Ludwig Van Beethoven

Sarah B.

2^nd hour

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beethoven.jpg

 

 

 

Ludwig Van Beethoven was a brilliant composer who lived in the late 1700s and early 1800s . He lived a very difficult life filled with hardships including sickness, beating, deafness, poverty and  a dysfunctional  family. Despite all this he was able to add great music to the world that is still being played today. 

CHILDHOOD

 

 

Ludwig Van Beethoven was born in Bonn Germany, in December 1770 to Maria and Johann Beethoven. Nobody knows exactly when he was born but he was baptized on December 17 so they suspect that he was born a day or two before that. His mother named him after his grandfather. Out of his seven brothers and sisters, only three survived to be adults, all boys: Casper, Nicolas and Ludwig.

 

Ludwig never did very well in school. He went to a private school until age ten. Then his family started having financial trouble, so he dropped out. Because Ludwig didn’t go to school, he had no friends and spent a lot of time staring out the window and daydreaming. Later, Ludwig’s father became his first music teacher.

 

Ludwig was born in to a family of musicians. His grandfather played the bass. He was an Archbishop. His grandmother was a heavy drinker and was taken away from his grandfather when they moved to Bonn. Sadly his father took on his grandmother’s bad drinking habits and was a heavy drinker too. Nonetheless Ludwig’s father, Johann, was his first teacher.

 

Johann wanted Ludwig to be a “little Mozart”.   Johann taught Ludwig to play the piano and the violin. Johann would wake Ludwig up in the middle of the night to give him a music lesson. Johann never let Ludwig make his own music, but Ludwig went off by himself to make up music. Soon Ludwig learned how to play the organ. He started to play the organ at the court of Bonn.

 

In 1782 at age 12, Christain-Gottlob Neefe, a music director at the “National Theater in Bonn”, became his first professional teacher. Neefe taught Ludwig to play even more music and helped him to write and publish music. Neefe even helped him to find jobs.

 

 

 

 

age 14

 

 

 

 

http://www.all-about-beethoven.com/beethovenchildhood1.html 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AFTER HE LEFT HOME 

 

 

        In the summer of 1787 Ludwig got money to travel to Vienna, the city where Mozart and Haydn lived. He had only been there a few days when he got a note that informed him that his mother was very ill. Ludwig quickly returned to Bonn to care for his mother. Sadly his mother died of tuberculosis a few days later.  A few months later his baby sister died. Ludwig’s father kept drinking, so at age 18 Ludwig was responsible for all his family’s affairs.  He worked to make enough money to help his brothers. Ludwig had no hope in returning to Vienna.

                 In1792 at age 20, Ludwig, again got enough money to return to Vienna. When he got there for the 2^nd time he found out that Viennese loved music. He moved into an attic. Ludwig made money by giving concerts and giving piano lessons (mainly to girls who weren’t married). He made little money, but the money he did make he used to buy furniture, a piano, wood and clothing.

           

 

          In 1794 his father died and the French had invaded Bonn. Therefore he had no reason to go back to Bonn. All his family members were dead or lived elsewhere. Ludwig always kept his grandfathers portrait on the wall. His grandfather had been the best musician in his family other than him

               

     Ludwig started taking lessons with Haydn. The lessons turned out to be a failure because they didn't get along. Ludwig’s fame started to grow by the day. Soon Ludwig got tired of writing the same kind of music, so he decided to try writing something different. Ludwig was very excited about his new music. Some say Ludwig’s most valuable work was done between 1805 and 1815.

               

      In 1806 Ludwig started to go deaf and by 1818 he was stone deaf .He almost gave up;  he was so mad he wanted to kill himself. Eventually his friends convinced him the musical world needed him. Ludwig stopped performing and became very anti social.

           

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MUSIC

 

 

          In 1809, at age 39 Ludwig fell in love with an 18 year old girl he was giving piano lessons to. Her name was Therese Malfatti. Later he was invited to the Malfatti’s household. He was planning to propose to her that night, but he got drunk. That night he wrote “Für Therese” ( "For  Therese") in very sloppy handwriting. When the publishers found it many years later on Therese’s deathbed they thought it said “Für Elise”.

 

Ludwig only wrote one opera, Fidelio. It was based on  “A French revolutionary tale of a wife’s heroic efforts to save her imprisoned husband”(source1) All in all Beethoven wrote 9 symphonies, 1 opera, 2 choral masses, 48 sonatas, 10 overtures and dozens of trios, Quartets and songs. His most famous symphony is number 5.    

 

LAST YEARS

 

 

 

          Around 1810, at age 40, Ludwig started having money troubles. He was sick some of the time and some friends started to die. In 1815 His brother Casper Carl died. Ludwig felt that he must help Carl’s wife and 9-year-old son.  Ludwig scared Carl’s son. So Ludwig stopped trying to help. In 1826 Casper’s son attempted suicide.

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Ludwig became very ill with liver disease and lay in bed with his friends. On March 26, 1827 there was a thunderstorm as Ludwig lay in bed. Then he opened his eyes, lifted a hand and made it into a fist and died. Ten thousand people attended Ludwig van Beethoven’s funeral.  Even though he lived a hard life he was able to succeed.

 

 

 

        

 

Learn more about beethoven by going to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beethoven.jpg or http://www.all-about-beethoven.com/beethovenchildhood1.html

 

 

 

Bibliography

1.  “Beethoven's childhood, Beethoven's Last Years, Artistic Maturity, Beethoven's Rise to fame”, All About Beethoven. Online. Internet. February 14, 2009. Available  http://www.all-about-beethoven.com/.

 

2.  Greene, Carol. Musical Pioneer. Chicago, Children’s Press ©1989

 

3. Tames, Richard. Ludwig Van Beethoven. New York, Franklin Watts ©1991

 

4.  Thompson, Wendy and wade, Matthews. The encyclopedia of music. London, Hermes House ©2003