Beethoven
Beethoven
(1770-1827) was born in Bonn,
Germany,
into a very unhappy family.
His
father was a drunkard and often
made
his son practice late into the night.
Beethoven
took on various jobs at his
youth
to support his family. Later he moved to Vienna where
he
earned
much respect from the aristocrats. He lived on
lessons,
gifts,
performances, and publishing. However in his
late 20's he
began
to grow deaf. This was catastrophic to his
career and he
often
considered suicide, but he decided that art
must give him
he
happiness that life withheld. His last years
were spent in
ceaseless
efforts to achieve his artistic goals. He
died at the age of
57,
revered by thousands as the finest
composer of his time.
Beethoven
contributed 32 piano sonatas, 5
piano concertos, and
various
chamber work for the piano. He
developed the sonata
into
a
grander form. The piano is the
central position in his art,
and
his
32 sonatas have been called
the New Testament of piano music.
In
them you often find
dynamic
contrasts, explosive accents, opposition
of low and
high
register, syncopation, and powerful
crescendos.
His piano
works tend to be harder to play than most
other
classical
composers but they also contain much more
emotion,
and is
leaning towards the Romantic style that came
later.