Ludwig Van Beethoven
One of the best composers of time is Ludwig Van Beethoven. Beethoven lived a harsh life when he was forced to take care of his three younger siblings after his mother and father died. He spent many hard years protecting and caring for his family. In July of 1792 he met a man named Haydn. Haydn was a renowned composer who took interest in Beethoven’s talents. He decided to take Beethoven under his wing and teach him how to control his talent and to improve it as well.
That same year Beethoven left to go to Vienna with Haydn as his teacher. Haydn was never able to reform Beethoven to play the way that he did. Beethoven was very much influenced by the politics and the musical trend of the time and decided to flow in that direction instead.
Haydn soon realized that Beethoven was going to be setting his own musical trend, just as he had at one time. Since there was nothing much for Haydn to offer him, Beethoven decided to learn under Albrechtsberger, another renown composer who referred to Beethoven as an “excited musical free-thinker.”
Beethoven was famous for his desire to play the piano. In those times pianists were pitted against one another in front of audiences who would decide which pianist could play more exciting the other. He was a novelty among the audience who flocked to hear him play, causing him to receive many enemies from fellow pianists. Beethoven’s future was finally starting to look up. He was composing great peices and was playing in major cities such as Berlin and Prague.
Because of his accomplishments he became the first freelance composer. While it is true that he composed great peices, Beethoven was more well known for his role as one of the greatest pianists. He became one of Vienna’s dominant music personalities who was constantly surrounded by aristocrats and other famous musicians. His first concert in April 2, 1800 became a great accomplishment in which he was able to introduce his world famous Septet op. 20.
Just as his career started to take flight he began to experience symptoms of deafness. While most pianists would have been discouraged by this plight and would have given up, Beethoven was a man of strength who never let go of his passion. He realized that playing the piano was something he would not be able to do. Instead he kept his focus on composing. One of his best compositions, Symphony no. 2, was written while he was deaf. He was a man who had a passion for what he loved and made it work no matter what was going on around him.