be heroes,
celebrities, kings, etc.

The causes of Beethoven’s daydreams that he came from somewhere

else:
-feelings of rejection from his father
-mother is dissatisfied with her marriage
-siblings that died in childhood

Chapter Three: The Second Decade

1782, aged 11, becomes assistant court organist

1783, directing the orchestra from the keyboard
1784, official appointment as deputy court organist, with a salary of
150 florins

The most important early teacher to Beethoven: Christian Gottlob

Neefe (1748-98)
Neefe was court organist in Bonn starting in 1781, when he replaced
Beethoven’s teacher, van den Eeden.
He became Beethoven’s composition teacher in 1780 or 1781 and
remained the only significant teacher of Beethoven until 1792.
Neefe might have also been where Beethoven first learned about
enlightenment ideas. Neefe was a leader of the Order of the Illuminati
in Bonn.
Beethoven composed a number of early works under the guidance of
Neefe from 1782-1785, the most important are three piano sonatas
(the Electoral Sonatas), a Piano Concert in E-flat, and Three Piano
Quartets.

From 1785-1790, there appears to be no compositions from Beethoven.

During this time, he was involved with additional work at the court,
including extra viola playing. The extra work went to support his
family. He tried to take a trip to Vienna in 1787, perhaps to gain
employment or play for Mozart, but after only two weeks he was called
back due to his mother’s worsening health. She died later that year.

Beethoven’s father’s alcoholism got worse during this period. In 1789,

he addressed his father’s employer to ask that half of his father’s
salary be paid to him instead and that his father be retired from
service. His wish was granted, and his father moved to a village where
he stayed until he died in 1793.

Chapter Four: Last Years in Bonn: Enlightenment

What to know about the city of Bonn:

“Germany” in the time of Beethoven consisted of nearly 300 mini-

states, directed by the Holy Roman Empire in Vienna and Berlin.
Bonn was the residence of the prince elector of Cologne and reported
to Vienna.
There was a large amount of Enlightenment literature in Bonn.
Enlightenment ideas were also active in the government in Bonn.
Enlightenment ideas included the separation of church and state;
constitutional governments; the scientific method; liberty and
freedom; and the role of reason as the primary source of knowledge.

Some key figures in the Enlightenment that are important to

Beethoven:

Immanuel Kant - philosopher, who worked on issues of logic,

knowledge, ethics, religion, and aesthetics. One of his most famous
ideas was “things-in-themselves”. This idea was that there are ideal
versions of objects that cannot be seen. What we see in an object is a
representation of this ideal version of the object. For example, there is
an ideal version of freedom. Humans are moved to this ideal, but can
only see an imperfect representation of it in life. Philosophy that
comes from Kant is called Kantian philosophy.

Friedrich Schiller - poet, philosopher, playwright, considered a key

poet in the Enlightenment. He is the author of the text of the ode to
joy. Beethoven thought highly of Schiller and read his works. He
wanted to set the ode to joy text as early as 1793.

Elector of Cologne, Maximillian Franz, was a main proponent of

Enlightenment thought in the government in Bonn. He was a patron of
Beethoven’s and paid for two trips to Vienna for Beethoven. Even
though Maximillian Franz brought Enlightenment ideas to the
government, many Enlightenment ideas were at odds with the Holy
Roman Empire, including the idea of monarchy. Enlightenment
organizations such as the Order of the Illuminati and the Masons were
shut down if they were suspected of having anti-government activities.
Because of this, Beethoven found a balance between the current order
of the government (his employer) and of Enlightenment ideals. The
contraction is seen in his cantata composed in 1790, which is a
mournful celebration of Emperor Joseph II, who was both progressive
and conservative in ideas as an emperor.

Beethoven self educated himself about most of these topics. It’s

unclear if he really understood Kant, but Kant’s philosophies were so
popular at this time, it became impossible to avoid. Beethoven was
born Catholic, but there’s not a clear indication that he practiced
Catholicism actively. His own religious activities could be described
as “Enlightened Catholicism”, or “court Catholicism”, a coexistence
between religious and rational thought. During his adolescent years,
he wrote of being depressed. He showed some interest in his student
Maria Anna van Westerholt, as well as Barbara Koch and Eleonore von
Breuning. None of the women seem to have shown interprets in
Beethoven.

Haydn took a trip to Bonn in 1792, where Beethoven showed him a

cantata he had written. He agreed to accept him as a student.
Beethoven set out to Vienna in 1792 to study with him. It was seven
weeks after he left on this trip that his father died.

Chapter Five: The Music

Beethoven’s early Bonn works are considered to be typical of a late

classical style that would have been appreciated by the court. He
composed in genres that were associated with the court, such as
music for wind octet, as well as variations for the piano and violin on
themes by Dittersdorf and Mozart. The greatest model that Beethoven
would have had would be composers like Mozart, J.C. Bach, and
Haydn. 40% of his works from Bonn in this period are for voice,
including lieder and arias written in the comedic opera style. The
songs he wrote show what poetry he was reading at this time. Many of
the poems he used are found in popular collections of poetry found in
Beethoven’s time.

The two works that do not fit the conventional mode of his early works
are the Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II and the Cantata
on the Elevation of Leopold II to the Imperial Dignity. These two
works have elements of the “heroic” style that Beethoven would later
compose in. There are parts of this cantata that were reused in the
Eroica, the 6th and 7th symphonies, as well as the overtures to
Coriolan and Egmont. There are also elements of Beethoven’s later
style, such as sudden p and f, as well as a single “main melody” like
the Ode to Joy theme.

These cantatas are similar to what would be found in France during

the Revolution. There are similar works composed in France by
Cherubini, Gossec, and Mehul. They show Beethoven’s alignment with
that repertoire and its revolutionary content.

Chapter Six: A Pianist and his Patrons

Beethoven’s second trip to Vienna to study with Haydn would have

been considered a success for Beethoven’s career. Vienna was a
cosmopolitan city in the late 1780’s and 1790’s. There were operas
staged by Mozart, Gluck, Cimarosa, Neefe, Salieri, Paisello, and
Gossec, among others. Through Haydn, Beethoven was exposed to
many of the leading composers from this time. Beethoven was initially
considered to be a virtuoso pianist instead of being primarily a
composer. He arrived at the right moment, with Mozart’s passing and
Clementi and Cramer moving away from Vienna to London.

Beethoven’s first publications in Vienna came in 1795 and by 1799, his

pieces could be found published by 5 different publishers. Beethoven’s
patrons at this time included Prince Joseph Lobkowitz, Count Moritz
Fries, Count Andres Razumovsky, Baron Gottfried van Swieten,
Count Johann Georg von Browne-Camus, and Prince Karl Lichnowsky
and Princess Christiane, his wife.

These aristocrats cared about the status that patronizing musicians

gave them, and had many works by Beethoven dedicated to them.
Beethoven both appreciated these patrons and disapproved of having
someone look over him financially. He was proud of some of his gifts,
but often distanced himself to assert his independence. During this
period, he started to withdraw from performing piano in the public,
worrying about if patrons were using him as a servant or simple piano
teacher. He developed an insecurity about letting people hear him
perform in public.

Many of Beethoven’s patrons would eventually become bankrupt later

in their lives, but during this early period in Vienna they had the money
to support Beethoven’s career. This period would eventually culminate
in the end of the “kappellmeister” positions available in Vienna, so
Beethoven would have to look to these types of patrons fo fund his
career in the future instead of look for an official job as a court
composer.

Chapter Seven: Haydn

Beethoven’s studies with Haydn were likely not too helpful when it
came to technical matters. There are counterpoint exercises that
exist between Beethoven and Haydn and many are not corrected by
Haydn and some corrections by Haydn even contain mistakes. This
lead Beethoven to initiate private study with the composer Johann
Schenk, who helped Beethoven on his counterpoint homework with
Haydn. He even completed the exercises for Beethoven to fool Haydn.
Beethoven had some unease studying with Haydn, worrying that he
might simply be remembered as a pupil of Haydn, as other composers
such as Ignaz Pleyel were thought of.

Beethoven started to deceive Haydn about his income from Bonn,

saying that he would need to have an advance on the lessons with
Haydn because he wasn’t being paid enough. He also started to pass
off his old compositions from Bonn as new works he was working on.
Haydn wrote to Bonn to ask for an increase in Beethoven’s salary,
which lead him to discover that Beethoven was actually being paid
almost double what he admitted to. This lead Haydn to arrange for
Beethoven to study with a different teacher, Johann Georg
Albrechtsberger, in 1795. Beethoven also later studied with Antonio
Salieri as early as 1798. Albrechtsberger seems to have mixed feelings
about Beethoven’s music, but Beethoven enjoyed his study with him.

Hostility towards Haydn may have been because of Haydn’s criticism

of Beethoven’s own music and viewing his place as the preeminent
composer of the classical style above Beethoven. Haydn’s attitude
towards his pupils lead to long grudges, but Haydn still wanted
Beethoven’s affection and acknowledgment as a student. After
Haydn’s death, Beethoven only praised Haydn and his study with him.

Chapter Eight: Portrait of a Young Composer

Beethoven was by most accounts considered to be an ugly and unkept

person. He was short and hairy, with a large forehead and didn’t care
too much about dressing himself well. He often lacked manners when
talking to people and was easily offended. He moved apartments often
and would sometimes try to attach himself to the family life of his
patrons. This was a continued pattern of the Family Romance issue
where he tried to distance himself from his own family and find
another substitute. His own two young brothers lived in Vienna at the
same time and had jobs working at a bank and a pharmacy, but
Beethoven would try to interfere in their personal affairs.

He also had many close friends, sometimes becoming extremely close

to them in an exaggerated way. Among these were Lorenz von
Breuning, Stephen von Breuning, both piano students of Beethoven’s,
Karl Friedrich Amenda, a violinist and theology student, and Baron
Ignaz von Gleichenstein, a cellist.
Beethoven never married and seemed uncomfortable about being a
bachelor. Beethoven proposed suddenly without warning to
Magdelena Willmann, a woman also from Bonn, and said no, calling
him “ugly and half-crazy”. There are several women that are attributed
to Beethoven trying to court during this time, but none of the links
seem convincing. Later on, there would be other women he tried to
court.

Beethoven believed that he had high moral standards, which often

made it difficult to deal with him if he felt that he was dealing with
someone below his ideal. This extended to his composition. He had a
deep belief in the importance of his compositions and that he was on a
“mission” composing. When he arrived in Vienna, there does not seem
to be an exploration of the earlier Enlightenment ideas that he was
exposed to in Bonn. Rather there are several anti-Napoleonic
compositions he wrote at this time (“Farewell Song to Vienna’s
Citizens” and “We Are a Great German People”) that express that he
wanted to please the establishment in Vienna. Fighting against the
ideas of the government in Vienna would come later.

The Nobility Pretense started around this time in Vienna. This is the
idea that Beethoven was a noble, came from nobility, or was the
illegitimate offspring of a nobleman. There is no evidence if Beethoven
started this idea or of its origins. Beethoven didn’t need to be a noble
to advance his career (for example, Haydn was not nobility and was at
the top of his profession). Rather, this may have been Beethoven
viewing himself as an exceptional person and thinking that he needed
to come from an exceptional background. He didn’t seem to be
attracted to nobility specifically, but he didn’t think too highly of
common people. This leads back to the earlier idea of Family
Romance.

Chapter Nine: Vienna: City of Dreams

The death of Emperor Joseph II was seen as the beginning of a

reversal of Enlightenment ideals in Vienna. The government that came
after Joseph II relied heavily on the secret police and cracked down on
anything that could be viewed as anti-monarchy. This had some side
effects for the public of Vienna. The public, feeling worse about the
way the government was being run but afraid of the consequences of
speaking out, instead turned to events to amuse themselves. Circuses
and dance halls prospered at this time, as well as prostitution.

Elsewhere in Europe, there were governments that were moving away

from monarchy (especially the Revolution in France), but Vienna was
moving in the opposite direction. This hidden resentment among the
Viennese fits Beethoven well. Not being pleased with the way things
were going in Vienna could have influenced his musical style.
Instrumental works wouldn’t have been subject to censorship, as they
lacked a program and text. Being able to write subtle subversive
music in abstract instrumental works fits Beethoven well, as well as
the feeling of the Viennese at this time.

Chapter Ten: The Music

Beethoven’s main influences during this early period in Vienna were

Haydn, Mozart, and Gluck. He had reverence for these composers, but
also felt anxiety about how to compose just as well as them. He also
wanted to avoid the dominance that Haydn had over the compositional
style of composers in Vienna at this time.

The piano was Beethoven’s main instrument during this period of

composition. Most of his compositions are based around the piano, as
opposed to other instruments. The main genres he composed in until
1802 were the piano sonata, duo sonata, piano trio, string trio, string
quartet, chamber music for winds, the concerto, and the symphony.
Most of the structure of these pieces is either based on variation form
or sonata form. The piano’s continual changes throughout this period
pleased Beethoven, who was searching for a larger tone and heavier
action, as well as an increased range of notes. Beethoven’s piano
music found publishers quickly, as the market for piano music in
Vienna was strong.

Notable works from this period in Vienna:

Instrumental works with piano:

3 Piano Trios, Op.1, 1795
Quintet in E-flat for piano and winds, Op.16 - Modeled after a Mozart
quintet for the same instrumentation.
Piano Concerto No.2, Op.19, 1785/1801 - actually earlier than No.1,
but published in the numbered order. Work on this piece actually
began in Bonn, but continued in Vienna.
Piano Concerto No.1, Op.15, 1795/1801
Piano Concerto No.3, Op.37, 1799/1802-3

Piano Sonata:
Sonata in E-flat, Op.7, 1796-97
Sonata in C minor “Pathetique”, Op.13, 1798-99
Sonatas in E and G, Op.14, 1798-99
Sonata in A-flat “Funeral March”, Op.26, 1800-1801
Sonata in E-flat and C-sharp minor “Moonlight”, Op.27 , 1800-1801
Sonata in D “Pastoral”, Op.28, 1801
3 Piano Sonatas, Op.31, 1802

Duo Sonatas:
2 Cello Sonatas, Op.5, 1796 - noteworthy because most of his Viennese
models of composers did not compose cello sonatas. Mozart never
wrote a solo for cello, while Haydn did compose concertos but not
sonatas.
3 Violin Sonatas, Op.12, 1797-1798
Violin Sonatas, Op.23, No.24 “Spring”, 1800-1801
3 Violin Sonatas, Op.30, 1801-1802
Horn Sonata, Op.17

String chamber music:

3 String Trios, Op.9, 1797-98
6 String Quartets, Op.18, 1798-1801
String Quintet, Op.29, 1801 (also an arrangement of the Wind Octet as
String Quintet, Op.4)

Mixed wind and strings:

Trio for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano, Op.11, 1798
Serenade for Flute, Violin, and Viola, Op.11, 1798
Septet, Op.20, 1799 - ended up being incredibly popular during
Beethoven’s lifetime, which he eventually became annoyed with

Orchestra:
Symphony No.1, Op.21, 1800
Symphony No.2, Op.36, 1802