In 1779, renowned musician Christian Gottlob Neefe was appointed the Court’s Organist. At the age of 10 years, in 1781, Beethoven stopped attending school and began pursuing his music studies full time under Neefe. Neefe became his most important teacher in Bonn. He gave him instructions in organ playing, musical theory and composition and also introduced him to the works of ancient as well as modern philosophers. It was through him that Beethoven was initiated to the music of the famous German composer, Johann Sebastian Bach.

The knowledge thus gained showed a marked improvement in Beethoven’s artistic ability, making his compositional talent soar up. On a short musical tour to Holland, Beethoven even earned some money. At the age of 11 years, he worked as Neefe’s deputy organist in the Elector’s Chapel at Bonn.

By 1782, he was playing his compositions very well and in that year, his first composition, “9 Variations in C Minor for piano”, a set of keyboard variations (Wo0 63) on a march theme by Earnst Christoph Dressler, an obscure classical composer, was published. Writing about his pupil Beethoven in the “Magazine of Music” in 1783, Neefe even prophesized proudly, “If he continues like this, he will be, without a doubt, the new Mozart.” In 1783, Beethoven was appointed as the accompanist or deputy conductor of the Opera band.

However, by this time, Beethoven had caught the eye of the Bonn folks. His first three piano sonatas, named “Kurfürst” (“Elector”), which was dedicated to the Elector Maximilian Frederick, were published in 1783. Elector Maximilian Frederick had noticed Beethoven’s talent early and encouraged his musical studies. In June 1784, he appointed Beethoven as second Court Organist, upon the recommendations of Neefe. From this year, Beethoven worked as a paid employee of the court chapel conducted by Kapellmeister (music director) Andrea Luchesi.

Elector Max Frederick passed away in 1784. His successor, Maximilian Franz, became the Elector of Cologne. Franz was the youngest son of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria and brother of Emperor Joseph II of Vienna. At that time, Elector Max Franz had even wondered whether to dismiss Neefe and appoint Beethoven instead as chief organist. Soon, the Elector formed a national opera after remodelling his band, and Beethoven played the viola in this opera. Anton Reicha (flutist), Franz Ries and Andreas Romberg (both violinists) were also members of this band. Beethoven was then 14 years old and his social circle changed. The widening of his social circle got him some friends for life - the Ries family, the Von Breunings, the charming Elenore, violinist Karl Amenda and Doctor Franz Gerhard Wegeler, who became a very dear friend.

Elector Franz increased his support for education and the arts. He continued with the reforms initiated by his predecessor, which was similar to his brother Joseph II’s reforms in Vienna, based on Enlightenment philosophy (the productive movement in which liberal reforms were imposed from above.) Neefe and others, including Beethoven were members of the local chapter of the Order of the Illuminati (1781-85), which was founded with the aim of improving man’s moral character, and support and promote knowledge independent of the Church – ideas closely related to freemasonry. Beethoven was most certainly influenced by the philosophical, religious and political changes in this period.

In the year 1787, the tutelage over, Beethoven and Neefe parted ways. Beethoven was just 17 years old then. In later years, Beethoven discounted both - the association and the instruction. The musical capital of the world, Vienna, beckoned Beethoven. Europe’s cultural capital was to become his home. Beethoven wished to meet Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Vienna and further his musical education. Beethoven’s patron, Elector Max Franz provided the necessary funds for the journey to facilitate his study.

A formal meeting of these sons of art took place. Beethoven played to an extempore theme so effectively that Mozart is said to have told his friends, “Pay attention to him, he will make a noise in the world some day.”

Yes, a lot of noise Beethoven did make later, but of the type that one would want to rewind and play again and again. The great unknown from Bonn had made the great Mozart, the musical world’s idol, speechless with wonder.

Just when one would now think that Beethoven would make good progress as a musician in Vienna, tragedy struck him. Life, as we all know, has a way of charting its own course for us when we are busy formulating our own plans. In the same way, Beethoven’s stay in Vienna was cut short when he received a letter informing him of his mother’s serious illness back home in Bonn. He went back to Bonn to see her and was at her bedside when she breathed her last on 17th July, 1787, after having suffered a long battle with consumption (tuberculosis). Beethoven was distraught at her death for he had a strong and loving relationship with her and referred to her as his “best friend.” Within some months, Beethoven lost his sister Maria Margaretha too.

For several years after that, Beethoven was constantly in a depressed state. In his letter to his friend, Dr. Von Schaden at Augsburg, Beethoven wrote, “She was indeed a kind mother to me, and my best friend. Ah! who was happier than I when I could still utter the sweet name of mother and it was heard! To whom can I now say it? Only to the silent form which my imagination pictures to me.”

Beethoven stayed back in Bonn as a court musician establishing his reputation as the city’s most promising young talent. With his mother’s death, his father’s drinking habits increased further till matters came to such a stand that the Court authorities stopped entrusting him with money. Since his father had now lost his livelihood, Beethoven had to shoulder the family responsibilities as well as take care of his two younger brothers. So, he petitioned to the Court to have himself made the legal head of the family. In 1789, the petition was granted and he also got half his father’s income to support his brothers. Also, even though he disliked teaching, Beethoven had to take recourse to it in order to manage home. He even played music in public occasionally. Thankfully, as a court musician, he had made many friends like the Von Breunings, Cresseners, Count Waldstein, the Archduke Rudolph, Baron van Swieten and others who extended their help to the family. The Breunings treated him as part of the family. With them, he acquired ways of a natural nobleman with the right culture and superior tastes. Count Waldstein was kind enough to present him with a pianoforte and the much needed hard cash.

Beethoven lived in the age of change – a period of great turmoil. The storming of the Bastille on July 14th, 1789, marked the beginning of the French Revolution. Its ideals of equality and free speech for all rocked Europe. Along with the political turmoil, there were many changes in the arts, science and societal structures. Literature and art flourished during this time.

The world of music was dominated in the 18th century by the Church. With time, music began to be enjoyed by the nobility and they even began learning to play musical instruments. Composers and musicians were servile to the nobility in those days. Beethoven challenged this attitude and remarked, “It is good to move among the aristocracy, but it is first necessary to make them respect.” At one time during a performance, when a nobleman started talking, Beethoven stopped playing his music and declared, “For such pigs I do not play!”

In Vienna, the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II died in 1790. Beethoven, then 19 years of age, was given the rare chance of composing a musical piece in his honour. However for some reason, it was never performed. Nearly a century later, well-known German composer and pianist, Johannes Brahms, discovered that the musical piece by Beethoven entitled “Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II, was in fact “beautiful and noble”. It is now considered as his earliest masterpiece.

The musical genius Mozart died in 1791. The very next year, in 1792, Beethoven’s father too passed away. In the same year, the French revolutionary forces swept across the Rhineland into the Electorate of Cologne. Beethoven decided to make his second visit to Vienna to study with Joseph Haydn, who was then regarded as the greatest composer alive. Prince Elector had taken note of young Beethoven’s exceptional talent and wished that he pursue his musical education in Vienna, and once again sponsored it. Beethoven had finally made up his mind and left the Rhine (Bonn) for good – leaving his home, his friends and Babette Koch, the charming daughter of the proprietress of ‘Zehrgarten’, where he used to have his meals. The political changes that took place in Germany as a result of the French Revolution compelled the change of plans. Beethoven’s two younger brothers also followed him to Vienna, and he took on the role of a father and educator for them.

Talent truly knows no boundaries. In the fascinating city of Vienna, Beethoven got the chance to hone his musical talents. He got some excellent teachers – the eminent musicians of the age; he grasped the nuances of the piano with Franz Joseph Haydn,

counterpoint and theory with Johann Albrechtsberger and vocal composition with Antonio Salieri. Violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh taught the 22 year old Beethoven violin lessons. Though Beethoven was at that time one of the prodigious piano players, his poetic mind was yet to unleash its grandeur and sublime supremacy.

   Beethoven could remain with Haydn only for two years, since in 1794, Haydn, who is called “The Father of Symphony” left Vienna for England. Beethoven however did not regret the parting since he felt that Haydn did not give him much attention. The two maintained their friendship although their relationship as student-teacher failed.

In Vienna, Beethoven soon established his reputation as a virtuoso pianist, adept at improvisation. This role was perfect for him since many from the Viennese aristocracy were his patrons and they provided him with the necessary lodging and funds, thereby giving him the security of income and stay.

Since he had already made his mark as a composer and pianist, many of the music-loving Viennese aristocracy who were devoted to art rallied around him. During these times, Beethoven’s temperamental attitudes started to show. Even a fiery temper, a disheveled look, and difference in social status could not prevent the wealthy dilettanti (people with amateur interest in the arts)from showering the choices of favours upon him. Beethoven’s patrons included the Archduke Rudolph (the youngest son of Emperor Leopold II, the Holy Roman Emperor), Prince and Princess Karl Lichnowsky (of Vienna), Prince Lobkowitz (a native of Bohemia), Prince Kinsky (of Bohemia), Count Waldstein (his first great patron since his Bonn days), the Breunings (his family friends) and many more. He played and dedicated music to his patrons and freely mixed with them in their houses as if they were his own.

On 29th March,1795, Beethoven gave his first public performance as a young adult of 25 years in Vienna, where each musician played his own work. Beethoven’s earlier performances were at palaces and mansions and his fame had reached the public. They clamoured to hear Beethoven. This performance was at a charity concert in aid of the widows and orphans of musicians and was supported by the Artists’ Society in the Burg Theatre. Beethoven played his “first” piano concerto in C major and made a tremendous impact in the world of music and in the eyes of the Viennese people.

He ended up making the Austrian capital of Vienna his permanent residence.

Soon afterwards in the same year, Beethoven published a series of three piano trios as his “Opus I” – the three trios for pianoforte, violin and violoncello, which won huge critical and financial success for him. It was dedicated to Prince Karl Von Lichnowsky. The late Mr. Ella (Founder and Director of the Musical Union, predecessor of the Popular Concerts) described it as “a veritable chef d’oeuvre of originality, beauty, symmetry and poetical imagery.” Haydn first heard Beethoven’s Opus I played at Prince Lichnowsky’s in front of the amateurs as well as the artists of Vienna. Haydn felt that the C minor Trio was “music of the future”, not suited to the present time. Hence, he advised postponing the publication of the C minor Trio. Beethoven took offence and thought that Haydn was just plain jealous.

Even Beethoven’s association with Albrechtsberger, the famous contrapuntist, was short-lived. The master wanted discipline and the pupil could not put up with it and hence inn 1795 they drifted apart. Thus Beethoven’s tutelary experiences reached an end. Music composers Antonio Salieri and Emanuel Aloys Forster, a Silesian, helped him with their knowledge, but there was no more regular study under any master.

Beethoven visited Prague, Nuremberg and Berlin in 1796, and Prague once again in 1798. He spent the rest of his time in Vienna, his beloved city where he had made many acquaintances. He was much admired and loved by the aristocracy and the music lovers of Vienna.

The world of music is a world of delight; it encompasses mankind. Beethoven reveled in this highest form of art and expressed himself in it. However, around 1798, at the age of 28, came the first signs of his loss of hearing. This was just before he wrote his first symphony. The years around 1800 is traditionally called the early period of his musical career. In this early period, he was still trying to master the high classical style.

On 2nd April, 1800, in the first spring of the new century, Beethoven gave his first Akademie (benefit concert) in the Royal Imperial Court Theatre in Vienna beside the Burg. The presentation of his first symphony (Symphony No.1 in C major) was done here. This graceful and melodious classical work by a young Beethoven showed that he was already charging into new ground with his music and was becoming one of Europe’s most celebrated composers. However, due to the rivalries between the artistes engaged for the show, the performances were not up to the mark. In later years however, Beethoven disliked this piece saying, “In those days I did not know how to compose”. Yet the years 1800 and 1801 were creatively active ones for Beethoven.

In 1801, a boy named Czerny became Beethoven’s pupil. Czerny, under Beethoven’s tutelage learnt a lot and  Beethoven regarded him almost as a son.

As the new century progressed, Beethoven’s musical compositions scaled high with maturity, marking him as a masterful composer. In 1801, his “Six String Quartets” were published. The quartets exhibited his complete mastery of this very difficult and cherished of Viennese forms developed by Mozart and Haydn. Beethoven also composed “Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus” (The Creatures of Prometheus), a wildly popular ballad in the same year. It was performed 27 times at the Imperial Court Theatre.

Misfortune struck Beethoven in 1801 when Maximilian Franz, the Elector of Cologne, who was one of his patrons, passed away. With his demise, the bounty which he bestowed upon Beethoven also stopped. And therefore, Beethoven now began to work as a means for daily sustenance.

From 1816, the late period of Beethoven’s musical career began. Though the music of this period is less dramatic and more subtle, it also sounds mature and secure. The clear attitude and genius of age is heard here.

Carl Czerny, an earlier student of Beethoven, became young Karl’s music teacher in 1816. He however did not find as much talent in Karl as Beethoven hoped for. At this time Beethoven ended his cycle of lieder “To the distant loved one”, and drafted the first theme for his Ninth Symphony.

Beethoven lost his hearing completely in the last decade of his life. To a composer of beautiful music, losing the sense of hearing – a sense that matters most to a musician, was perhaps the most shocking and depressive truth, a challenge he had to confront and rise from. Yet he managed to compose some works during this time.

In 1818, the Archduke Rudolph became the Cardinal. Beethoven then began composing his mass in D, a rich work, though it was never ready for the intonation. In the meantime, the legal battle between his sister-in-law and himself went on for seven years leading to ugly defamations on both sides. Finally, Beethoven won the custody for his nephew Karl. But as someone who could not hear and was at best only a single parent to Karl, he found it difficult to understand the growing needs of a child and then a young man. Numerous troubles came up due to the generation conflict and it was hard for Beethoven to win the boy’s affection.

In 1822, Italian composer Gioachino Rossini triumphed in Vienna and his operas were a rage with the audiences. He met Beethoven but due to his deafness and the language barrier, they could exchange only a few words in writing. The Viennese composer thought Italian opera lacked seriousness and tolerated it only in moderation.

This late period of Beethoven’s life showed lack of funds since his former patrons could no longer support him. Beethoven had financial problems and whatever money he had saved, he used it for his nephew Karl. However, the relationship between Beethoven and his nephew Karl was tense and troubling.

Later, the period of the last quartets of Beethoven’s music began, which are difficult to interpret even for the audiences of today. He began to compose his tenth symphony.

Beethoven transported his listeners to seventh heaven with the divine sounds of music he composed. It is easy for anyone with an ear for music to empathize with him on his great misfortune. In his letters, Beethoven has written, “I will grapple with fate; it shall never drag me down; I will seek to defy my fate, but at times I shall be the most miserable of God’s creatures.”

In 1825, Theodore Frederic Molt, a German musician who was living in Montreal then, went to pay his respects to Beethoven in Vienna. Beethoven presented Molt with a canon (a tiny composition), which is a type of polyphony (the use of two or more musical lines at the same time), on a scrap of paper. Molt returned to Quebec with Beethoven’s canon but after Molt’s death it was not to be found. It was found after a hundred years and more in New York City.

The creative strength of Beethoven burst forth breaking all restraints and asserted itself in his music in a way that otherwise might not have been demonstrated. At this time he had written, “I live only in my music.”

On 30th July, 1826, unable to cope with the tense atmosphere at home, his nephew Karl sought escape from it. To his distressed mind, suicide seemed to be the best escape route for him to get away from the family animosity. He tried to commit suicide, but was fortunately found in the nick of time and taken home to his mother to recuperate. He was later hospitalized and given religious instruction to inculcate positivity in him and bring back his zest for life.

In October 1826, as he was putting to finish his last complete string quartet, Opus 135, the journey of a lifetime weighed down heavily upon the music maestro. Beethoven had a premonition that he would not survive this illness. During his last illness, his nephew Karl reconciled with him.

At this time, Beethoven’s youngest brother, Nikolaus Johann was staying in the Lower Austrian village of Gneixendorf near Krems. He invited Beethoven to his country estate “Wasserhof”, to escape the wagging tongues of society in the aftermath of Karl’s attempted suicide. Though initially Beethoven refused, but later when Nikolaus called the second time, he went there with his nephew Karl, after the latter’s return from the hospital in the fall of 1826.

Whilst his stay there, Beethoven composed the last complete piece of music he was ever to compose: the replacement final movement for the Late Quartet Opus 130 (in place of the Grosse Fuge). The brothers had frequent rows and Beethoven’s stay at the estate was tension-filled, compounded by his failing health.

After having argued again with his brother, Beethoven returned from his brother’s estate in an open wagon to Vienna in November 1826. He was struck with pneumonia by the time he reached home. This further complicated his already existing health problems. Beethoven now was suffering more than ever from his physical and psychological infirmities and thought nostalgically of his youth. He acknowledged this in a letter written to his childhood friend from his Bonn days, physician Franz Gerhard Wegeler on 7th December, 1826:

"If we drifted apart, that was due to the nature of our lives. Each of us had to pursue his intended purpose and seek to attain it. Yet the eternally unshakable foundations of what is good always held us strongly together....my beloved friend!...I need hardly tell you that I have been overcome by the remembrance of things past and that many tears have been shed while the letter was being written."

The sick and ageing composer’s nostalgic vision of his past – his early years at Bonn and the fond memories of old friends were revealed in his letter. In January 1827, when Beethoven wrote his will, Karl became the sole beneficiary of his estate.

Music to a musician is his heart and soul…and Beethoven was not able to listen to his own heart and soul…his music. Can there be anything more tragic than when an artist is not able to hear his art; listen to his soul speak? The loneliness and depression he must have had is palpable.

Beethoven became bedridden for most of his remaining months. He was never to fully recover from this. During his last days, whilst on the threshold of imminent death, Beethoven summed up his life by a tag line that Latin plays at the time concluded with. He said, “Plaudite, amici, comoedia finitaest.” It means “Applaud friends, the comedy is over.”

In the late afternoon of 26th March, 1827, Beethoven was surrounded by his closest friends on his bedside. The sky became dark and a lightning flash lit Beethoven’s room suddenly. A loud thunder clap followed it. Opening his eyes, Beethoven raised his fist and fell back dead. He was 56 years old. Beethoven had to carry the terrible burden of deafness to the grave. His last words were “I shall hear in Heaven.”

During autopsy, it was revealed that there was post-hepatitic cirrhosis of the liver. This was due to his addiction to alcohol. The auditory and other related nerves were also considerably dilated. The autopsy also provided clues to the origins of his deafness, tracing it to his contraction of typhus in the summer of 1796.

The composer’s body was blessed by nine priests. His funeral took place three days later on March 29 in the Währing cemetery, north-west of Vienna, after a requiem mass at the church of the Holy Trinity (Dreifaltigkeitskirche). Stephan and Gerhard von Breuning along with eight leading Austrian musicians were the pallbearers. Austrian composer Franz Schubert, who greatly admired Beethoven, was one among them. Soldiers had to control the grieving crowd of twenty thousand people who had lined the streets to pay their respect to their beloved composer. The funeral prayer was from a poem by Franz Grillparzar, a great writer. It was read by actor Heinrich Anschütz in front of the doors of the Wahring cemetery. The final part of the prayer was quite prophetic:

“He who comes after him will not follow in his footsteps; he must begin anew, for this innovation has finished his life's work at the limits of art."

Beethoven’s remains were later transferred to Vienna’s Central Cemetery. His grave is marked by a simple pyramid on which one word has been written - “Beethoven”.

Beethoven’s life had been like a grand symphony with music playing a strong role in the notes of his life, however the circumstances. He left behind a legacy of music which uplifts every soul. As Beethoven remarked once to his benefactor Prince Karl Lichnowsky directly,

“Prince, you are what you are, through the accident of birth; what I am, I am through myself. There have been and there will be thousands of princes; there is only one Beethoven.”

In 1862, Beethoven’s remains were exhumed for study and moved to Zentralfriedhof in Vienna in the year 1888. There has been considerable dispute regarding the cause of Beethoven’s death. Locks of his hair were clipped by friends and visitors during his last days and after his death. The analyses of these hair clippings as well as the skull remains which were exhumed in 1862 have led to the hypothesization that Beethoven through the excessive doses of lead-based treatments by his doctor was accidentally poisoned to death. But these findings were mostly discredited.

Canadian music composer and violinist, Alexander Brott’s composition ‘Paraphrase in Polyphony’ has an interesting story behind it, relating to Beethoven. The scrap of paper on which Beethoven had presented German musician Theodore Frederick Molt with a canon, a tiny fragment of music in 1825, was found in New York City in the year 1966. Alexander Brott, who was in Montreal learned about this discovery. After examining Beethoven’s canon, he wrote his ‘Paraphrase in Polyphony’, a 20-minute full-length composition, which has an excerpt based on this canon.

‘The Moonlight Sonata’, the second of two sonatas making up Opus 27, is one of Beethoven’s most popular compositions. When poet Ludwig Rellstab said that it reminded him of moonlight rippling on the waves of Lake Lucerne in Switzerland, it became known as the ‘Moonlight Sonata’. This was much after Beethoven’s death.

“You will ask me where I get my ideas. That I cannot tell you with certainty; they come unsummoned, directly, indirectly,--I could seize them with my hands,--out in the open air; in the woods; while walking; in the silence of the nights; early in the morning; incited by moods, which are translated by the poet into words, by me into tones that sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.”

Simply put, an artist sometimes cannot really explain how the inspiration into drawing a certain sketch, compose a certain musical note, or a piece of prose or poetry develops. They come in flashes of insight at any time; sometimes even in the state of dream and compel the artist, musician, writer or poet to include it in their art; just as it did for Beethoven.

In the mid 18th century, symphonies conformed to the structural rigidity and rationality of form. The genre’s humble beginnings consisted of three small movements of about ten to twelve minutes. Through his nine symphonies, Beethoven changed the concept of what a symphony should be like. He extended the time frame and formal dimensions of his symphonies. While his Third Symphony lasted about 50 minutes, the Ninth Symphony ran over an hour. Beethoven added more instruments, the harmonic language he created was much bolder and helped to heighten the emotional intensity of his symphonies, each of which is a masterpiece. Even among these, the Third, Fifth, Sixth and the Ninth are ranked as the greatest.

Beethoven’s First Symphony was brought out at the turn of the century. His symphonies had a novel and indescribable feel. Beethoven’s Symphony No.3 ‘Eroica’, his most original and grandest work till date, was completed in the year 1804. It was unlike any music composed before and even after weeks of rehearsals, the musicians were at a loss how to play it. Eroica showed the structural beauty of music; how notes are formed into musical and groups of cells, phrases, paragraphs and high edifices in sound. Eroica was proclaimed by an eminent reviewer as “one of the most original, most sublime, and most profound products that the entire genre of music has ever exhibited.”

When Symphony No.5 was created in 1808, it was a “modern” work of art for those times. It is now the world’s most popular symphony played countless times. In the opening movement, there wasn’t even a single hummable tune. Listeners instead were left gasping under the concentrated intense onslaught of the famous “da- da- da-daaah”- a four-note rhythmic cell which unfolded with great energy. Such was the emotional impact of Beethoven’s music.

Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral) is also one of the world’s greatest symphonies. It was also composed in 1808 and showed Beethoven’s love for the beautiful countryside. One of the turbulent forces of nature, the storm was given apt rendition here. This symphony showcased one of the most famous storms in music history. It began with the falling of a few raindrops, the gushing of wind, and then the heavens bursting open, sending rain down in torrents. The lashing of the wind and the flashes of lightning were depicted very well. Trombones were used here and also the shrill piccolo and the undering timpani (drums). Perhaps this was Beethoven’s way of showing the passage of the wave of deafness in his life, which started gradually and ended up in a turbulent storm, depriving him of listening to his love; beautiful music.

Beethoven’s Third Symphony did break records, but his Symphony No.9, which premiered in Vienna in 1824, went a lot further. Its cosmic scope embraced the whole world with the immensity of its elemental power, the appeal of its grandeur and the unity of the universal human spirit. It delivered a musical –cum-textual message with the use of a chorus and four vocal soloists; longing for universal brotherhood, joy and peace. This was a special feature which had never before been attempted in a symphony. The “Ode to Joy” by the German poet and dramatist Freidrich von Schiller was an inspiration to Beethoven and he adapted some of its stanzas. The Western world is very familiar with the chorus song – the main theme of the final movement. Though the song sounds naturally simple, Beethoven had to practice nearly twenty versions, changing, sustaining and repeating notes wherever required till he was happy with the end result.

The Ninth Symphony of Beethoven continues to touch the hearts of the people of the world. His Ninth Symphony rang out at the Tiananmen Square protests by students in Beijing, China in 1989. Its rendition was also done during the dismantling of the Berlin Wall in Germany in 1990. The power of music in changing people’s lives is immense and the Ninth Symphony has become a symbol of unity and of love.