The Genius who composed against all odds
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig Van Beethoven is one of the greatest composers the world has ever known. He has become the icon of what a musical genius looks like. 250 years after his birth, Beethoven’s music still has an exhilarating, subversive power.
He was a revolutionary composer, breaking the rules, stretching musical forms to unleash emotion and went on to change the musical world forever. His revolution of artistic form was intimately linked to his sympathy for the political revolutions of his time.
Early years
Beethoven was born on 17 December 1770 in Bonn, Germany. His musical talent was obvious at an early age. He was initially harshly and intensively taught by his father Johann van Beethoven. At a very young age his father (often drunken) would wake him up in the middle of the night to practice for long hours.
Life long Challenges
During his life, Beethoven endured many significant hardships. His father tried to project him as a child prodigy and forced him to perform to make money just to get drunk. His mother died when he was a teenager leaving him and his siblings to take care of.
On top of that he started losing hearing at the end of his twenties. Beethoven lived 56 years. At the age 28, Beethoven had hearing loss and it became increasingly worse. By his early 40's, Beethoven was profoundly deaf. By the time his Ninth Symphony was first performed in 1824, when Beethoven was 54, he was completely deaf. Could it go any worse for anybody’s life?
Gained a reputation
Beethoven in his teen years was taught by the composer and conductor Christian Gottlob Neefe, under whose tutelage he published his first work, a set of keyboard variations, in 1783. At age 21, he moved to Vienna, which subsequently became his base, and studied composition with Haydn. Beethoven then gained a reputation as a virtuoso pianist, and he was soon patronized by Karl Alois, Prince Lichnowsky for compositions, which resulted in his three Opus 1 piano trios in 1795.
The First Symphony
His first major orchestral work, the First Symphony, premiered in 1800, and his first set of string quartets was published in 1801. Despite his hearing deteriorating during this period, he continued to conduct, premiering his Third and Fifth Symphonies in 1804 and 1808, respectively. His Violin Concerto appeared in 1806.
Composing, against all the odds
He carried on composing, against all the odds and continued his works. He was almost completely deaf by 1814, and he then gave up performing and appearing in public. He composed Missa solemnis between 1819 and 1823 and his final Symphony, No. 9, one of the first examples of a choral symphony, between 1822 and 1824. After some months of bedridden illness, he died in 1827.
The greatest composition of all time
Beethoven’s music is more amazing because he wrote so much of it when he was almost or totally deaf. His works during the last 10 years of his life are considered the greatest composition of all time. Even today, there are pieces of his, such as the Grosse Fuge and some of the late string quartets, that remain challenging for the performer and the listener. Many composers were afraid to perform for long years after Beethoven died and such was the impact he created.
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Music is the electrical soil
in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents.
- Ludwig Van Beethoven
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