Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was a German

composer and pianist, who is arguably the defining
figure in the history of Western music.

Ludwig Van Beethoven was born in December 1770,

but no-one is completely sure on which date. He was
baptized on the 17th.

The earliest recorded piece that Beethoven composed

is a set of nine piano variations, composed in 1782.
Beethoven moved to Vienna in 1792, where he met influential composers like Haydn and began to compose in
earnest.

By 1796, he had begun to suffer from tinnitus and was losing his hearing.

Beethoven composed his Piano Sonata No. 14 ('Moonlight') in 1802.

The Third Symphony, known as the 'Eroica', was completed in 1804. It went on to redefine the symphony as a
genre.

The opening motif to the Fifth Symphony from 1808 is one of the most famous musical excerpts in history.

The 'middle period' of Beethoven's career also saw him compose piano works like the Waldstein and
Apassionata sonatas, as well as his only opera, Fidelio, which went through countless rewrites and revisions.

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, the 'Choral' from 1824, is another work of his that has remained infinitely
popular. It was the first time that a composer had used choral voices in a major symphony.
Ill health and increasing deafness caused a drop in productivity at the end of Beethoven's life, but he still
managed to produce important works like his 'Late Quartets' in 1825, which were wildly inventive for the time.

Beethoven died in Vienna on the 26th March 1827 after a long illness that has variously been attributed to
alcohol, hepatitis, cirrhosis and pneumonia.

Did you know?

Beethoven composed only one opera, Fidelio, which took years to get right. He re-wrote one aria no fewer than
18 times and came up with four different overtures before deciding upon the one he liked.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

Johannes Chrystostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus
Mozart (1756–1791) was arguably the most gifted
musician in the history of classical music.

His inspiration is often described as 'divine', but he

worked assiduously, not only to become the great
composer he was, but also a conductor, virtuoso
pianist, organist and violinist.
Mozart's music embraces opera, symphony, concerto, chamber, choral, instrumental and vocal music, revealing
an astonishing number of imperishable masterpieces.

Mozart was born in Salzburg, in 1756. Mozart's father, Leopold, was an ambitious composer and violinist.

Though he was and still is considered a genius, he was also tactless, arrogant and had a scatological sense of
humour.

Mozart composed his first opera, Apollo et Hyacinthus when he was only 11. A year later the Emperor Joseph
II commissioned him to write La finta semplice.

In August 1782 he married Constanze Weber. The Mozarts' marriage seemed to be a happy one. Constanze was
easy-going, free-spending and usually pregnant. Only two of their six children survived.

Post-marriage, some of Mozart's best started to appear -the Haffner and Linz symphonies and five string
quartets, for example.

Between 1784 and 1786, he composed nine piano concertos and three of these concurrently with The Marriage
of Figaro.

The year 1787 saw the premiere of Mozart's second opera, Don Giovanni.

Mozart had a great run of successes in his final years - Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and the Clarinet Quintet in A,
three of his 41 symphonies; Cosí fan Tutte, three piano trios, the Coronation piano concerto, two piano sonatas
and three string quartets.

His health began to fail and his work rate slowed in 1790. He got better, though, and in 1791 alone composed
the most famous The Magic Flute, the Requiem (unfinished), and the Clarinet Concerto.

Mozart did not live long enough to complete his Requiem. He died in Vienna, in 1791, before his 36th birthday.

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) was an Austrian
composer, one of the most prolific and prominent
composers of the Classical period. Haydn wrote 107
symphonies in total, as well as 83 string quartets, 45
piano trios, 62 piano sonatas, 14 masses and 26
operas, amongst countless other scores.

Life and Music

The son of a wheelwright and a local landowner's cook, Haydn had such a fine voice that at the age of five he
entered the Choir School of St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna.

His ethereal treble tones lasted until he was 16, a fact noticed by the Habsburg Empress, Maria Theresa, who
uttered her famous criticism: "That boy doesn't sing, he crows!". Haydn left the choir in memorable fashion -
snipping off the pigtail of one his fellow choirboys - and was publicly caned.
By the 1770s, Haydn's music had become more distinctive and boldly individual, inspired by a form of
heightened emotionalism known as 'Sturm and Drang' (storm and stress). The composer's reputation spread
rapidly throughout Austria, and commissions began arriving from abroad.

1790 saw the death of Prince Nicholas Esterházy, Haydn's employer since 1762, and the musically indifferent
Anton became the new Crown Prince. Haydn moved to Vienna and accepted an invitation from the great
German-born violinist and impresario, Johann Peter Salomon, to visit England (1791-1792), where he found
himself adored.

Prince Anton Esterházy died in 1795, and his successor, Nicholas II, requested Haydn's return to Esterháza. A
lover of church music, Nicholas set Haydn the task of composing a new setting of the mass every year.

In 1804, Haydn retired from Esterháza, and illness effectively prevented him from any further composition.
During May 1809, Napoleon reached Vienna, but Haydn stayed there, guarded respectfully by two of the
invader's sentries.

On 31 May 1809 Haydn died peacefully in his sleep.

Did you know?

The choirmaster at St Stephen's Cathedral suggested Haydn become a castrato, but his father objected and the
operation never went ahead, Haydn's voice broke the following year.

Classical composers
CLASSIFICATION OF INSTRUMENTS
Brass instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular
resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones or
labrophones, from Latin and Greek elements meaning 'lip' and 'sound'.

Percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including
attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar
instrument.

String instrument
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from
vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner.

Woodwind instrument
Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments.
Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of
woodwind instruments: flutes and reed instruments.

Trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in
classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group
ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest
register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet,
pitched one octave below the standard B♭ or C
trumpet.
The first known metal trumpets can be traced back to
around 1500BC. Silver and bronze trumpets were
discovered in the grave of King Tut in Egypt, and
other ancient versions of the instrument were found
in China, South America, Scandinavia, and Asia.

Snare drum
The snare drum is a percussion instrument that
produces a sharp staccato sound when the head
is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a
series of stiff wires held under tension against
the lower skin.
The first drum related to the snare drum was
created in Medieval Europe around 1300. This
was called the Tabor.

Guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that
typically has six strings. It is usually held flat
against the player's body and played
by strumming or plucking the strings with the
dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing
selected strings against frets with the fingers of the
opposite hand.

Guitar, plucked stringed musical instrument that

probably originated in Spain early in the 16th century, deriving from the guitarra latina, a late-medieval
instrument with a waisted body and four strings. 

Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument in the
woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly
cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single
reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family
of instruments of differing sizes and pitches.
The clarinet was invented in the 17th century
by Johann Christoph Denner, a German
instrument maker from Nuremberg.