Mr. Thomas
Language 11th, 3rd period
10 May 2014
Ludwig Van Beethoven Beethoven! He lived from 1770-1827, and wrote 75 pieces of music. He wrote 9 symphonies, seven concertos, 17 string quartets, 32 piano sonatas, and ten sonatas for the violin and piano (How many…). “Beethoven is a renowned composer of classical music and is branded as one of the greatest composers of all time.” (How many…) Beethoven was the most talented composer of all time. From an early age, Beethoven has taken and interest in music. “His father was a musician at the court of Bonn.” (Biography). His father taught him day and night. “Without a doubt, the child was gifted and his father Johann envisioned creating a new Mozart, a child prodigy.” (Biography) Everything Beethoven was learning as a child, made him become who we all know today, a very talented musician.
On March 26th 1776, when Beethoven was seven and a half years old, he gave his first public performance at Cologne (Biography). “In 1782, before the age of twelve, Beethoven published his first work, 9 Variations in C Minor for piano.” (Biography) One of Beethoven’s teachers, Neefe, once said, “If he continues like this, he will be without a doubt, the new Mozart.” (Biography) When Beethoven was 14 years old, he was appointed organist of the court of Maximillian Franz, Elector of Cologne (Biography).
Although today we find this work classical, and close to the works of Mozart and Haydn, at the time certain listeners found the symphony strange, overly extravagant, and even risqué. This genius, Beethoven who was still a young new composer, was already pushing the established boundaries of music. (Biography)
Even though Beethoven’s earliest works were influenced by Mozart, the formal structures of the classical symphonies, so perfectly represented in the works of Mozart and Haydn, could not contain Beethoven’s more expansive ideas, nor could those forms properly allow him to express the emotion and drama that