Composer #1 - Ludwig van Beethoven

Who has never heard of Beethoven?

Most people have heard of Beethoven in some context throughout music classics in school, college, etc... Fur Elise and Moonlight Sonata are just two of the many songs that Beethoven has composed in his life. So, what makes him so special? Did you know he was deaf (Progressive hearing loss that started around the age of 26)? How do you compose music if you can not HEAR the music? Through memory and vibrations!!

Beethoven was born in 1770 in Bonn, Germany. He later travelled to Vienna in 1787 where he met the one and only Amadeus Mozart (more on him later). He later returned to live in Vienna and study under the tutelage of Joseph Haydn (also more on him later). Vienna is where Beethoven had his first concert where he played an original piece that he composed. He became so beloved that he became instantly famous, all over Europe.

He wrote 9 symphonies, 5 piano concertos, 32 piano sonatas, 16 string quartets, an opera, a violin concerto, and much more! He was absolutely brilliant. He started losing his hearing around 1796 with documented full hearing loss in 1814. This is when he stopped performing but he kept composing until his death in 1827. It has been said that he merged the Enlightment and Romantic period in music.

His music has been described as frenzied and exuberant just as much as he was in his every day life. His motto was " Freedom Above All". Early childhood years were spent traumatically learning the piano with his alcoholic father late in the evening and early in the morning. He was a very dramatic composer but also very brilliant. One book describes his death as occuring on a dark and stormy day. His death was described as coinciding with a loud thunderclap, Beethoven opened his eyes, raised his right fist and fell backward dead. He not only lived with passion but apparently died with it as well.

He never married or had any children to his knowledge; however, he did frequently fancy the ladies but he never could find one as sweet and kind as his mother. "Immortal Beloved" is a great movie about Beethoven and romance as there was a letter found to his immortal beloved but to this day, it is still unknown who it was written to.

Most of the information in this short post has been researched using:

1) The Gift of Music: Great Composers and Their Influence (Book)

2) The Usbourne Famous Composers Reference Book

3) Immortal Beloved (Movie)

4) Beethoven Lives Upstairs (Movie)