Ludwig Van Beethoven
(1770-1827)
"...my misfortune pains me
doubly, in as much as it leads to my being misjudged. For me
there can be no relaxation in human society; no refined
conversations, no mutual confidences. I must live quite alone and
may creep into society only as often as sheer necessity demands;
I must live like an outcast. If I appear in company I am overcome
by a burning anxiety, a fear that I am running the risk of
letting people notice my condition...such experiences almost made
me despair, and I was on the point of putting an end to my life -
the only thing that held me back was my art. For indeed it seemed
to me impossible to leave this world before I had produced all
the works that I felt the urge to compose, and thus I have
dragged on this miserable existence..."
- from Emily Anderson, The Letters of Beethoven, Vol. 3
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Ludwig van Beethoven was, and remains today, an olympian figure
in the history of classical music. His influence on the last 150
years of music is unequalled; while generationally a member of
the Classicist fold, he was in fact the first Romantic, and
pre-figured virtually all music that followed the Romantic era as
well. Perhaps no other composer in history wrote music of such
exhilirating power and expressiveness; certainly no other
composer did so against greater odds.
Beethoven was born in Bonn in 1770. His father, a music
enthusiast, dreamed of molding his son into the next Mozart.
Beethoven never exhibited the astonishing prodigy characteristics
of his predecessor, but he 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 domestic situation declined 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, he
was embraced by both the commonfolk and the aristocracy of
Vienna, so much so that he never had to rely on court
appointments or private patrons for his livelihood. He did
receive stipends 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 sense; he rose to prominence in the
musical world at a time when social strata were becoming more
flexible, and the emerging 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 was not ignorant of the
benefits of aristocratic support, however; throughout his career,
he cultivated a romantic, moody and mercurial 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 adhered 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 woeful
affliction advanced quickly, throwing the composer into deep
depression and making him increasingly unable to conduct and
perform his works. He curtailed 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 contemporaries. By 1820 he was completely deaf, and he had
become a recluse. He died seven years later, in furious emotional
pain and resentment for the power that had ripped away his
ability to enjoy his own genius.
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 sketch books 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. But no matter - 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.
