Ludwig van Beethoven was born in 1770 in Bonn, Germany, to Johann and Maria Magdelna van Beethoven. His father was also a musician and had dreams of young Ludwig becoming the Next Mozart. Beethoven's father was tenor singer in the court chapel of Prince archbishop of Cologne, where his grandfather a native of Holland had for a number of years the post of musical director. He was therefore brought up from his earliest youth in a musical atmosphere. While the father was rigorous and not always reasonable in his rule over the young genius, his mother was often over lienent with him, a fact which may account for some of the traits of character the young man developed later on.At the age of five years his father began instruct him violin playing, and at eight the musical director, Pfeifer, undertook his training on the piano while the court organist Van den Eden and his successor Christian Gottlab Neefe instructed him in organ playing harmony and composition. As a pianist he made such rapid progress that in a few years he was able to interpret Bach's well-tempered Clavichord and his improvise in a masterly fashion. At thirteen years of age he gave forth his first compositions a set six sonatas. These and some other productions of his early youth later repudiated and destroyed. When he was fifteen Elector Maximilian whose assistant court organist he had in the meantime become unable young Beethoven to visit Vienna. At the age of 17 Beethoven mad e his first trip to Vienna but upon learning his mother was gravely ill he immediately returned home. It was not until five years later that he again traveled to Vienna, this time making it his him. In Vienna Beethoven studied under another classical music's great composers Hadyn, as well as Schenk, Albrechtsbeger and Salieri. Beethoven quickly became successful as a piano virtuoso and his performances brought him patronage for Vienna's aristocracy. Around 1802 Beethoven realized that he was losing ...
