Ludwig Van Beethoven Essay, Research Paper

Ludwig Van Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany. He was the third child of Johann and Johanna Beethoven. Ludwig had a terrible childhood because his dad was an alcoholic. He woke him up in the middle of the night and made him play the piano until dawn. He would smack him every time he made a mistake. His father was a musician as was his grandfather. Ludwig loved spending time with his grandfather. His grandfather died when Beethoven was only three years old. At age four, he wasn’t allowed to play with his friends, instead he had to stay inside and practice the piano. Beethoven’s father wanted Ludwig to be the next Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. At age 11, Ludwig quit school to study full time on music. He learned how to play the violin, viola, organ, and the piano. He started composing music for the piano and other instruments of the orchestra. By age 12, he was supporting his family by performing and selling his music. Beethoven wanted to change the world through his music even though he had to overcome unfortunate events that occurred during his life. Beethoven lived during the Classical and Romantic era. He composed his music in what was called the Classical Era. Music was very important to society in Europe because people liked to dance to music. Musicians would provide music for royal parties. Also, during this time Napoleon was the dictator of France which caused the French Revolution because people weren’t allowed to speak freely. Another reason that the Revolution happened was all of the middle class people had to pay a lot of taxes because the poor people didn’t have enough money and the rich people didn’t want to give money. This effected Ludwig because music was a way for him to speak out to the world. As you will soon find out Beethoven studied with many famous composers. There were many legendary composers that lived during Beethoven’s lifetime such as Mozart, Haydn, and many others. Beethoven had many teachers. His first teacher was his father. Then, he took lessons with Herr Pfeiffer who made his dad’s cruel teaching methods look kind. A teacher named Heff Neefe taught him. He took piano lessons from composers such as Haydn, Albrechtsberger, and Salieri. He also took lessons with one of the greatest composers of all time, Mozart. All of these composers influenced his life because they taught him new things that he didn’t know. They also showed him how to play the piano. These people helped influence his musician career. There were also other events will influenced his life too. Some important events that influenced Beethoven’s life were his mother’s death. He loved spending time with his mother. His mother would bring him places to get away from his father. His grandfather’s death also influenced his life because his grandfather was a musician, which rubbed off on him. He also enjoyed spending time with him. One more event that influenced him was how his father would beat him into learning the piano. If his father didn’t do this, and then he might not be as good as he was. Beethoven made many kinds of music. He made flute and piano sonatas, nine symphonies, a flute serenade, some piano music, violin romance, and a piano concerto. Beethoven’s ninth symphony was different then many others. This had actual words and was made for piccolos, flutes, oboes, clarinets, bassoons, double bassoons, horns, trumpets, trombones, timpani, triangle, cymbals, bass drum, violins, violas, cellos, and double basses. This was performed on May 7, 1824 in Vienna. These symphonies as well as many others were some of his major contributions to the music world. Beethoven also had many other contributions to the music world. He started his own kind of music style. He was most famous for pushing the Classical to the Romantic Era. He did this by trying new things that other musicians never did. Beethoven’s terrible childhood paid off because he became one of the worlds most successful and greatest musicians. He died on March 26, 1827. At his funeral there were more then 10,000 people at the graveyard. There were musicians from all over the world as they saw one of the all-time greatest get buried. Beethoven really changed music even though he had to overcome unfortunate events. He helped music leap into the new era of music, the Romantic Era. Beethoven will always be in the hearts of all musicians’.