Short biography of Ludwig van Beethoven's life - his deafness, career, influences, and major works.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), German composer, pianist, teacher and publisher, revolutionized music as an art. He is famous for symphony no.9 "Choral" to concluding chorus "Ode to Joy" and the letter Heiligenstadt Testament he wrote to his brothers. Fidelio is his only opera.

He based much of his music – symphony, concerto, sonata and string quartet - on late 18th-century Classical form and structure, but heralded the emotion and poetry of 19th-century Romantic Period.

Beethoven's Early Years

Beethoven birth is unkown, but he was baptized on December 17, 1770, in Bonn. He first studied with his father, Johann, a singer and instrumentalist in the service of Bonn's Elector of Cologne. At 12, Beethoven already published some music. He studied under Joseph Haydn, and might have studied with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Vienna as Ludwig wanted. In 1787, he went to Vienna but quickly returned home on hearing his mother was dying. Five years later he went back to Vienna where he settled, but by then Mozart was demised.

Musical Career

In 1795 he published his Op.1, three piano trios, and made his first public appearance as a pianist and composer. He lived by playing and teaching, and later by the publication of his works. Carl Maria von Weber was a contemporary of Beethoven.

Early Signs of Deafness

Despair from his threatening deafness as early as 1795 (he was 25) gave rise to writing of the suicidal Heiligenstadt Testament (confessing to his deafness), and his brilliant and untroubled Symphony No.2. His Third Symphony (Eroica) was dedicated to Napoleon, but he changed the dedication when the latter proclaimed himself Emperor.

Only Opera Fidelio and other Compositions

Beethoven conducted his only opera Fidelio in 1805. He refused to accept regular employment but in 1808 Archduke Rudolph agreed to pay him an unconditional annuity. The Fifth Symphony dates from the same year, and seen to proclaim the individual’s sense of worth and identity.

By 1806 deafness forced him to abandon performance, leaving him for composition.

His music of this middle period gained him further recognition as the leading composer of the day, initiating his last piano works by the Hammerklavier sonata, pieces both extending instrumental technique to new limits and combining the intellectual and expressive ways not achieved by other composers.

Beethoven was totally deaf by 1819 but begun work on his Ninth Symphony which he started in 1817, followed by Missa solemnis and the last five quartets. He caught an infection from which he never recovered in 1826. He died the following year in Vienna, aged 57.

Beethoven is best remembered for his nine symphonies, and his most famous Symphony No.9 'Choral'. For those of us familiar with the chorus, "Ode to Joy" is the crowning glory of his immortal Symphony No.9. We sing it the loudest we can give. Beethoven was almost, if not completely, deaf by then. At its premiere, he turned his face to the audience so he can "see" their applause.

Beethoven's Major Works

• Piano Concerto No.1, 1798
• Pathétique Piano Sonata, 1799
• Symphony No.1, 1800
• Piano Concerto No.3 "Moonlight" Piano Sonata, 1801
• Symphony No.2, 1802
• 'Kreutzer' Violin Sonata, 1803
• Symphony No.3 (Eroica), 1804
• 'Appassionata' Piano Sonata, 1805
• Opera Fidelio, 1805
• Symphony No.4, 1806
• Piano Concerto No.4, 1806
• Violin Concerto, 1806
• Symphonies No. 5 and No.6 (Pastoral), 1808
• 'Fur Elise', 1808
• Piano Concerto No.5 'Emperor", 1809
• Overture and incidental music to Egmont, 1810
• 'Archduke' Piano Trio, 1811
• Symphonies No.7 and No.8, 1812
• Mass in D (Missa Solemnis), 1822
• Symphony No.9 'Choral', 1823
• 'Diabelli' Piano Variations, 1823
• Last five string quartets, 1824-1825

Sources:

The Encyclopedia of Music by Max Wade-Matthews & Wendy Thompson, Hermes House (2002)

The Grove Concise Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie, Macmillan (1994)

The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 2nd Edition, by Michael Kennedy (1994)