The Mystery of the Life and Death of Ludwig van Beethoven

Full name: Ludwig van Beethoven

Date of birth:
December 16, 1770
Zodiac sign:
Sagittarius
Age:
56 years
Place of birth:
Bonn, Germany
Date of death:
March 26, 1827
Occupation:
Composer, pianist, violinist, conductor
Height:
157 cm
Marital status:
Unmarried
Father :
Johann van Beethoven (1740-1792)
Mother:
Maria Magdalene van Beethoven (1748-1787)

Was there a boy?

The very birth of the German genius is shrouded in mystery. He was baptized on December 17th. In the past, his date of birth was considered December 16, since according to Catholic tradition, babies were baptized the day after birth. His family also celebrated the boy's birthday on the 16th. However, there is no written evidence that he was born on this day.

Another myth from the “early Beethoven”: it was believed that Ludwig’s mother was sick with tuberculosis, and his father with syphilis. Their first child was born blind, the second died during childbirth, the third was deaf and dumb, and the fourth suffered from tuberculosis.

Nothing is known for certain about illnesses in the Beethoven family. The level of development of medicine at that time was low; children actually often died at birth or in the first years of life. In addition, there is evidence that the father of the family was an alcoholic. This increased the risk of mortality among newborns: of the seven children, four died in infancy.

42 remarkable facts about the life of Ludwig van Beethoven (5 photos)

Author: Eva Tushenkina

16 April 2021 17:00

Community: Facts

Tags: ZhZL Life of remarkable people Ludwig van Beethoven composer composers facts biography facts I want to know everything

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Ludwig van Beethoven is one of the most influential classical music composers in history. Even those who cannot name any of his works have heard Beethoven's compositions and certainly know his name! But most of us have heard little about him and his life other than common phrases. So let's fill this gap.

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1. Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn (Germany) in December 1770. Only then was it called the Electorate of Cologne, the Holy Roman Empire. The actual date of his birth is unknown. 2. Beethoven’s father was a singer, but his career did not work out. Therefore, he placed his own hopes on his son, forcing him to rehearse for several hours straight every day. His father often beat Beethoven when he made mistakes and played the wrong notes. 3. Beethoven had to leave school at age 11 to support his family. Because of this, he never learned multiplication and division. 4. Beethoven played the violin as a child and often enjoyed musical improvisation rather than playing from a score. His father once said, “I can’t stand it—play the notes or your playing won’t mean much!” 5. Beethoven had 6 more brothers and sisters. Four of them died during his lifetime. 6. Beethoven's father was an alcoholic, a trait that Beethoven also adopted over time. 7. By the age of 18, Beethoven had become the main source of income for his family. 8. Beethoven's father told him that he was born in 1772, not 1770. This was supposed to create the illusion that he was younger than he actually was, and therefore highlight his talents even more. Beethoven himself learned the truth only years later.

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9. It is impressive that Beethoven published his first composition when he was 12 years old. In addition, it was written in the key of C minor - an odd choice for the time and quite difficult to play. 10. After Mozart's death in 1791, the Viennese Count Waldstein told the young Beethoven that if he worked hard enough, he would receive "the spirit of Mozart through the hands of Haydn." 11. Beethoven kept a diary while living in Vienna from 1792, and through this we have an insight into his daily life - from searching for a new wig manufacturer to finding a place to buy a piano. 12. Unfortunately, Beethoven was prone to illness and spent most of his life suffering from a variety of diseases, such as colitis, rheumatism, rheumatic fever, typhus, skin diseases, abscesses, a number of infections, ophthalmia, inflammatory degeneration of the arteries, jaundice, chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis of the liver. 13. When Beethoven moved to Vienna at the age of 20, he took lessons from Joseph Haydn, another very famous and influential composer. 14. It is interesting that these two often lost patience and lost their temper, so friendly communication did not work out between them. And subsequently the relationship between them remained tense. 15. When Ludwig van Beethoven began composing music, the harpsichord was the dominant instrument. However, Beethoven concentrated on composing works for the piano, for which no one had ever written complete pieces. 16. Beethoven hated giving piano lessons unless his students were attractive women or exceptionally talented.

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17. By 1793, at the age of 22, Beethoven often performed in the salons of the Viennese nobility, playing the piano. He quickly established himself as a virtuoso pianist, performing preludes and fugues from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. 18. Beethoven performed his first symphony at the age of 30. Until then, symphonies had been considered light-hearted and light works, but Beethoven quickly changed these ideas. 19. In 1802, while on holiday in Heiligenstadt outside Vienna, a despairing Beethoven wrote: “I would commit suicide - only my art held me back. Ah, it seemed impossible to me to leave this world until I had brought into the light all that I felt was within me.” This text is now known as the Heiligenstadt Testament; it was published in 1828. 20. The composer's early period is believed to have ended in 1802, after the Heiligenstadt Testament, and includes his first and second symphonies, a set of six string quartets, piano concerto no. 1 and 2, as well as about a dozen piano sonatas, including the Pathétique sonata. 21. The sad "Moonlight Sonata" was dedicated to Beethoven's love interest and student, Giulietta Guicciardi. 22. The “heroic” middle period of Beethoven’s work is very emotional, all about heroes and struggle. This period includes Symphony No. 3, the last three piano concertos, five string quartets, Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, and piano sonatas including Moonlight Sonata, Waldstein and Appassionata. 23. The late period, which included the Symphony No. 9 with its choral finale, the Missa Solemnis, the late string quartets, and some of the greatest piano works, including Diabelli's sonatas and variations, is considered the most brilliant and intellectual period. 24. “Moonlight Sonata” is one of Beethoven’s most famous works, but during the composer’s lifetime it was known exclusively as piano sonata No. 14, and received the name “Moonlight” only in 1832, 5 years after the composer’s death. The German poet Ludwig Rellstaub said that the first movement of the sonata sounded like moonlight shining on Lake Lucerne, and the name stuck.

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25. At the age of 25, Beethoven’s hearing began to decline. By age 27, he heard a constant buzzing sound, and by age 46, he was completely deaf. 26. Even after becoming famous, Beethoven was constantly forced to work to earn a living. 27. A group of Viennese nobles banded together to support Beethoven, offering him an annual salary of 4,000 florins just to keep him in Vienna as a local virtuoso and composer. 28. Beethoven was the first musician who received a salary only for composing, when and what he wanted. 29. Before his hearing loss, he was known for his outstanding improvisational abilities. 30. However, even after he lost his hearing, Ludwig van Beethoven retained perfect pitch and continued to compose music. 31. Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was the first symphony ever composed to include parts for singers. 32. They say that Beethoven used to plunge his head into cold water before starting to compose music, but no one knows why.

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33. English piano maker Thomas Broadwood in 1818 sent Beethoven a luxurious instrument made with his own hands. However, by the time he received it, he was already completely deaf and never heard a single note. 34. Beethoven was a big fan of the French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte. He dedicated his third symphony to him. When Napoleon declared himself emperor, Beethoven was furious, tore the first page from the manuscript and scrubbed Napoleon's name from it. 35. Having lost his hearing, Beethoven communicated with his friends, forcing them to write in “phrase books.” 36. Some of Beethoven's most important works were written in the last decade of his life, when he was completely deaf. 37. Beethoven may have only written one opera, but he spent 10 years revising it to perfection, leaving us with the two-act version that is performed today. 38. Beethoven's music is widely used in film and appears in some unexpected films, such as Saturday Night Fever, where hints of his fifth symphony can be heard. 39. Beethoven was a man very partial to alcohol; in fact, the police once arrested him, thinking he was a tramp. After his death, an autopsy revealed a shriveled liver due to cirrhosis. 40. When Beethoven composed, he made sketches in sketchbooks, which are mostly preserved - providing invaluable insight into how he wrote music. 41. When the composer was on his deathbed, a friend brought him several bottles of wine as a gift. Beethoven replied: “It’s a pity, it’s a pity, it’s too late.” These were his last words. 42. The last piece Beethoven was able to complete was the final movement of String Quartet No. 13, Opus 130, in 1825. He died in 1827.

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Flemish roots

Although the future classic of the Viennese school was born in Bonn, his surname contains the prefix “van”. This is easily explained: the van Beethoven family comes from Flanders. The bandmaster grandfather, in whose honor the musician was named, was from Mechelen, a city in Belgium, between Brussels and Antwerp. Hence the prefix before the surname.

In the small electorate, the family keeps memories of Mecheln, Louvain and Antwerp. They say that “van Beethoven” means “a bed of red beets.”

Grandfather Ludwig was a respectable man, respected by everyone. In the portrait that Beethoven kept in Vienna, his grandfather is depicted wearing a beret, a fur coat, and his whole Flemish appearance is full of dignity. Beethoven treated him with great respect.

In the footsteps of Mozart

Beethoven was born at a time when talk about the genius of Mozart had not yet subsided. Ludwig's father, who devoted his entire life to music, was inspired to make his son a second miracle child.

The boy studied the harpsichord for 8 hours, or even more, under the sensitive gaze of his ambitious father. It is traditionally believed that Beethoven the elder was very harsh towards his son, who “often was in tears at the instrument.” However, researchers believe that there is no reliable documentary basis for this, and that “speculation and myth-making have done their job.”

Be that as it may, although Ludwig did not become a genius, daily drills helped develop the boy’s natural talent and subsequently make him into the greatest musician, masterfully composing in all genres that existed at that time, including opera, music for dramatic performances, and choral works.

He gave his first concert in Cologne at the age of eight, and at the age of 12 he was fluent in playing the harpsichord, violin, and organ.

Death

Beethoven died at the age of 56 in 1827. Over twenty thousand people followed his coffin. During the funeral, Beethoven's favorite funeral mass, Requiem in C minor, by Luigi Cherubini, was performed. A speech was made at the grave, written by the poet Franz Grillparzer:

He was an artist, but also a man, a man in the highest sense of the word... One can say about him as about no one else: he did great things, there was nothing bad in him.

Many years later, American scientists, having examined the hair and fragments of Beethoven's skull, came to the conclusion that Beethoven could have died from lead poisoning. The lead content in Beethoven's remains exceeded the norm by 100 times. How exactly lead got into Beethoven’s body is unknown[2].

There is a version that Beethoven was treated for abdominal pain with an ointment containing a large amount of lead. According to another version, pipes for supplying drinking water at that time were made of lead, and therefore the composer regularly consumed it when drinking[2][ unauthorized source? 1773 days

]. On August 29, 2007, Viennese pathologist and forensic medicine expert Christian Reiter (Associate Professor at the Department of Forensic Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna) suggested that Beethoven’s death was unintentionally accelerated by his doctor Andreas Wavruch, who repeatedly pierced the patient’s peritoneum (to remove fluid), and then applied wounds with lotions containing lead. Reuter's hair studies showed that Beethoven's lead levels increased sharply every time he visited the doctor.[4]

However, some experts question and criticize the theory of lead poisoning[5].

Diagnosis: speechlessness

Beethoven began to lose his hearing around 1796.

He suffered from a severe form of hearing impairment: “ringing” in his ears prevented him from perceiving and appreciating music, and at a later stage of the disease he avoided conversations.

The cause of Beethoven's deafness is unknown. Suggestions have been made such as syphilis, lead poisoning, typhus, systemic lupus erythematosus. According to one version, even the habit of dipping his head in cold water to avoid falling asleep affected the composer’s health.

Over time, his hearing became so weakened that at the end of the premiere of his Ninth Symphony, he was forced to turn around to see enthusiastic fans applauding.

In the last years of his life, Beethoven continued to write music with the persistence of a fanatic, but was forced to completely give up performing. Progressive deafness caused him true suffering. They say that Beethoven destroyed his piano when, in a vain attempt to hear the sounds produced by the instrument, he struck the keys with incredible force.

One of the results of his deafness was a unique piece of historical material: the notebooks that Beethoven used to communicate with friends over the last ten or so years. For performers of his music, they are an important source for finding out the author’s opinion on the interpretation of his works.

The mystery of Beethoven's death has been revealed: he was killed

Other researchers may not share his point of view, but one fact is undeniable: the maestro was very seriously ill before his death in 1827. Previous research had shown that Beethoven was poisoned by lead. Scientists discovered the presence of toxic metal in his hair, and two years ago in bone fragments. The data obtained indicate that it was lead poisoning that provoked the composer’s death at the age of 57, AP reports.

Ludwig van Beethoven photography

However, Viennese forensic scientist Christian Reiter says he has learned much more about Beethoven's death after months of painstaking work using forensic techniques.
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A pathologist examined the composer's hair. As Reuters reported, according to his analysis, the results of which were published in the Beethoven Journal, the concentration of lead in his body increased in the last months of the composer's life, when he was treated for abdominal pain by doctor Andreas Vavruch. It was during his treatment that lethal doses of lead entered Beethoven's body, damaging his already diseased liver, which ultimately caused his death.

However, according to the researcher, the doctor cannot be blamed for the death of the great musician, since he did not know that the patient had a diseased liver. Only after an autopsy performed on March 26, 1827, did doctors learn that Beethoven suffered from cirrhosis of the liver and hydrops of the stomach. According to Reiter, in an attempt to reduce the composer's suffering, Vavrukh repeatedly punctured his stomach and then placed a compress containing lead on the wound.

The toxicity of lead was known during Beethoven's lifetime, but the doses used for treatment "were too small to cause death in a healthy person." As Reuters noted, Dr. Vavrukh did not know that the treatment was negatively affecting the composer’s already diseased liver.

Before Beethoven's dropsy began, Dr. Vavrukh noted in his diary that several months before the composer's death, he treated him for pneumonia with salts containing lead, which, according to most scientists, influenced what was the true cause of death composer. However, according to Reuters, it was the lead-containing ointments that Dr. Vavruch used to treat Beethoven in the last weeks of his life that served as the true cause of his death.

Analysis of hair samples showed that "sharp jumps in the level of mumps in the composer's body" occurred four times between December 5, 1826 and February 27, 1827. Then Beethoven personally wrote down that he was being treated by Dr. Wawruch. “Every time he had a puncture, the lead content in his hair increased,” Reuter notes.

In 2005, specialists from the Argonne National Laboratory (Illinois), having studied the bones of the composer’s skull using a powerful X-ray machine, stated that Beethoven died from a high concentration of lead in the body - the content of this metal was 100 times higher than normal.

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According to toxicologists, long-term and regular poisoning could manifest itself in poor digestion, chronic abdominal pain, irritability and depression. According to one version, the entry of doses of lead into the composer’s body may have become the cause of the deafness that struck the composer.

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Lead poisoning

The composer died at the age of 56 in 1827.

As evidenced by the facts of Beethoven's biography, from about the age of 20 he was tormented by abdominal pain, which became more severe with age.

American scientists, having examined hair and fragments of Beethoven’s skull, came to the conclusion that the German composer could have died from long-term lead poisoning: the content of this metal in the remains was 100 times higher than normal. How exactly lead got into Beethoven's body is unknown. According to one version, the great composer was treated for stomach diseases with an ointment containing large quantities of lead. According to another version, lead could have entered Beethoven’s body with water, since pipes for supplying drinking water were made from this metal at that time.

Scientists have determined that Beethoven died of lead poisoning

beethoven-haus-bonn.de

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American scientists, having examined the hair and fragments of the skull of Ludwig van Beethoven, came to the conclusion that the great German composer may have died from long-term lead poisoning beethoven-haus-bonn.de

Experts from the Argonne National Laboratory (Illinois), who studied the bones of the composer’s skull, which were donated by businessman Paul Kaufman, using a powerful X-ray machine, said that they contained the same high lead content AP/Courtesy of the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, San Jose State University via The San Jose Mercury News

Scientists suggest that Beethoven died from a high concentration of lead in his body - the content of this metal was 100 times higher than normal. The composer died at the age of 56 in 1827 - at the end of his life he suffered from several serious illnesses Answers.com

American scientists, having examined the hair and fragments of the skull of Ludwig van Beethoven, came to the conclusion that the great German composer may have died from long-term lead poisoning.

Experts from the Argonne National Laboratory (Illinois), who studied the composer's skull bones, which were donated by businessman Paul Kaufman, using a powerful X-ray machine, said that they contained the same high lead content as a lock of Beethoven's hair. In addition, DNA analysis confirmed that both the hair and skull fragments belonged to the German composer, AFP reports.

As evidenced by the facts of Beethoven's biography, from about the age of 20 he began to suffer from abdominal pain, which became more and more severe with age. The description of signs of Beethoven's deteriorating health and the results of the autopsy of his corpse are similar to lead poisoning, modern scientists say.

How exactly lead got into Beethoven's body is unknown. According to one version, at that time doctors used heavy metals to treat patients. According to another version, lead could have entered Beethoven’s body with water, since pipes for supplying drinking water were made from this metal at that time. There is also an assumption that Beethoven liked to drink wine from a goblet made of material that contained lead.

Fragments of Beethoven's skull bones, examined by scientists, belonged to the great-great-grandfather of businessman Paul Kaufman, who lived in Europe in the 19th century. These bones were passed down in the family from generation to generation.

Two large and 11 small skull fragments came to Paul Kaufman in 1990. According to experts, the bone fragments came to Paul Kaufman's ancestor, the Austrian doctor Romeo Seligmann in 1863. Then the body of Ludwig van Beethoven was exhumed, and a physician took part in the autopsy. While working with the composer's skull, several bone fragments fell off and were taken by a doctor. First they ended up in France, and then in the USA.

Lost Music

In 2011, British media reported that the lost music of Beethoven would be performed in Manchester for the first time: using rough excerpts, experts managed to restore the second, slow part of the work, written by the composer in 1799.

Beethoven was working on an opus for string quartet, but a year later, being a perfectionist, he became disillusioned with the composition, abandoned the drafts and began writing a new version. The notes have not been completely preserved, but a professor at the University of Manchester managed to restore the missing parts.

In his opinion, all 74 measures are present in the drafts, but the parts for all instruments of the quartet were not written down everywhere. Therefore, he filled in some of the gaps himself.