![]() ![]() He may also have been influenced at this time by ideas prominent in freemasonry, as Neefe and others around Beethoven were members of the local chapter of the Order of the Illuminati. The teenage Beethoven was almost certainly influenced by these changes. Echoing changes made in Vienna by his brother Joseph, he introduced reforms based on Enlightenment philosophy, with increased support for education and the arts. Maximilian Frederick’s successor as the Elector of Bonn was Maximilian Franz, the youngest son of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, and he brought notable changes to Bonn. A portrait of the 13-year-old Beethoven by an unknown Bonn master (c. Maximilian Frederick noticed Beethoven’s talent early, and subsidised and encouraged the young man’s musical studies.įigure 2. His first three piano sonatas, named “Kurfürst” (“Elector”) for their dedication to the Elector Maximilian Friedrich (1708–1784), were published in 1783. ![]() ![]() Some time after 1779, Beethoven began his studies with his most important teacher in Bonn, Christian Gottlob Neefe, who was appointed the Court’s Organist in that year. Neefe taught Beethoven composition, and by March 1783 had helped him write his first published composition: a set of keyboard variations (WoO 63). Beethoven soon began working with Neefe as assistant organist, at first unpaid (1781), and then as a paid employee (1784) of the court chapel conducted by the Kapellmeister Andrea Luchesi. Johann, aware of Leopold Mozart’s successes in this area (with son Wolfgang and daughter Nannerl), attempted to exploit his son as a child prodigy, claiming that Beethoven was six (he was seven) on the posters for Beethoven’s first public performance in March 1778. Beethoven’s musical talent was obvious at a young age. 1782), Tobias Friedrich Pfeiffer (a family friend, who taught Beethoven the piano), and Franz Rovantini (a relative, who instructed him in playing the violin and viola). Although tradition has it that Johann van Beethoven was a harsh instructor, and that the child Beethoven, “made to stand at the keyboard, was often in tears,” the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians claimed that no solid documentation supported this, and asserted that “speculation and myth-making have both been productive.” Beethoven had other local teachers: the court organist Gilles van den Eeden (d. Regius on 17 December 1770, survives. As children of that era were traditionally baptised the day after birth in the Catholic Rhine country, and it is known that Beethoven’s family and his teacher Johann Albrechtsberger celebrated his birthday on 16 December, most scholars accept 16 December 1770 as Beethoven’s date of birth. Of the seven children born to Johann van Beethoven, only Ludwig, the second-born, and two younger brothers survived infancy.Caspar Anton Carl was born on 8 April 1774, and Nikolaus Johann, the youngest, was born on 2 October 1776.īeethoven’s first music teacher was his father. There is no authentic record of the date of his birth however, the registry of his baptism, in a Roman Catholic service at the Parish of St. ![]() Lodewijk had one son, Johann (1740–1792), who worked as a tenor in the same musical establishment and gave lessons on piano and violin to supplement his income. Johann married Maria Magdalena Keverich in 1767 she was the daughter of Johann Heinrich Keverich, who had been the head chef at the court of the Archbishopric of Trier.īeethoven was born of this marriage in Bonn. Beethoven’s birthplace at Bonngasse 20, now the Beethoven House museumīeethoven was the grandson of Lodewijk van Beethoven (1712–73), a musician from Mechelen in the Southern Netherlands (now part of Belgium), who at the age of twenty moved to Bonn. Lodewijk (the Dutch cognate of German Ludwig) was employed as a bass singer at the court of the Elector of Cologne, eventually rising to become Kapellmeister (music director). ![]()
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