   #copyright

Ludwig van Beethoven

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Performers and composers

   1820 portrait by Karl Stieler
   Enlarge
   1820 portrait by Karl Stieler

   Ludwig van Beethoven ( pronounced [ˈbeː.to.vən]) ( baptised December
   17, 1770 – March 26, 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is
   generally regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of
   music, and was the predominant figure in the transitional period
   between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music. His
   reputation and genius have inspired—and in many cases
   intimidated—ensuing generations of composers, musicians, and audiences.

   Born in Bonn, Germany, he moved to Vienna, Austria, in his early
   twenties, and settled there, studying with Joseph Haydn and quickly
   gaining a reputation as a virtuoso pianist. In his late twenties he
   began to lose his hearing, and yet continued to produce notable
   masterpieces throughout his life in the face of this personal disaster.
   Beethoven was one of the first composers who worked as a freelance —
   arranging subscription concerts, selling his compositions to
   publishers, and gaining financial support from a number of wealthy
   patrons — rather than being permanently employed by the Church or by an
   aristocratic court.

Life

   Beethoven was born at Bonngasse 515 (today Bonngasse 20) in Bonn,
   Germany to Johann van Beethoven ( 1740– 1792) and Magdalena Keverich
   van Beethoven ( 1744– 1787). Beethoven was baptized on December 17, but
   his family and later teacher Johann Albrechtsberger celebrated his
   birthday on December 16.

   Beethoven's first music teacher was his father, a musician in the
   Electoral court at Bonn who was apparently a harsh and unpredictable
   instructor. Johann would often come home from a bar in the middle of
   the night and pull young Ludwig out of bed to play for him and his
   friend. Beethoven's talent was recognized at a very early age. His
   first important teacher was Christian Gottlob Neefe. In 1787 young
   Beethoven traveled to Vienna for the first time, where he may have met
   and played for Mozart. He was forced to return home because his mother
   was dying of tuberculosis. Beethoven's mother died when he was 18,
   shortly followed by his sister, and for several years he was
   responsible for raising his two younger brothers because of his
   father's worsening alcoholism.

   Beethoven moved to Vienna in 1792, where he studied for a time with
   Joseph Haydn in lieu of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who had died the
   previous year. He received additional instruction from Johann Georg
   Albrechtsberger (Vienna's preeminent counterpoint instructor) and
   Antonio Salieri. Beethoven immediately established a reputation as a
   piano virtuoso. His first works with opus numbers, the 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 sales of his works.

Loss of hearing

   Around 1801, Beethoven began to lose his hearing. He suffered a severe
   form of tinnitus, a "roar" in his ears that made it hard for him to
   appreciate music; he would avoid conversation. The cause of Beethoven's
   deafness is unknown, but it has variously been attributed to syphilis,
   lead poisoning, typhus, and even his habit of immersing his head in
   cold water to stay awake. The oldest explanation, from the autopsy of
   the time, is that he had a "distended inner ear" which developed
   lesions over time.

   Russell Martin has shown from analysis done on a sample of Beethoven's
   hair that there were alarmingly high levels of lead in Beethoven's
   system. High concentrations of lead can lead to bizarre and erratic
   behaviour, including rages. Another symptom of lead poisoning is
   deafness. In Beethoven's time, lead was used widely without an
   understanding of the damage it could lead to: for sweetening wine, in
   finishes on porcelain, and even in medicines. The investigation of this
   link was detailed in the book, Beethoven's Hair: An Extraordinary
   Historical Odyssey and a Scientific Mystery Solved. However, while the
   likelihood of lead poisoning is very high, the deafness associated with
   it seldom takes the form that Beethoven exhibited.

   Over time, his hearing loss became acute: There is a well-attested
   story that, at the premiere of his Ninth Symphony, he had to be turned
   round to see the tumultuous applause of the audience; hearing nothing,
   he began to weep. In 1802, he became depressed, and considered
   committing suicide. He left Vienna for a time for the small Austrian
   town of Heiligenstadt (see the 1802 Heiligenstadt Testament), where he
   resolved to continue living through his art. Beethoven's hearing loss
   did not affect his ability to compose music, but it made concerts —
   lucrative sources of income — increasingly difficult. After a failed
   attempt in 1811 to perform his own Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor," he
   never performed in public again.

   As a result of Beethoven's hearing loss, a unique historical record has
   been preserved: he kept conversation books discussing music and other
   issues, and giving an insight into his thought. Even today, the
   conversation books form the basis for investigation into how he felt
   his music should be performed, and his relationship to art - which he
   took very seriously.

   Ludwig van Beethoven: detail of an 1804 portrait by W.J. Mähler
   Enlarge
   Ludwig van Beethoven: detail of an 1804 portrait by W.J. Mähler

Social difficulties

   Beethoven's personal life was troubled. Around age 28, he started to
   become deaf, which led him to think about suicide (see the 1802
   Heiligenstadt Testament). He was attracted to unattainable (married or
   aristocratic) women; he never married. His only uncontested love affair
   with an identified woman began in 1805 with Josephine von Brunswick;
   most scholars think it ended by 1807 because she could not marry a
   commoner without losing her children. In 1812 he wrote a long love
   letter to a woman only identified therein as the "Immortal Beloved." (A
   movie by this title was released in 1994.) Several candidates have been
   suggested, but none has won universal support. Some scholars believe
   his period of low productivity from about 1812 to 1816 was caused by
   depression resulting from Beethoven's realization that he would never
   marry.

   Beethoven quarrelled, often bitterly, with his relatives and others
   (including a painful and public custody battle over his nephew Karl);
   he frequently treated other people badly. He moved often and had
   strange personal habits, such as wearing dirty clothing even as he
   washed compulsively. Nonetheless, he had a close and devoted circle of
   friends his entire life.

   Many listeners perceive an echo of Beethoven's life in his music, which
   often depicts struggle followed by triumph. This description is often
   applied to Beethoven's creation of masterpieces in the face of his
   severe personal difficulties.
   Beethoven in 1823; copy of a destroyed portrait by Ferdinand Georg
   Waldmüller
   Enlarge
   Beethoven in 1823; copy of a destroyed portrait by Ferdinand Georg
   Waldmüller

Personal beliefs and their musical influence

   Beethoven was much taken by 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 in the belief
   that the general would sustain the democratic and republican ideals of
   the French Revolution, but in 1804 crossed out Napoleon's name on the
   title page upon which he had written a dedication to him, as Napoleon's
   imperial ambitions became clear, renamed the symphony as the "Sinfonia
   Eroica, composta per festeggiare il sovvenire di un grand Uomo", or in
   English, "composed to celebrate the memory 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.

   Scholars disagree on Beethoven's religious beliefs and the role they
   played in his work. For discussion, see Ludwig van Beethoven's
   religious beliefs. It has been asserted, but not proven, that Beethoven
   was a Freemason.

His music

   Beethoven was perhaps the greatest master of construction, by sketching
   the plan of a movement before he had the subject-matter more than dimly
   in his mind. He was the first composer systematically and consistently
   to use the interlocking thematic device or "germ-motives" to achieve
   inter-movement unity in long compositions. Also equally remarkable was
   his use of "source-motives", which recurred in many different
   compositions and lent to unity in his life's works. He improved almost
   every form of music he touched. Even a trivial and well-crystallized
   thing such as the rondo he diversified, making it more elastic and
   spacious bringing it closer to the sonata-form. Among Beethoven's most
   recognized, concrete, and original contributions can be grouped into
   three types:

   1) The first movement of the titanic and elemental struggle (quartets 4
   and 11, the "Eroica", the 5th and "Choral" Symphonies, the sonatas
   Pathetique, Appassionata, and C minor Op. 111).

   2) The Scherzo of tumultuous, headlong humor and Dionysiac exultation
   (quartets 6, 7, 13 and 14, the 7th and 9th Symphonies, the Sonata in G
   Op. 14, the Violin Sonata in F).

   3) The ethereal slow movement of mystic exaltation (quartets 8, 12 and
   15, the "Hammerklavier" Sonata Op. 106, the Sonata in E Major Op. 109,
   the "Emperor" Concerto, The Benedictus of the Missa Solemnis, The
   "Archduke" piano trio Op. 97).

Work

   Beethoven composed in a great variety of genres, including symphonies,
   concerti, piano sonatas, string quartets and other chamber music,
   masses, opera, lieder, and various other genres. He is viewed as one of
   the most important transitional figures between the Classical and
   Romantic eras of musical history.

   As far as musical form is concerned, Beethoven built on the principles
   of sonata form and motivic development that he had inherited from Haydn
   and Mozart, but greatly extended them, writing longer and more
   ambitious movements. But Beethoven also radically redefined the
   symphony, transforming it from the rigidly structured
   four-ordered-movements form of Haydn's era to a fairly open ended form
   that could sustain as many movements as necessary, and of whatever form
   was necessary to give the work cohesion.

The three periods

   Beethoven's career as a composer is usually divided into Early, Middle,
   and Late periods.

   In the Early period, he is seen as emulating his great predecessors
   Haydn and Mozart while concurrently 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 Pathétique and
   Moonlight.

   The Middle period began shortly after Beethoven's personal crisis
   centering around deafness. The period is noted for large-scale works
   expressing heroism and struggle; these include many of the most famous
   works of classical music. Middle period works include six symphonies
   (Nos. 3–8), the last two piano concertos, triple concerto and his only
   violin concerto, five string quartets (Nos. 7–11), the next seven piano
   sonatas including the Waldstein, and Appassionata, and his only opera,
   Fidelio.

   Beethoven's Late period began around 1816 and lasted until Beethoven's
   death in 1827. The Late works are greatly admired for and characterized
   by their intellectual depth, intense and highly personal expression,
   and experimentation with forms (for example, the Quartet in C Sharp
   Minor has seven movements, while most famously his Ninth Symphony adds
   choral forces to the orchestra in the last movement). This period
   includes the Missa Solemnis, the last five string quartets and the last
   five piano sonatas.

   Considering the depth and extent of Beethoven's artistic explorations,
   as well as the composer's success in making himself comprehensible to
   the widest possible audience, the Austrian-born British musician and
   writer Hans Keller pronounced Beethoven "humanity's greatest mind
   altogether". See also History of sonata form and Romantic music.

Fictional Portrayals

     * Beethoven has been portrayed on film many times by actors including
       Albert Basserman, Gary Oldman, Ed Harris, Ian Hart and Karlheinz
       Böhm.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_van_Beethoven"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
