Beethoven Biography – History of Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig Van Beethoven is a well known musical virtuoso who conquered the musical world. His effects and contributions to the musical world are still felt even though he departed from this world and went ahead to dance with the angels.
Early Life And Family
This musical legend was a German composer as well as a pianist. His baptism was performed in 1770, December 17th. It has been suggested that his date of birth could be 16th December 1770 because in those days a child used to be baptized a day after their birth as decreed by the Catholic Church. For this reason, a lot of scholars are settled on this being the birth date of Ludwig Van Beethoven and especially because his parents used to celebrate his birthday on this date. His birth date that was marked with joy and celebrations little did the parents know that a legend has been born. Ludwig Van Beethoven was born in Bonn which was then a capital of Electorate of cologne
Parents of Beethoven
Parents of Beethoven
Ludwig Van Beethoven was named after his grandfather who was also a musician. Hisgrandfather was from Mechelen town located in the Flemish region which is currently Belgium. When he attained the age of 21 years, he relocated to Bonn. As a musician, his first job was as a bass singer working in the Elector of Cologne Court and by 1761 he was made the director of music. Soon after he became one of the ‘big fish’ in the music industry and he thrived.
Ludwig’s grandfather only had one son, Johann who was born in 1740 and lived up to 1792. He was also a talented musician. Contrary to his father, he was a tenor and also worked at the Elector of Cologne court. As a way to increase his income, he also taught piano and violin lessons. It is noted that he had alcohol issues as he just could not resist it. When Johann was of age, he married Maria Magdalene Keverich in the year 1767. Mary was known to be very gentle as well as very warm at heart; qualities that made her a great mother judging from how much she was loved. The product of this union was Ludwig Van Beethoven and his siblings.
Johann and Maria had a total of seven children and out of the seven only three survived. It is s unfortunate that Ludwig Van Beethoven had the misfortune of witnessing some of them die. The siblings were; Kaspar Anton Karl Van Beethoven, Johann Peter Anton Laym, Anna Maria Francisca Van Beethoven, Nikolaus Johann Van Beethoven, Franz Georg Van Beethoven and Maria Margarita Van Beethoven, in no particular order. While four dies, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Kaspar Anton Karl, and Nikolaus Johann lived to see better days.
From the family background highlighted above, we clearly get to see where Ludwig Van Beethoven got his musical talent. Born in a family of musicians, there was bound to be a musical genius, a virtuoso from among the kids. Lucky enough the talent laid heavily of Ludwig Van Beethoven. The two brothers also were talented but it could not compare to how good Ludwig was and the impact he made in the society even up to date.
As a young boy, Ludwig Van Beethoven was sickly and throughout his life, he suffered the following. He suffered from rheumatism, jaundice, rheumatic fever, ophthalmic, inflammatory degeneration of the arteries, chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, skin disorders, Syphilis, infectious hepatitis, a number of infections, obsesses, typhus, just but to mention a few.
Personal Life and Character
Beethoven Life and Character
Ludwig Van Beethoven was thought to be bipolar. He became irritable in his twenties and this was thought to be because of the abdominal pains he had. More often than not he was described to be irascible. At one particular time, he contemplated suicide but did not attempt. He always displayed strength in his personality. He had a deep dislike for authority and social rank. He always demanded respect for himself and his work. At some occasions, he refused to perform when called to because of a chatty audience. He always required the total attention of people in the audience before he could go on.
Love Life
Ludwig Van Beethoven is not known to have a very active love life throughout his life. This can mostly be attributed to the class difference between him and the ladies that he fancied. For some ladies, he was handsome and very attractive yet some other described him as ugly and repulsive. All the ladies he wanted were simply out of his social league.
In the year 1801, Ludwig fell in love with a lady, Countess Julie Guicciardi whom he met while he was teaching Josephine Brunsvik how to play the piano. Even so, he had no intentions of marrying her because of the difference in social class. It was just not going to happen no matter how bad he wanted to. He composed his Sonata no. 14 and dedicated it to her.
Later, after Josephine Brunsvik’s husband passed on, Ludwig and Josephine has a mutual attraction but these feelings never amounted to much as she was later marri
Some of Beethoven’s Great Works
Symphony No. 5Moonlight Sonata
Für Elise
Symphony No. 9
Beethoven ludwig biography music
Similar articles for may you interest
Comment: 0