Ludwig van Beethoven:

A Passion for Music

Born in 1770 in Bonn, Germany, Ludwig van Beethoven started playing the piano before he was four years old. By the time he was twelve, this child prodigy had already composed his first piece of music. When Beethoven was just sixteen, he went to study in Vienna, Austria, then the center of European cultural life and home to the most brilliant and passionate musicians and composers of the period. Beethoven proved to be a gifted pianist and an imaginative composer.

Beethoven is remembered for this great genius but also for his strong and difficult personality. In one infamous incident, Beethoven became so upset with a waiter that the emptied plate of food over the man’s head. Despite this type of behavior, many in musical and aristocratic circles admired Beethoven, and music lovers were always Beethoven’s greatest supporters. This fact did not prevent him from losing his temper with one or another of them. However, because of his talent, Beethoven’s friends always excused his insults and moody temperament.
Beethoven was also notorious for his eccentric behavior. He often walked through the streets of Vienna muttering to himself and stamping his feet. He completely neglected his personal appearance; his clothes would get dirty and his friends would come and take them away during the night. When they replaced the old clothes with new ones, Beethoven never noticed the difference.
Although Beethoven was respected and admired by his audience, he was not concerned with pleasing them. Beethoven could play the piano so beautifully that some listeners cried; however, when he saw his fans crying, Beethoven only laughed and said they were fools. He was so egotistical that if people talked while he was performing, he would stop and walk away. Beethoven wrote two famous works, Moonlight Sonata, and Fur Elise, for two different women he loved. He was almost always in love, often with a woman who was already married or engaged. Although Beethoven asked several women to marry him, they all rejected him. But the most tragic aspect of Beethoven’s life was his gradual loss of hearing, beginning in his late twenties until he was completely deaf. However, even as his hearing grew worse, Beethoven continued to be energetic and productive; his creative activity remained intense, and audiences loved his music. In 1826, Beethoven held his last public performance of his famous Ninth Symphony. By this time, the maestro was completely deaf. When he was turned around so he could see the roaring applause that he could not hear, Beethoven began to cry.
Beethoven died in Vienna in 1827 at age fifty-seven. One out of ten people who lived in Vienna came to his funeral.