The composer of some of the most influential pieces of music ever
written, Ludwig van Beethoven created a bridge between the 18th-century
classical period and the new beginnings of Romanticism. His greatest
breakthroughs in composition came in his instrumental work, including
his symphonies. Unlike his predecessor Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, for whom
writing music seemed to come easily, Beethoven always struggled to
Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany, and was baptized on
Dec. 17, 1770. (There is no record of his birth date.) His father and
grandfather worked as court musicians in Bonn. Ludwig's father, a
singer, gave him his early musical training. Although he had only meager
academic schooling, he studied piano, violin, and French horn, and
before he was 12 years old he became a court organist. Ludwig's first
important teacher of composition was Christian Gottlob Neefe. In 1787 he
studied briefly with Mozart, and five years later he left Bonn
permanently and went to Vienna to study with Joseph Haydn and later with
Beethoven's first public appearance in Vienna was on March 29, 1795,
as a soloist in one of his piano concerti. Even before he left Bonn, he
had developed a reputation for fine improvisatory performances. In
Vienna young Beethoven soon had a long list of aristocratic patrons who
loved music and were eager to help him.
In the late 1700s Beethoven began to suffer from early symptoms of
deafness. The cause of his disability is still uncertain. By 1802
Beethoven was convinced that the condition not only was permanent, but
was getting progressively worse. He spent that summer in the country and
wrote what has become known as the "Heiligenstadt Testament." In the
document, apparently intended for his two broth
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