Ludwig van Beethoven birthday - TIMH

Ludwig van Beethoven was probably born today in Bonn, Germany in 1770. Nobody bothered to write it down so nobody knows for sure, but he was baptized on December 17 and back then it was customary to baptize a child the day after they were born. Not long after he was born his father, Johann, started relentlessly driving him toward a life in music. Think you had it rough as a kid? Imagine constantly hearing, “Why can’t you be more like Mozart?”, in addition to a grueling practice schedule and beatings if you missed a note.

Ludwig probably would have ended up a musician anyway, as his father was a musician and his grandfather was Kappelmeister in Cologne as well as a famous musician in Bonn. Johann tried to emulate the success of Mozart and had Ludwig performing publicly by age seven. Shortly after his first public performance in March of 1778, Ludwig outgrew his father’s instruction and started training with the court organist, Christian Gottlob Neefe. It was under Neefe that Ludwig learned to write music and he published his first works by the time he was thirteen years old.

Ludwig progressed rapidly and probably would have moved on to greater things even more quickly were it not for his father’s alcoholism. Things got so bad that Ludwig was essentially named guardian over his younger siblings and received a court order entitling him to half of his father’s salary in order to provide for the family. He stayed in Bonn until he was introduced to Joseph Hayden around 1790 and left to study under him in Vienna after his father’s death in 1792.

Mozart had died in 1791 and many in Vienna saw Ludwig as Mozart’s heir apparent. While Ludwig was originally more interested in performing it was impossible to escape Mozart’s legacy in Vienna and Ludwig began composing in a similar style to Mozart. As Ludwig continued to grow he escaped Mozart’s gravity and became a star in his own right. This coincided with the rise of the piano eclipsing the harpsichord as a featured instrument and Ludwig was one of the earliest composers to write for the piano.

Ludwig started experiencing tinnitus around 1796 and this caused him to be more withdrawn and to avoid many social situations. He would eventually go deaf but he was aware acutely aware of his standing and used his increasing popularity and power to his advantage. Ludwig would confront critics’ less than ideal reviews of his music by threatening to cut off access to his work. He despised giving piano lessons and would only offer them to exceptional students or attractive women. Beethoven was a rock star long before the first power chord.

Ludwig had ups and downs in his career that were exacerbated by his own alcohol abuse. Never quite reaching the penniless, destitute state that Mozart had endured, there were some pretty lean times. By 1809, however, Ludwig was being courted by Jerome Bonaparte, Napoleon’s kid brother, who was the King of Westphalia at the time. Benefactors in Vienna chipped in and afforded Ludwig a comfortable salary in exchange for him agreeing not to leave town. While other composers worked for the local royalty or the church, Ludwig was a free agent who could do as he pleased.

Before Ludwig died in 1827 he wrote nine symphonies and nine concertos among countless other pieces. He was an unequaled master in his day and is rivaled by only a handful of other musicians in the history of mankind. His impact is so great that, though it has been 245 years since his birth, children of today are familiar with his music. Popular culture is filled with reference to and reverence for his work. Modern fictional characters including Schroeder from the Peanuts cartoons and Alex DeLarge in A Clockwork Orange have their entire identities crafted around Ludwig. Despite never having been photographed, he is instantly recognizable to millions and you’ve probably even seen his head sitting on a piano somewhere.

Perhaps all of this is better said by Ludwig van Beethoven himself. In a letter to Prince Lichnowsky, one of his patrons, he wrote: "Prince, what you are, you are through chance and birth; what I am, I am through my own labor. There are many princes and there will continue to be thousands more, but there is only one Beethoven."

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