英语故事-Ludwig van Beethoven (1)

英语故事

Ludwig van Beethoven (1)

音乐巨人贝多芬的生平简介（一）

Ludwig van Beethoven (1)Musicologists usually break up the great Ludwig van Beethoven’s career into three periods: early, middle, and late. But to add a touch more flavor, you could call them the “I’m young and getting my feet wet” period, followed by the “Since I’m going deaf, I’m gonna get wacky and break some rules”period, and finally the glorious, isolated-by-deafness, “There are no external influences, all resources come from within” period.

Life

Ludwig van Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770 in Bonn, Germany, and baptized on December 17. Interestingly enough, till his 40th year Beethoven suffered from what is famous as his “birth-year delusion”—he claimed to have been born in 1772.

Family Antecedents

Bonn was the seat of the Archbishop Elector of Cologne in the 18th century. Beethoven’s musically talented grandfather, Ludwig van Beethoven (Senior), had come from Flanders to settle in Bonn on the invitation of the Elector. He worked in the Elector’s choir, first as a baritone singer and then as Kapellmeister (band leader). He married a Bonn girl, Marie Poll. Of the several children they had, only one—Johann —survived.

Beethoven’s father, Johann van Beethoven, also took to music but his abilities were mediocre. He managed to become a tenor singer in the Electoral Choir due to the influence of Ludwig Senior. He married Maria Magdalena Keverich Laym, daughter of the chief cook at the Court of the Elector of Treves, Ehrenbreitstein. They had seven children of whom only three survived—Ludwig, Caspar Karl and Nikolaus Johann. The Beethoven family lived in the poorer part of Bonn. The rough-hewn rebellious streak in Beethoven was the result of this early influence.

Education

Beethoven had little formal education. He studied at the Tirocinium for four years and had to drop out at the age of 11. He managed to get a smattering of Latin and French, but he could never spell correctly in any language. He was later exposed to a few good books, ranging from Walter Scott’s novels to Persian poetry.

Early Musical Training

Beethoven’s training in music started when he was just four to five years old. His father wanted to make a child prodigy of his son like Mozart. He forced young Beethoven to practise on the piano for long hours, so much so that Beethoven would start crying. But over a period of time, Beethoven developed a taste for music. Johann was confident enough of his eight-year old son’s talent to display him in a public concert on March 26, 1778. The success of this concert encouraged him to arrange music lessons for the child with other teachers.

The first tutor Beethoven had was Van den Eeden, a court organist too old to be of any help to him. The young Beethoven got to practise the organ everyday by playing for the morning mass in the churches of Bonn. His next tutor was Tobias