The Man Behind The Fifth Symphony
Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany and was
baptized on December 17, 1770. Now I say when he was baptized because no one
knows for sure when he was born, although many people believe it to be December
16th since you were baptized within 24 hours of your birth usually in that time period(Cooper). Even though his parents gave birth to seven children, Beethoven and 2 younger brothers were the only ones to survive past infancy. Both his father and his grandfather were musicians so musical talent was already running in the family. Beethoven was first introduced to music by learning the piano from his father when he was four years old. At a very young age his father began pushing music on him with hopes that he would follow in the footsteps of Mozart in being a childhood prodigy. His father even lied on the posters of Beethoven’s first public performance stating that he was six years old when he was actually seven. His father was not his only teacher in his early year though. Tobias Friedrich Pfeiffer was a family friend who taught Beethoven the piano and Franz Rovantini, who was a relative, taught him the violin and viola(Cooper).
Although he never reached the same fame prodigy level as
Mozart in his performances, Beethoven was nothing short of brilliant. He was
still a very smart kid when it came to music and had a capacity far beyond
anyone else his age. Beethoven wrote his first symphony when he was just twelve
years old. Beethoven idealized Mozart in everything that he did and looked up
to him dearly. When Beethoven was 17, in 1787, he went off to Vienna in hopes
to work with Mozart and learn from his hero. Unfortunately his trip was cut
short and he was only in Vienna for a short time before he got word that his
mother was deathly sick and he had to head back to Germany. It is unclear as to
whether Beethoven and Mozart actually met. Many experts believe that they did
in fact meet and that Mozart himself stated “Watch this young man; he will yet
make a noise in the world.". As other experts believe that they indeed
never properly met because Beethoven’s time in Vienna while Mozart was there
was too short and there in no clear evidence to them actually meeting(Encyclopedia or World Biography). After
his mother’s death Beethoven’s father became very depressed and started to
become a heavy alcoholic. This caused Beethoven to have to take care of his two
younger brothers pretty much by himself. After staying in Bonn helping provide
for his family for five years, Beethoven returned to Vienna to continue
pursuing his musical education. He would not however be able to learn from
Mozart, as were his initial intentions, since Mozart died while Beethoven was
still in Bonn, Germany. So instead of taking lessons from Mozart, Beethoven had
the pleasure of learning from another fantastic composer of the era, Franz
Joseph Haydn. Beethoven would spend the rest of his life living, learning, and
composing in Vienna.
Beethoven composed most of his works over a period, known as
the “heroic period”, during 1803-1812. He composed five string quartets, six
string sonatas, seven piano sonatas, five sets of piano variations, four
overtures, four trios, two sextets and 72 songs(Cooper). During this time period is
also when a very unfortunate event started to happen in Beethoven’s life. As early as 1801, when Beethoven was only 21 years old, he started to realize that he was beginning to lose his hearing. This problem got progressively worse over the years and got to the point where he even had the thought to commit suicide. This is proven by a letter that he wrote to his brothers called the Heiligenstadt Testament where he wrote "I must confess that I lead a miserable life. For almost two years I have ceased to attend any social functions, just because I find it impossible to say to people: I am deaf. If I had any other profession, I might be able to cope with my infirmity; but in my profession it is a terrible handicap". You may think that this is being overdramatic, but if you think about it music was his life. He so deeply embodied himself in his music that not being able to hear his own work was very hard on him and that is completely understandable. For a musician and composer to lose their hearing is like a painter losing their eyesight. He eventually lost his hearing completely to the point where he had to carry around a pad and a pen so that anyone trying to speak with him could write down what they were saying. This may have also played a huge part in Beethoven’s personality as well. He was known to be a very anti-social person and never married or had any children. Some experts think to believe that he also had some disabilities like dyslexia and other social disabilities, although there is no proof to confirm or deny these assumptions.
So what made Beethoven stand out from all the other
composers? What makes him so great and widely known even still today? In my
opinion it is the pure passion that he had for music. He was the one who paved
the road for what music is today. Beethoven was the one who broke away from the
patron system to where the composer was in control. Before Beethoven the
composers worked for their patrons and had to do what they said which led them
to little freedom of expression. With Beethoven he put himself in control, he
still worked for them but he did things how he wanted and he picked the prices
that they had to pay. If he never made this movement away from the patronage
system would anyone else have done it? If no one else broke away from the
tradition how different would music be today? You can also tell how much work
he put in to his pieces by the amount of time it took him to write each piece.
There were composers before Beethoven who wrote more symphonies than him, but
yet he is still better known. This shows that it isn’t about the number of
pieces that you put out, but the content that each one contains. No composer
after Beethoven in the era wrote more symphonies than him. This could be
because they saw what Beethoven accomplished with taking time with his
symphonies, or simply because they felt as those there symphonies were not
worthy of his standards. He also broke away from the traditional music styles
by dragging his themes out so they last longer.