BEETHOVEN, ba'to-ven, LUDWIG VAN (1770 1327). A German composer, the greatest master of the classical school. He was born December 16, 1770, at Bonn. His father was Johann van Beethoven, tenor singer in the Chapel of the Elector of Cologne, who had married Maria Mag dalena Laym, a widow, the (laughter of a cook, manned liewerich, at the Elector's palace. The father's income was small (about $150), and lie began Ludwig's musical education at four years. in the hope of making money with him as a musical prodigy. The boy's talent was obvious. Van den Eeden and Neefe were among his teach ers. Neefe employed the eleven-year-old boy as his assistant at the organ in the Elector's Chapel, and prophesied that he would become 'a second Mozart.' In 1734 he was appointed second Court or ganist, with a salary of about $75. At this time several music lovers in Bonn, among them the von Breunings, extended aid to the family on account of the interest they took in the boy, and in 1787 the Elector Max Franz paid his traveling expenses to Vienna. There he met Mozart, who was so surprised by the boy's powers of improvisation that, stepping softly into the next room, he whispered to his friends: "Mark him well; some day he will make a stir in the world." Beethoven was summoned from Vienna to his mother's deathbed. Her loss was a severe blow to him. His father, shiftless and a drunkard, had been a hard taskmaster, but his mother had been kind and gentle; "my best friend," he calls her in one of his letters. Beethoven now began to give lessons, and to play occasionally in pub lic. Notwithstanding hisf unplensing home sur roundings, he must have had natural refine ment, for he became intimate in several families of high standing. his early friends included, be sides the von Breunings, Archduke Rudolph, Baron Van Swieten, and Count. Waldstein. These names, and those of future intimates, are found among his dedications (e.g. the Ra sonmowsky Quartettes, the Waldstein Sonata).
From this period dates an early love affair with Babette Koch, the pretty daughter of the proprietress of the Zehrgarten. She subsequent ly became Countess Belderbuseh. Ths affair terminated in 1792, when the Elector sent Bee thoven teVienna, where he became a pupil of Haydn and Albreehtsberger in theory and com position, and of Schuppanzigh in violin.
With Haydn he studied Fux's Grains ad Par nassum, and there exist over 200 of his exer cises, only 42 of which Haydn corrected. Neither the latter nor Albrechtsberger appreciated his pupil. Beethoven asserted that he had not learned anything from Haydn. Haydn criti cised the three pianoforte trios (Opus I.). at least one of which, the C minor, is a master piece, in a manner which betrayed his lack of sympathy, and advised against their publica tion; Albrechtsberger despaired of Beethoven because his originality often asserted itself by breaking away from rule and rote. Such dis regard of tradition was characteristic. His friend and pupil, Ferdinand Ries, relates that he once called the composer's attention to eon sceutive fifths in the C' minor Quartet, and in the discussion which followed enumerated vari ous theorists who forbade them. "They have forbidden them!" cried Beethoven. "Well, I allow them." With Schuppanzigh he got along very well, and when later the violinist became very fat, Beethoven playfully dubbed him 'My Lord Falstaff.' The trios, Opus I., were played at Prince Lichnowski's, one of the noble patrons whom the composer had already found in Vienna. In his association with these noblemen, Beethoven always preserved his independence of character. He considered that his genius made him the equal of any one. Once, when the `van' before his name had been mistaken for a mark of nobility, he placed his hand successively to his bead and over his heart with the exclama tion, "My patent of nobility is here, and here!" Prince Lobkowitz having at a rehearsal ventured a remark which Beethoven considered igmorant, the composer, after the rehearsal, •ran into the courtyard of his patron's palace and shouted, "Ass of a Lobkowitz! Fool of a Lobkowitz!" Self-reliance was an equally conspicuous trait of his character. His brother Johann, whose wealth had made him arrogant, once called on Beethoven, and, not finding him at home, left his card: