Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a important figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music. He remains as one of the most respected and influential composers of all time.

Born in Bonn, then in the Electorate of Cologne, he moved to Vienna in his early twenties and settled there, studying with Joseph Haydn and quickly gaining a reputation as a virtuoso pianist. Beginning his twenties, Beethoven’s hearing gradually deteriorated, yet he continued to compose, and to conduct and perform, even after he was deaf.

Beethoven had 3 siblings who survived infancy. Beethoven was baptized on 17 December 1770, the day after his birth.

His first music teacher was his father, a reportedly harsh teacher. Johann, Beethoven’s father, soon engaged a friend, Tobias Pfeiffer, to preside over his son’s music training, and is rumoured that Johann and Tobias would come home late from a night of drinking to pull Ludwig out of bed to practice till morning.

(Picture of Beethoven when he was 13 years old)

Beethoven’s talent was recognized at an early age. By 1778, he was studying the organ and viola in addition to the piano. His most important teacher was Christian Gottlob Neefe, who was the Court’s Organist. He also helped Beethoven publish his first composition: a set of keyboard variations.

In 1792, Beethoven moved to Vienna, where he studied with Joseph Haydn for a time. His hopes for studying with Mozart had been dashed by Mozart’s death the previous year. Beethoven received additional instruction from Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (Vienna’s pre-eminent counterpoint instructor) and Antonio Salieri.

By 1793, Beethoven established a reputation in Vienna as a piano virtuoso. His first works with opus numbers, a set of piano trios, appeared in 1795. He settled into the career pattern he would follow for the rest of his life, rather than working for the church or a noble court, he supported himself through a combination of annual stipends or single gifts from members of the aristocracy; income from concerts, lessons, and the sale of his works.

Beethoven’s patron loved his music but were not quick to support him. Beethoven eventually relied more on patrons like Count Franz Joseph Kinsky, Prince Joseph Franz Maximilian Lobkowitz and Karl Alois Johann-Nepomuk Vinzenz, Fűrst Lichnowsky. Once these patrons passed away, Beethoven fell into debt.

In 1807, Prince Lobkowitz advised Beethoven to apply for the position of composer of Imperial Theatres, but the nobility did not respond. Beethoven considered leaving Vienna.

In the fall of 1808, Beethoven was offered a position as chapel maestro at the court of Jerome Bonaparte, the king of Westphalia, which he accepted. The Archduke Rudolf, Count Kinsky and Prince Lobkowitz pledged to pay Beethoven a pension of 4000 florins a year to persuade him to stay in Vienna. Only Archduke Rudolf paid his share on the agreed date. Kinsky did not contribute and soon died after falling from his horse. Obkowitz stopped paying in September 1811, No successors came forward to continue the patronage, and hence Beethoven had to rely mostly on selling composition rights and a smaller pension after 1815.

At around 1796, Beethoven began to lose his hearing. He suffered a severe form of tinnitus. His hearing loss did not prevent his composition of music, but it made concerts, which holds a significant amount of his income, increasingly hard.

Beethoven’s personal life was troubled due to hearing loss. He was led to contemplate suicide as documented in his Heiligenstadt Testament. Beethoven has a close circle of friends all his life, thought to have been attracted by his reputed strength of personality. Towards the end of his life, Beethoven’s friends competed in their efforts to help him cope with his inabilities.

The women who attracted Beethoven were unattainable because they were either married or aristocratic. Hence, Beethoven never married, despite being engaged to Giulietta Guiccardi. Her father was the obstacle to their marriage. There was another documented love affair that began in 1805 with Josephine von Brunswick, young widow of the Graf von Deym. The relationship ended by 1807 because of Beethoven’s indecisiveness and the disapproval of Josephine’s aristocratic family.

There was a case where Beethoven was involved in a custody struggle for his nephew. Beethoven lost the custody when he inadvertently admitted that he was not nobly born, thus he lost sole guardianship on 18 December 1818.

After Beethoven lost custody of his nephew, he went into a decline that led to his death on Monday 26 March 1827, during a thunderstorm.