German Composer

Ludwig van Beethoven

1770 - 1827

My heart is full of many things...
there are moments when I feel that
speech is nothing after all.
— Ludwig van Beethoven

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Ludwig van Beethoven was born on December 17, 1770 in Bonn, in the Rhineland of Germany. He lived in Vienna from 1792 until his death. Beethoven's Father and Grandfather were court musicians. Ludwig carried on the family tradition in exemplary form, becoming one of history's greatest composers.

Beethoven's dynamic musical style infused his compositions with his confidence in human action. Again and again dissonance and turmoil are resolved with enthusiasm and rejoicing. Fate is trampled by triumphant music. Turbulence in his personal life, including his becoming incurably deaf at 29, tested his optimism. He surmounted his difficulties through a rigorous regime of composition. In his later career his music was even more free and imaginative.

On his deathbed Beethoven was planning a tenth symphony, a composer to the very end. Despite his notoriously brusque manner, Beethoven was revered by Viennese society as its greatest celebrity. His funeral was attended by 20,000 friends and admirers. Beethvoen was perhaps the greatest German composer.