Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany, and was baptized on December 17, 1770. There is no record of his actual birth date. He came from a family of musicians. His father and grandfather worked for the Elector of Cologne. Beethoven's grandfather, Lodewyk van Beethoven came from Belgium and joined the court orchestra in Bonn as a bass player and eventually became its conductor. Beethoven's father Johann was a professional tenor at the court in Bonn and also played piano and violin. Beethoven began to exhibit his outstanding musical talent at a young age. Because of this his father's ambition, Beethoven was pushed to become a child prodigy. When he turned 11, he left school and became an assistant organist to Christian Gottlob Neefe at the court of Bonn. In 1781, he was sent to Vienna to take further lessons from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He started to play the viola in the Opera Orchestra in 1789, while also teaching in composing. Upon meeting Franz Joseph Haydn in 1790 !
             Beethoven moved to Vienna permanently when Haydn who agreed to instruct him Vienna. It was around this time that Beethoven began the first of his three major periods of his work.
             The first period is known as his Viennese (or High) Classical period, it lasted from about 1792 to about 1800 and consists of music whose most salient features are typical of the classical era. Haydn's instruction as well as Mozart's influenced this first period heavily. This is evident in Beethoven's early chamber music, as well as in his first two piano concerti and his first symphony. Beethoven individuality and style gradually developed in this first period but in general the much of the music was based in many of Haydn's methods such as the use of dramatic silence (Solomon, 1998). Beethoven added his own subtle additions, including sudden changes of dynamics, but for the most part was constructed and adhered to the sensibilities of the...