Ludwig Van Beethoven Composing A Legacy - 2575 Words

Ludwig Van Beethoven: Composing A Legacy Voices joined in harmonic unity and strength, singing praises to God and to mankind, echoed through the symphony hall on their last note. Stunned, the audience sat silently in awe of this great performance, before standing and applauding vehemently. The loud cheers and thundering claps however had no effect on the maestro. Deaf and dying, Ludwig van Beethoven was oblivious to his greatest moment of triumph. Beethoven’s situation was filled with irony. The fact that arguably the best composer of all time became deaf seems to be a cruel joke. However, deafness did not stop the creative genius of Beethoven, if anything it seemed to accelerate it. Throughout Beethoven’s composing career he composed†¦show more content†¦Beethoven’s compositions made way for the Romantic Period of Classical Music to occur by breaking down the social restrictions against composers and other musicians at the time. By doing so, Beethoven cleared the way for the wide variety of music genres we hear today. To understand how revolutionary Beethoven’s new approach to music was we must first understand the time period that young Beethoven was born into. During the 18th Century, Germany was a part of the Holy Roman Empire, an Empire that had stood at that point for almost a thousand years. At the heart of the Holy Roman Empire was its capital city of Vienna. Vienna was the center for the arts during the 18th century and most of the 19th century. However, despite all the cultural advancements, even in Vienna very strict social standards applied to every one. For example, if a middle class merchant had a son, that son was expected to become a merchant like his father and he could not become any greater. The aristocrats stayed within their group, the middle class within theirs, and the poor within theirs. There was no social climbing or intermingling, that is until Mozart came along and blurred the lines a little. Mozart was a child prodigy. From a very young age, he played and composed beautiful music. His father saw this and used it to create a ton of publicity and money. Mozart played for kings and queens all across Europe amazing everyone who saw him. As Mozart grew up his fame only grew