Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was a German musician and composer, who personifies the idea of the creative genius. He is recognized as one of the greatest, and almost certainly the most influential, composers of the Western classical music tradition. He represents the bridge between the classical music era and the subsequent romantic style, something he himself created and initially represented. …
After much organization by Bettina von Arnim, who was a great admirer of both Goethe and Beethoven, the two finally met in Teplitz (or Töplitz), in the summer of 1812. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was the greatest, and probably also the most influential German-language writer. Not only that, but a significant scientist, theatre …
This is the biography of Maria Magdalena van Beethoven, mother of Ludwig van Beethoven. Maria Magdalena Keverich was born on 19 December 1746, and after a short and difficult life, died at the age of only 40, in 17 July 1787. She was born in Ehrenbreitstein, a small village overlooking Koblenz (today part of it). Her birth place is a …
1. Beethoven’s Wellington’s Victory is sometimes called Battle of Vitoria, or Battle Symphony. The piece was named after the Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon’s French army near Vitoria, Spain. 2. The original version was not prepared for orchestra, but for the Panharmonicon of Johann Maelzel. This machine could imitate many musical instruments and sounds of canons, gunshots. 3. Beethoven …
One of the least documented tours of Beethoven is the one he made as a young boy to Rotterdam, Holland. This article will cover the story! It all started with the sudden and tragically early death of Franz Georg Rovantini. He was a court musician in Bonn, just as his father, Johann Conrad before him. Young Rovantini lived in the …
It was not often the case that Beethoven was open to work with a musical idea that was not his own. When his friend Johann Maelzel approached him in 1813 about a promising idea that required the cooperation of the two, Beethoven said yes. The result was the Wellington’s Victory. Prelude to Wellington’s Victory In June 1813, Portuguese, Spanish …