♫
A friend in joy,
A friend in sorrow;
Music can delight,
Music can heal;
For Music is love.
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The lyrics of music,
Like enchanting nature;
Enthralls the world.
For Music is life;
The rhythm of the soul,
The very strand of life.
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How would life be without music?
A landscape without the sun,
A soundscape without any sound,
A mindscape without any magic,
A soul without a heartbeat.

Can anyone do without music? Not me definitely. The beauty of music is actually inexplicable. It is a free art form enveloping us in its soundscape, bringing transformation and growth by healing us, loving us, and uniting all of humanity due to its interconnectedness.

Man has absorbed the sounds in nature to form the language of music. Music was also a precursor to the spoken language; it was instrumental in shaping it. Earlier, the sounds in nature were mimicked for interpersonal communication. Later as man evolved over the ages, his brain too underwent changes and language was formed. These natural beautiful soundscapes; the original music were adapted to serve modern auditory soundscapes.

Listening to good music lifts our dismal spirits, calms our frayed nerves, energizes and motivates us to achieve our goals. It is the soothing balm of life; a respite for the weary; a retreat for the soul. Music transports us into a different world where we can glow in the warmth of sunshine, dance in the beautiful rain, walk through lush green meadows and even stay in a sweet little cottage with the backdrop of the mountains. It is the external manifestation of our internal feelings; the language of our hearts unhindered by any barriers of language or region.

Many music composers have rendered beautiful music and have left a deep impact in the world. Their music is a wonderful legacy for the future generations. One such great music composer whose compositions have touched a chord in our hearts and made our lives magical was Beethoven. According to him,

“Music is the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken.”

German composer and pianist, Ludwig Van Beethoven is considered as one of the giants of classical music; which is a well-established music in the West. Western Classical music has many forms; right from a solo to huge symphonic orchestras; from a sonata to an opera. Beethoven’s musical influence had a pivotal role in the transition from 18th century Classicism to 19th century Romanticism in Western art music. He is one of the most famous and influential of all composers, who made a profound impact on the subsequent generations of composers. The arrays of his compositions include Symphonies, Concertos, Sonatas and String Quartets. Besides these, he also composed chamber music, vocal, choral works and even an opera. He was an innovative genius who widened the scope of his work by a combination of vocals and instruments.

At the pinnacle of his fame, Ludwig Van Beethoven was recognized by the mightiest in the land, the Kings and Emperors, as the greatest among the greatest of all composers. It is said that, “If Bach is the mathematician of music, Beethoven is its philosopher.”

Beethoven’s musical compositions have an enormous reach and influence. To him, art had no limits and he created more than just a new musical style. His love and total belief in his music modified the century in which he lived and nothing was ever the same again after him.

Beethoven is sometimes referred to as one of the “three Bs” (the other two being Bach and Brahms) of the greatest composers in music history. Now let us compose ourselves and journey onwards to the beats of Beethoven’s life right from the note of his birth.

Beethoven’s family originated from the province of Flemish Brabant in Belgium. His father and grandfather were both court musicians. Beethoven’s grandfather was Lodewijk van Beethoven (b.1712), a musician from Mechelen, Belgium who moved to Bonn at the age of 20. Grandfather Lodewijk (Dutch for the German Ludwig) worked as a bass singer at the Elector of Cologne’s Court, and rose to become Kapellmeister (music director) eventually. He was a very prosperous and eminent musician in Bonn. He had one son, Johann (b.1740), who was also a Court Tenor singer and pianist. Music thus ran in the family. Johann Beethoven married Maria Magdalena Keverich (b.1746), on 12th November, 1767, in the Catholic St. Remigius Church in Bonn. Maria was the daughter of Johann Heinrich Keverich, head chef at the Court of the Archbishop of Trier. Johann and Maria gave birth to seven children – five sons and two daughters. Of these seven children, four unfortunately died before reaching adulthood and only three boys survived. Ludwig was their second child and the eldest among the surviving three.

Ludwig Van Beethoven was baptized on 17th December, 1770, as per the registry at the Parish of St. Remigius in the city of Bonn, in the Electorate of Cologne, in Germany. Hence, his date of birth is said to be the 16th of December since it was customary for baptism to be done a day after birth. Bonn was then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and a part of the Holy Roman Empire.

Ludwig’s father and mother were by nature diametrically opposite. His father, Johann, besides being rude and demanding, was a hard-drinker, while his mother Maria was sweet, gentle, and deeply moralistic. The situation at home affected Ludwig deeply. He did not have a happy childhood for though he adored his mother, he feared his father very much.

Ludwig’s grandfather gave him a lot of affection. Well, that is some compensation for the lack of affection from his father! He took him walking through the fields and valleys, talking about the different lively animals and the blooming fragrant flowers. One day, Ludwig’s grandfather made him sit on his lap. Being a musician himself, he was eager to make his little grandchild hear the names of renowned music composers. Ludwig’s grandfather told him, “Han-del”, “Ba-ch” and “Mo-zart” and smiled, looking at the innocent bewilderment on his face. Like every other grandparent who wishes the best for his grandchild, perhaps he wanted Ludwig to become a great musician like them! However, this beautiful association could not last forever, for in the year 1773, Ludwig’s grandfather passed away in his sleep.

Ludwig’s father worked in the Elector of Cologne’s Chapel. He dealt with his household and its members with an iron hand since they had to subsist on his paltry income of £ 30 per annum. In his spare time, he taught music and even though he did not have any great musical talent, the children of the nobility came to him for music lessons.

One day little Ludwig was turning the iron handle of the window shutters; the sound that it made attracted him and he began playing with it repeatedly. This was just the beginning of his musical affinity and he soon became absorbed in music.

About this time, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was being hailed as a ‘musical wonder’. But Johann Beethoven was inspired by the accomplishment of Leopold Mozart, the father of Wolfgang. Johann noted that Ludwig had the musical ability, hence he began to tutor him. Thus at the age of 4, Ludwig started to learn music from his father.

His father gave him music practice and exercises regularly. Ludwig learned everything – piano, violin and harmony lessons – quietly and readily, under his strict training. His father nurtured his talent, even seeing it as a source of income and envisioned creating another child prodigy, like Mozart.

The birth of Ludwig’s younger brothers, Caspar Anton Carl on 8th April, 1774, and Nikolaus Johann on 2nd October, 1776, added to Ludwig’s delight. Ludwig went to elementary school at 1091 Neugasse (Bonn). Later he went to Münsterschule and finally, Tirocinium, a Latin grade school. He was just an average student and a classmate of his once remarked, “Not a sign was to be discovered of that spark of genius which glowed so brilliantly in him afterwards.”

On 26th March, 1778, Ludwig Van Beethoven gave his first public performance at Cologne. This was at the age of 7, though his father had announced his age as six, for he wanted his son to be recognized as a child prodigy like Mozart. Though Beethoven gave an impressive recital, there was no press coverage.

By the age of 9, he had finished learning all that he had to learn from his father’s limited musical knowledge and teaching abilities. In order to groom his talent further, his father later put the young Beethoven under the charge of other local teachers. So Beethoven came under the notice of tenor singer Tobias Friedrich Pfeiffer and another local teacher Zambona. Pfeiffer who was a boon companion of his father’s, taught him the piano, while Zambona gave him general education with lessons in Latin, French and Italian. Court organist Gilles van den Eeden taught him to play the keyboard and Ludwig’s cousin Franz Rovantini taught him the violin and the viola.

Beethoven was a little over 30 years of age now. He was the musical genius and an idol of the Viennese, sought by the highest and the noblest in the land. With the turn of the century, Beethoven was struggling to hear the words spoken to him. He admitted his fear to his friends that he was slowly becoming deaf.Earlier, he did have some symptoms, but now they were without doubt grave! The thought that he was growing deaf! A depressing and horrid thought for anyone, but even more so for a musician whose life was music! Imagine not being able to listen to music - his passion in life?

Beethoven’s fear was proved true. Many doctors were consulted, many remedies tried, but there was no complete relief. In the search for a cure for his deafness, Beethoven tried all he could. From a village near Vienna, Beethoven wrote, “The fond hope I brought with me here of being to a certain extent cured, now utterly forsakes me. As autumn leaves fall and wither, so are my hopes blighted. Almost as I came, I depart. Even the lofty courage that so animated me in the beautiful days of summer is gone forever. O Providence, grant me one day of pure felicity. How long have I been estranged from the gladness of true joy? When, O my God, when shall I again feel it in the temple of nature and of man? Never! Ah! That is too hard.”

Pastor Amanda, a very good friend of Beethoven tried to console him but in vain. What was worse was Beethoven even grew ashamed of his deafness and implored those who knew of it to keep it under wraps. Within two years, Beethoven, the giant musician was almost totally deaf. In 1801, in a heart-breaking letter to his physician friend Franz Wegeler, Beethoven confessed, “My ears continue to hum and buzz day and night…at a distance I cannot hear the high notes of instruments or voices…I must confess that I lead a miserable life. For almost two years I have ceased to attend any social functions, just because I find it impossible to say to people : I am deaf. If I had any other profession, I might be able to cope with my infirmity; but in my profession it is a terrible handicap.”

Many a times, Beethoven suffered extreme melancholy due to his condition. From the seriousness in his boyhood, he had now grown into a complex man with personality disorders. He even had suicidal thoughts many times, but fate intervened in the form of a quote he read somewhere. As he said,

“If I had not read, that man must not of his own free will end his life, I should long ago have done so by my own hands...I may say that I pass my life wretchedly. For nearly two years, I have often already cursed my existence.”

At times he would be rude and violent, at other times kind and generous. He raised funds for the poverty-stricken only surviving child of Johann Sebastian Bach and made and donated new compositions for a benefit concert in aid of Ursuline nuns.

Beethoven’s temper is legendary. Stories abound as to how he threw hot food at a waiter, swept candles off a piano during a bad performance and how he may have hit a choirboy.

His intense temper played out even in his family life. Even though he had a fiery temper, Beethoven had many friends. Over time, he became absent-minded, greedy and suspicious to the point of paranoia. He feuded with his relatives, friends and business acquaintances – his brothers, his publishers, even his patrons and pupils were on the receiving end many times. Once he even tried to break a chair over his closest loyal friend and patron, Prince Lichnowsky’s head. Another time, at Prince Lobkowitz’s palace, he stood in the doorway and shouted for all to hear, “Lobkowitz is a donkey!”

Perhaps it was because of his preoccupation with the need to create good music and at the same time, losing the world of sound as a result of his deafness, that he became short-tempered. Inspite of it, his music drew admiration and respect for him. His renditions moved his listeners to tears. But to quote Beethoven, “Composers do not cry. Composers are made of fire.” His musical talent served as a shield for his sudden spurts of anger and impulsive behaviour.

Even in the face of this adversity, Beethoven did not lose faith in existence. The worsening of his handicap did not dampen his musical spirit. In fact, he brought forth some great Sonatas for Piano, like The Tempest (Piano Sonata No.17 in D Minor, Opus 31, No.2) and The Moonlight Sonata (Piano Sonata No.14 in C-sharp minor, Opus 27, No.2) during this time. The early period of Beethoven’s musical career culminated in the Second Symphony (Symphony No.2 in D major, Opus 36), a symphony in four movements, mostly written during his stay at Heiligenstadt, a small village on the banks of River Danube, in outer Vienna, in 1802. Beethoven moved to this village in April 1802, on his doctor’s orders to be in tranquil surroundings, away from the hustle-bustle of city life. “The Heiligenstadt Testament” was written at the end of this prolonged summer stay.

In The Heiligenstadt Testament, a letter written to his brothers dated 6th October, 1802, Beethoven described his trauma poignantly. In it he wrote, "O you men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me. You do not know the secret cause which makes me seem that way to you and I would have ended my life — it was only my art that held me back. Ah, it seemed impossible to leave the world until I had brought forth all that I felt was within me." The testament documented the fact that in despair, Beethoven did think of ending his life.

In early 1803, Ferdinand Ries came to Vienna from Bonn, since the court orchestra at Bonn had been disbanded after the dissolution of the Bonn Electoral Court by the French. He had brought along a letter of introduction from his father, Franz Anton, who had taught Beethoven in his early days. Ries became Beethoven’s pupil and also worked as his secretary and copyist. Once, when Beethoven was out on his favourite country walk with Ries, the pupil drew his master’s attention to the sound of the shepherd’s pipe, but alas! Beethoven was at a disadvantage to hear it. Beethoven has been quoted as having said,

"How great was the humiliation when one who stood beside me heard the distant sound of a shepherd's pipe, and I heard nothing; or heard the shepherd singing, and I heard nothing. Such experiences brought me to the verge of despair;--but little more and I should have put an end to my life. Art, art alone deterred me."

The years 1803-1812, are known as Beethoven’s “middle” or “heroic” period. During this period, he composed beautiful music, developing and enhancing the classical style into a complex, dynamic and original one. He composed an opera, 2 sextets, 4 solo concerti, 4 overtures, 4 trios, 5 sets of piano variations, 5 string quartets, 6 string sonatas, 6 symphonies, 7 piano sonatas and 72 songs. The most well-known among these are the symphonies No.3 – 8. Beethoven also wrote Romance for Violin and Orchestra No.1 in G major, Opus 40 and Romance for Violin and Orchestra No.2 in F major, Opus 50. These pieces were called romances for they had a light, sweet tone and could be sung as well as played.

The “Kreutzer Sonata” (Violin sonata No.9, Opus 47) was performed in 1803. Beethoven’s oratorio concert, “Christus am lberge” (Christ on the Mount of Olives, Op.85) portrayed the emotional turmoil of Jesus in the Gethsemane garden before his crucifixion. It was first performed on 5th April, 1803.

The “Eroica (Italian for “heroic”) symphony” (Symphony No.3 in E flat major, Opus 55), was a large-scale work with emotional depth and structural rigor. Eroica was initially dedicated in honour of a great man, Napoleon Bonaparte, the First Consul of France, who Beethoven admired, for he represented everything noble and glorious in humans. Napoleon had, with his own initiatives and daring, liberated men from tyranny and defied oppressive governments.

In May 1804 Napoleon proclaimed himself the Emperor of France. Beethoven was very angry at this and tore away the dedicatory title page of Eroica, exclaiming, “Is he then too nothing more than an ordinary human being? Now he too will trample on all the rights of man and indulge only his ambition. He will exalt himself above all others, become a tyrant.” Beethoven grew disillusioned with Napoleon and now abhorred him.

Later on, the title “Sinfonia Eroica, Composed to Celebrate the Memory of a Great Man” was inscribed by Beethoven. However, the Eroica Symphony was neither about Napoleon nor related to his memory. It was all about the beauty and structures of music. It was performed for the first time on 7th April, 1805. After the first performance of the Eroica, Haydn is said to have famously declared, “Music will never be the same again.”

Beethoven’s creative activity was intensified in these years. Many compositions like the “Coriolan Overture” and the well-known “Fur Elise” were composed by him. He taught music to many young, attractive students, and even fell in love with many of them.

One of his students was the Archbishop Rudolph, brother of the emperor, who also became his friend and ultimately one of his benefactors.

Beethoven also finished writing his only opera, “004Ceonore” during this time. He wrote and re-wrote four different overtures, and changed the name of the opera to “Fidelio”, though the composer was against it. “Fidelio” (Op.72) was a German opera in two acts. It opened before a small audience of French officers on the 20th of November, 1805, as Napoleon had captured Vienna for the first time. For artists, the arts have been an instrument for championing human rights. Beethoven’s music was also used to comment on the social issues prevailing then. Fidelio was set in Spain and told the story of a nobleman who threatens to expose the crimes of a politician and gets unjustly imprisoned in the process.

Beethoven’s single ‘Violin Concerto’ is regarded as the most exalted of all concertos for any instrument. It was much longer and complex than any such previous work. It eclipsed the earlier works in its composition of symphonic thought and expansiveness of gesture. Beethoven wrote the Concerto specifically for the virtuoso violin soloist Franz Clement. The Violin Concerto was deeply lyrical, with finely tuned phrases and poetry, all reflecting Clement’s special playing abilities.

Symphony No.5 in C minor, Opus 67 is one of the most popular compositions in classical music. Symphony No.6 in F major, Opus 68 is also known as the Pastoral Symphony and contains explicitly programmatic content. At the time it was composed in 1808, Beethoven’s personal life was in utter turmoil. His relationships were stormy and his growing deafness caused him much stress.

He really loved to spend time in the woods outside Vienna. He wrote in his diary, "How glad I am to be able to roam in wood and thicket, among the trees and flowers and rocks. No one can love the country as I do. My bad hearing does not trouble me here."

The astonishing and tremendous output of these years inspite of his growing deafness is nothing short of a miracle, and this period in Beethoven’s life is unparalleled in history by any other composer. The pains of real life got channeled into the beauty of his art. Art is said to be an outlet for depression and anxiety; and Beethoven activated this outlet, since to him, music was life, and his thoughts, feelings and ideas found expression in his musical art and flowed out creating beautiful sound waves.

In the fall of 1808, Beethoven was offered the position of Chapel Maestro at the Court of Jerome Bonaparte, the King of Westphalia and Napoleon’s brother. Prior to this, he had applied, upon Prince Lobkowitz’s advice, for a position as permanent composer of the imperial theatres in Vienna, but the aristocracy of Vienna did not accept his proposal. This had left Beethoven with feelings of resentment. The financial advantages which he could get at Kassel (the capital of Westphalia) made him want to accept the position. Hence Beethoven wished to leave Vienna in the year 1809. But his good friend, Countess Anna Marie Erdody, with the help of the Archbishop Rudolph, Prince Lobkowitz, and Prince Kinsky, kept him at Vienna. These men were wealthy admirers of Beethoven and they decided to give him 4000 florins as annual grant, so that he could live well without financial difficulties. The only condition they laid was that Beethoven should not leave Vienna. Beethoven accepted their offer. With the grant of 4000 florins, he became the world’s first independent composer. Earlier, even musicians and composers like Bach, Mozart and Haydn were part of the domestic staff in the houses of wealthy aristocratic families, with the additional work of composition and performance. On the contrary, Beethoven was a free man in respect that he could write at his own pleasure, whatever and whenever he wished.

Inspite of creating such beautiful music and having many friends, Beethoven led a lonely and miserable life. He was highly popular among women due to his musical talent and larger-than-life personality. However, he remained unmarried throughout his life though he was attracted to many women. It could be due to his extreme shyness or his not so fortunate physical appearance or his hearing disorder which affected his social interactions. His outbursts of anger and bad temper could also be one of the many reasons.

In the year 1812, Beethoven went for hydrotherapy at Teplitz, a Czech resort. It is here that he wrote “The Immortal Beloved”, his ardent letter to the woman he loved. Biographers and researchers have speculated much as to the identity of the mysterious woman, even proposing many amongst his students and friends as the recipient. Though Beethoven had a number of affairs in his life, he was ultimately said to be desperately in love with a married woman by the name of Antonie Brentano, who had broken up with him and married a friend. The Immortal Beloved, a beautiful love letter written over the course of two days in July 1812 is supposedly addressed to her.

It was in Teplitz that Beethoven got introduced to poet Johann von Goethe, by his companion Bettina Brentano in July 1812. Though the two great men admired each other, they did not understand one another. Goethe thought that Beethoven was “completely untamed” whilst Beethoven found Goethe “too servile”. Due to his admiration for Goethe, Beethoven put several of his poems to music. During the same time Prince Lobkowitz, one of Beethoven’s benefactors, fell into difficult times financially. Prince Kinsky, another benefactor, died after he fell from his horse and his descendant stopped the financial obligations given to Beethoven. Thus, Beethoven’s financial independence began to sink.

Around this time, Beethoven’s deafness reached a stage where he could no longer perform. This great calamity brought upon him many losses and he had to make several sacrifices, like giving up piano-playing and conducting. However, since the music lovers of Vienna clamoured to see and hear him, it was only until 1813 that Beethoven kept himself away from public pianoforte-playing. Beethoven did plan some orchestral concerts later but music to his ears seemed like “noise”.

Later, Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, the genius inventor from Czechoslovakia contacted Beethoven. Earlier too, Maelzel, the “Court Mechanician” had met Beethoven and helped him with his hearing by his creation of various devices – acoustic cornets, a listening system linking up to the piano.etc. Maelzel had also made the “pan harmonica” (or “pan harmonicon”), a mechanical instrument with the help of which Beethoven composed his work, “The Victory of Wellington” in 1813. Johann Maelzel was the one who invented the musical chronometer, which Beethoven loved very much. He composed a little canon to the words “Ta ta ta (indicative of the chronometer’s beat) lieber lieber Maelzel.” Maelzel later refined it to the metronome, a device that can be set to a specific pace to guide the musician. The metronome was the most significant instrument of all made by Maelzel for it helped evolve music. Beethoven took an immediate interest in it and noted conscientiously the markings on his scores, to enable himself to play his music as he wished.

In 1813, Beethoven first performed his composition The Victory of Wellington, a short single-movement work for orchestra. Another of his symphony, the Seventh was premiered on the same concert. The Victory of Wellington was also called sometimes as the “Battle” Symphony since it simulated the sounds of battle and was a celebration of British victory over Napoleon in the Peninsular War. The Victory of Wellington was written by Beethoven for a gala benefit concert in Vienna for Austrian and Bavarian soldiers wounded in the Battle of Hanau.

Beethoven led rehearsals and even played the piano till the year 1814. It is possible that he felt the “vibrations” of the music in his being and “heard” it. Around this time, Beethoven wrote the final version of “Fidelio”, his only opera, which was an eventual success.

Then the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) met, which brought together all the heads of European states to decide the future of Europe after Napoleon’s defeat. Beethoven’s glorious moments of pride came when he was invited to play many times, and won admiration and recognition for his compositions.

Kaspar Karl, Beethoven’s brother, died on 15th November, 1815. His brother’s decision to bestow guardianship of his son, 9-year old Karl to both, his wife, Johanna, and Beethoven, changed the course of 45 year old Beethoven’s life dramatically. As with his earlier roles of taking care of his brothers, Beethoven took this role also seriously. A bitter custody battle followed with his sister-in-law Johanna, over the custody of Karl van Beethoven, his nephew and her son.

Inspite of his complete deafness, his disorderly personal life and growing physical infirmity, Beethoven composed his greatest music in the late stage of his life. In 1823, along with ‘Missa Solemnis’, the Ninth Symphony was also almost finished. “Missa Solemnis”, a mass that debuted in 1824 is among his greatest late works. String Quartet No.14, containing seven linked movements played without a break is also among his finest achievements. His most towering achievement is the Ninth and final Symphony (Symphony No.9 in D minor, Op.125), which was completed in 1824. In the later years of his life, Beethoven rarely wielded the baton. However, he attempted to conduct the first performance of his “Ninth Symphony” on 7th May, 1824. After this performance in which a stone-deaf Beethoven led his band of dedicated followers, the scene that followed was one of pathos. The audience was giving a storm of applause since the piece had ended and the orchestra had stopped playing. Beethoven, oblivious to the same, continued conducting Vocalist Mdlle. Caroline Ungher, a famous 19th century soloist who was singing in the performance, took Beethoven by the hand then and turned him around to face the audience. The visual treat of thousands of hands clapping together, made Beethoven realize the tremendous effect of his captivating musical composition.

Symphony No.9; a complete piece, was a success and brought Beethoven some financial reward and relative stability in his last years. One of the most famous musical pieces in history, the anthem-like vigour of the choral finale and the concluding invocation of “all humanity” were inspiration for the masses. The symphony’s contrapuntal and formal complexity delighted music connoisseurs.

"There is no loftier mission than to approach the Divinity nearer than other men, and to disseminate the divine rays among mankind."

Beethoven had an extraordinary personality. He was a complex man with a genius mentality, made all the more remarkable due to the deafness with which he struggled throughout his life. His unquenchable thirst for making music left behind a legacy of delightful and captivating music.

Though he was lacking in social graces, he was very proud. With the passage of time, Beethoven’s absorption in his music grew to the point where he ignored his grooming too. Instead of washing in a basin, he would pour water over his head. On a country walk, he was arrested by a local policeman who mistook him for a tramp. Beethoven never allowed anyone to touch his manuscripts which were piled high in his room. He had four pianos without legs so that he could feel the vibrations of their music. Many a times, he would work in his most basic innerwear, or even in the nude, and the friends who came visiting would be ignored, since he did not like to be interrupted whilst composing.

A renowned critic of Beethoven has rightly said of the “Letters” containing his thoughts – they “give an extraordinary picture of the mingled independence and sensibility which characterized this remarkable man, and of the entire mastery which music had in him over friendship, love, pain, deafness, and any other external circumstance.”

Ludwig van Beethoven, widely considered as the greatest composer of all time, has attained cult status. The cult has spread through many levels of high, middle, and popular culture in music, art, television, and film. The Beethoven image, now all too commercially viable, is itself the subject of a sizeable literature. And no work has been more fertile in creating and maintaining this image than the Ninth Symphony.

He is the crucial transitional figure connecting the Classical and Romantic ages of Western music. His musical compositions stand along with the plays of the greatest playwright of all time, William Shakespeare, in terms of the peak of human accomplishment. What makes it an even more outstanding act of creative genius is the fact that Beethoven was deaf when he composed his extraordinary soul-stirring music. It perhaps draws a parallel in John Milton, who wrote ‘Paradise Lost’, while blind.

The musicians who preceded Beethoven sought only to please their social superiors and did not think independently. But with Beethoven, things changed. Beethoven used his intellect, had independence of thinking and raised the stature of the artist. He was a genius of a musician with an altruistic spirit. His music spoke to the intellect of mankind. Nature was used as a theme in much of his writing.

There is only one Beethoven, there can never be another like him. He has left his own indelible touch in his music. As he himself said, “I always have a picture in my mind when composing, and follow its lines.”Beethoven, the musician lives on in the musical legacy he has left behind. His music will forever awaken our senses, heal our psyche, soothe our fears and work miracles in us. The language of music cuts across all barriers and binds humanity with its ageless and timeless lyrics. Great maestros like Beethoven are born only once in a while to share with humankind the beautiful gift of creating music which they were blessed and endowed with.