Ludwig van Beethoven: His History in Germany

Although the exact date of Ludwig van Beethoven's birth is not known, it was tradition to baptize infants 24 hours after birth. He was baptized on December 17, 1770 so we can estimate that he was born on December 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany (Newman 19). Beethoven was born to a "domineering grandfather whom he idolized, an alcoholic father, and an embittered mother" (Steinberg 3). Beethoven was a reserved boy with minimal education (Steinberg 3).

Beethoven first studied music with his father. His father and grandfather were both musicians at the Electoral Court at Bonn (Steinberg 3). Beethoven often played music for the church or theater and for the concert room along with his father and grandfather (Plantinga 22). Between the young ages of eleven and thirteen Beethoven was put in charge of playing the organ of a theatrical company. He substituted for his teacher Christian Gottlob Neefe (Plantinga 24). Mozart, who was fifteen years older than Beethoven, set very high standards for prodigies. Beethoven was not a considered a prodigy at that time because he lacked charm, quickness, and pliability (Steinberg 3). However, at the age of sixteen, Beethoven visited Mozart in Vienna. Mozart said of Beethoven, "Keep an eye on him, he'll make a big noise in the world some day" (Steinberg 3).

In 1792 he left Bonn to go to Vienna to escape war and to study with Haydn (Plantinga 42). Beethoven's lessons with Haydn, somewhat distracted by clashes in personality only lasted about a year, but the influence Haydn and Mozart had on him lasted a lifetime.

By the late 1790's Beethoven achieved his reputation as an expert pianist performer. He began to play less, around 1802, when he was gradually becoming deafer (Newman 19). He became too deaf to hear that the piano needed tuning and he struck the loud passages so hard that the strings jangled and the soft passages were so soft that groups of tones were lost (Newman 77). This gradually led him into composing more and more. He mostly started composing sonatinas, solo piano sonatas that led to thirty-seven throughout that span.

Beethoven's deafness worsened over the next two decades and eventually led to total deafness in his last five years of life. This affected his performance conceptions with regard to tone, texture, and instruments that he could not distinguish (Newman 20). At the age of fifty-seven, Beethoven passed away on March 26, 1827.

Incredible natural ability helped Beethoven to musical self-discovery, yet training by other composers and practice enhanced what talents he already had. Beethoven was trained in classical traditions yet her revolutionized them to search for freedom and meaning (Mellers 30). Beethoven started playing piano with a distinct preference for certain Viennese pianos. The Érard, Broadwood and the Graf were three pianos mainly associated with Beethoven today (Newman 45). Beethoven was a master in legato playing. Special attention was drawn to the depth of his expressive playing, especially in slow pieces (Newman 46).
Two of Beethoven's crucial parts of his works were tempo and its flexibility. He was constantly refining his works. Beethoven was also picky about the articulation of his music. This refers to the slurs, pauses, accents and dynamic shifts within a piece of work. Questions are often raised about Beethoven's staccatos and slurs- where one stops and starts. Because of the many questions that are rising, composers are still today studying the works of Beethoven. However, his accents and pauses seem to accentuate and are clearer in what they mean (Newman 121). Beethoven had often criticized or rather disliked how much of Mozart's music was played with the "chopped, crisply disconnected style," (Newman 228). With knowing that about Mozart, Beethoven's use of legato made him known to be unique, consummate master of legato on the fortepiano. Because he was unique with this different style he proved himself to be a leader in his time (Newman 229). Beethoven used a variety of beautiful instruments, and from all those instruments is what makes the weight of the form.

In Beethoven's time, part of the effect of music depended on the symbolism or meaning that was understood by lay people. Such conventional symbolism operates richly in Beethoven's concertos (Plantinga 7). Beethoven composed a variety of music. Not many of his works were terribly similar to another. Some of the varieties of his works include stage works, choral and vocal music, orchestral and chamber music, piano and dance music.

Beethoven wrote more than those popular works. While several hundred works have been recorded on one medium or another, there still remains hundreds of other works that have never been recorded at all.

References

Mellers, Wilfrid. Beethoven and the Voice of God. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983.
Newman, William S. Beethoven on Beethoven: Playing His Piano Music His Way. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1988.
Plantinga, Leon. Beethoven's Concertos. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999.
Steinberg, Michael. The Symphony: A Listeners Guide. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.