Western Tradition

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) is a German composer, generally considered one of the greatest composers in the Western tradition.

His father, a tenor singer in the village choir, was very cruel and used to beat the boy sometimes when he did not practise. His mother was kind and patient. Her death, when he was seventeen years old, brought him sorrow, which he never seemed to forget. When still a boy, he was made assistant organist in the cathedral, a position which he held until 1792. He also played second viola in the theatre orchestra. One day when he was on a visit to Vienna, he met Mozart who was so impressed with Beethoven's playing that he exclaimed: "He will give the world something worth listening to."

Beethoven's major output consists of 9 symphonies, 7 concertos (5 for piano), 16 string quartets, 32 piano sonatas, 10 sonatas for violin and piano, 5 sonatas for cello and piano, an opera, 2 masses, several overtures, and numerous sets of piano variations. He has traditionally been referred to as the “bridge to Romanticism”, and his output is simplistically divided into three roughly equal periods.

Beethoven loved to wander through the cool forest, listen to the voices of nature and compose his music in such surroundings. At the age of thirty, he began to grow deaf and in later years, he was unable to hear his own compositions.

Composers as Brahms, Wagner, Bruckner and Mahler were influenced by the music of Beethoven. He opened a new way in music and that is why his influence in music is many times compared with Byron in poetry or Turner in painting.

Catalina Iordan
"D. Zamfirescu" School, Focsani, Romania
Teacher Petru Dumitru