Beethoven (1770 ~ 1827) was a German composer. Vienna classical music school and its representative figures in the transition period to romantic music school. 1770 65438+February 65438+June was born in Bonn, 1827 died in Vienna on March 26th.
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.
/kloc-Before the age of 0/4, Beethoven received an ordinary school education. /kloc-at the age of 0/9, he was allowed to attend lectures at Bonn University, where he studied I. Kant's philosophical works and ancient Greek literature, and also incorporated 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".
1792, 22-year-old Beethoven came to Vienna for the second time and studied composition under 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.
1795, 25-year-old Beethoven published hisNo. 1 ── three 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 several years of argument, people now believe that the recipient is a Viennese woman named 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.
18 12 In the summer, 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."