Was Beethoven considered a legend during his lifetime?

The answer is yes but he was acknowledged as a legend much after he wrote his fifth symphony and was around thirty five years of age. It is interesting to note that many of his followers and fans in those days were quite hesitant to be in close contact with him. They were wary of his impatient moods. The stories about his eccentricities and his being irritable because of his deafness had spread far and wide. There were doubts among his fans whether they would even be allowed to get acquainted with him. Yet, after they met him; they found him mostly to be cheerful and of a kind nature and amicable that what they had heard through the whispered rumours. They often went away with many anecdotes they could treasure and they were content that they had come across the great musician in person and that they had come into contact with a legend. This fact cannot be denied that Beethoven’s vision of music changed how his contemporry musicians and the audiences approached the manner music was supposed to be composed, performed and absorbed in the cultural stream. Beethoven always cried aloud that the source of his music was his heart and that music had to return back to the heart. Music came to him more readily than words. Though Ludwig was born on 16th December 1770, his father, Johann, presented him as being born in 1772 so that he could show him off as a child prodigy as was the fashion in those days after Mozart. The little boy Beethoven was confused earlier in his life concerning his age. Beethoven gave his first concert on the klavier in March 1778, when he ws just seven. While other boys played outside, Ludwig spent his childhood at the klavier and composing. Earlier in life, he enjoyed improvising tunes as he played and his father espised that practice of the boy and considered it as silly trash. He then went on to practice the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. While doing this, Ludwig started composing noteworthy music of his own. At the age of fourteen, Beethoven was appointed as assistant court organist to Christian Gottlob Neefe and got a small salary for that. His family looked forward to that income as they were not so well-to-do. In 1792, at the age of twenty one, Beethoven went to Vienna and started taking lessons from Franz Joseph Haydn. Beethoven became a legend in his own lifetime principally because his music was undeniably powerful and passionate and secondrily; because of what he felt and said. He wrote,”Music should strike fire from the heart of man and bring tears from the eyes of a woman.” After the death of his father in December 1792, Beethoven was left with the responsibility of supporting his younger brothers, financially. His youth had suddenly left him. He also felt that he was struggling with Haydn’s lessons concerning counterpoint and his need to improvise. He took separate instructions from Johann Schenk, who took an interest in Beethoven. He even took lessons in vocal writing from Antonio Salieri. With these lessons, Beethoven improved and could spin out his own distinctive style of writing. The wealthy and influential people in Vienna started taking an interest in him. He was offered living quarters by Prince Karl Lichnowsky and found that he was able to earn enough money to support a personal servant and finally move into his own house. He gave his first public concert in March 1795. The concert ws organised by Antonio Salieri for charity towards orphans and widows. The concert was a success and soon after; he published three klavier trios, his opus 1 that earned him both fame and money. Beethoven always felt that music helped people ease their burdens in life and to help them release their happiness to others. In 1796, Beethoven’s music was well received not only in Germany and Austria but also in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Durng this time, Beethoven even declined an offer from the King of Prussia to become a professional musician in his court. He decided to make base in Vienna. He flourished financially as he started giving music lessons. He startedexperiencing drastic mood swings around this time. He could become furious and angry one moment and repentant the next. His pride had got swollen. By 1798, in his twenty eighth year, he began experiencing trouble while hearing. Beethoven’s defness and depression grew and once he stated, “Music is like a dream. One that I cannot hear.” His first symphony was performed in April 1800. It was well received. This was followed by his ballet, ‘The Creatures of Prometheus’. By this time, he had completed fourteen klavier sonatas. The Moonlight Sonata became a legend during his lifetime, just as he had become one. But all this was not enough to cheer him up; he sank into a dark depression. The tinnitus increased; he was not able to escape the loud ringing in his ears, which increased as time passed by. In 1803, he went to Heiligenstadt and wrote his famous testament there in the form of a letter to his younger brothers. It started with, “Oh you men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me.” His biggest frustration was that he could not hear what people were saying to him. He started avoiding social gatherings. He was also often rude to many whom he could not understand. Within himself, he longed to die and was keen to welcome death to be free of such an existence. He retreated into himself and found solace in natural surroundings. He spent more time in the country-side, speking to God in prayer and seeking comfort to reduce his fears. His condition did not prevent him from hearing new themes in his inner ear, from within and he was able to compose from such inpsiration. He wrote in his diary, “What I have in my heart and soul must find a way out. That’s the reason for music.” His oratorio, `Christ on the Mount of Olives’ was given its first performance at Theater-an-der-Wien in April 1803. It was well received and his fame was on the rise again. It was clear that Franz Joseph Haydn and himself had now become legends in their own lifetime. A full length oil painting was commissioned by Joseph Mahler on Beethoven. The next and the most important inspiration Beethoven received from within by this time was his ideas on his thrd symphony, the Eroica. He dedicated it to Napoleon Bonaparte and then tore the front page when he learnt that he was just a tyrant who proclaimed himself emperor with vast ambitions. When this symphony was first performed, Haydn was stunned and exclaimed that the symhony will no longer be the same again after this revolutionary step. Despite the grumbling against ts length and difficulty to lay, the symphony was acknowledged as a turning point in music and that was the birth of Romanticism in music. Beethoven was falling in love with his former student, Josephine and they excahnged few letters after the death of her husband, Count Deym. Beethoven now turned his attention towards writing his only opera, Fidelio. It was performed in November, 1805. Beethoven immersed himself in composition of music and stayed away from social gatherings because of his unpredictable mood changes. He wrote, “ I despise a world which does not feel that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.” As he grew old, he started believing that he deserved special treatment as a result of his artistic talent and temperament. He began to lose control over his excesses of emotion and did not bother about conforming to good manners. Clumsiness came naturally to him. He frequently begn to drop things, knocked objects over and began crashing into the furniture. His hndwriting too became a scrawl. He complained that his eyesight was also turning poor. While conducting, he would crouch low as the music became soft and gesticulated wildly with his arms when the volume had to be increased. Beethoven could not communicate with the musicians for preparation of the concert that included both his fifth and the sixth symphony. It was an error in judgment on his part to include both symphonies in a concert performance. This had a negative impact on that concert and it was a disaster. In the later phase of his life spanning his forties, Beethoven struggled with his finances and managed them badly. Beethoven’s pursuits in love were also a disaster. They would not bring him a wife or a family. He started writing to an `Immortal Beloved’. She remained an unknown to the whole world. He started growing bitter and cynical and abhorred the aristocracy and did not show their usual respect. He retreated further into himself and wrote in his diary, “Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents.” In November 1815, his brother Carl Casper died, appointing him as guardian of his son, Karl as per his will. He apointed Carl Czerny to give piano lessons to Karl. As Beethoven was not able to control Karl while he was growing, th guardianship of the child was given back to Casper’s wife by the courts. When he turned fifty, Beethoven became so deaf that he was unable to engage in any conversation. He wrote in his diary, “Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.” People started communicating with him by writing on a slate or any scrap of paper. He was so gifted that he was able to tell whether or not his music was being played correctly by watching the fingers of performing musicians. He drew his inspiration for his compositions from nature and had to take his regular walks in the countryside. He did not pay attention to his dress and was often seen as a disheveled man who was often mistaken for a beggar. While composing, he toiled with considerable intensity. He worked on his Missa Solemnis for five years and expected a decent financial return for that. While composing this choral masterpiece, he had already started making notes for his Choral symphony with themes. He also decided to use Friedrich Schiller’s poem `Ode to Joy’ as his final movement, setting it to voices. When the Choral was completed, some singers complained that they could not attain the highest notes and requested him to revise but he refused. His health started deteriorating after his nephew Karl tried to commit suicide. He contracted severe cirrhosis of liver and in March 1827, at the age of only fifty-seven, breathed his last on a stormy night. There is no denying the fact that even during his lifetime; Beethoven became a legendary figure. People were scared of him but gave him respect because of his strong personlity and his even stronger music. He struggled during his life with chronic illness, deafness, financial difficulties and loneliness but still left us with his legacy of sixty sketchbooks which documented his daily struggle for artistic perfection. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe commented about him, “more concentrated, more energetic, more warmly and tenderly emotional. I’ve never seen an artist like him.” Igor Stravinsky also commented about Beethoven’s music, “his music will remain contemporary forever.”