The van Beethoven family was Flemish by descent, its origins in the farming area embraced by Brussels, Louvain and Mechelen in what is now Belgium. The fine bass voice of the composer’s grandfather had so impressed the Elector-Archbishop of Cologne(who also held the Bishopric of Liege), that he engineered the singer’s transfer to the Court Chapel at Bonn in 1733. That same year, he married Maria-Josepha Poll and they had a son, Johann. Who also displayed the musical leanings of his father. He. Too, became a singer at the Court and, in 1767, married a young widow, Maria Magdalena Keverich. She bore Johann van Beethoven seven children. The first died in infancy and his name, Ludwig, was passed on to the his next brother, who was born on 16 December 1770.
Betthoven’s father was a violent and intemperate man. There are also stories of his father forcing him to play the violin . By the age of seven he was advanced enough to appear in public. A year or so later the composer Christian Gottlob Neefe took over his musical training and progress thereafter was rapid. Beethoven must have felt immense pride when Nine Variations for piano in C minor was published, and was listed later in a prominent Leipzig catalogue as the work of ‘Lois van Beethoven, aged ten years’.
In 1787 Beethoven met Mozart. Beethoven was visiting Vienna, a noted musical centre, and must have felt a little out of his depth for he clumsy and stocky; his manners were loutish, his back hair unruly and his habitually wore an expression of surliness on his swarthy face. By constant the great Mozart was dapper and sophisticated. He received the boy doubtfully, but once Beethoven started playing the piano his talent was evident. ’Watch this lad’, Mozart reported. ‘Some day he will force the world to talk about him’.
In 1792 his father died. For four years Ludwig supported his family. In July 1792 the renowned composer Haydn passed through Bonn on his way to Vienna. He met Beethoven and was impressed. Consequently Beethoven left Bonn for good early in November 1792 to study composition with Haydn in Vienna. Those first weeks in Vienna were hard for Beethoven. While he made enemies of many pianists in Vienna, the nobility flocked to hear him. Personally and professionally his future looked bright. Compositions poured from him and he gave concerts in Vienna as well as Berlin, Prague and other important centers.
However, it was his skill as a pianist rather than as a composer that brought him recognition during his twenties.
Beethoven’s career as a virtuoso pianist was, however, soon to be terminated. Following after Haydn and Mozart. He continued to write in other forms, turning out widely-known piano sonatas like the "Pathétique" sonata (Op. 13), which Cooper describes as "surpass[ing] any of his previous compositions, in strength of character, depth of emotion, level of originality, and ingenuity of motivic and tonal manipulation".
Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, op. 13, commonly known as Sonata Pathétique, was written in 1798 when the composer was 28 years old, and was published in 1799.
The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor op. 27, No. 2, by Ludwig van Beethoven, is popularly known as the "Moonlight" Sonata .The sonata was completed in 1801 and rumored to be dedicated to his pupil, 17-year-old] Countess Giulietta Guicciardi with whom Beethoven was, or had been, in love.
In 1801 Beethoven confessed to his friends at Bonn his worry of becoming deaf. In 1802 his doctor sent him to Heiligenstadt, a village outside Vienna, in hope that its rural peace would rest his hearing. Chief among the sunny works of yhis period was the charming, exuberant Symphony no.2.
Beethoven wrote Third Symphony ’Eroica’ in honor of a great man, Bonaparte. He was seen as the liberator of the people, opening, from the French Revolution, a door to hope.
For the next few years in Vienna, from 1804 to 1808, Beethoven lived in what might be described as a state of monotonous uproar. His relationships suffered elemental rifts, his music grew ever greater, and all the time he was in love with one woman or another. He never married. Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, opus 57, known as the Appassionata was composed during 1803, 1804, 1805, and perhaps 1806, and is dedicated to Count Franz von Brunswick.
His Fifth and Sixth ’Pastoral’ Symphonies were completed by summer of 1808.
To Therese Malfatti, the dedicatee of "Für Elise" in 1810;
At the end of July 1812, Beethoven met Goethe, under the organization of Bettina Brentano. These two great men admired each other, but didn't understand each other. On November 15th 1815 his brother Casper Carl died. The consequences brought about something that neither the tragedy of deafness nor Napoleon’s guns could achieve;t hey almost stopped Beethoven composing.
The Nine Symphony ’Choral’ was completed in 1823, by which time Beethoven was completely deaf. Despite his deafness Beethoven insisted on conducting, but unknown to him the real conductor sat out of his sight, beating time. As the last movement ended, Beethoven, unaware even that the music had ceased, was also unaware of tremendous burst of applause that greeted it. One of the singers took him by the arm and turned him around so that he might actually see the ovation.
Beethoven’s final moments, if a report by Schubert’s friend Huttenbrenner are to be believed, were dramatic in extreme. At about 5.45 in the afternoon of 26 March,1827. As a storm raged, Beethoven’s room was suddenly filled with light and shaken with thunder:
Beethoven’s eyes opened and he lifted his right fist for several seconds, a serious, threatening expression on his face. When his hand fell back, he half-closed his eyes….Not another word, not another heartbeat.
Schubert and Hummel were among the 20,000 people who mourned the composer at his funeral three days later. In 1888 his remains were removed to Zental-friehof in Vienna- a great resting-place fro musicians- where he lies side-by- side with Schubert.
Beethoven became the first of music’s revolutionaries in what, significantly, became an age of revolution. Through music, Beethoven sought to illuminate the essence of human spirit, in way that had not been attempted before.