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AGE 4 - 5 [1775]

Compiled by Gary D. Evans

Last Updated: March 25, 2019 6:47 PM



The Earliest Years: 1775 (age 4-5)

Beethoven's Grandfather, also named Ludwig van Beethoven (1712-1773) was a musician from what is now Belgium. At 20 years old he moved to Bonn where he was employed as a bass singer in the court of the Elector of Cologne. The grandfather continued to rise in the court, becoming the music director by age 49 (1761), by which time he was an acclaimed musician.

Beethoven's grandfather married Maria Josepha Poll in 1733 at the age of 21. Of the three children born to them, only one survived - Johann (1740-1793). As Johann grew, he also demonstrated a talent for music and eventually earned a living singing as a tenor and providing lessons on the keyboard and violin. His mother, Beethoven's grandmother, suffered from alcoholism and was eventually institutionalized for that condition. Being raised by Beethoven's domineering grandfather was a strain for the submissive Johann, but at age 28 years (1767) he met and married - to the disapproval of Beethoven's grandfather - Maria Magdalena Keverich, the daughter of the head chef at the court of the Archbishop of Trier.

Three years later, on December 16, 1770, a few years after their first born died at 6 days of age, Beethoven was born (12/16/1770). Two other surviving children were born 4 and 6 years later. He and his two younger brothers, Caspar Anton Carl (4/8/1774), and Nikolaus Johann (10/2/1776) survived into adulthood.

Beethoven showed a remarkable aptitude for music early on. His father - an alcoholic who did not hold a high level of esteem within his family - provided his first formal instruction beginning at the age four or five. Several people witnessed Johann's treatment of Beethoven, the young child at the time:

"He conducted his son's musical education in a brutal and willful manner. There is unequivocal testimony on this. Head Burgomaster Windeck 'saw the little Loiuis van Beethoven in [the] house standing in front of the clavier and weeping.' Cacilia Fischer remembered him as 'a tiny boy, standing on a footstool in front of the clavier, to which the implacable severity of his father had so early condemned him.' Fetis interviewed a childhood companion of Beethoven's who reported that 'Beethoven's father used violence when it came to making him start his musical studies, and ... there were few days when he was not beaten in order to compel him to set himself at the piano.' Wegeler witnessed 'the same thing'; he wrote that on his visits to a neighboring house, 'the doings and sufferings of Louis were visible.' The father was not merely strict, but cruel. 'He treated him harshly . . ., ' wrote Count Councillor Krupp to Simrock, 'and sometimes shut him up in the cellar.' " [Beethoven, by Maynard Solomon 1979 - pg16]

Beethoven's musical instruction was later (1779) supplemented by: Johann's friend and drinking buddy, Tobias Friedrich Pfeiffer, who taught him keyboard; Bonn court organist Gilles van den Eeden; and a relative, Franz Rovantini, who taught him to play the violin and viola. Beethoven's lessons at this time are described as harsh and intensive, including late-night instruction of the sleepy Beethoven.  Johann -- well aware of the child prodigy Mozart being promoted by his family -- posted notices of Beethoven's upcoming first public performance (3/1778) stating that the boy was six years old, when he was actually seven at the time.

Beethoven's mother, who was described as intelligent and serious, tolerated her husband's heavy and chronic drinking, along with his frequent absences, with apparent equanimity.



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

DATE
?
Age 4-5: Father began teaching piano. Whenever seated at piano, became very focused, forgetting about food or drink or friends. Became greatest joy to accompany father in a song. [nwsltr v8#2p38]
Sept 30
B's grandmother Maria Josepha died.