Ludwig Van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was, and remains today, an Olympian
      figure in the history of classical music. His influence on the
      last 150 years of music is unequalled; while generally
a
      member of the Classicist fold, he was in fact the first
      Romantic, and pre-figured virtually all music that followed the
      Romantic era as well. Perhaps no other composer in history
      wrote music of such exhilarating power and expressiveness;
      certainly no other composer did so against greater odds.
      Beethoven was born in Bonn in 1770. His father, a music
      enthusiast, dreamed of molding his son into the next Mozart.
      Beethoven never exhibited the astonishing prodigy
      characteristics of his predecessor, but he was unusually
      talented, learning the piano, organ and violin at an early age.
      At 14, he was already proficient enough on the organ to
      receive a professional appointment. His family life was
      chaotic; his father was an alcoholic, and his mother died
      suddenly when he was only 17. After that tragedy, his
      domestic situation declined even more, and this condition -
      combined with support from Haydn - compelled him to leave
      home in 1790 and travel to Vienna to study composition. In
      Vienna, Beethoven first studied with Haydn, but eventually
      became frustrated with that great composer's teaching
      methods, moving on to study with other composers. He
      performed frequently in salons of wealthy nobility, but
      strangely enough, did not perform in public until he was 25.
      But from this point onward, he was embraced by both the
      common folk and the aristocracy of Vienna, so much so that
      he never had to rely on court appointments or private patrons
      for his livelihood. He did receive stipends from admirers and
      friends, but he remained independent of the shackles of
      conditional... [continues]

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