A Complete History of Beethoven
A Complete History of BeethovenBeethoven was born in Bonn, Germany in 1770 to Johann van
Beethoven and his wife, Maria Magdalena. He took his first music
lessons from his father, who was tenor in the choir of the
archbishop-elector of Cologne. His father was an unstable, yet
ambitious man whose excessive drinking, rough temper and anxiety
surprisingly did not diminish Beethoven�s love for music. He studied
and performed with great success, despite becoming the breadwinner of
his household by the time he was 18 years old. His father�s
increasingly serious alcohol problem and the earlier death of his
grandfather in 1773 sent his family into deepening poverty.
At first, Beethoven made little impact on the musical society,
despite his father�s hopes. When he turned 11, he left school and
became an assistant organist to Christian Gottlob Neefe at the court
of Bonn, learning from him and other musicians. In 1783 he became the
continuo player for the Bonn opera and accompanied their rehearsals on
keyboard. In 1787, he was sent to Vienna to take further lessons from
Mozart. Two months later, however, he was called back to Bonn by the
death of his mother.
He started to play the viola in the Opera Orchestra in 1789,
while also teaching in composing. He met Haydn in 1790, who agreed to
teach him in Vienna, and Beethoven then moved to Vienna permanently.
He received financial support from Prince Karl Lichnowsky, to whom he
dedicated his Piano Sonata in C minor, better known as The Path�tique
?. He performed publicly in Vienna in 1795 for the first time, and
published his Op. 1 and Op. 2 piano sonatas. His works are
traditionally divided into three periods. The first is called the
Viennese Classical, the second is the Heroic, and the third is Late
Beethoven. In the first period, his individuality and style gradually
developed, as he used many methods from Haydn, including the use of
silence. He composed mainly for the piano during this period. These
works include Symphony no. 1 in C (1800), his first six string
quartets, and the Path�tique (1799)....
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