Happy Birthday Beethoven

Ludwig Van Beethoven a german composer who was crucial to the music world between the periods of classical and romantic eras. Beethoven is one of the most famous and influential of all composers. He composed several symphonies, concertos, sonatas, quartets and a great Mass.

Bonn part of the Holy Roman Empire was the birthplace of Beethoven. His musical talent was very apparent and he became a scholar of his father. As a young man, Beethoven moved to Vienna and studied with Joseph Haydn. Beethoven would start losing his hearing in his early 30s. He would eventually have to give up conducting and put all his energy into composing.

As a band student we learned a lot of lessons from the great conductor / composer Beethoven. His life and the struggles he had in it always seemed to me to make him even more powerful. It takes the hard to make the great. Perhaps, that is why students still study from this great man.