Beethoven Project

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December 16, 1770 - Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn. His grandfather Ludwig was the much-loved Kapellmeister at court (master of music). Beethoven's brute father, Johann, was a tenor and a lesser talent, although he was popular at the local pub. He beat music into young Ludwig, starting with piano and adding violin and viola. Grandfather Ludwig died when the boy was only three, but his memory stuck with the composer as a father figure.

In 1792, Francis II became Holy Roman Emperor. He convulsed at the very mention of revolution (French Revolutionaries guillotined his aunt Marie Antoinette in 1793). Francis blanketed Vienna with censors, spies, and secret police. He prohibited talk of liberal ideals. Amid the crackdown, 22-year-old Beethoven left Bonn, crossed through Napoleon's army, and settled in the Austrian police state.

Ludwig van Beethoven had a hearty laugh and smiled a lot (he had good teeth). He loved to play practical jokes, and his music abounds with humor—musical humor, which sounds good, even when he’s throwing you a wink and a nudge.

Ludwig van Beethoven was 26 when he first noticed ringing in his ear. In the coming years, the problem grew worse. Eventually, he lost his ability to perceive higher frequencies and, by the 1824 premiere of the Ninth Symphony, stood unaware of the thundering ovation erupting behind him. Nevertheless, as late as 1825 (two years before his death), an eye-witness commented, “He can hear a little if you halloo quite close to his left ear.”

Beethoven’s last decade is as much a psychological journey as a musical one. For sure, the audacity and experimentation that defined his “heroic decade” fed into his later works. But he suffered a dry spell and emerged a more introspective and philosophical composer.