Ant the Minimal

Homework:

Beethoven's mother died of consumption. The inscription says: "She was such a good, kind mother to me and indeed my best friend."

His father became more and more alcoholic to it finally became the case that Beethoven had to ask for his father's salary to be given to him directly so that he can take care of his brothers. When Beethoven's father die, the elector quit, that, is too bad. There will be a decline in the tax revenues from liquor. The Elector of Bonn, Maximilian Franz, was a patron of the young Ludwig. And the Electoral Palace was the center of musical life. Today, it's the town university.

When Beethoven was twelve, his teacher Neefe predicted he would surely become a second Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, were he to continue as he has begun. In 1790, the emperor Joseph II died and Beethoven was asked to write a memorial celebration. The composer was only 19.

"We tend to think perhaps of Beethoven as a later developer, say, than Mozart, but he did do some remarkable work very on his own. I think perhaps his outstanding work that he wrote in one was the Cantata on the Death of Joseph II, which he wrote in 1790. Now, this is a very, very powerful work indeed for a boy of 19 to written. "

"The use of very pregnant, dramatic motives, right at the beginning, impinges instantly on the minded. There is a general intensity by the writing, which is very distinctly Beethovenean. And what's the thing that makes it outstanding is of course the physical scale. "

"And he composed this for the electoral orchestra, of which he was a member to play. And they just would not play. It's just too difficult. At the wind section, in particular, looked to the score and say: 'This is impossible and it was actually never performed. ' "

"What is essential in Beethoven's music is the dynamics. When it is loud. When it is soft. Previous composers would have a soft section they will build up to a loud section. Not Beethoven. Loud one moment. Soft the next. Very loud. Very soft. And those dynamics are again pure Beethoven. "

"These were revolutionary times. "In August, 1792, Louis XVI was arrested and would soon go to the guillotine in Paris. In October, the Elector fled Bonn because of French troops in the Rhine area. Beethoven left a week later to travel to Vienna to study with Joseph Haydn. He would never return to Bonn.