LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)

“Whosoever has built a new heaven has found the strength for it only in his own hell.” – Nietzsche

BEETHOVEN’S BIO

Yes, he gets a category all to himself. That’s how important he is to music history.
He was the transitional figure between the Classical and Romantic eras.
Growing up, he suffered at the hands of an abusive father.
He lost his hearing slowly over the course of his life and was completely deaf by his late 40s, but he continued to write music.
Because of his deafness, he contemplated suicide (his suicide note: Heiligenstadt Testament). Instead of ending his life, he reinvented himself, and emerged (in his mind) as a heroic figure willing to live in misery for the sake of his art.
Probably because of his bad relationship with his father, Beethoven hated both being told what to do and the concept of aristocrats (people that thought that they were above him). He felt that kings and queens had done nothing to earn their position, but that he had created himself through hard work and struggle.
Beethoven was a successful freelance musician. He had patrons who gave him money just to live in Vienna and compose whatever he wanted.
He was also a “rock star” on the piano, a true virtuoso.

In Beethoven’s world, if a “rule” of composition didn’t fit the bill, it should be broken.
Structure, form, and balance, which had been so important in the Classical era for their own sake, were only useful to Beethoven so long as they could express what he desired.

Beethoven studied with Haydn and absorbed the Classical style, but then revolutionized Classicism, paving the way for Romanticism in music.
Before Beethoven, writing music was thought of as a craft. After Beethoven, writing music is considered an art.
The concept of the artist, struggling to express him/herself, did not exist until Beethoven.
Until this point, composers hadn’t thought to “express themselves” through music. They expressed feelings and emotions, but the idea of expressing one’s inner life though music wasn’t a thing until Beethoven made it one.

As a young man, Beethoven would often win piano-playing competitions in local taverns. Yes, that was something that happened in bars back then.
Beethoven was a bachelor his entire life. While there were many women over the years in whom he was interested, most found his personality off-putting. He did, however, have one successful romance, which he (of course) ended because he felt the relationship took too much away from his composing. Luckily for us, he left behind a pretty steamy (well…by 19th century standards) love letter.
At a time when freedom of speech was in its infancy, Beethoven often played with fire by saying things to important people like: “What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven.”