Did Beethoven drink coffee? What is Viennese-style coffee house? How and when all this coffee madness started? Continue reading this article and find out! History of Viennese coffee house culture Although Vienna was not the first city in Europe to have a coffee house, yet Viennese coffee culture was outstanding and very influential. North-Africa and the Middle-East already had …
We continue our series of articles in which we learn about Beethoven’s deafness. We have already seen in an earlier piece that Beethoven was not born deaf, but later became one. This article investigates if he was deaf in both ears or just one. Beethoven was not born deaf, but lost his hearing continuously from about the age of 27, …
The Heiligenstadt Testament is Beethoven’s famous letter he wrote to his brothers in 1802. In the letter the composer puts on paper his frustration with his growing hearing problem, at the same time attributing his gradual withdrawal from people to this illness. In the letter he also plays with the idea of suicide. The Heiligenstadt Testament marks the turning point …
Count Razumovsky (Andrey Kirillovich Razumovsky) was a Russian nobleman and ambassador in Vienna who was born in 1752 and died in 1836. He was one of the chief negotiators during the Congress of Vienna (where empires shaped the future of Europe after Napoleon; 1814-1815) representing Russian interests. Apart from his political career he was, more importantly, a music lover and …
It is a well-known fact about Beethoven that he was an emotional, erratic man. Many times he made his decisions that way. What did it take, however, for Beethoven to make an extraordinary and radical decision about his father: to exile him from Bonn! Johann van Beethoven was not a good father. As we have written in many other articles, …
Among the many myths surrounding Beethoven one of the interesting ones is about his African origin. Does Beethoven have African roots? Let us find out! Beethoven’s African ancestry. Is this a relevant question? It depends. Was Beethoven black? No! Was his skin darker in any way? Yes! Did he have African origins? Yes, as we all do! According to …