Art Essay Example: Life and Music of Ludwig Van Beethoven

Music is an art of sound used to express various ideas, emotions, and culture of the people. Music is characterized by rhythm, melody, harmony and a particular sound. All living creatures including animals values and loves the sweet melodies of music. According to Folktales, animals respond differently to the vibration of music. The field of music is a reflection of people's ability and creative innovations through exercising their minds. Most musicians in the world today usually have something in mind that they are aiming at through exploring (Forney, Dellantonio & Machlis 2015). The whole world values music as the language of the universe since it knows no boundary. For years several musicians have found their way in the music industry leaving a significant impact not on to the industry but the entire world. Ludwig Van Beethoven is one of the best world musicians who is remembered up to date.

The research paper aims at investigating the life of Ludwig Van Beethoven as a prominent musical figure. His talents in playing piano and music composition have had an impact on the world. He believed that disability is not inability thus did not allow his deafness to hinder him from his musical career (Geck 2013).

Early life of Beethoven

Ludwig was born in December 1770 in Germany. He was not very educated as he studied and trained for only four years. He dropped out of the training where he went to take care of his family especially his alcoholic father. His father Johann Beethoven was also a musician thus Ludwig learned and got exposed to music at a tender age. He had very little knowledge in education which gave him a hard time pronouncing and structuring musical word (Krehbiel, Deiters, Riemann, & Thayer 2017).

Early Music training and studies

Beethoven started training in the field of music at the age of four. His father, grandfather and Christian Neefa pioneered him into music life when he was still a kid. At the same period of four years, he started learning piano through trainings from his father who saw natural gift and talent in his son. At the age of eleven, while undergoing training, he faced many difficulties, and he almost gave up. Sometimes his father used to force him to play keyboard at late night which was too much for a kid. He did his first public performance at age seven at Cologne (Krehbiel, et al., 2017). The four people who impacted his music life at a young age were Tobias Friedrich, Franz Rovantini, Christian Neefa and his family (father and grandfather).

In 1979 Beethoven was appointed the Court's Organist of the year with the help of Neefa. He also helped him publish his first composition on keyboard variation (Krehbiel, et al., 2017). At the age of 21, he left to Vienna whereby he got a chance to further his studies in the music industry. During those days, Vienna was considered the heart of music thus gave Ludwig an opportunity to get exposed. There he studied masters work and writing which improved his music composition (Geck 2013).

Beethovens Music and Contributions

Ludwig Beethoven is known as the most fabulous of all time innovative composer of music due to his vocal and instruments combinations. He was a musical figure who saw a great transition between the Classical and Romantic eras of Western music. His first published strings were commissioned around 1799 dedicated to Prince Lobkowitz. His early melodies were closely related to that of Mozart and Haydn works but were distinguished by his spendthrift character. His first symphony was premiered in 1800 and the second in 1803.During that time he began teaching music to students and helped them develop their talents (Van Beethoven 2014).

His Eroica symphony was first sung on 17th April 1805, and at the same time, he has completed writing his first opera, Leonora. Following this, he composed several other symphonies among them been Pastoral, The famous letter to Elise and the Coriolan Overture. He successfully re-wrote Lenore in 1814. Ludwig is referred to three Bs who characterized the classical music along with J.S, Bach, and Johannes Braham. Before his death, Ludwig had composed ten symphonies which are still sung and remembered today. His last song Holy Song of Thanks was completed when he was very ill (Geck 2013).

Contribution

He played a significant role in educating and pioneering young talented musicians in the music industry. His music offered a great transition into the western classical songs as most musicians derive their music from his composures. He also established a reputation which many people refer to in the music. His many symphonies have been adopted as models for later generations, and his drive to provide standard music still relevant today (Krehbiel et al., 2017).

Deafness and death

Beethoven hearing problem started in his early twenties, and he went totally deaf at the age of thirty-one. Since then he lived a miserable life which somehow affected his music career was bedridden in 1825 where he remained ill for a whole month. He died on 26th March 1827 at Vienna (Geck 2013).

Conclusion

Music is an integral art in the society which reveals a persons ability and talents. Beethoven is one of the best and most influential artists who battled through family problems, financial problems and health issue to succeed in the industry. He never allowed his challenges to bring him down thus he overcome the disability of deafness and performed till his last day.

References

Beethoven. (n.d.) Retrieved from http://www.notablebiographies.com/

Forney, K., Dellantonio, A., & Machlis, J. (2015). The Enjoyment of Music. New York: W.W.Norton & Company Ltd.

Geck, M. (2013). Ludwig van Beethoven. Rowohlt Verlag GmbH.

Krehbiel, A. W., Deiters, H. E., Riemann, H., & Thayer, H. (2017).

The life of Ludwig van Beethoven (Vol. 3). BoDBooks on Demand.

Van Beethoven, L. (2014). Beethoven's letters (Vol. 1). Cambridge University Press.Chicago