Beethoven and other German composers

No country in the world has presented to mankind as many great composers as Germany. Traditional ideas about the Germans, as the most rational and pedantic people, are falling apart from such a wealth of musical talents (however, poetic too). German composers Bach, Handel, Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Schubert, Arf, Wagner are far from a complete list of talented musicians who have created an incredible number of musical masterpieces of various genres and trends.

German composers Johann Sebastian Bach and Johann Georg Händel, both born in 1685, laid the foundations of classical music and brought Germany to the "forefront" of the musical world, where the Italians reigned supreme. Bach's brilliant work, not fully understood and recognized by contemporaries, laid the powerful foundation on which all the music of classicism later grew.

The great classical composers J. Haydn, WA Mozart and L. Beethoven are the brightest representatives of the Viennese classical school - directions in music that developed in the late 18th - early 19th centuries. The very name of "Viennese classics" implies the participation of Austrian composers, which were Haydn and Mozart. Later they were joined by Ludwig van Beethoven, a German composer (the history of these neighboring states is inextricably linked).

The great German, who died in poverty and loneliness, has acquired an age-old glory for himself and his country. German composers-romantics (Schumann, Schubert, Brahms and others), as well as modern German composers such as Paul Hindemith, Richard Strauss, who have gone far from classicism in their work, nevertheless recognize Beethoven's enormous influence on the work of any of them.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Beethoven was born in Bonn in 1770 in the family of a poor and drinking musician. Despite his pernicious habit, his father was able to see the talent of his eldest son and began to teach him his music. He dreamed of making Ludwig the second Mozart (Mozart's father successfully demonstrated his "miracle child" to the public from the age of 6). Despite the cruel treatment of his father, who forced his son to work all day, Beethoven passionately loved music, by the age of nine he even "outgrew" him in performing, and at eleven - became an assistant to the court organist.

At 22, Beethoven left Bonn and went to Vienna, where he took lessons from the very Maestro Haydn. In the Austrian capital, then a recognized center of world music life, Beethoven quickly gained fame as a pianist virtuoso. But the works of the composer, filled with violent emotions and drama, were not always appreciated by the Viennese public. Beethoven, as a person, was not too "comfortable" for others - he could be something sharp and rude, sometimes wildly cheerful, somber and gloomy. These qualities did not contribute to the success of Beethoven in society, he was considered a talented eccentric.

Beethoven's tragedy is deafness. The disease made his life even more withdrawn and lonely. It was painful for the composer to create his own genius creations and never hear them perform. Deafness did not break the strong spirit master, he continued to create. Being already completely deaf, Beethoven himself conducted his brilliant symphony with the famous "Ode to Joy" by the words of Schiller. The power and optimism of this music, especially given the tragic circumstances of the composer's life, still amaze the imagination.

Since 1985, Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" in the processing of Herbert von Karajan was recognized as the official anthem of the European Union. Romain Rolland wrote about this music: "The whole humanity extends its hands to heaven ... rushes towards joy and presses it to its chest".