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Beauty Born of Struggle Beethoven’S Genius As a Composer Did Not Come Easy

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Beauty Born of Struggle Beethoven’S Genius As a Composer Did Not Come Easy PROFILE/BY MARIA BLACKBURN Beauty Born of Struggle Beethoven’s genius as a composer did not come easy > Ludwig van Beethoven composed nine symphonies, five piano concertos, 32 piano sonatas, 16 string quartets, an opera, and many songs and pieces of choral and chamber music in his lifetime. Today, nearly 200 years after his death in 1827 at the age of 56, Beethoven is still regarded as one of the most influential classical music composers of all time. His “Ode to Joy,” “Für Elise” and “Moonlight Sonata,” are well-known around the world. Many of the composer’s greatest works, including Missa Solemnis, String Quartet No. 14 and Symphony No. 9, were written during the last decade of his life. What’s remarkable about this is that at the time he wrote this music, Beethoven was completely deaf. “I am resolved to rise superior to every obstacle,” Beethoven wrote in 1801. Indeed, he was such a gifted artist that he did not need to hear in order to create innovative music that ranged from heroic and powerful to Ludwig van Beethoven detail of an 1804-05, portrait by Joseph Willibrord Mähler. Portrait by Joseph Karl Stieler, 1819. deeply romantic. “Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy,” he once Ludwig’s father aspired for his son would come home drunk late at night observed. “Music is the electrical soil to be a musical prodigy like Mozart and and wake up his young son to practice. in which the spirit lives, thinks began teaching him to play the violin Other stories have Ludwig weeping and invents.” and harpsichord at the age of 3. over the keyboard as he practiced. Born on December 16, 1770, The boy was reportedly so small that It wasn’t long before Beethoven in Bonn, Germany, Beethoven was he had to stand on a stool in order to began taking lessons with professional the son of Maria Magdalena and reach the keyboard. teachers in harpsichord, piano, violin, Johann, a mediocre court singer who Young Beethoven loved music and viola, organ and horn. Although he was an alcoholic. His grandfather and showed a talent for improvisation, but showed talent in composition, he did namesake was Bonn’s most eminent his father was a harsh and demanding not have formal training in the craft court musician at the time of his birth. teacher. Legend has it that Johann until 1781, at age 11. 6 BOSS 4 s pr i ng 2015 At 13, Beethoven was appointed to in 1824—just three years before his serve as assistant court organist. He death. The symphony was praised for its soon gained recognition as the city’s formal complexity and inspirational most promising musician. When he was choral finale. He completed String sent by the court to Vienna to study Quartet No. 14, which has seven linked with Mozart, the eminent musician movements performed without a break, GLOSSARY OF MUSICAL TERMS was said to remark after hearing the in 1826. Chamber Music: Music for a small teen improvise, “Keep your eyes on Shortly before his death on ensemble of instruments, intended him; someday he will give the world March 26, 1827, Beethoven summed for performance in a room or chamber something to talk about.” up his remarkable life in a manner (as opposed to a church or larger building). Beethoven wrote 16 string quartets and many other forms of Depression, family strife, periods of poverty, romantic chamber music, including piano trios, string trios, and sonatas for violin disappointments, abdominal problems and the hearing and cello with piano. loss, which started when he was 27, all weighed heavily Concerto: A piece of instrumental on Beethoven. “Sometimes I feel I shall soon go mad in music that contrasts a solo instrument consequence of my unmerited fame,” he wrote. or a small group of solo instruments with the main body of the orchestra. Beethoven wrote numerous concertos, many for piano. Beethoven continued to hone his that reflected his irreverent sense of Opera: An extended dramatic craft as a musician and composer and humor by borrowing a popular line composition, in which all parts are as more people realized his immense that concluded Latin plays at the time. sung to instrumental accompaniment. talent, his notoriety grew. He wrote, “Plaudite, amici, comedia finita est,” Beethoven wrote just one opera, the a fellow composer noted, “highly he said. “Applaud friends, the comedy two-act “Fidelio,” which describes how developed music, in conflict with all is over.” After his death, some 20,000 a woman disguised as a prison guard the rules.” And yet it provided “such people clogged the streets of Vienna rescues her husband from death in consolation, pleasure and excitement to pay their respects to their a political prison. as no other composer.” beloved Beethoven. Yet depression, family strife, Although his life had come to Sonata: A composition for one or periods of poverty, romantic an end, Beethoven’s influence on two instruments, typically in three or disappointments, abdominal problems music lives on. Hungarian composer four movements in contrasted forms and the hearing loss, which started Franz Liszt eloquently characterized and keys. Beethoven’s “Moonlight when he was 27, all weighed heavily the inspirational nature of Beethoven’s Sonata” is one of his most popular on Beethoven. He may have been music, saying, “For us musicians, compositions for the piano. committed to “rising above every Beethoven’s work is like the pillars Symphony: An orchestral composition obstacle,” but struggle remained of cloud and fire which guided generally in several movements. Often a constant in his life. “Sometimes I feel the Israelites through the desert … considered the most respected and I shall soon go mad in consequence His darkness and his light trace demanding form that a composer of my unmerited fame,” he wrote. for us equally the path we have might tackle. Beethoven composed “Fortune is seeking me out, and for to follow.” nine symphonies and was working that very reason I almost dread some on a 10th at the time of his death. fresh calamity.” He completed one of his most Source: www.naxos.com celebrated works, his Ninth Symphony, “Beethoven images” (left) Album/Joseph Martin/Newscom; (right) akg-images/Beethoven-Haus Bonn/Newscom; “Music notes” ©iStockphoto.com\mstay Martin/Newscom; images” (left) Album/Joseph (right) akg-images/Beethoven-Haus “Beethoven www.dixonva lve.co m s pr i ng 2015 4 BOSS 7.
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