What is Ludwig van Beethoven basic story?

Answer 1

No one knows when Beethoven's birthday really is, but it is possible that it was on December 16th as that was the time he celebrated it. His family originated from Brabant, in Belgium. He was baptized in a Roman Catholic Church at the Parish of St. Regius on the 17th of December 1770. Ludwig's mother gave birth to seven children, however, only three of them survived infancy. Beethoven soon after took music lessons from his father.

Johann van Beethoven was a cruel teacher. When he saw how successful Wolfgang Mozart was in his career he tried to make Ludwig out to be a child prodigy saying that Ludwig was only six on the posters of his first performance when in truth, he was seven. After the year 1779, Beethoven started studying music with Christian Gottlob Neefe who taught Beethoven composition. In 1782, before the age of 12, Beethoven published his first work: 9 variations, in C Minor, for Piano. In June 1784, on Neefe's recommendations, Ludwig was appointed organist of the court of Maximilian Franz, Elector of Cologne. He was 14. In March 1787, Beethoven traveled to Vienna in hope of studying with Mozart. Two weeks after getting there he found out that his mother was deathly ill. He went back to find that his mother had died. His father was already an alcoholic but he soon sank even deeper in alcohol, making Beethoven the caretaker of his little brothers. Eventually Beethoven made out a legal right giving himself half of his fathers pay so Beethoven could support the family. Finally (with the Elector's help), Beethoven moved to Vienna in 1792. He never went back to the town of his birth. At Vienna, Beethoven took lessons with Haydn, then with Albrechtsberger and Salieri. He captured the attention of, and astonished, Vienna, with his virtuosity and his improvisations on piano. In 1794, Beethoven composed his opus 1, three trios for piano. The following year, Beethoven made his first public performance at Vienna (Academy) in which each musician was to play his own work. Beethoven made many acquaintances in Vienna. Everyone in the musical world adored and admired him. They were some of his greatest supporters. After a while he published his first symphony.

In 1801, Beethoven started to worry about his recent affliction of not being able to hear. He wondered if he was going deaf. He wanted to get a few symphonies in before he couldn't hear anymore. On April 7th, 1805, the Eroica symphony was played for the first time. In 1809, Beethoven wanted to leave Vienna, at the invitation of Jerome Bonaparte. But his long-standing friend, the Countess Anna Marie Erdody, kept him at Vienna with the help of his wealthiest admirers, the Archbishop Rudolph, the Prince Lobkowitz and the Prince Kinsky. These men gave Beethoven an annual grant of 4,000 florins, allowing him to live without any worry of money. The only condition was that Beethoven was not to leave Vienna.

Around 1796, Beethoven began to lose his hearing. He suffered a severe form of Tinnitus, a "ringing" in his ears that made it hard for him to hear anything, especially music. Over time, his hearing loss became even more profound and he constantly thought and wrote about committing suicide. "There is a well-attested story that, at the end of the premiere of his ninth symphony, he had turned around to see the tumultuous applause of the audience; hearing nothing, he wept"(White). Even with not being able to hear, that didn't keep him from composing music. But at concerts, which were one of his greatest moneymakers, it was increasingly difficult to perform. The outcome of Beethoven's hearing loss prevented him from performing but we still have his greatest achievements; his music. Although he depended on his music for income, other sources of income came from the patrons of whom he went to their houses to perform. Financial problems constantly undermined Beethoven. He always had money put to one side, but he was keeping it for his nephew. Soon he started to compose his tenth symphony. One day in 1826, he caught a bad cold coming back from his brother's place. The illness made the other health problems from which Beethoven had suffered all his life, even worse. He passed away at the start of a storm with many of his closest friends around him. His funeral took place at the Holy Trinity church. Around 10,000 to 30,000 people were at his funeral. One man, Franz Schubert, who had never met Beethoven but was a great admirer, was one of Beethoven's coffin bearers. When he died, he was buried next to Ludwig van Beethoven. Even though Beethoven is gone, he still lives on through his music.