Ludwig van Beethoven was born on December 17th, 1770 in Bonn, Germany in a downtown alleyway(cowell). During the time of Beethoven's birth all life in Bonn was centered around the palace of the Elector of Cologne(Burke 32). His father, Johann van Beethoven, was a court tenor there(Burke 32). Ludwig's mother, Marie Magdalene Kerverich van Beethoven, bore two other children besides Ludwig. Kasper Anton Karl who was born on April 18th, 1774 and Nicholas Johann who was born on October 2nd, 1776 were the only other surviving children of Maria's six births be

In 1792 Beethoven left Bonn once more and traveled to Vienna. Also during this year Beethoven began losing his hearing, but could not bring himself to admit it. In a letter written to his brothers called the "Heiligenstadt testament" Beethoven writes:

By 1803 Beethoven's hearing was almost completely gone. During the past few years he had been carrying around ear trumpets to help him hear. But the ear trumpets

In Symphony number three, called "eroica", you can see the theme of heroism. This symphony was written at the height of the French Revolution when Napoleon Bonaparte stood for the freedom of the French people. When Napoleon declared himself emperor of all he had won in battles Beethoven was very angered and changed the dedication from "Dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte" to "In memory of Napoleon Bonaparte" to show his regret that the young general had become exactly what he fought against(Immortal Beloved).

exile; if I venture into the company of others a burning fear overcomes

During this time in Beethoven's life his father was obsessed with making young Ludwig a musician. Johann Beethoven "...conducted his son's musical education in a brutal and willful manner."(Solomon 16). Ludwig hated his father and his lessons "hung over him like a threat."(Burke 34). A childhood companion of Beethoven's reported that "Beethoven's father used violence when it came to making him start his musical studies, and...there were few days when he was not beaten in order to compel him to set himself at the piano."(Solomon 16). "The father was not merely strict, but cruel. He treated him [Ludwig] harshly" wrote court counselor Krupp "and sometimes shut him up in the cellar."(Solomon 16). Beethoven's father was an alcoholic. When he wasn't doing music he was drinking(Burke 35). "The beginnings of Ludwig's musical education were unhappy in as much as they were stringently based on his fathers ideas of what a genius should be and, what society's expectations of a musician were in the late 18th century."(Mason http://www.altusdesign.com/beethoven/bio/essay.html). The incredibly cruel part of Johann's plan was that "....his [Johann's] goal was to train his son as a competent court musician while simultaneously limiting his attainments so as to prevent Beethoven from surpassing him-which is to say, from rising to the level of his own father."(Solomon 17).

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2549
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)