.: Navigation Above :.
Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770-1827)
Even Mozart didn’t influence the course of classical music as much as Ludwig van Beethoven. Born in Bonn, Germany, Beethoven ("BAY-toe-ven" in German it means beet garden) was the son of a court musician named Johann. Like Mozart’s dad, Johann tried to turn his son into a famous child prodigy. Unlike Mozart’s dad, Johann did it the hard way, by beating his son when prodigyhood was too slow in coming. Despite this harsh treatment, Ludwig became an excellent pianist.
At age 22, Beethoven moved to – where else? – Vienna, where the musical action was. There he wrote music for various individuals, special occasions and public concerts of his own compositions, in the process making a better living than Mozart ever did.
Both Beethoven and his music were fiery, impulsive, and impetuous; people loved to watch and listen as he played his passionate piano compositions. Offstage, however, his fiery personality got him into fights with his landlords and girlfriends. Beethoven wasn’t a long-term kinda guy, either apartments or relationships.
We all know characters like that: geniuses who, despite their incredible abilities and talents, are so much easier to deal with when they’re dead.
But Beethoven’s main reason for moving to Vienna was to study composition with Joseph Haydn. (After Prince Esterhazy’s death, Haydn moved back to his permanent home in Vienna.) This teacher-student relationship, alas, was no less stormy than any of Beethoven’s other relationships; still, Haydn tolerated his new pupil out of respect for his prodigious talents.
Just as Mozart had, Beethoven learned how to write a symphony and a string quartet – Haydn’s two greatest specialties. In fact, in Beethoven’s first two symphonies, Haydn’s influence is everywhere. In form, structure, and length, they’re nearly identical to Haydn’s symphonies of the day.
But then something happened that changed Beethoven forever. At 31, he began to realize that he was gradually losing his hearing. This is the worst thing that can happen to a musician – let alone the hottest-tempered one of all. The approaching deafness had a deeply disturbing effect on Beethoven.
One day, Beethoven walked through a forest with his student Ferdinand Ries, who remarked on the beautiful piping of a shepherd’s flute nearby. Beethoven heard nothing – and he became overwhelmingly depressed. He later wrote of his torment in a document that’s both pathetic and courageous, now known to musicians as the "Heiligenstadt Testament":
Oh, you men, who think or say that I am evil or misanthropic, how immensely you wrong me. You do not know the secret reason….For six years now, I have been horribly afflicted….Ah, how could I possibly admit a weakness in the one sense which ought to be more perfect in me than in others, a sense which I once possessed in the greatest perfection? Oh, I cannot do it; so forgive me when you see me retreat when I would have gladly spoken with you….I must live alone, as if banished….
Beethoven’s compositions of this period bear the mark of a man desperate to be the master of his own fate. If you’re aware of his condition of the time, his music makes much more sense. In expressing his pain, Beethoven single-handedly took music from the Classical style in to the Romantic period, where the most important element in music was the expression of feeling.
If one piece of music revolutionized music history, it was Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, known as the "Eroica" (meaning "heroic") Symphony. With this piece, Beethoven ceased to be merely the successor of Haydn and Mozart and found his own unique voice.
From the start, Beethoven conceived this symphony on a grand scale, intending to evoke the life and death of a great hero. Originally, the hero was to have been Napoleon Bonaparte; but that changed in 1804, as Beethoven’s friend Ferdinand Ries wrote:
Beethoven greatly admired Bonaparte at the time. I saw a copy of the score lying on his table, with the word "Bonaparte" at the very top of the title page, and at the very bottom "Luigi van Beethoven," but not another word….
I was the first to break the news to him that Bonaparte had proclaimed himself emperor. He flew into a rage and cried out: Is he then, too, just an ordinary human being? Now he, too, will trample on all the rights of man and satisfy only his ambition. He will become a tyrant!" Beethoven seized the title page, ripped it in two, and threw it to the floor. The first page was later rewritten, and only then did the symphony receive the title "Sinfonia eroica" (Heroic Symphony).
The piece is almost twice as long as any symphony that came before it, and the proportions were changed dramatically. Especially unusual is the second, slow movement – it’s somber funeral march with moments of great mourning and passionate outbursts of grief.
In all, Beethoven wrote nine symphonies; they challenged and expanded all the symphonic forms that existed up to that point. With each work, he tried to make his music do more, to say more, to boldly go where no music had gone before.
Of course, Beethoven’s most famous symphony is his Fifth. It’s the one that begins in the austere key of C minor, with the famous four-note snippet that everybody knows: "Dit-dit-dit-DAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
After four movements of Herculean toil, the symphony comes to a close – but instead of ending in C minor (the serious key that began the piece), Beethoven finishes in the cheerful, triumphant, exuberant key of C major.
Now, in musical terms, the difference between a minor chord and major chord is just one note. But in emotional terms, the difference is enormous. If you go from minor to major, you feel as if the storm has passed, the clouds have lifted, the sun has come shining through, and you’ve found a free parking space right in front of the restaurant.
Unlike Mozart, Beethoven wasn’t a facile composer; in fact, he’d wrestle with his work in his sketchbook for weeks and months and still he wasn’t satisfied.
One of the simplest melodies ever to enter Beethoven’s sketchbooks eventually became one of the most profound themes in history: the "Ode to Joy" theme from his Ninth (and last) Symphony. You may recognize this melody as the tune to "Joyful, joyful, we adore thee" - or as the ironic background music from the movie Die Hard.
"Ode to Joy" was a long, beautiful poem by Freidrich Schiller. From the age of 23, Beethoven had wanted to set it to music.. He finally found the right place to put it – right at the end of the Ninth Symphony – 20 years later.
Up until that moment, every symphony ever written had been designed to be played by an orchestra alone. But in his Ninth Symphony, for the first time ever, Beethoven added four solo singers and a huge chorus to sing the words of Schiller’s poem. For music critics of the time, adding the singers was an act of treason. Debate raged in musical circles for decades.
Fortunately, the public didn’t care much about the musical circles; the first performance was a great success. After it was over, the audience rose to its feet, cheering Beethoven in a thundering ovation. But by this time, Beethoven was totally deaf; he sat onstage facing the orchestra, unaware of the audience’s reaction. In a famous act of kindness, one of the singers gently grasped Beethoven’s shoulder and turned him around to see the adoring audience.
By the time Beethoven died, he was a hero; 30,000 mourners attended his funeral. One of the coffin bearers was Franz Schubert.
