FREE ESSAY ON BEETHOVEN

BEETHOVEN

Ludwig van Beethoven was, and remains today, a Legend in the history of classical music.
His influence on music is unequalled. Perhaps no other composer in history wrote music of
such exhilarating power. No other composer did so against the trials and hardships that
he had went through. He beat the odds to become who he was. A 
Beethoven was born in Bonn in 1770. His father, a music enthusiast, dreamed of molding
his son into the next Mozart. Beethoven never showed the same characteristics that Mozart
had shown when he was young, but was unusually talented, learning the piano, organ and
violin at an early age. At 14, he was already proficient enough on the organ to receive a
professional appointment. 
His family life was chaotic, his father was an alcoholic, and his mother died
suddenly when he was only 17. After that tragedy, his situation at home worsened even
more, and this condition, combined with support from Haydn, compelled him to leave home
in 1790 and travel to Vienna to study composition. In Vienna, Beethoven first studied
with Haydn, but eventually became frustrated with that great composer's teaching
methods, moving on to study with other composers. He performed frequently in salons of
wealthy nobility, but strangely enough, did not perform in public until he was 25. But
from this point onward, both the common folk and the aristocracy of Vienna loved him, so
much so that he never had to rely on court appointments or private patrons for his
livelihood. He did receive pay from admirers and friends, but he remained independent of
the shackles of conditional patronage that frustrated so many of his contemporaries.
Beethoven was lucky in one way, he rose to greatness in the musical world at a time when
social status were becoming more flexible, and the rising power of the middle class
provided him many opportunities for performances of his music for public audiences. This,
combined with lucrative publishing arrangements, allowed him to live relatively well. He
knew of the benefits of aristocratic support, however; throughout his career, he
cultivated a romantic, moody image with the upper class and leveraged this persona to
achieve a social status equal to the Viennese nobility. Beethoven was a master
symphonist, the master symphonist in the eyes of most musicians and composers. His
compositions for orchestra were revolutionary in his day; while he stuck to Classical
musical forms, his melodies and orchestration were of such unprecedented power and beauty
that they astonished even the most hardened listeners. Only his music achieved the unique
combination of primal force and spiritual elevation that remains legendary to this day.
In other forms music for solo piano, violin sonatas, string quartets, and one opera,
Fidelio, the same qualities prevailed. Always profound, inspiring and essentially tragic,
his music defined the limits of human expressiveness in sound. 
Early in the 19th century, as his career was reaching its zenith, Beethoven began to
realize that he was growing deaf. This sad and frustrating affliction advanced quickly,
throwing him into deep depression and making him increasingly unable to conduct and
perform his works. He shortened his public appearances and communication, eventually
resorting to a notebook to communicate with his inner circle of friends and colleagues.
His desperately agitated mind began to produce music that alarmed and terrified his
peers. By 1820 he was completely deaf, and he had become a recluse. 
Beethoven was a fascinating composer for so many reasons; among them the method with
which he composed. Unlike Mozart, he did not write completed works in his head he slaved
over each composition, filling innumerable sketchbooks with his struggles to produce
perfection. For this reason, combined with his lifelong policy of taking only the best
commissions, he was far less prolific than Mozart. Regardless, the music he did leave us,
from solo to chamber to orchestral works, is the most substantial and profoundly moving
expression we may ever hear.