Beethoven was born in a poor musical family. Grandfather Ivan Beethoven is a court singer and musician elected by Cologne and enjoys a high reputation in Bonn. His father, J. Van Beethoven, was also an elected court singer. He has no talent and likes to drink and make trouble. Later, he was fired and took half his salary to support his family. My mother is the daughter of a court chef, a kind and docile woman, tortured by life after marriage, and died when Beethoven 17 years old. Beethoven is the second of seven children. Beethoven actually became the eldest son because his eldest brother died young. Because his father was irresponsible to his family, Beethoven had to work to earn money to support his family from an early age.
Beethoven's music education began at the age of 4, and his first teacher was his father. His father dreamed of training him to be a Mozart-style prodigy, but it failed because of the bad environment. Among his early teachers, the court organist C.G. Neifei helped him a lot.
Beethoven/Kloc-received a general school education before he was 0/8 years old, and/Kloc-was allowed to attend classes at his Bonn University when he was 0/9 years old! Kant's philosophical works and ancient Greek literature were also integrated into the enlightenment thought of the French bourgeois revolution, which had a great influence on his later world outlook and artistic view. He works while studying. 1783, he is a harpist in the opera house, Harper Secord. 1784 to 1792 served as deputy organist of the court, and 1788 served as the second viola player of the court band. 1787 In April, Beethoven visited Vienna, the music center of Europe at that time, where he met Mozart whom he admired. His improvisation won Mozart's admiration. But he soon returned to Bonn because of his mother's illness, and his beloved mother died in July 1787. In the winter of the same year, Beethoven was recommended by his close friend F.G. Wegele to be a music teacher at the prestigious Mrs. F.von Braeuning's house in Bonn. In Brauning's living room, Beethoven absorbed many professors, artists and some more enlightened people with progressive ideas and knowledge in the government. They talked about G.E. Lessing, J.C.F Schiller and J.W. von Goethe, and also talked about politics, philosophy and art. Young Beethoven was influenced by the progressive trend of thought here and established the artistic view that art should serve kindness, justice and humanitarianism. His sincere relationship with the Browning family was maintained to the end.
Count Walterstein in Bonn admires Beethoven's talent and intends to help him make progress. 1792, Austrian musician J. Haydn passed by Bonn, saw Beethoven and his works, suggested sending him to Vienna for further study, and expressed his willingness to accept him as an apprentice. Waldstein persuaded the candidate to let Beethoven study in Vienna with pay, hoping that he would "accept Mozart's spirit from Haydn".
Beethoven, 22, came to Vienna for the second time and studied composition with Haydn. They don't hit it off very well because of their different personalities. When Haydn went to England in the winter of 1793, he handed the student over to the famous theorist J.G. Albrechzberger, from whom Beethoven learned counterpoint and received strict training, and also learned composition from the Italian opera writer A.Salieri. Thanks to Bonn's strong recommendation and excellent playing talent, Beethoven quickly entered the upper class in Vienna. He was loved by the famous prince and his wife Sinowski, and once lived in a pro-palace. In addition, Prince kinski and Prince Rudolph of Lobkowitz are his supporters and protectors.
In, 25-year-old Beethoven published hisNo. 1-trio for piano, violin and cello. In the following five years, he published many works one after another. The eighth piano sonata (Sonata of Sorrow, published in 1799) is his masterpiece in this period. The publication of these works spread his fame all over Europe. Beethoven was eccentric and irritable, but he was honest and sincere, and made many loyal friends, such as violinist L Bohr, I Schupanziger, cellist N Zmaishkauer and so on. His students are few, such as F Rees, K Holtz, a·f· Kondell and C Cherny.
Beethoven was unmarried for life, and the problem of marriage and love often troubled him. He pursued many objects, but failed to combine them. After Beethoven's death, people found three passionate love letters in a secret drawer of his closet, addressed to his "immortal lover", but without the name and address of the recipient, the year could not be retrieved. After years of argument, people now believe that the recipient is a Viennese woman Antoine? Brentano
Beethoven has several works dedicated to his female disciples, such as the well-known sonatas Passion and Moonlight. The former was written by 1804 for his student Therese, and the title was given to her brother Franz when it was published. The latter was made by 180 1 and directly given to his cousin Julietta.
Beethoven composed the music carefully, first in a large draft book, and then revised it sentence by sentence. Some works take years to create. He also tends to write several works at the same time. From a large number of drafts left by him, we can see that his writing method, motivation and theme have been constantly thought and developed, and finally become a chapter. He often writes in the country with a draft book and pencil, so absorbed that he doesn't even notice the rain. It is common for him to forget to eat and sleep when writing at home. These drafts have been partially published and are valuable materials for studying Beethoven's works.
Although Beethoven entered the upper class and interacted with princes and nobles, he did not put himself in the position of a servant like Haydn and Mozart. Beethoven/Kloc-lived in the manor of Prince Sinowski in 0/809, and the prince asked him to play the piano for the generals of the French invaders. Beethoven flatly refused, went home in the rain, took down the bust of the prince and smashed it to pieces.
In the summer of, Beethoven met Goethe in Teply, a Czech health resort. One day, they were walking arm in arm when the queen and a group of nobles came face to face. Goethe quickly released Beethoven's arm, stood on the roadside and took off his hat and bowed to the nobles. Beethoven rushed over, but the nobles made way for him instead. Beethoven said to Goethe when he caught up with him, "I respect you according to your merits, but you flatter them too much."
The most tragic experience of Beethoven's life was deafness. At the age of 28, he found that he had a hearing problem, and it became more and more serious. He was worried and didn't want to say goodbye. Coupled with the frustration in love, his negative emotions reached a high point in 1802. At that time, he lived in the town of Heiligenstadt on the outskirts of Vienna. He planned to commit suicide and wrote a will. However, the fire of music in his heart finally ignited this spiritual crisis.
From about 18 15, Beethoven was unable to talk to people because of his deafness, so he had to ask people to write his words on paper for him to see. After Beethoven's death, people found this "dialogue" of 400 Yu Ben (Schindele, his student and secretary, kept it for himself at that time). Now these dialogues have become precious historical materials for studying Beethoven. Many of Beethoven's important works were created during the period of complete deafness, and he could not personally verify their acoustic effects, so there were some imperfections in the orchestration method in some later band works. Sometimes he insists on conducting his own works, which will inevitably lead to problems, and even the performance will be interrupted because he can't go on. Nevertheless, he persisted in his creation and work with amazing will and perseverance, and made unremitting efforts all his life, adding the most brilliant chapter to the history of European music.
Beethoven's life is a life of glorious struggle, but he sometimes doesn't know the complicated situation. In the two or three years before and after the Vienna International Conference (18 14), something Beethoven did inevitably cast a shadow over his glorious life. 18 12, Napoleon's army was defeated from Moscow. 18 13, Napoleon was forced to step down and fled to the Mediterranean. 18 14 the European dynasty restoration conference, with Russian czar Alexander I and Austrian prime minister metternich as the backbone, was held in Vienna to organize a "holy alliance" to turn back the historical clock. Many people who hated the French war of aggression and Napoleon's tyranny mistakenly thought that peace could be achieved from now on, and they all celebrated with their hands. Beethoven is one of them.
In 18 13, he wrote the now forgotten "Victory of Wellington" symphony, praising the achievements of British general Wellington in defeating the French army in Victoria. 18 14 In order to celebrate the Vienna Conference, he wrote 1 chorus "Brilliant Moment". During the meeting, he held two celebration concerts and played Glorious Time, Victory in Wellington and Symphony No.7.. He was the conductor himself and worked very hard. He personally invited the princes and nobles attending the meeting, and 6000 people listened to his performance. He used the money given to him by the king to buy shares in the Austrian National Bank. He was very happy about it, but he didn't realize that he was in a whirlpool of countercurrent.
After the Vienna Conference, the air of dynasty restoration enveloped the whole of Europe. Beethoven's economic and health conditions are deteriorating day by day. 18 16 He wrote in his notebook, "I don't have a friend, I live alone in this world." His creative career stopped for several years, and it was not until 18 17 years later that he picked up a pen and finished his final works, including the famous Ninth Symphony and the Solemn Mass.
In the last few years, he also drafted some themes of the tenth symphony, but unfortunately, he was ill and didn't write much. 1826 65438+In February, he returned to Vienna from other places and caught a cold on the way. Since then, he has been unable to get sick, and the treatment failed, and he died the next year. Beethoven's death shocked Vienna, and 20 thousand people attended his funeral, including F. Schubert. The body was buried in the tomb of Willing in Vienna at the age of 57.