Beethoven Ludwig Van(Beethoven)

1770 - Ludwig was born on the 17th of December in Bonngasse 515 (today Bonngasse 20).

1801 - Beethoven began to lose his hearing. He suffered a severe form of tinnitus.

1802 - Wrote the "Heiligenstadt Testament" a suicide letter that was supposed to be for his brother but was never given and later was discovered after his death.

Composed "3rd Symphony" (also "Eroica"), "6th Symphony" (also "Pastoral"), "9th Symphony" (also "Choral"),

"Diabelli Variations", "Kreutzer Sonata", opera "Fidelio"

1806 - Regardless of his deafness Beethoven could still conduct his opera Fidelio and be much annoyed at the inattention to his nuances.

1814 - his last appearances as a player.

1822 - Attempt to conduct proved disastrous.

1824 - His fame in England was often a source of great comfort to him, especially in his last illness, when the London Philharmonic Society, for which the 9th symphony was written and a 10th symphony projected, sent him £100 in advance of the proceeds of a benefit concert which he had begged them to give, being in very straitened circumstances, as he would make no use of the money he had deposited in the bank for his nephew.

He received the freedom of the city, an honor much valued by him. After that time his immediate popularity, as far as new works were concerned, became less eminent, as that of his more easy-going contemporaries began to increase. Yet there was, not only in the emotional power of his earlier works, but also in the known cause of his increasing inability to appear in public, something that awakened the best popular sensibilities; and when his two greatest and most difficult works, the 9th symphony and parts of the Missa Solemnis, were produced at a memorable concert in 1824, the storm of applause was overwhelming, and Beethoven, who was on the platform in order to give the time to the conductor, had to be turned around by one of the singers in order to see it.

1827 - Beethoven had projects for a 10th symphony, music to Goethe's Faust, and (under the stimulus of his newly acquired collection of Handel's works) any amount of choral music, compared to which all his previous compositions would have seemed but a prelude. But he was in bad health; his brother Johann, with whom he had been staying, had not allowed him a fire in his bedroom, and had sent him back to Vienna in an open chaise in vile weather; and the chill which resulted ended in a fatal illness. Within a week of his death Beethoven was still full of his projects. Three days before the end he added a codicil to his will, and saw Schubert, whose music had aroused his keen interest, but was not able to speak to him, though he afterwards spoke of the Philharmonic Society and the English, almost his last words being God bless them.

1827 - He died on 26th of March.

• "Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life."
• "Recommend virtue to your children; it alone, not money, can make them happy. I speak from experience."
• "Music is a higher revelation than philosophy."
• "Music - The one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend."
• "Never shall I forget the times I spent with you; continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours."