Ludwig van Beethoven

Life and career

Early life and education

Beethoven was the grandson of Ludwig van Beethoven, a musician from the city of Mechelen in Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium), who moved to Bonn at the age of 21. Ludwig was employed as a bass singer at the court of Clemens August, Archbishop-Elector of Cologne, eventually rising to become, in 1761, Kapellmeister (music director) and hence a preeminent musician in Bonn. The portrait he commissioned of himself toward the end of his life remained displayed in his grandson's rooms as a talisman of his musical heritage. Ludwig had two sons, the younger of whom, Johann, worked as a tenor in the same musical establishment and gave keyboard and violin lessons to supplement his income.

Johann married Maria Magdalena Keverich in 1767; she was the daughter of Heinrich Keverich (1701–1751), who was head chef at the court of Johann IX Philipp von Walderdorff, Archbishop of Trier. Beethoven was born of this marriage in Bonn, at what is now the Beethoven House Museum, Bonngasse 20. There is no authentic record of the date of his birth; but the registry of his baptism, in the Catholic Parish of St. Remigius on 17 December 1770, survives, and the custom in the region at the time was to carry out baptism within 24 hours of birth. There is a consensus (with which Beethoven himself agreed) that his birth date was 16 December, but there is no documented proof of this.

Of the seven children born to Johann van Beethoven, only Ludwig, the second-born, and two younger brothers survived infancy. Kaspar Anton Karl (generally known as Karl) was born on 8 April 1774, and Nikolaus Johann, who was generally known as Johann, the youngest, was born on 2 October 1776.

Beethoven's father was his first music teacher. He later had other local teachers, including the court organist Gilles van den Eeden (d. 1782), Tobias Friedrich Pfeiffer, a family friend, who provided keyboard tuition, Franz Rovantini, a relative who instructed him in playing the violin and viola, and court concertmaster Franz Anton Ries, who instructed Beethoven on the violin. His tuition began in his fifth year. The regime was harsh and intensive, often reducing him to tears. With the involvement of Pfeiffer, who was an insomniac, there were irregular late-night sessions with the young Beethoven dragged from his bed to the keyboard. Beethoven's musical talent became obvious at a young age. Aware of Leopold Mozart's successes in this area with his son Wolfgang and daughter Nannerl, Johann attempted to promote his son as a child prodigy, claiming that Ludwig was six (he was seven) on the posters for his first public performance in March 1778.

1780–1792: Bonn

In 1780 or 1781, Beethoven began his studies with his most important teacher in Bonn, Christian Gottlob Neefe. Neefe taught him composition; in March 1783, Beethoven's first published work appeared, a set of keyboard variations (WoO 63). Beethoven soon began working with Neefe as assistant organist, at first unpaid (1782), and then as a paid employee (1784) of the court chapel. His first three piano sonatas, WoO 47, sometimes known as Kurfürst (Elector) for their dedication to Elector Maximilian Friedrich, were published in 1783. In the same year, the first printed reference to Beethoven appeared in the Magazin der Musik – "Louis van Beethoven [sic] ... a boy of 11 years and most promising talent. He plays the piano very skilfully and with power, reads at sight very well ... the chief piece he plays is Das wohltemperierte Klavier of Sebastian Bach, which Herr Neefe puts into his hands". Maximilian Friedrich's successor as Elector of Cologne was Maximilian Franz. He gave some support to Beethoven, appointing him Court Organist and assisting financially with Beethoven's move to Vienna in 1792.

Beethoven developed a close relationship with the upper-class von Breuning family, and gave piano lessons to some of the children. The widowed Helene von Breuning became a "second mother" to Beethoven, taught him more refined manners and nurtured his passion for literature and poetry. The warmth and closeness of the von Breuning family offered the young Beethoven a retreat from his unhappy home life, dominated by Johann's's decline due to alcoholism. Beethoven also met Franz Wegeler, a young medical student, who became a lifelong friend and married one of the von Breuning daughters. Another frequenter of the von Breunings was Count Ferdinand von Waldstein, who became a friend and financial supporter of Beethoven during this period. In 1791, Waldstein commissioned Beethoven's first work for the stage, the ballet Musik zu einem Ritterballett (WoO 1).

The period of 1785 to 1790 includes virtually no record of Beethoven's activity as a composer. This may be attributed to the varied response his initial publications attracted, and also to ongoing issues in his family. While passing through Augsburg, Beethoven visited with composer Anna von Schaden and her husband, who gave him money to return to Bonn to be with his ailing mother. Beethoven's mother died in July 1787, shortly after his return from Vienna, where he stayed for around two weeks. In 1789, due to his chronic alcoholism, Johann was forced to retire from the service of the Court and it was ordered that half of his father's pension be paid directly to Ludwig for support of the family. Ludwig contributed further to the family's income by teaching (to which Wegeler said he had "an extraordinary aversion") and by playing viola in the court orchestra. This familiarised him with a variety of operas, including works by Mozart, Gluck and Paisiello. There he also befriended Anton Reicha, a composer, flutist, and violinist of about his own age who was a nephew of the court orchestra's conductor, Josef Reicha.

1792–1802: Vienna – the early years

In November 1792, Beethoven moved permanently to Vienna from Bonn amid rumours of war spilling out of France. Shortly after his departure, Beethoven learned that his father had died. Over the next few years, he responded to the widespread feeling that he was a successor to the recently deceased Mozart by studying Mozart's work and writing works with a distinctly Mozartian flavour; see Beethoven and Mozart.

Beethoven did not immediately set out to establish himself as a composer but rather devoted himself to study and performance. Working under Haydn's direction, he sought to master counterpoint. He also studied violin under Ignaz Schuppanzigh. Early in this period, he also began receiving occasional instruction from Antonio Salieri, primarily in Italian vocal composition style; this relationship persisted until at least 1802, and possibly as late as 1809.

With Haydn's departure for England in 1794, Beethoven was expected by the Elector to return home to Bonn. He chose instead to remain in Vienna, continuing his instruction in counterpoint with Johann Albrechtsberger and other teachers. In any case, by this time it must have seemed clear to his employer that Bonn would fall to the French, as it did in October 1794, effectively leaving Beethoven without a stipend or the necessity to return. But several Viennese noblemen had already recognised his ability and offered him financial support, among them Prince Joseph Franz Lobkowitz, Prince Karl Lichnowsky, and Baron Gottfried van Swieten.

Assisted by his connections with Haydn and Waldstein, Beethoven began to develop a reputation as a performer and improviser in the salons of the Viennese nobility. His friend Nikolaus Simrock began publishing his compositions, starting with a set of keyboard variations on a theme of Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (WoO 66). By 1793, he had established a reputation in Vienna as a piano virtuoso, but he apparently withheld works from publication so that their eventual appearance would have greater impact.

In 1795, Beethoven made his public debut in Vienna over three days, beginning with a performance of one of his own piano concertos on 29 March at the Burgtheater and ending with an unspecified Mozart concerto on 31 March. By this year he had two piano concertos available for performance, one in B♭ major he had begun composing before moving to Vienna and had worked on for over a decade, and one in C major composed for the most part during 1795. Viewing the latter as the more substantive work, he chose to designate it his first piano concerto, publishing it in March 1801 as Opus 15, before publishing the former as Opus 19 the following December. He wrote new cadenzas for both in 1809.

1802–1812: The "heroic" period

Beethoven told the English pianist Charles Neate (in 1815) that his hearing loss began in 1798, during a heated quarrel with a singer. During its gradual decline, his hearing was further impeded by a severe form of tinnitus. As early as 1801, he wrote to close friends Wegeler and Carl Amenda describing his symptoms and the difficulties they caused in both professional and social settings (although it is likely some of his other close friends were already aware of the issues). The cause was probably otosclerosis, possibly accompanied by degeneration of the auditory nerve.

On his doctor's advice, Beethoven moved to the small Austrian town of Heiligenstadt, just outside Vienna, from April to October 1802 in an attempt to come to terms with his condition. There he wrote the document now known as the Heiligenstadt Testament, a letter to his brothers that records his thoughts of suicide due to his growing deafness and his resolution to continue living for and through his art. The letter was never sent and was discovered in his papers after his death. The letters to Wegeler and Amenda were not so despairing; in them Beethoven commented on his ongoing professional and financial success at this period, and his determination, as he expressed it to Wegeler, to "seize Fate by the throat; it shall certainly not crush me completely". In 1806, Beethoven noted on one of his musical sketches: "Let your deafness no longer be a secret—even in art."

Although Beethoven's hearing loss did not prevent him from composing music, it made playing at concerts, an important source of income at this phase of his life, increasingly difficult. It also contributed substantially to his social withdrawal. Czerny remarked that Beethoven could still hear speech and music normally until 1812. Contrary to common belief, Beethoven never became totally deaf; in his final years, he was still able to distinguish low tones and sudden loud sounds.

Beethoven's return to Vienna from Heiligenstadt was marked by a change in musical style, and is now often designated as the start of his middle or "heroic" period, characterised by many original works composed on a grand scale. According to Czerny, Beethoven said: "I am not satisfied with the work I have done so far. From now on I intend to take a new way." A work employing this new style was the Third Symphony in E♭, Op. 55, known as the Eroica, written in 1803–04. The idea of creating a symphony based on the career of Napoleon may have been suggested to Beethoven by General Bernadotte in 1798. Sympathetic to the ideal of the revolutionary leader, Beethoven originally titled the symphony the "Bonaparte" but, disillusioned by Napoleon declaring himself Emperor in 1804, he scratched Napoleon's name from the manuscript's title page, and the symphony was published in 1806 with its present title, subtitled "to celebrate the memory of a great man". The Eroica was longer and larger in scope than any previous symphony. When it premiered in early 1805 it received a mixed reception. Some listeners objected to its length or disliked its structure, while others viewed it as a masterpiece. In 1807, after a performance in Leipzig, the public demanded it to be played again a week later.

1813–1822: Acclaim

In early 1813, Beethoven apparently went through a difficult emotional period, and his compositional output dropped. His personal appearance degraded, as did his manners in public, notably when dining.

Family issues could have played a part in this. Beethoven had visited his brother Johann at the end of October 1812. He wished to end Johann's cohabitation with Therese Obermayer, a woman who already had an illegitimate child. He was unable to convince Johann to end the relationship and appealed to the local civic and religious authorities, but Johann and Therese married on 8 November.

The illness and eventual death of his brother Kaspar from tuberculosis became an increasing concern. Kaspar had been ill for some time; in 1813 Beethoven lent him 1500 florins, to procure the repayment of which he was ultimately led to complex legal measures. After Kaspar died on 15 November 1815, Beethoven immediately became embroiled in a protracted legal dispute with Kaspar's widow Johanna over custody of their son Karl, then nine years old. Beethoven had successfully applied to Kaspar to have himself named the sole guardian of the boy. A late codicil to Kaspar's will gave him and Johanna joint guardianship. While Beethoven was successful at having his nephew removed from her custody in January 1816 and had him removed to a private school, in 1818, he was again preoccupied with the legal processes around Karl. While giving evidence to the court for the nobility, the Landrechte, Beethoven was unable to prove that he was of noble birth and as a consequence, on 18 December 1818 the case was transferred to the civil magistrate of Vienna, where he lost sole guardianship. He regained custody after intensive legal struggles in 1820. During the years that followed, Beethoven frequently interfered in his nephew's life in what Karl perceived as an overbearing manner.

Beethoven was finally motivated to begin significant composition again in June 1813 when news arrived of the French defeat at the Battle of Vitoria by a coalition led by the Duke of Wellington. The inventor Johann Nepomuk Maelzel persuaded him to write a work commemorating the event for his mechanical instrument the Panharmonicon. This Beethoven also transcribed for orchestra as Wellington's Victory (Op. 91, also known as the Battle Symphony). It was first performed on 8 December, along with his

Seventh Symphony, Op. 92, at a charity concert for victims of the war, a concert whose success led to its repeat on 12 December. The orchestra included several leading and rising musicians who happened to be in Vienna at the time, including Giacomo Meyerbeer and Domenico Dragonetti. The work received repeat performances at concerts staged by Beethoven in January and February 1814. These concerts were the most profitable of Beethoven's career and enabled him to buy the bank shares that were the most valuable assets in his estate at his death. The Allegretto proved particularly popular. In response to Gottfried Weber's negative review, Beethoven wrote "What I shit is better than anything you have ever thought."

1823–1827: Final years

The year 1823 saw the completion of three notable works, all of which had occupied Beethoven for some years: the Missa solemnis, the Ninth Symphony, and the Diabelli Variations.

Beethoven at last presented the manuscript of the completed Missa solemnis to Rudolph on 19 March (more than a year after the archduke's enthronement as archbishop). But he was in no hurry to get it published or performed as he had formed a notion that he could profitably sell manuscripts of the work to various courts in Germany and Europe at 50 ducats each. One of the few who took up this offer was Louis XVIII of France, who also sent Beethoven a heavy gold medallion. The Symphony and the variations took up most of the rest of Beethoven's working year. Diabelli hoped to publish both works, but the potential prize of the Mass excited many other publishers to lobby Beethoven for it, including Schlesinger and Carl Friedrich Peters. (In the end, it was obtained by Schotts).

Beethoven had become critical of the Viennese reception of his works. He told the visiting Johann Friedrich Rochlitz in 1822:

You will hear nothing of me here ... Fidelio? They cannot give it, nor do they want to listen to it. The symphonies? They have no time for them. My concertos? Everyone grinds out only the stuff he himself has made. The solo pieces? They went out of fashion long ago, and here fashion is everything. At the most, Schuppanzigh occasionally digs up a quartet.

He therefore inquired about premiering the Missa and the Ninth Symphony in Berlin. When his Viennese admirers learnt of this, they pleaded with him to arrange local performances. Beethoven was won over, and the symphony was first performed, along with sections of the Missa solemnis, on 7 May 1824, to great acclaim at the Kärntnertortheater. Beethoven stood by the conductor Michael Umlauf during the concert beating time (although Umlauf had warned the singers and orchestra to ignore him). Harold C. Schonberg writes that "the chorus had trouble singing the music and pleaded for the high notes to be taken down, just as the contralto soloist, Caroline Unger, also begged for changes. Beethoven refused ... The scherzo made a big impression however, and Unger turned Beethoven around to see the applause he could not hear."

Death

On his return journey to Vienna from Gneixendorf in December 1826, illness struck Beethoven again. He was attended until his death by Andreas Ignaz Wawruch, who throughout December noticed symptoms including fever, jaundice and dropsy, with swollen limbs, coughing and breathing difficulties. Several operations were carried out to tap off the excess fluid from Beethoven's abdomen. Karl stayed by Beethoven's bedside during December but left after the beginning of January to join the army at Iglau and did not see his uncle again, although he wrote to him shortly afterwards: "My dear father ... I am living in contentment and regret only that I am separated from you." Immediately following Karl's departure, Beethoven wrote a will making his nephew his sole heir.

Later, in January 1827, Beethoven was attended by Dr. Malfatti, whose treatment (recognizing the seriousness of his patient's condition) was largely centred on alcohol. As the news spread of the severity of Beethoven's condition, many old friends came to visit, including Diabelli, Schuppanzigh, Lichnowsky, Schindler, the composer Johann Nepomuk Hummel, and his pupil Ferdinand Hiller. Many tributes and gifts were also sent, including £100 from the Philharmonic Society in London and a case of expensive wine from Schotts. During this period, Beethoven was almost completely bedridden despite occasional efforts to rouse himself. On 24 March he was given the Last Rites by a Roman Catholic priest.

On 24 March 1827, he said to Schindler and the others present: "Plaudite, amici, comoedia finita est" ("Applaud, friends, the comedy is over"). Later that day, when the wine from Schotts arrived, he whispered: "Pity – too late."

On 26 March 1827, Beethoven died at the age of 56; only his friend Anselm Hüttenbrenner and a "Frau van Beethoven" (possibly his old enemy Johanna van Beethoven) were present. According to Hüttenbrenner, at about 5 pm local time (17:00), there was a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder: "Beethoven opened his eyes, lifted his right hand and looked up for several seconds with his fist clenched ... not another breath, not a heartbeat more."

Many visitors came to the deathbed; some locks of the dead man's hair were retained by Hüttenbrenner and Hiller, among others. An autopsy revealed Beethoven had significant liver damage, which could have been due to his heavy alcohol consumption, and also considerable dilation of the auditory and other related nerves.

Music

The three periods

The historian William Drabkin notes that as early as 1818 a writer had proposed a three-period division of Beethoven's works and that such a division (albeit often adopting different dates or works to denote changes in period) eventually became a convention adopted by all of Beethoven's biographers, starting with Schindler, F.-J. Fétis and Wilhelm von Lenz. Later writers sought to identify sub-periods within this generally accepted structure. Its drawbacks include that it generally omits a fourth period, that is, the early years in Bonn, whose works are less often considered; and that it ignores the differential development of Beethoven's composing styles over the years for different categories of work. The piano sonatas, for example, were written throughout Beethoven's life in a progression that can be interpreted as continuous development; the symphonies do not all demonstrate linear progress; of all of the types of composition, perhaps the quartets, which seem to group themselves in three periods (Op. 18 in 1801–1802, Opp. 59, 74 and 95 in 1806–1814, and the quartets, today known as 'late', from 1824 onwards) fit this categorisation most neatly. Drabkin concludes that "now that we have lived with them so long ... as long as there are programme notes, essays written to accompany recordings, and all-Beethoven recitals, it is hard to imagine us ever giving up the notion of discrete stylistic periods."

Bonn 1782–1792

Some forty compositions, including ten very early works written by Beethoven up to 1785, survive from the years that Beethoven lived in Bonn. It has been suggested that Beethoven largely abandoned composition between 1785 and 1790, possibly as a result of negative critical reaction to his first published works. A 1784 review in Johann Nikolaus Forkel's influential Musikalischer Almanack compared Beethoven's efforts to those of rank beginners. The three early piano quartets of 1785 (WoO 36), closely modelled on violin sonatas of Mozart, show his dependency on the music of the period. Beethoven himself was not to give any of the Bonn works an opus number, save for those which he reworked for use later in his career, for example, some of the songs in his Op. 52 collection (1805) and the Wind Octet reworked in Vienna in 1793 to become his String Quintet, Op. 4. Charles Rosen points out that Bonn was something of a backwater compared to Vienna; Beethoven was unlikely to be acquainted with the mature works of Haydn or Mozart, and Rosen opines that his early style was closer to that of Hummel or Muzio Clementi. Kernan suggests that at this stage Beethoven was not especially notable for his works in sonata style, but more for his vocal music; his move to Vienna in 1792 set him on the path to develop the music in the genres he became known for.

First period

The conventional first period began after Beethoven's arrival in Vienna in 1792. In the first few years, he seems to have composed less than he did at Bonn, and his Piano Trios, Op. 1 were not published until 1795. From this point onward, he had mastered the 'Viennese style' of Haydn and Mozart and was making it his own. His works from 1795 to 1800 are larger in scale than was the norm (writing sonatas in four movements, not three, for instance); typically he uses a scherzo rather than a minuet and trio; and his music often includes extreme dynamics and tempi and chromatic harmony. It was this that led Haydn to believe the third trio of Op. 1 was too difficult for an audience to appreciate.

He also explored new directions and gradually expanded the scope and ambition of his work. Some important pieces of the early period are the First and Second symphonies, the String Quartets Nos. 1–6, Op. 18, the first two piano concertos, and the first twenty piano sonatas, including the famous Pathétique, Op. 13.

Middle period

His middle period began shortly after the personal crisis brought on by his recognition of encroaching deafness. It includes large-scale works that express heroism and struggle. Middle-period works include Symphonies 3–8, the last two piano concertos, the Triple Concerto and Violin Concerto, five string quartets (Nos. 7–11), several piano sonatas (including the Waldstein and Appassionata sonatas), the Kreutzer violin sonata and his opera, Fidelio.

This period is sometimes associated with a heroic manner of composing, but the use of the term "heroic" has become increasingly controversial in Beethoven scholarship. The term is more frequently used as an alternative name for the middle period. The appropriateness of the term heroic to describe the whole middle period has been questioned as well: while some works, like the Third (Eroica) and Fifth Symphonies, are easy to describe as heroic, many others, like his Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral) or his Piano Sonata No. 24, are not. Schonberg notes that the Eroica was a landmark not only for Beethoven but for music: "a symphony longer than any previously written and much more difficult to play (it really was composed for an orchestra of the future); a symphony with complex harmonies; a symphony of titanic force; a symphony of fierce dissonances; a symphony with a funeral march that is paralyzing in its intensity."

Late period

Beethoven's late period began in the decade 1810–1819. He began a renewed study of older music, including Gregorian chants and works by Palestrina, Bach, and George Frideric Handel, whom Beethoven considered "the greatest composer who ever lived". Beethoven's late works incorporated polyphony, church modes, and Baroque-era devices. For example, the overture The Consecration of the House (1822) included a fugue influenced by Handel. A new style emerged, as he returned to the keyboard to compose his first piano sonatas in almost a decade; the works of the late period include the last five piano sonatas and the Diabelli Variations, the last two sonatas for cello and piano, the late string quartets (including the massive Große Fuge), and two works for very large forces: the Missa solemnis and the Ninth Symphony. Works from this period are characterised by their intellectual depth, their formal innovations, and their intense, highly personal expression. The String Quartet No. 14, Op. 131 has seven linked movements, and the Ninth Symphony adds choral forces to the orchestra in the last movement. Schonberg writes that "he had started as a composer in the classic tradition and had ended as composer beyond time and space, using a language that he himself had forged, a language compressed, cryptic and explosive, expressed in forms of his own devising."

Beethoven's pianos

Beethoven's earlier preferred pianos included those of Johann Andreas Stein; he may have been given a Stein piano by Count Waldstein. From 1786 onwards there is evidence of Beethoven's cooperation with Johann Andreas Streicher, who had married Stein's daughter Nannette. Streicher left Stein's business to set up his own firm in 1803, and Beethoven continued to admire his products, writing to him in 1817 of his "special preference" for his pianos. Among the other pianos Beethoven possessed was an Érard piano given to him by the manufacturer in 1803. The Érard piano, with its exceptional resonance, may have influenced Beethoven's piano style – shortly after receiving it he began writing his Waldstein Sonata – but despite initial enthusiasm he seems to have abandoned it before 1810 when he wrote that it was "simply not of any use any more"; in 1824 he gave it to his brother Johann. In 1818 Beethoven received, also as a gift, a grand piano by John Broadwood & Sons. Although Beethoven was proud to receive it, he seems to have been dissatisfied by its tone (a dissatisfaction which was perhaps also a consequence of his increasing deafness), and sought to get it remodelled to make it louder. In 1825 Beethoven commissioned a piano from Conrad Graf, which was equipped with quadruple strings and a special resonator to make it audible to him, but it failed in this task.

Legacy

Musical

Alex Ross writes "He not only left his mark on all subsequent composers but also molded entire institutions. The professional orchestra arose, in large measure, as a vehicle for the incessant performance of Beethoven's symphonies. The art of conducting emerged in his wake. The modern piano bears the imprint of his demand for a more resonant and flexible instrument. Recording technology evolved with Beethoven in mind: the first commercial 33⅓ r.p.m. LP, in 1931, contained the Fifth Symphony, and the duration of first-generation compact disks was fixed at seventy-five minutes so that the Ninth Symphony could unfurl without interruption. ... More than anything, the mesmerizing intricacy of Beethoven's constructions—his way of building large structures from the obsessive development of curt motifs—that made the repertory culture of classical music possible."

Beethoven was a key influence on the Romantic generation. Schonberg writes that "The Ninth Symphony was the Beethoven work that most influenced Berlioz and Wagner. ... To the Romantics, and many people today, the Ninth Symphony is something more than music. It is an ethos." Johannes Brahms's First Symphony quotes the "Ode to Joy" theme from the Ninth Symphony; Hans von Bülow dubbed it "Beethoven's Tenth".

Beethoven's having written nine symphonies was the original source of the so-called curse of the ninth, a superstition that composers were doomed to die before they could complete a tenth symphony.

Museums

There is a museum, the Beethoven House, in the place of his birth in Bonn. Bonn has also hosted a musical festival, the Beethovenfest, since 1845. The festival was initially irregular but since 2007 has been organised annually.

Two museums in Vienna are devoted to Beethoven. The Beethoven Museum in Probusgasse is where he wrote the Heiligenstadt Testament and the first sketches for the Eroica symphony. The Pasqualatihaus (Mölker Bastei 8) was his most enduring place of residence in Vienna, and is where he wrote the final versions of his Symphonies Nos. 5 and 6.

The Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, on the campus of San Jose State University, California, serves as a museum, research centre, and host of lectures and performances devoted solely to Beethoven's life and works.

Sculptures

The Beethoven Monument in Bonn was unveiled in August 1845, in honour of the 75th anniversary of Beethoven's birth. It was the first statue of a composer created in Germany, and the music festival that accompanied the unveiling was the impetus for the swift construction of the original Beethovenhalle in Bonn (it was designed and built within less than a month, on the urging of Franz Liszt). Vienna honoured Beethoven with a statue in 1880.

Other

During World War II, the opening motif of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, whose rhythm corresponds to dot-dot-dot-dash, "V" in Morse code, was used by the Allies to signify "victory," and the BBC played it at the beginning of wartime news broadcasts.

Bonn's principal orchestra is the Beethoven Orchester.

The Beethoven Quartet was a leading Soviet string quartet that premiered thirteen of Shostakovich's fifteen quartets.

The Beethoven Conservatory in St. Louis, Missouri, was named for the composer.

In 2001, Beethoven's manuscript of the Ninth Symphony became the first musical score added to the Memory of the World International Register established by UNESCO.

The Voyager Golden Record, a sample of the sights and sounds of Earth sent into space with the Voyager spacecraft, includes the first movement from the Fifth Symphony, played by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Otto Klemperer. The record closes with the Cavatina from the String Quartet No. 13, played by the Budapest String Quartet.

Popular culture

Beethoven is the favorite composer of Alex, the protagonist of the novel and movie A Clockwork Orange, and his music figures prominently in the storyline and the film's soundtrack.

Beethoven is also the favorite composer of Schroeder in Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic strips, who frequently – if improbably – plays Beethoven on his toy piano. Schroeder lives in a house whose street address number is 1770 (the year Beethoven was born).

John Taylor, the hero of the acclaimed and popular BBC series Ludwig is obsessed with Beethoven, to the point of using the composer's first name as his pseudonym. The show's score consists largely of loose arrangements of Beethoven's music.