Ludwig van Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770 in the German city of Bonn, quite a distance from the musical epicenter of Europe, Vienna. His father, a musician who liked to drink, taught him to play the piano and the violin, so at a young age his great talent was already appreciated, which made it possible for him to travel to Vienna to study with the teachers, especially, with the great Mozart. He apparently was very interested in meeting Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
By the age of twelve, Beethoven was a promising pianist and a gifted pupil in composition to court organist Christian Gottlob Neefe (1748-1798).
Despite everything, Beethoven would never meet Mozart, as he had to return to Bonn to be with his mother who was very ill and who died a few months later. His father died in 1792. Although they would never meet personally, he became a student of one of Mozart’s best friends, Joseph Haydn. However, Beethoven was not entirely satisfied with Haydn’s teachings (in fact they got along quite badly), and he turned to lesser talented musicians for additional instruction.
Beethoven found himself working privately, composing pieces on his own for various people who wanted to buy his work. In 1795 his first mature published works appeared, and his career was officially launched. Thanks to this he became quite famous throughout the city and many sought him out for his talent.
When he was in his twenties, a horrible earache boded the worst. The doctors told him that he would lose his hearing. In 1814 he went deaf, which for any other composer would have been the end of his career. But not for him. Beethoven was not just any composer and he continued to compose more works.
However, it is true that the musician admitted having suicidal thoughts due to his deafness, since he could not enjoy music in the same way as before. But, since he had a lot of music in his head to write, he decided to continue with his task.
Beethoven died in 1827 from cirrhosis of the liver. He was 56 years old.
His father wanted to turn him into a child prodigy.
In fact, to make sure that the young Beethoven was even more brilliant and precocious than he already was, his mother would lie to everyone about his age, saying that he was two years younger. And it is that, as soon as he detected his son’s gifts for music, Beethoven’s father, who was a modest musician fond of alcohol, had only one goal in life: to turn his son into a musical prodigy, a famous person from whom to obtain benefits, hence he forced him to practice hours and hours on both the piano and the violin and physically punished him when he missed a note.
He had 6 brothers
There are details of Beethoven’s personal life that are often overlooked. Like this. He came to have six siblings, but unfortunately, four of them died during his life.
He composed a work after the death of a dog
“Elegy for the death of a spaniel” was composed in 1790, that is, when he was 12 years old. At that time he was already composing pieces with funny names like “Lied an einen Säugling” (Song for a Baby) and, later, “Elegie auf den Tod eines Pudels” (Elegy for the death of a spaniel). The identity of the puppy is unknown.
his first symphony
It was at the age of 29 when he made his debut with his Symphony No. 1 in C Major, op. 21 which was first performed at the Burgtheater in Vienna in April 1800. It is the first of Beethoven’s nine symphonies and was dedicated to Baron Vam Swieten, a music lover and friend of Mozart.
Goethe and he were good friends.
his love life
He wrote his will at the age of 30.
No one really knows why he went deaf
The man of a thousand diseases
The German musician was very prone to illness and spent most of his life suffering from a wide variety of ailments including colitis, rheumatism, rheumatic fever, typhus, skin disorders, abscesses, a number of infections, ophthalmia, inflammatory degeneration of arteries, jaundice, chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis.
He had peculiar… customs
His personal habits were extravagant to say the least. Although he used to bathe often, he used dirty clothes after bathing. He also did not usually empty the potty (which he placed under the piano) and left half-finished plates of food scattered throughout the house. He would even throw food out of the window or smash it against the wall when he didn’t like something or it hadn’t been properly prepared. He loved fish, so if he liked someone, he would treat them to fish (even if he didn’t like it). Yes indeed; she ate a lot. He used to confuse quantity with quality.
And a problem with alcohol
He was a revolutionary musician
His appearance on the music scene was a brutal cataclysm, as if he had invented a new musical genre. The era of Viennese classicism came to an end with him. He was considered a musical revolutionary and a pioneer of romanticism. He was very perfectionist; he checked and corrected over and over until late at night. He wrote a chorus on his 9th Symphony, something he had never done before. He became famous for his short dramatic compositions, as evidenced by the opening of his famous Fifth Symphony. Another example: before him, most piano concertos lasted 20-30 minutes, “The Emperor” lasts 40. It was different, original, complex, and Beethoven always refused to adapt to what was established. There was a before and after in music thanks to Beethoven.
A genius of improvisation
But he had a very bad character
Beethoven and Kubrick
Beethoven’s music in the cinema
His compositions appear in numerous well-known films, including “The King’s Speech”, “The Horse Whisperer”, “The Lost World: Jurassic Park”, Ace Ventura: A Different Detective”, “George of the Jungle”, “Saturday night fever”, “Star Trek: Insurrection” or “The dead poets club”.