Ludwig Van Beethoven

Ludwig Van Beethoven was a very prominent composer of the transitional

phase between the classical and romantic period. He was born in the late
1700s in Bonn, Germany. He is considered to be one of the ‘three Bs’, which
includes; Bach, Brahms and Beethoven himself.

Beethoven showed interest in music from a very early age. He was taken under
his father’s wings as his student, since his father was also a musician. He then
was taught by Gottlob Neefe, who taught him to play the organ and
composition.

At the age of 12, Beethoven published his first composition, which was; 9
Variations in C minor for the piano. After this, his teacher Neefe continued to
encourage him to continue music and called him ‘the next Mozart’.

In 1784, thanks to Neefe’s help, Beethoven was appointed as organist of

Maximillion Franz, in Cologne. In fact he would go on to dedicate a piece of
music to Maximillion Franz; the piano sonata “Kurfurst”, which was published
in 1783.

A few years later, Beethoven travelled back to Vienna (as he had already done
in his late 20s), and met with Haydn, along with some lessons from him. In this
time period (1790-1792), Beethoven composed a number of works that
showed his growing maturity and range in his music, a good example would be
that of the third symphony written in 1791.

This symphony is one of the nine symphonies that Beethoven composed at the
time. These symphonies are thought to describe his life experiences; the first 2
are quite different to the rest. At the time of the first 2 symphonies, Beethoven
was going through a very difficult time where he was suffering from depression
and was also suicidal. This was partially affected by the fact that his hearing
was also getting worse; he was slowly becoming deaf.

However, his first 2 symphonies made Beethoven become regarded as one of

the most important composers of the generation at the time, following Haydn
and Mozart (by which he was influenced musically).
However, at the third symphony, ‘Eroica’ symphony, Beethoven himself says
that it is when his music had truly ‘revived’, and he started becoming more
proud of his music at this point as he was also growing happier. This symphony
is thought to have been the transitional symphony between the sad part of his
life and his happier part of his life, later.

This symphony consists of four movements, which are played as ‘Allegro con
brio’, ‘Marcia Funebre: Adagio assai in C minor’, Scherzo: Allegro vivace’, and
‘Finale: Allegro molto’.

Another of Beethoven’s famous piano works is “Pathetique sonata” (Opus 13),

which as can be assumed from the name, shows much depth of emotion and
power as well as strength of character. It was written during his low point in his
life when he was depressed. It was written in 1798.

Other of Beethoven’s famous works include; Septet Op. 20, Moonlight Sonata,
which was dedicated to Countess Giulietta Guicciardi.

What made Beethoven unique was his melodies, musical development, use of
modulation, texture and characterisation of emotion. This, along with his use
of syncopations, dissonances, wide dynamics among others, also are what
made him deviated and differentiated from the classical period, rather into the
romantic, more emotional period.

The last work completed by Beethoven was the substitute final movement of
the ‘Thirteenth Quartet’, which replaced the Große Fuge.

Shortly after, in December 1826, Beethoven was again struck by a previous

illness he once had, where he almost died. He then later died in March 1827
however.