Text № 1

Ludwig van Beethoven was one of the greatest composers in musical history. He has had a great influence on music. He won for composers a new freedom to express themselves. Beethoven made music more independent of social, religious, or teaching purposes.

Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany, on December 16, 1770. He showed musical talent when he was very young, and learned to play the violin and piano from his father, who was a singer. In 1787, Beethoven’s gentle and loving mother died. After that, his father was often drunk and had a bad temper. Beethoven found relief from his difficult family life when he became the tutor to two children of the Von Bruening family. The children’s mother was a kind and well-educated woman who introduced Beethoven to important people in Bonn. Beethoven also visited Vienna in 1787, and the famous composer Wolfgang Mozart heard him play the piano. About this time, Beethoven met Count Ferdinand Waldstein, who became his lifelong friend and often helped his career.

In 1792, the composer Joseph Haydn in Bonn praised one of the Beethoven’s compositions and encouraged him to visit Vienna. Beethoven was welcomed into the homes of many of Vienna’s leading noblemen. Except for short trips, e stayed there for the rest of his life.

Many great composers of the day were treated as employees by the people who bought their music. However, Beethoven associated as an equal with the wealthy and royalty. They paid him money for his works, but they knew and admired him as a friend rather than as someone they hired to write music.

Beethoven began to lose his hearing in the late 1790’s. From about 1800, this increasing deafness changed his personality. Beethoven had always been proud, independent, and somewhat odd. But as he lost his hearing, he became more suspicious and irritable. He became totally deaf during the last years of his life, but his deafness did not hinder his composing, as many people believe. However, it did reduce his normal social life, which made him suffer deeply.

Beethoven’s life took on added bitterness because of his unhappy relationship with his brothers Johann and Karl, who also lived in Vienna. The two quarreled with Beethoven almost constantly. Some scholars writing about Beethoven’s life blame the two brothers for the trouble, but Beethoven himself was very difficult to get along with. Karl died in 1815, leaving a 9-year-old son. The boy became Beethoven’s ward, but this relationship also turned out badly. Beethoven did not have a disposition to be a father and the young man rebelled against him, causing Beethoven much grief.

Beethoven caught a serious cold at the end of 1826, which developed into pneumonia and then dropsy. He died on March 26, 1827.