Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany in 1770. His father, a music enthusiast, dreamed of molding his son into the next Mozart. Beethoven never showed the impressive characteristics of Mozart, but he was unusually talented, learning the piano, organ and violin at a very early age. At 14, he was already skilled enough on the organ to receive a professional appointment (Beethoven). He held positions as an assistant organist in the electoral chapel where he obtained his first lessons in composition from the court organist. His family life was chaotic; his father was an alcoholic, and his mother died suddenly when he was only 17. After that tragedy, his family situation declined even more, and this caused him to leave home in 1790 and travel to Vienna to study composition.

In Vienna, Beethoven first studied with Franz Joseph Haydn, but eventually became frustrated with the great composer's teaching methods and he moved on to study with other composers. He performed often in wealthy

salons but interestingly enough, he did not perform in public until he was 25 years old (Beethoven).

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Before Beethoven struck the new note of romance in music, songwriters generally used one of two patterns for their songs: (1) the simple folk-song pattern in which the same melody is repeated for each stanza of the poem, and which is called a strophic song; or (2) the elaborate pattern of arias in the Italian style of singing which is full of runs and trills (McGehee 406).

The early piano sonatas of Beethoven deserve special mention. Although his first published examples of concertos and trios and the first two symphonies are beneath the masterpieces of Mozart and Haydn, the piano sonatas bear an unmistakably Beethovian stamp: grandiose in scope and length, and innovative in their range of expression. The sonatas were able to move expression from terrible rage to peals of laughter to deep depression so suddenly. Capturing this unpredictable style in his music, a new freedom of expression which broke the bounds of Classical ideals, was to position Beethoven as a disturbed man in the minds of some of his contemporaries. Furthermore, he was to be seen as the father of Romanticism and the single most important innovator of music in the minds of

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