Ludwig van Beethoven was born in December 1770.

He was a serious little fellow,

fascinated by music.
Vienna was Europe's cultural capital. When Ludwig was 17-years-old he made his
first trip to this city. He went to study Classical music with Franz Joseph
Haydn. While in Vienna, Beethoven played the piano for Mozart. Mozart told
him, "You will make a big noise in the world".
That year his mother and baby sister died, and Ludwig's father lost his job. He
returned to Bonn and supported his family for 5 years, until his father's death,
then Beethoven brought his "bigger-than-life" personality back to Vienna for
good.
He was an unkept, awkward, brash, and very, very self-confident young man.
Ludwig easily made his place as both a performer and a composer. Sometimes
he was rude and violent, other times he was kind and generous. He threw hot
food at a waiter. He hit a choir boy. He swept candles off a piano during a bad
performance. Ludwig van Beethoven's intensity caused a bitter custody battle
over his nephew. To escape the fighting, the nephew actually tried to take his
own life. Beethoven was kindhearted however, and he helped raise money
for Johann Sebastian Bach's only surviving child, who was living in poverty. He
donated new compositions for a benefit concert in aid of Ursuline nuns.
Ludwig van Beethoven was 25-years-old when he first performed as a piano
virtuoso. He was supposed to play his own Second Piano Concerto. Two days
before the performance Beethoven hadn't finished composing it. He was sick
with an upset stomach. A friend fed him remedies while Ludwig wrote out the
music. The copyists sat outside his bedroom waiting for each new sheet of
music.
Beethoven seemed often to work down to the last minute. On the morning of
the concert for the oratorio, Christ on the Mount of Olives, a friend found
Ludwig sitting in bed composing the trombone part. The trombonists rehearsed
from Beethoven's handwritten music at 8 a.m. that day. The ink was barely dry.
At only 28 years old, just before writing his very first symphony, Beethoven
began to lose his hearing. He tried every treatment he could find to fix this
problem. Sometimes he could hear just fine. The last 10 years of Beethoven's
life, he heard nothing. Beethoven sadly and bitterly mourned the loss of his
hearing.
He continued to lead rehearsals and play the piano until he was 44 years old.
Ludwig may have "heard" music by feeling its vibrations. He knew music so well
he could probably hear it in his head.
The older Ludwig got, the more absorbed he became in his music. He was so
focused that he didn't care at all about how he looked. He would pour water
over his head instead of actually washing. In his rooms sat 4 pianos without legs
and piles of manuscripts that no one was allowed to touch.. To feel the vibrations
better, Beethoven composed music seated on the floor at a legless piano. He
often worked in his underwear, or even naked. If friends came to visit him when
he was composing, he completely ignored them.
Works: for orchestra, composed nine symphonies, seven overtures, five
concertos for piano and orchestra, for violin and orchestra l, 1 for piano, violin,
cello and orchestra, ballet music and dance. Chamber music: 16 quartets, 3
quintets, trios 15 10 sonatas for violin and piano, two sonatas for cello and piano
sextet, Septet, Octet, serenades, dances and variations. Piano: 32 sonatas, 2
sonatinas, 22 series of variations, trifles, minor works and for four hands. Song:
Series of "lieder", "Mass in C major", "solemn Mass," "Christ on the Mount of
Olives" and several cantatas. Music theater, "Fidelio," "Egmont", "The Ruins of
Athens" and "Opferlied".