Ludwig van Beethoven

Read the text below and underline the words you don't know (done in class 23rd April 2014).

Look for their meaning in a monolingual or bilingual dictionary.

  Most people who like classical music would say that Ludwig van Beethoven

(1770-1827) was one of the greatest composers in history.

  He was born in the German city of Bonn, but spent most of his life in Vienna, the capital of Austria.

  His father, a musician in Bonn, encouraged him to play and compose music when he was a child. The young Beethoven showed clear signs of being a musical genius, giving a public piano performance at the age of eight and then publishing his first musical composition when he was twelve.

  One of the most well-known facts about Beethoven is that he started losing his hearing when he was twenty-something, and later became completely deaf. Amazingly, however, this did not stop him composing.  

  In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, most composers worked for the Church or for royal courts, but Beethoven sold his music to publishers and also received money for playing the piano in public concerts.   As a young man he often had money problems, which became worse when his deafness stopped him playing the piano, but later in his life, after becoming very famous, he received financial support from rich aristocrats.

  Beethoven also suffered from depression, caused partly by his deafness and partly by problems in his personal life – for example he wasn’t able to marry the woman he loved because she was already married. In his thirties he almost committed suicide, but after choosing not to end his life he began working harder than ever, producing wonderful pieces of music such as his Eroica symphony.

  Beethoven had a lot of strange habits, such as having a shower many times a day but wearing clothes that were dirty, and he always seemed to get into arguments with people, but he also had many good friends through his life.

  He had strong political beliefs. He supported the democratic ideals of the French Revolution (1789) and dedicated the Eroica to Napoleon Bonaparte, the leader of France.

Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F).

1. Beethoven did not always have a lot of money. TRUE

2. Although he composed a lot of music, he never learned to play the piano. FALSE

3. He composed most of his music early in his life, before he began to suffer from depression. FALSE

4. He had not friends. FALSE

5. His father was not interested in music. FALSE

6. For most of his life he composed music for the Church. FALSE

7. He was already beginning to go deaf when he published his first musical composition at the age of twelve. FALSE

8. He was an adult when he almost committed suicide. TRUE

9. He wrote the Eroica symphony for a woman he loved.  FALSE

10. He often wore dirty clothes.  TRUE (always)