Contribution Of Ludwig Van Beethoven Into Classical Music

Ludwig Van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist, born in Bonn, Germany sometime in December of 1770, even though he was made to believe he was born in 1772 for many years. It is said to be that his father told him he was born in 1772 to make him seem younger and more advanced than he really was. However, that was never a proven fact. While his roots were steadily Classical, he settled between the eighteenth-century Viennese Classical style and nineteenth-century Romanticism. From the age of eleven, Beethoven supported his mother and two siblings by performing as an organist and harpsichordist. As a child, he also played the violin, but he truly liked improvisations over reading notes.

As he grew older, he began to follow in his fathers’ footsteps as a court musician, serving as the archbishop elector of Bonn. However, Beethoven’s father was a failure, alcoholic, and an abuser who beat him to force him to practice music. Unfortunately, a trip to make contacts in Vienna was cut short by the death of his mother. Still, while just a teenager, he took over the responsibility to care for his family due to his father being addicted to alcohol.

Beethoven may have been considered a slow developer but at the age of twenty-two, he had made enough of an impression to move to Vienna to study with Joseph Haydn, another great musician. While in Vienna the music-loving noblemen helped him by paying him for lessons or giving him gifts. Eventually, he was praised as a powerfully skilled pianist, playing his own compositions and brilliantly improvising at numerous palaces.

While still in his twenties he began to lose his hearing and at the age of thirty, unfortunately, became completely deaf. This sent a shocking blow to his pride and caused him to express concern in letters he wrote to his brothers. Losing his hearing kept him from making a living as a performer. Beethoven became severely depressed and struggled with the feeling of being isolated so much that he made a moving document (Heiligenstadt Testament). The document was partly a pronouncement of artistic ideals and partly a suicide note. He eventually overcame his depression and wrote the first of his powerful and individual symphonies, the Third (Eroica). He was even considered to be one of the masters of the so-called Viennese School along with Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Franz Schubert. Beethoven retired from a career as a performer and became one of the first musicians to make a career just as a composer. While he is never married, despite his need to give and receive affection, he did have many love affairs. He also ended up adopting his own orphan nephew in his later years, but unfortunately, his nephew was so smothered by Beethoven’s love and overprotective attitude that attempted suicide. Nevertheless, Beethoven spent the rest of his life achieving his artistic goals.

Beethoven’s death in 1827, at the age of fifty-six, shocked many people. Nearly twenty thousand people attended his funeral and his eulogy was even written by Vienna’s leading poet. German poet Ludwig Rellstab soon named Beethoven’s last piece the “Moonlight Sonata”, which referred to the moonlight scenery along Lake Lucerne in Switzerland.

There’s a theory about when Beethoven started setting his ideas on paper, but the only piece to be used was created in or around 1782, which was a set of nine variations for the piano. Beethoven chose to stand out alone, as opposed to going along with a group. As I mentioned before, his music was that of Classicism (classical). Mostly set on a C minor scale, which consists of pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B, with the main signature consisting of three flats. In that particular time frame using C minor scales was not only very different but also very strenuous and took a lot of effort and skill to accomplish.

Earlier in his career in 1801, he composed a sonata dedicated at the last minute to Countess Giulietta Guicciardi. However, among some of his most important works is his thirty-two piano sonatas. Classical Sonatas were set for either one solo instrument (usually the piano) or duos (violin and piano for example). Sonatas were sometimes designed for amateur performance in the home but were also used by composer-performers as showpieces. It gave a more intimate expressive space. In fact, through the Sonata, Beethoven developed a style that has been repeatedly looked at as strikingly individual and meaningful from the time of his first performances.

While much of Beethoven’s music was considered a classical style, it also consisted of Romantic elements, especially within his late works. In fact, he was even identified as the first great created Romantic, whose influence still today is an embodiment of passionate individual expression. Beethoven may have dealt with many musical challenges, but he did so in such a great way that his works remain inimitable models to everyone who chose to follow in his footsteps. He delivered numerous deeply expressive masterpieces and the art of music was never taken so seriously until his symphonies and sonatas hit listeners as a revelation.

Ludwig Van Beethoven was a superior artist and a master of the sonata and symphony, who committed to the principles of Classical style up until his death. His great and very creative work fell into three different periods, the reflection of Classical elements learned from others, the appearance of characteristics that associated more with the nineteenth century, such as, strong dynamic contrasts, explosive accents, and longer movements, and lastly, the usefulness of more chromatic harmonies, and the development of a skeletal language.