Art Collage JANG: 93. Classical Music: 8. Ludwig van Beethoven, ACJ Music Academy

How are you?

This week's lecture is “Ludwig van Beethoven”, the 8th topic of “Classical Music”, which is a summary of the contents of “93. Classical Music: 8. Ludwig van Beethoven” introduced on June 24th, 2017.

Ludwig van Beethoven, born on December 17, 1770 and died on March 26, 1827, was a German composer and pianist, who is one of the most respected composers in the history of Western music and whose works are among the most performed classical music repertoires.

Beethoven's birthplace, Bonn

His career is divided into early, middle and late periods. The early period, generally regarded to have lasted until 1802, is the period when Beethoven gradually forged his talents, and the middle period from 1802 to 1812 was the period when Beethoven broke away from the classical styles of Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and showed an individual development. During this period, he began to suffer increasingly from deafness. The late period from 1812 to his death in 1827 was a period when Beethoven expanded his innovations in musical form and expression.

Portrait of Beethoven as a young man,

Carl Traugott Riedel (c. 1800)

Born in Bonn and exhibiting outstanding musical talent from an early age, Beethoven harshly received his first musical education from his father, Johann van Beethoven, and then in 1783, under the guidance of composer and conductor Christian Gottlob Neefe, who later taught him, published his first work, a set of keyboard variations.

Johann van Beethoven

Christian Gottlob Neefe

He found relief from living with the family of Helene von Breuning, whose children he loved, befriended, and taught piano. At the age of 21, Beethoven moved to Vienna, where later became his base, and studied composition with Haydn.

Helene van Breuning with her children

Beethoven then gained a reputation as a virtuoso pianist, and soon he was commissioned from Karl Alois, Prince Lichnowsky, which resulted in his three Opus 1 piano trios in 1795.

Karl Alois, Prince Lichnowsky

His first major orchestral work, the First Symphony, was made in 1800, and his first set of string quartets were published in 1801. During this period, his hearing began to deteriorate, but he continued to conduct and premiered his Third and Fifth Symphonies in 1804 and 1808, respectively, and composed his Violin Concerto in 1806.

Title page of the Symphony No. 3, "Eroica"

His last piano concerto, No. 5, Op. 73, known as "Emperor", was dedicated to his frequent patron, Archduke Rudolf of Austria, and premiered in 1810, but was not performed by Beethoven as a soloist.

Archduke Rudolf of Austria

Beethoven, who became almost completely deaf in 1814, was then forced to give up performing in public. He wrote about his problems with health and his unfulfilled personal life in two letters: “Heiligenstadt Testament (1802)” to his brothers, and a love letter to an unknown “Immortal Beloved (1812)”, which he wrote but actually unsent.

A facsimile of the Heiligenstadt Testament

Facsimile of the first page of the letter
addressed to Immortal Beloved

Beethoven, in the years from 1810 whose social activity increasingly decreased, composed many of his most respected works, including his later symphonies, chamber music and piano sonatas. His only opera, "Fidelio", premiered in 1805, was revised to its final version in 1814.

Bust of Beethoven, Hugo Hagen (1892)

He composed "Missa Solemnis" in 1819-1823, and in 1822-1824 wrote his final, Ninth, Symphony, one of the first examples of a choral symphony, and written in his last years, his late string quartets of 1825–1826 are amongst his final achievements.

Beethoven, who had been bedridden illness for several months, died on March 26, 1827 at the age of 56, and only his friend Anselm Hüttenbrenner and Frau van Beethoven, probably his old enemy Johanna van Beethoven, witnessed his death.

Anselm Hüttenbrenner

An autopsy after his death revealed that Beethoven suffered from severe liver damage probably from heavy alcohol consumption and significant dilation of the auditory and other related nerves.

Beethoven on his deathbed, Josef Danhauser

On March 29, 1827, Beethoven's funeral in Vienna was attended by about 10,000 people, including Franz Schubert and the violinist Joseph Mayseder, and writer Franz Grillparzer read a funeral oration.

Beethoven's funeral procession, F. X. Stoeber

Beethoven was buried in the Währing cemetery, north-west of Vienna after a requiem mass at the church of the Holy Trinity in Alserstrasse.

Beethoven Monument, Ernst Julius Hähnel,
Bonn (1845)

Beethoven's remains were then excavated for study in 1863 and moved to Vienna's Zentralfriedhof in 1888 where they were reinterred in a grave adjacent to that of Schubert.