Ludwig van Beethoven was born on December 17, 1770 in Bonn. Beethoven was the second oldest child of the court musician and tenor singer Johann van Beethoven. His father was said to be a very violent, intemperate man. He would come home late at night after he finished drinking. He would get Beethoven up out of the bed and make him practice his music lessons. Beethoven wound up developing a sensitivity and vision for music.
             By the age of seven he was advanced enough to go in public. A year later the composer Christian Gottlob Neefe began working with Beethoven and he quickly began progressing. Christian Gottlob Neefe introduced him to music by Bach and Mozart.
             Beethoven gave his first public performance as a pianist at the age of eight years old. At the age of eleven he received training in piano performing and composition from Neefe, organist and court musician in Bonn.
             Beethoven was employed as a musician in the Bonn court orchestra. He was given a paid leave of absence in 1787 to study in Vienna under Mozart. It was not long before he moved back to Bonn because his mother was not doing very well. After his mother died he looked after the rest of the family. He had to look after the family because the only good influence on Beethoven's father was Beethoven's mother. When she died his father started drinking a lot. He wound up putting drinking before Beethoven, his two younger brothers, and his one-year-old sister. His father wound up dieing in 1792.
             After the death of his father, he chose to move back to Vienna permanently. He took lessons from Haydn, Alberchtsberger, Schenck, and Salieri. By 1795 he had earned a name for himself as a pianist and was admired for his great improvisation.
             Sometime around 1798 he noticed that he was suffering from a hearing disorder. He began secluding himself from friends and family and eventually became completely deaf. By 1820 he was able to communica...