Beethoven biography illustrated with fun facts !

An incredible life of Classical and Music Feelings, from the young talent trained by his father to become a virtuoso child, bad romances, the terible fate of loosing hearing for a music composer but a will to perform romantic and Heroic music !.

Here is the life of the romantic deaf composer with illustrated facts.

1.Beethoven on Youtube

 

 

2.What instruments did Beethoven play ? 

Beethoven was multi-instrumentist : he plays the violin, cello but will mainly compose for the pianoforte, his favorite instrument which will become the favorite instrument of the romantics.

Though, piano forte is very practical to store all the music sheets of the music composer.

Ludwig Van Beethoven also had an early training with his father, who was an average musician and singer (tenor). As he was trained to become the next child prodigy like wolfang amadeus mozart, we can think Beethoven also had skills in singing.

But the authoritarian, Brutal and Alcoholic father training didn't give the expected results but tearing the family appart.

3.Ludwig Van Beethoven Für Elise

Girls find him repulsive, but Ludwig Van Beethoven manages to meet some, by giving private piano lessons. He hates giving private lessons but do it if it's a particularily charming girl...

Talented in music but not with women, Each heartbrake gives him so much inspiration it leads to a musical hit.

First disappointment with a girl led to the moonlight sonate, this other disappointment with therese with lead to the Letter to Elise.

He will write the Bagatelle n° 25 in A minor. which became the famous letter to therese, unpublished, the music sheet was stored somewhere, title having been erased with the time except for the last two letters : "SE"

Still a mystery how this melody is named "letter to Elise", but the piece was written for Therese !

4.Ludwig Van Beethoven Symphony No.5

Appart his earloss, business going pretty well for Ludwig. Famous and self confident, he doesn't hesitate to leave his patron if thoses one asks him to do something he does not want. He will say this famous quote to a Prinz :

"Princes, there have been and there will be thousands more. but There is only one Beethoven" - Ludwig the only One Beethoven

from 1800, he will then write many symphonies, with the Heroic number 3 Dedicated to Napoleon, but will do even better with the 4-notes symphony - world success -  symphony number 5.

 

 

5.Ludwig Van Beethoven Siblings

Child, Ludwig nickname was The Spaniard : his dark complexion and short stature was due to a hereditary disease.He was also the elder of the family composed of 7 brothers and sisters but only 3 of them survived infancy.

Here is the family siblings :

• Ludwig Maria van Beethoven (Male) - 1769 stillborn
• Ludwig Van Beethoven 1770–1827
• Kaspar Anton Karl van Beethoven (Male) 1774–1815
• Nikolaus Johann van Beethoven (Male) 1776–1848
• Anna Maria Franziska van Beethoven (Female ) 1779 stillborn
• Franz Georg van Beethoven (Male) 1781–1783
• Maria Margaretha Josepha van Beethoven (Female) 1786–1787

As first child, Ludwig was trained by his father to become a music star and provide revenues to the family. At the age of 11, he leaves school and is accepted by another family : his father drinks too much and his mother has caught tuberculosis.

Ludwig finally became independant and he joined by his 2 brothers in Vienna, with Kaspar dealing as rough musical agent for his brother. Nikolaus opened his own pharmacy.

6.Did beethoven sawed legs off piano ?

A sneaky illness torments him : tinnitus and progressive hearing loss. He isolates himself, and does not want to admit the terrible fate that awaits him: losing all his hearing at the age of 32.

No one can help or heal him, he thinks of suisicide.

But he is cunning and will find acoustic tricks :

The first ingenious way of hearing his music, was to feel the vibration by sawing the legs off his piano and listening to its vibrations through the wooden floor.

He would also use a wooden stick between his teeth from one side and touching the piano on the other part. He can feel the vibrations when he played. The higher frequencies are present in his later works again.