Ludwig Van Beethoven

(1770-1827)

Ludwig Van Beethoven personifies in music what is heroic, powerful, sensitive, energetic and what represents victory over struggle. When he was 5 years old America's Declaration of Independence was signed and when he was 18, the French Revolution broke out. Beethoven believed in the French Revolutions aspirations toward "Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood." In addition Beethoven had to fight the injustices of his alcoholic father and the death of his mother when he was 15. He raised his family by being a pianist, organist and music teacher and thus attained a tremendous amount of responsibility at an early age. These circumstances bred an inner strength but also a certain amount of contempt for the outer world. Beethoven sees himself as a survivor. When he was 5 years old America's Declaration of Independence was signed and when he was 18, the French Revolution broke out. Beethoven believed in the French Revolutions aspirations toward "Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood." 

In 1790 Beethoven started to go deaf. He took the news tragically. His diary reads, “How could I possibly mention to others the loss of a sense which in me should be more perfectly developed than in other people, a sense which at one time I possessed in the greatest perfection. How humiliated I have felt when somebody standing beside me heard the sound of a flute in the distance and I heard nothing! Such experiences made me despair. I would have ended my life it was only my art that held me back.” By 1802 Beethoven recognize that he suffered a total loss of hearing. He withdrew from society and lived in solitude in Heiligenstadt just outside of Vienna. It was here that he wrote some of his most beautiful pieces (the late piano sonatas symphony 9, Ode to Joy, and his late string quartets). His condition was a devastating one for a musician, but he continued to compose some of his most well known and respected works. His style at this time (the last 10 years of his life) could be described as "other worldly, serene, introspective and peaceful." Through composing and offering the world magnificent music, Beethoven overcame life's pain and sorrow and in the end can be seen as individual who rose above his own fate.  

Beethoven's contributions toward the future of music:

• Beethoven fit the form of the music to match the expression of what was being created. His autobiographical works of self expression and human values are an example of much of the music that will eventually follow.
• The many movements of a symphony are seen as one long narrative. The linking movements by using the same motive from one movement to the next.
• Using Program Music (instrumental music descriptive of a scene, poem, story or some other literary source).
• Powerful rhythmic drive in opening and closing movements of a symphony.