霍金 2032 辟谣:~贝多芬英文资料~（好的加分）

英文资料如下：
　　Beethoven (van Beethoven Ludwig), born in December 17, 1770, died in March 26, 1827. The famous German musician, one of the representatives of classical music in Vienna. Have a profound influence on the development of his works in the music world, it is known as the "klosson".
　　Beethoven's main works in the first place in the nine symphony. Representative works are reduced Symphony No. 3 in E flat major "hero", Symphony No. 5 in C minor "fate", F major Symphony No.6 "Pastoral", a No. 7 symphony in D minor Ninth Symphony Chorus ("Ode to joy" theme), Overture "egger Monte", "Leonore", or piano No. 14 in C sharp minor Sonata the Moonlight Sonata in F major the fifth piano sonata song "spring", No. 2 in F major romance. He set up a great classical music, but also opened up the road of romantic music, the development of the world's music has a pivotal role.
　　Beethoven in the status of music history is extremely outstanding of, he is not only master of classical style, at the same time, it is the pioneer of the romantic style. As a master of music, Beethoven on the artistic song shall likewise be a considerable degree of attention, he is the pioneer of the German art song creation, life as a piano accompaniment of art songs more than 60 song, his art songs to the abundant technique of expression and form to show, expression belongs to the whole human emotion. Extraordinary achievements have been made in the field of art songs.
　　中文译文：
　　贝多芬（Ludwig van Beethoven），生于1770年12月17日，逝世于1827年3月26日。德国著名的音乐家，维也纳古典乐派代表人物 之一。他的作品对世界音乐的发展有着非常深远的影响，因此被尊称为“乐圣”。
　　贝多芬的主要作品以九部交响曲占首要地位。代表作有降E大调第3交响曲《英雄》、c小调第5交响曲《命运》、F大调第6交响曲《田园》、A大调第7交响曲、d小调第9交响曲《合唱》（《欢乐颂》主旋律）、序曲《爱格蒙特》、《莱奥诺拉》、升c小调第14钢琴奏鸣曲《月光》、F大调第5钢琴奏鸣曲《春天》、F大调第2号浪漫曲。他集古典音乐的大成，同时开辟了浪漫时期音乐的道路，对世界音乐发展有着举足轻重的作用。
　　贝多芬在音乐史的地位是极其突出的，他不仅是古典主义风格的集大成者，同时又是浪漫主义风格的开创者。作为音乐大师，贝多芬对艺术歌曲同样予以相当程度的关注，他是德国艺术歌曲创造的先驱，毕生作有钢琴伴奏的艺术歌曲六十多首，他的艺术歌曲以其丰富的表现手法和形式来展现，表达属于全人类的情感。在艺术歌曲的领域里取得了非凡成就。

Beethoven

Beethoven was one of the greatest composers(作曲家) in the world. He was born in 1770 and died in 1827.

Even as a child Beethoven did not have a happy life. His father was a singer. But he was lazy and always drank a lot. When the boy was only four, his father decided to make him a musician. So Beethoven had to play hour after hour on different musical instruments（乐器）. He learned so fast that he could go around and gave concerts when he was only 11. When he was 17, he won high praise from Mozart（赢得莫扎特的高度赞赏）, a great Austrian(奥地利的) composer.

A few years later Beethoven went to Vienna to study under Haydn（海顿）, another great Austrian composer. Soon he could write a lot of music himself. But he was often poor and ill during his life. After one illness, he suddenly found himself deaf（聋的）. At that time he was only 31. But this did not stop Beethoven. He went on composing. The surprising thing is that he wrote some of his best, his most beautiful pieces such as Destiny（命运） after he became deaf.

Ludwig van Beethoven (baptized December 17, 1770 – March 26, 1827) was a German composer of classical music, who lived predominantly in Vienna, Austria. Beethoven is widely regarded as one of history's supreme composers, and he produced notable works even after losing his hearing. He was one of the greatest figures in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in music. His reputation has inspired — and in many cases intimidated — composers, musicians, and audiences who were to come after him.

Among his most widely-recognized works are his Third, Fifth, Sixth and Ninth symphonies (the latter containing the "Ode to Joy"); Piano Concerto No. 5 ("Emperor"); a Violin Concerto; the Pathétique, Moonlight, Appassionata, and Hammerklavier piano sonatas; and the bagatelle Für Elise .
Contents
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* 1 Life and work
* 2 Musical style and innovations
* 3 Personal beliefs and their musical influence
* 4 Beethoven the Romantic?
* 5 See also
* 6 Media
o 6.1 Piano solo
o 6.2 Orchestral
o 6.3 Chamber
* 7 References
* 8 External links

Life and work

For more details on this topic, see Life and work of Ludwig van Beethoven.

Beethoven was born at 515 Bongasse, Bonn, Germany, to Johann van Beethoven (1740–1792); and Magdalena Keverich van Beethoven (1744–1787) in 1770. Many reference works show 16 December as Beethoven's date of birth, since he was baptized on 17 December and children at that time were generally baptized the day after their birth.

Beethoven's first music teacher was his father, a musician in the Electoral court at Bonn and an alcoholic who beat him and unsuccessfully attempted to exhibit him as a child prodigy like Mozart. However, others soon noticed Beethoven's talent. In 1787 young Beethoven went to Vienna for the first time. While in Vienna he played songs for Mozart. Mozart was very impressed with Beethoven's performance. He was given instruction and employment by Christian Gottlob Neefe, as well as financial sponsorship by the Prince-Elector. Beethoven's mother died when he was 17, and for several years he was responsible for raising his two younger brothers.

Beethoven moved to Vienna in 1792, where he intended to study with Joseph Haydn. Haydn didn't like Beethoven's unorthodox music ideas so he terminated his lessons. Beethoven quickly established a reputation as a piano virtuoso, and more slowly, as a composer. He settled into the career pattern he would follow for the remainder of his life: rather than working for the church or a noble court (as most composers before him had done), he was a freelancer, supporting himself with public performances, sales of his works and stipends from members of the aristocracy who recognized his ability.
Beethoven 1820 portrait
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Beethoven 1820 portrait

Beethoven's career as a composer is usually divided into Early, Middle, and Late periods.

In the Early period, he is seen as emulating his great predecessors Haydn and Mozart while concurrently exploring new directions and gradually expanding the scope and ambition of his work. Some important pieces from the Early period are the first and second symphonies, the first six string quartets, the first two piano concertos, and the first twenty piano sonatas, including the famous Pathétique and Moonlight.

The Middle period began shortly after Beethoven's personal crisis centering around deafness. The period is noted for large-scale works expressing heroism and struggle; these include many of the most famous works of classical music. Middle period works include six symphonies (Nos. 3–8), the last three piano concertos, triple concerto and his only violin concerto, five string quartets (Nos. 7–11), the next seven piano sonatas including the Waldstein, and Appassionata, and his only opera, Fidelio.

Beethoven's Late period began around 1816 and lasted until Beethoven died in 1827. The Late works are greatly admired for and characterized by their intellectual depth, intense and highly personal expression, and experimentation with forms (for example, the Quartet in C Sharp Minor has seven movements, while most famously his Ninth Symphony adds choral forces to the orchestra in the last movement). This period includes the Missa Solemnis, the last five string quartets and the last five piano sonatas.

Considering the depth and extent of Beethoven's artistic explorations, as well as the composer's success in making himself comprehensible to the widest possible audience, the Austrian-born British musician and writer Hans Keller pronounced Beethoven "humanity's greatest mind altogether".

Beethoven's personal life was troubled. Around age 28, he started to become deaf, which led him to contemplate suicide (see the 1802 Heiligenstadt Testament). He was attracted to unattainable (married or aristocratic) women, whom he idealized; he never married. Some scholars believe his period of low productivity from about 1812 to 1816 was caused by depression resulting from Beethoven's realization that he would never marry.

Beethoven quarrelled, often bitterly, with his relatives and others (including a painful and public custody battle over his nephew Karl); he frequently treated other people badly. He moved often and had strange personal habits, such as wearing filthy clothing even as he washed compulsively. He often had financial troubles.

Many listeners perceive an echo of Beethoven's life in his music, which often depicts struggle followed by triumph. This description is often applied to Beethoven's creation of masterpieces in the face of his severe personal difficulties.

Beethoven was often in poor health, especially after his mid-20s, when he began to suffer from serious stomach pains. In 1826 his health took a drastic turn for the worse. His death the following year was attributed to liver disease, but modern research on a lock of Beethoven's hair taken at the time of his death, and a few pieces of his skull [1] shows that lead poisoning could well have contributed to his ill-health and ultimately to his death (the levels of lead were more than 100 times higher than levels found in most people today). The source of the lead poisoning may have been fish from the heavily polluted Danube River and lead compounds used to sweeten wines. It is unlikely that lead poisoning was the cause of his deafness, which several researchers think was caused by an autoimmune disorder such as systemic lupus erythematosus. The hair analysis did not detect mercury, which is consistent with the view that Beethoven did not have syphilis (syphilis was treated with mercury compounds at the time). The absence of drug metabolites suggests Beethoven avoided opiate painkillers.

His last musical sketches belong to the composition of a string quintet in C Major [2]. Beethoven died in 1827, after a long illness, in the midst of a fierce thunderstorm, and legend has it that the dying man shook his fists in defiance of the heavens. He is buried in the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) in Vienna, along with many other notable composers.

Musical style and innovations

Main article: Beethoven's musical style and innovations

Beethoven is viewed as one of the most important transitional figures between the Classical and Romantic eras of musical history. As far as musical form is concerned, he built on the principles of sonata form and motivic development that he had inherited from Haydn and Mozart, but greatly extended them, writing longer and more ambitious movements. But Beethoven also radically redefined the symphony, transforming it from the rigidly structured four-ordered-movements form of Haydn's era to a fairly open ended form that could sustain as many movements as necessary, and of whatever form as necessary to give the work cohesion.

See also History of sonata form and Romantic music.

Personal beliefs and their musical influence

Beethoven was much taken by the ideals of the Enlightenment and by the growing Romanticism in Europe. He initially dedicated his third symphony, the Eroica (Italian for "heroic"), to Napoleon in the belief that the general would sustain the democratic and republican ideals of the French Revolution, but in 1804 tore out the title page upon which he had written a dedication to Napoleon, as Napoleon's imperial ambitions became clear, renamed the symphony as the "Sinfonia Eroica, composta per festeggiare il Sovvenire di un grand Uomo", or in English, "composed to celebrate the memory of a great man". The fourth movement of his Ninth Symphony features an elaborate choral setting of Schiller's Ode An die Freude ("Ode To Joy"), an optimistic hymn championing the brotherhood of humanity.

Scholars disagree on Beethoven's religious beliefs and the role they played in his work. For discussion, see Beethoven's religious beliefs.

Beethoven the Romantic?

A continuing controversy surrounding Beethoven is whether he was a Romantic or a Classical composer. As documented elsewhere, since the meanings of the word "Romantic" and the definition of the period "Romanticism" both vary by discipline, Beethoven's inclusion as a member of that movement or period must be looked at in context.

If we consider the Romantic movement as an aesthetic epoch in literature and the arts generally, Beethoven sits squarely in the first half along with literary Romantics such as the German poets Goethe and Schiller (whose texts both he and the much more straightforwardly Romantic Franz Schubert drew on for songs) and the English poet Percy Shelley. He was also called a Romantic by contemporaries such as Spohr and E.T.A. Hoffman. He is often considered the composer of the first Song Cycle and was influenced by Romantic folk idioms, for example in his use of the work of Robert Burns. He set dozens of such poems (and arranged folk melodies) for voice, piano, and violin.

If on the other hand we consider the context of musicology, where Romantic music is dated later; the matter is one of considerably greater debate. For some experts, Beethoven is not a Romantic, and his being one is a myth; for others he stands as a transitional figure, or an immediate precursor to Romanticism, the "inventor" of the Romantic period; for others he is the prototypical, or even archetypal, Romantic composer, complete with myth of heroic genius and individuality. The marker buoy of Romanticism has been pushed back and forth several times by scholarship, and it remains a subject of intense debate, in no small part because Beethoven is seen as a seminal figure. To those for whom the Enlightenment represents the basis of Modernity, he must therefore be unequivocally a Classicist, while for those who see the Romantic sensibility as a key to later aesthetics (including the aesthetics of our own time), he must be a Romantic. Between these two extremes there are, of course, innumerable gradations.
Beethoven's grave in the Zentralfriedhof, Vienna.
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Beethoven's grave in the Zentralfriedhof, Vienna.

Listening to Beethoven's music yields another possible scholarly analysis: there is definitely an evolution in style from Beethoven's earliest compositions to his later works. The young Beethoven can be seen toiling to conform to the aesthetic models of his contemporaries: he wants to write music that is acceptable in the society of his days. Later, there is much more iconoclasm in his approach, like adding a chorus to a symphony, where a symphony had until then only been a purely instrumental genre. This means that the question changes from whether Beethoven was a classicist or a romantic, to: where is the pivotal moment that Beethoven tilted from dominant classicism to dominant romanticism?. Most scholars seem to concur: the presentation of the 5th and 6th symphonies in a single concert in 1808 is probably closest to that pivotal point. In the 5th symphony, he let a short pounding motto theme run through all movements of the composition (unheard of until then). Then the 6th symphony was the first example of a symphony composed as "program music" (what in Romanticism became standard practice), and it broke up the traditional arrangement of a symphony in four movements. Yet, after that, Beethoven still wrote his very "Classical" 8th symphony and some innocent-sounding chamber music for the English market. However, by the end of the first decade of the 19th century, Beethoven the romantic was without a doubt primary.

In contrast, Carl Dahlhaus argues that the evolution of Beethoven's style actually takes him past Romanticism to a place where he was separate from the music of his contemporaries. Dahlhaus points out that our understanding of Beethoven as a Romantic composer derives largely from Beethoven's early middle period, which contains the Symphony No. 3 and Symphony No. 5. Beethoven's impact on other Romantic composers, however, is taken largely from works between Ops. 74 and 97, of the second half of the so-called middle period. Dahlhaus argues that the tradition of Romantic music is essentially a tradition of Schubertian music, and that Beethoven's influence on Schubert is largely taken from Ops. 74 to 97. By the time Beethoven reaches the late period, he is such an individual as to be best understood as no longer belonging to the same genre as his Romantic contemporaries.

Piano solo

# Moonlight Sonata (file info)

* Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, 1st movement

# Pathetique Sonata (file info)

* Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, 1st & 2nd movements

# Opus 111, movement 1 (file info)

* Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, 1st movement

# Opus 111, movement 2 (file info)

* Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, 2nd movement

# Laendler in C Minor (file info)

* Hess 68

Orchestral
# Symphony 5, movement 1 (file info)

* From Symphony no. 5

# Symphony 5, movement 2 (file info)

* From Symphony no. 5

# Symphony 5, movement 3 (file info)

* From Symphony no. 5

# Symphony 5, movement 4 (file info)

* From Symphony no. 5

# Opus 62 (file info)

* Overture - Coriolan

# Piano Concerto 4, movement 1 (file info)

* Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, 1st movement

# Piano Concerto 4, movement 2 and 3 (file info)

* Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, 2nd and 3rd movement

Chamber
# Komm' o Hoffnung (file info)

* The Komm' o Hoffnung aria from Fidelio, performed by Alice Guszalewicz

# Opus 30, movement 1 (file info)

* Violin Sonata No. 6 in A major, 1st movement

# Opus 30, movement 2 (file info)

* Violin Sonata No. 6 in A major, 2nd movement

# Opus 30, movement 3 (file info)

* Violin Sonata No. 6 in A major, 3rd movement

# Opus 47, movement 1 (file info)

* Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major "Kreutzer", 1st movement

# Opus 47, movement 2 (file info)

* Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major "Kreutzer", 2nd movement

# Opus 47, movement 3 (file info)

* Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major "Kreutzer", 3rd movement

# Fugue in B Flat Minor, arranged for String Quintet (file info)

* From Well-Tempered Clavier (Book One) by Johann Sebastian Bach, Hess 38

路德维希·凡·贝多芬 （1770－1827） 伟大的德国作曲家、维也纳古典乐派代表人物之一。 贝多芬1770年12月16日生于莱茵河畔距法国不远的小城--波恩。他的祖父是波恩宫廷乐团的乐长，父亲是一个宫廷男高音歌手。贝多芬自幼便已显露出他的音乐天才，父亲急于把他培养成为一个象莫扎特那样的神童，从小就逼着他学习钢琴和小提琴，八岁时他已开始在音乐会上表演并尝试作曲，但是，他在这段时期中所受的音乐教育一直是非常零乱和没有系统的。
贝多芬全部资料
一、英雄交响曲

贝多芬的心中充满了自由、平等、博爱的理想，他是1789年法国资产阶级革命的热烈拥护者。1798年，柏纳多特将军(1763-1844)出任法国驻维也纳大使，贝多芬常到他的家里，并和他周围的人有密切的交往。1802年，贝多芬在柏纳多特的提意下，动手写作献给拿破仑的《第三交响曲》。在他的心目中，拿破仑是摧毁专制制度、实现共和理想的英雄。1804年，贝多芬完成了《第三交响曲》。正当他准备献给拿破仑时，拿破仑称帝的消息传到了维也纳。
贝多芬从学生李斯(1784-1838)那里得知这个消息时，怒气冲冲地吼道：“他也不过是一个凡夫俗子。现在他也要践踏人权，以逞其个人的野心了。他将骑在众人头上，成为一个暴君！”说着，走向桌子，把写给拿破仑的献词撕个粉碎，扔在地板上，不许别人把它拾起来。过了许多日子，贝多芬的气愤才渐渐的平息，并允许把这部作品公之于世。1804年12月，这部交响曲在维也纳罗布科维兹亲王的宫廷里首次演出。1805年4月在维也纳剧院的第一次公开演出，是由贝多芬亲自指挥的，节目单上写着：“一部新的大交响曲，升D大调，路德维希·凡·贝多芬先生作，献给罗布科维兹亲王殿下。”奇怪的是，贝多芬不说是降E大调，而说是升D大调。1806年10月总谱出版时，标题页上印着：英雄交响曲为纪念一位伟人而作。从此，《第三交响曲》就被称为“英雄交响曲”。

二、命运交响曲
贝多芬的《c小调交响曲》(作品67号)开始的四个音符，刚劲沉重，仿佛命运敲门的声音。这部作品因此被称作《命运交响曲》。《命运交响曲》作于1805至1808年。贝多芬在1808年11月写给他的朋友韦格勒(1765-1848)的信中，就已经说出：“我要卡住命运的咽喉，它决不能把我完全压倒！”“命运敲门的声音”在1798年所作《c小调钢琴奏鸣曲》(作品10之1)第三乐章中就已经出现过，以后又出现于《D大调弦乐四重奏》(作品18之3)第三乐章、《热情奏鸣曲》(作品57号)第一乐章、第三《列奥诺拉》序曲(作品72号)、《降E大调弦乐四重奏》(作品74号)等一系列作品中。可见，通过斗争战胜命运，是贝多芬一贯的创作思想。《命运交响曲》所表现的如火如荼的斗争热情，具有强大的感染力。西班牙女低音歌唱家马丽勃兰第一次听《命运交响曲》时，吓得心惊肉跳，不得不退席而去。拿破仑一个旧日的卫兵，听了第四乐章开头的主题，禁不住跳起来喊道：“这就是皇上！”柏辽兹把《命运交响曲》中惊心动魄的斗争场景，看作是“奥赛罗听信埃古的谗言，误认黛丝德蒙娜与人私通时的可怕的暴怒。”舒曼认为：“尽管你时常听到这部交响曲，但它对你总是有一股不变的威力——正象自然界的现象虽然时时发生，却总教人感到惊恐一样。”1830年五、六月间，门德尔松在魏玛逗留了两星期，和歌德作最后一次会晤，在钢琴上为他演奏了古今著名的作品。歌德听了《命运交响曲》的第一乐章后大为激动，他说：“这是壮丽宏伟、 惊心动魄的，简直要把房子震坍了。如果许多人一起演奏，还不知道会怎么样呢。”1841年3月，恩格斯听了《命运交响曲》的演出。他在写给妹妹的信中赞美这部作品说：“如果你不知道这奇妙的东西，那么你一生就算什么也没有听见。”他说，他在第一乐章里听到了“那种完全的绝望的悲哀，那种忧伤的痛苦”；在第二乐章里听到了“那种爱情的温柔的忧思”；而第三、第四乐章里“用小号表达出来的强劲有力、年轻的、自由的欢乐”，又是那么鼓舞人心。恩格斯用短短的几句话，揭示了《命运交响曲》的精髓。

(born Bonn, baptized 17 December 1770; died Vienna, 26 March 1827).
He studied first with his father, Johann, a singer and instrumentalist in the service of the Elector of Cologne at Bonn, but mainly with C.G. Neefe, court organist. At 11 ½ he was able to deputize for Neefe; at 12 he had some music published. In 1787 he went to Vienna, but quickly returned on hearing that his mother was dying. Five years later he went back to Vienna, where he settled. He pursued his studies, first with Haydn, but there was some clash of temperaments and Beethoven studied too with Schenk, Albrechtsberger and Salieri. Until 1794 he was supported by the Elector at Bonn but he found patrons among the music-loving Viennese aristocracy and soon enjoyed success as a piano virtuoso, playing at private houses or palaces rather than in public. His public debut was in 1795; about the same time his first important publications appeared, three piano trios op.l and three piano sonatas op.2. As a pianist, it was reported, he had fire, brilliance and fantasy as well as depth of feeling. It is naturally in the piano sonatas, writing for his own instrument, that he is at his most original in this period; the Pathetique belongs to 1799, the Moonlight ('Sonata quasi una fantasia') to 1801, and these represent only the most obvious innovations in style and emotional content. These years also saw the composition of his first three piano concertos, his first two symphonies and a set of six string quartets op.l8.

1802, however, was a year of crisis for Beethoven, with his realization that the impaired hearing he had noticed for some time was incurable and sure to worsen. That autumn, at a village outside Vienna, Heiligenstadt, he wrote a will-like document, addressed to his two brothers, describing his bitter unhappiness over his affliction in terms suggesting that he thought death was near. But he came through with his determination strengthened and entered a new creative phase, generally called his 'middle period'. It is characterized by a heroic tone, evident in the Eroica Symphony (no.3, originally to have been dedicated not to a noble patron but to Napoleon), in Symphony no.5, where the sombre mood of the c Minor first movement ('Fate knocking on the door') ultimately yields to a triumphant C Major finale with piccolo, trombones and percussion added to the orchestra, and in his opera Fidelio. Here the heroic theme is made explicit by the story, in which (in the post-French Revolution 'rescue opera' tradition) a wife saves her imprisoned husband from murder at the hands of his oppressive political enemy. The three string quartets of this period, op.59, are similarly heroic in scale: the first, lasting some 45 minutes, is conceived with great breadth, and it too embodies a sense of triumph as the intense f Minor Adagio gives way to a jubilant finale in the major embodying (at the request of the dedicatee, Count Razumovsky) a Russian folk melody.

Fidelio, unsuccessful at its premiere, was twice revised by Beethoven and his librettists and successful in its final version of 1814. Here there is more emphasis on the moral force of the story. It deals not only with freedom and justice, and heroism, but also with married love, and in the character of the heroine Leonore, Beethoven's lofty, idealized image of womanhood is to be seen. He did not find it in real life he fell in love several times, usually with aristocratic pupils (some of them married), and each time was either rejected or saw that the woman did not match his ideals. In 1812, however, he wrote a passionate love-letter to an 'Eternally Beloved' (probably Antonie Brentano, a Viennese married to a Frankfurt businessman), but probably the letter was never sent.

With his powerful and expansive middle-period works, which include the Pastoral Symphony (no.6, conjuring up his feelings about the countryside, which he loved), Symphony no.7 and Symphony no. 8, Piano Concertos nos.4 (a lyrical work) and 5 (the noble and brilliant Emperor) and the Violin Concerto, as well as more chamber works and piano sonatas (such as the Waldstein and the Appassionata) Beethoven was firmly established as the greatest composer of his time. His piano-playing career had finished in 1808 (a charity appearance in 1814 was a disaster because of his deafness). That year he had considered leaving Vienna for a secure post in Germany, but three Viennese noblemen had banded together to provide him with a steady income and he remained there, although the plan foundered in the ensuing Napoleonic wars in which his patrons suffered and the value of Austrian money declined.

The years after 1812 were relatively unproductive. He seems to have been seriously depressed, by his deafness and the resulting isolation, by the failure of his marital hopes and (from 1815) by anxieties over the custodianship of the son of his late brother, which involved him in legal actions. But he came out of these trials to write his profoundest music, which surely reflects something of what he had been through. There are seven piano sonatas in this, his 'late period', including the turbulent Hammerklavier op.106, with its dynamic writing and its harsh, rebarbative fugue, and op.110, which also has fugues and much eccentric writing at the instrument's extremes of compass; there is a great Mass and a Choral Symphony, no.9 in d Minor, where the extended variation-finale is a setting for soloists and chorus of Schiller's Ode to Joy; and there is a group of string quartets, music on a new plane of spiritual depth, with their exalted ideas, abrupt contrasts and emotional intensity. The traditional four-movement scheme and conventional forms are discarded in favour of designs of six or seven movements, some fugal, some akin to variations (these forms especially attracted him in his late years), some song-like, some martial, one even like a chorale prelude. For Beethoven, the act of composition had always been a struggle, as the tortuous scrawls of his sketchbooks show; in these late works the sense of agonizing effort is a part of the music.

Musical taste in Vienna had changed during the first decades of the 19th century; the public were chiefly interested in light Italian opera (especially Rossini) and easygoing chamber music and songs, to suit the prevalent bourgeois taste. Yet the Viennese were conscious of Beethoven's greatness: they applauded the Choral Symphony even though, understandably, they found it difficuit, and though baffled by the late quartets they sensed their extraordinary visionary qualities. His reputation went far beyond Vienna: the late Mass was first heard in St. Petersburg, and the initial commission that produced the Choral Symphony had come from the Philharmonic Society of London. When, early in 1827, he died, 10,000 are said to have attended the funeral. He had become a public figure, as no composer had done before. Unlike composers of the preceding generation, he had never been a purveyor of music to the nobility he had lived into the age - indeed helped create it - of the artist as hero and the property of mankind at large.