Did you know that Ludwig van Beethoven composed 722 works, but only 138 of them carry opus numbers? Opus numbers are actually work numbers assigned by Beethoven’s publishers during his lifetime. The basic question is, why on earth did Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) may have written only nine symphonies (a pittance compared with Haydn’s 104 and Mozart’s 41), but in those nine works, he managed to thoroughly expand a form that might have become a bit too complacent. From

Before Ludwig van Beethoven became one of the greatest composers in history, he was a child prodigy pianist from Bonn, Germany. Born into a musical family, his father helped train him as a musician…but also subjected him to horrific abuse.

Ludwig van Beethoven’s impact on classical music is impossible to overstate. Born in 1770, Beethoven redefined what music could be. He managed that redefinition by rewriting formal boundaries, finding new ways to express emotion, and making a living in a

Beethoven may be the most famous composer in history…which means that many people have many questions about him. For instance, was Beethoven German? Did he really study with Mozart? Who was his “Immortal Beloved”? And most importantly of all, how

Ludwig van Beethoven was one of the greatest composers who ever lived, but he was also a human being, and one who was famously prickly. Friends, rivals, patrons, and even family members often found themselves embroiled in sundry fights and

Ludwig van Beethoven is often remembered as a solitary genius: a composer who wrestled with fate, revolutionised music, and struggled through tinnitus, deafness, and depression to create some of the most influential works in the Western canon. But Beethoven didn’t

In a previous article, we looked at how Debussy, Satie and Ravel changed the direction of music, one would say, forever. If they were all contemporaries of each other, and interacting with each other would have directly influenced the development