Studio Lied

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)

What is fame?
Why is someone famous in his or her own time?
Why do some of those same individuals continue to be famous while others fade into history?

How do you get just one name? Madonna, Elvis, Picasso, Beethoven?

Whether or not you are a classical music lover, Beethoven is familiar to you. The composer of one the most famous musical mottos, tah-tah-tah -- dah in musical history has left a legacy that has crept into the collective unconscious of our culture. Even if you do not know to whom to attribute this most popular cell phone ring, the name Beethoven has become synonymous to us with heroic tragic genius.

But why does Beethoven come to have such fame? In our day and in his? Why did the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart say of the 15-year-old Beethoven to a friend "Keep your eyes on him. Someday he will give the world something to talk about." Why did more than 10,000 people come to his funeral? Why, a century after his death, did the architect Frank Lloyd Wright call him "the greatest architect"?

We will look at this enigma - fame - and suggest three aspects to consider - talent, circumstance and genius. While there are many individuals who can lay claim to infamy, having your name in the headlines for a few months or a year, lasting fame is something altogether different.

Talent

Born to greatness? Coming from a musical family, Beethoven was identified at an early age as having great musical talent. Born in Bonn, Germany in 1770, by age eight he was studying both violin and viola. By 11, he was taking organ lessons and had begun to compose, and by the age of 12, he completed and published his first compositions, three piano sonatas. By 16, having won recognition for his performances and compositions, he had moved to Vienna to study with Franz Joseph Haydn.

While his early recognition was a result of his virtuoso playing of the piano, he was lionized and remembered as a composer. Part of the brilliance of the composer Beethoven was that, while he took seriously his studies of traditional classical forms, from the beginning, his work contained a passionate voice that spoke to the heroic nature of the human spirit.

Circumstance

Is it Fate? While there are many great talents, not every one is destined to capture the imagination of the age in which they live. As we look at how fame relates to culture, we must understand the time in which talent lives. The new century began with great expectations, certain with the knowledge of the coming victory of humanity over tyranny and ignorance. It seemed as if the entire world was aflame with the possibilities causing William Wordsworth to write in The Prelude, "Europe at that time was thrilled with joy, France standing on top of golden hours and human nature seeming born again."

While Beethoven was not trying to write a soundtrack for his age, his style was perfect for the times in which he lived. He came of age at the end of the Classical period, and as a composer served to usher in the Romantic period. Where the Classical period stressed the importance of symmetry and form in the arts, the Romantic period celebrated the triumph of the individual. However, not only does Beethoven embody this spirit in his music, his life is an example of the Romantic notion of the individual overcoming overwhelming odds to achieve greatness. Most of his great works he never heard because by 1818, he was deaf.

Suspected to have been caused by a "dangerous illness." perhaps typhus, in his twenties he started to experience a gradual degeneration of the auditory nerves. Before the attack, Beethoven had "unusually keen and delicate" hearing. By the age of 30, he was noticeably impaired, as he lost first the high tones, and then loud noises became unbearable. A continual ringing, buzzing or ache accompanied all of this. Afraid of the effect this would have on his career if it were known, he asked his friends to keep this a secret. He had to retire from the performance stage, and close to suicide, he retreated to a village called Heiligenstadt.

Genius

Craft or Luck? Some of his greatest work came during the time he realized he was losing his hearing and after he was completely deaf. Diligence does not always produce genius, but it can certainly lay the path. A serious student for his entire life, he was methodical in his craft. A friend quotes him as saying, "I carry my thoughts about for a long time before I set them down. My memory is so faithful that I am sure not to forget a theme that I have once conceived, even after years have passed. I make many changes, reject and reattempt until I am satisfied. Then the working-out in breadth, length, height and depth begins in my head."

Perhaps the defining characteristic between talent and genius is courage. Beethoven stretched classical forms to the limit, not for innovation's sake, but because he needed them to convey interior states and events never before described in music. His work traces the progress of his own soul over a period of 30 years. This progress, continual evolution of his work, leads musicologists today to look at his career in three distinct periods: early, middle and late. Contrary to legend, Beethoven did not toss off symphonies while he pined away in a garret. He reached his many accomplishments through careful contemplation, continuing to push himself beyond his last works' success. Beethoven exhorted himself in his diary, "Courage! . . . Nothing must remain undone!"

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