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Beethoven, pronounced BAY toh vuhn, Ludwig van (1770-1827), was one of the greatest composers in history. His most famous works include the third (Eroica), fifth, sixth (Pastorale), and ninth symphonies; an opera, Fidelio; and his religious composition Missa solemnis.

Beethoven has had a great influence on music. He won for composers a new freedom to express themselves. Before his time, composers wrote works for religious services, to teach, and to entertain people at social functions. But people listened to Beethoven's music for its own sake. As a result, he made music more independent of social, religious, or teaching purposes.

Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany, on Dec. 16, 1770. He showed musical talent at an early age and learned to play the violin and piano from his father, Johann. Johann hoped to make Ludwig a gifted child like the famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. At the age of 11, Ludwig became assistant to the organist of the local court. In 1783, he first accompanied opera rehearsals at the keyboard. From 1788 to 1792, Beethoven played viola in the local theater orchestra.

Beethoven's father developed a severe drinking problem. His mother died in 1787. Beethoven found relief from his difficult family life when he became the tutor of the two children of the von Breuning family. The children's mother was a kind, well-educated woman who introduced Beethoven to important people in Bonn.

Beethoven visited Vienna in 1787. There, he played for Mozart and probably took a few lessons from him. Mozart is quoted as saying: "He will give the world something worth listening to." Beethoven also met Count Ferdinand Waldstein, who became his lifelong friend and often helped his career. In 1792, the composer Joseph Haydn, who was in Bonn, praised one of Beethoven's compositions and encouraged him to visit Vienna. The Elector (ruler) of Cologne sent Beethoven to Vienna later that year. He was welcomed into the homes of many of Vienna's leading noblemen. Except for short trips, he stayed there the rest of his life.

Many great composers of the day, even Haydn and Mozart, were treated as employees by the people who bought their music. However, Beethoven associated as an equal with royalty and the nobility. They paid him for his works, but they knew and admired him as a friend rather than as an employee.

Beethoven began to lose his hearing in the late 1790's. From about 1800, this increasing deafness changed his personality. Beethoven had always been proud, independent, and somewhat odd. But as he lost his hearing, he became more suspicious and irritable. He became totally deaf during the last years of his life, but his deafness did not hinder his composing. However, it did reduce his normal social life.

Beethoven's life took on added bitterness because of his unhappy relationship with his brothers Johann and Karl. The two quarreled frequently with Beethoven. Some scholars blame the two brothers for the trouble, but Beethoven himself was very difficult to get along with. Karl died in 1815, leaving a 9-year-old son. The boy became Beethoven's ward, but this relationship also turned out badly. Beethoven did not have the disposition to be a father and the young man rebelled against him, causing Beethoven much grief. Beethoven caught a serious cold at the end of 1826, which developed into pneumonia and then dropsy. He died on March 26, 1827.

Beethoven's works for orchestra include nine symphonies, five piano concertos, a violin concerto, and several overtures. His chamber music consists largely of 16 string quartets; 5 string trios; 9 trios for piano, violin, and cello; 10 violin sonatas; and 5 cello sonatas. His piano works include about 35 sonatas, more than 20 sets of variations (musical themes repeated with changes), and several smaller pieces. His vocal works consist chiefly of the opera, Fidelio; a song cycle, An die ferne Geliebte, and many other songs; several short pieces called cantatas; and the Mass in C major and the Mass in D major (Missa solemnis).

Throughout his life, Beethoven was guided by a basic optimism and a faith in moral values. These always dominated his music, although darker moods and a grim struggle usually preceded the joy typically found at the end of his compositions.

Beethoven's sketchbooks show that he worked out his compositions with great care, tirelessly revising his themes and altering the shapes in which they appeared. This process often went on for many years before he was satisfied with the details and the overall form of his ideas. This painstaking workmanship is evident in the first movement of the fifth symphony and in the Hammerklavier Sonata, Op. 106. Such compositions show Beethoven's belief in the serious nature of his mission and the immortality of his work--a novel belief at that time.

The first period of Beethoven's composing career extended from the late 1780's to approximately 1800. Beethoven's works during this period also show some dependence on older composers, especially Haydn, Mozart, C. P. E. Bach, and Christian Neefe, one of his teachers in Bonn. These works, nevertheless, show individuality in the careful way they are written and their strong melodies.

The second period, from about 1800 to 1815, was Beethoven's most productive period. He wrote his third through eighth symphonies, the last two piano concertos, his violin concerto, and many chamber pieces. In addition, Beethoven wrote 14 piano sonatas, including the Moonlight Sonata, the "Waldstein," and the "Appassionata."

Beethoven's music has become familiar on most concert programs today, but early in his own career his works aroused much controversy. He greatly expanded and changed traditional music forms such as the symphony. The force and strength of these works confused some critics, who found many of Beethoven's compositions impossible to understand. In his third symphony, the Eroica, he revealed the ideal of heroism that he thought Napoleon symbolized. His audiences could not understand this work at first. However, the power and nobility of Beethoven's music came to be widely recognized and praised before he died.

In Fidelio, Beethoven was inspired by the story of a wife's devotion and courage in rescuing her husband from unjust imprisonment. In this opera, Beethoven praised the ideals of freedom, dignity of the individual, and heroism overcoming tyranny--ideals characterizing the French Revolution. Fidelio gave Beethoven more trouble than any of his other works. Beethoven revised it twice, and wrote four overtures before he was satisfied. He found himself restricted by the demands of composing for the stage and may have felt that writing operas was unsuited to his talents. Fidelio displays dramatic force, but its mood and meaning are expressed more by music than by action.

The third period includes several important works. The Missa solemnis is one of the most moving of religious compositions. The ninth symphony glorifies the ideal of human brotherhood that flourished in the late 1700's. In his last piano sonatas and string quartets, Beethoven created a new and personal world of expression. These works carry a feeling of great power and mysterious complexity. Yet Beethoven gave these works a lyrical quality expressed with touching simplicity.

The works of the second period had tremendous influence on the romantic composers of the early 1800's. But the works of the third period were not fully understood until later, partly because they were extremely difficult to perform. In his quartets and sonatas, Beethoven tried to include complicated musical structures and fugues--short themes imitated or repeated by different instruments according to strict musical rules. These works demanded entirely new qualities of sound from the string quartet and piano. His compositions of the last period had a vital influence on the composers of the 1900's, notably Arnold Schoenberg and Bela Bartok.

Beethoven belongs to both the classical and romantic eras of music history. In his skillful musical motives (brief themes), he was a master of classical techniques. Bee-thoven also explored the new and more mysterious qualities of tone that attracted the romantic composers. Beethoven's music suggests meanings without making them specific.

Because of this constant feeling of hidden significance, Beethoven was regarded in the 1800's as one of the founders of musical romanticism. It became fashionable to invent or "discover" stories that would explain the meaning of his instrumental works. Beethoven set this fashion by attaching descriptive titles such as "Pastoral" to some of his works. The ninth symphony in particular seems to endorse the notion that his instrumental music was striving for some definite meaning, since its final movement uses the words of an ode by the German writer Friedrich Schiller.

To the romantic composers of the first half of the 1800's, this suggestive but indefinite property was the most attractive feature of Beethoven's instrumental music. However, the more realistic composers of the later 1800's regarded this indefinite style as a fault. This style made the realistic composers turn away from sonatas, quartets, and symphonies toward opera and program (descriptive) music.

To both romantic and realistic composers, however, Beethoven correctly appeared as the composer who had first realized the full potential of instrumental music. He had sustained large, independent works of art from beginning to end with a convincing and highly varied flow of emotion. Yet the unity of each musical work did not rely on this psychological development or on an external course of action. Such unity always rests on the organization and interrelationships of the music itself. This was the classical and major part of Beethoven's accomplishment. Like Haydn and Mozart, Beethoven expressed emotion without sacrificing formal balance.

Bach, pronounced bahk, Johann Sebastian (1685-1750), a German composer, is considered the greatest genius of baroque music. A highly complex and dramatic style, baroque music reached its peak in the early 1700's. Like most art of the baroque period, baroque music emphasized continual motion. In his compositions, Bach brought such musical techniques as counterpoint and fugue to their greatest heights. Counterpoint is the playing of two or more melodies at one time. Fugue is a composition in which different instruments repeat the same melody with slight variations. See BAROQUE (Baroque music); COUNTERPOINT; FUGUE.

Bach's career is one of the wonders of music. In addition to supporting a large family and fulfilling his many duties as a musician and conductor, he wrote hundreds of compositions, including nearly 300 religious and nonreligious choral works called cantatas.

Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany, on March 21, 1685. His parents died before he was 10. He then lived with his older brother, who taught him to play the clavichord and harpsichord. Young Bach studied music until 1703, when he joined an orchestra at Weimar as a violinist. He then became an organist, first at the New Church in Arnstadt from 1703 to 1707, and then at the Church of St. Blaise at Muhlhausen in 1707 and 1708. In 1707, he married his cousin Maria Barbara. They had seven children before she died in 1720. Four of his sons also had distinguished careers as composers: Wilhelm Friedemann (1710-1784), Carl Philipp Emanuel (1714-1788), Johann Christoph Friedrich (1732-1795), and Johann Christian (1735-1782).

Bach apparently was a devoted father, but outside the home he could be short-tempered when faced with incompetence or opposition. In both Arnstadt and Muhlhausen he quarreled with his employers, and he was happy to return to Weimar in 1708.

Bach worked in the court of the Duke of Saxe-Weimar for nine years as court organist and chamber musician. His duties included composing music for religious services and he wrote many church cantatas. He also wrote some of his finest organ works there. But Bach quarreled with the duke and left the court in 1717. From 1717 to 1723, he served Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cothen as director of music. The religious services at this court were simple, and did not require much music. Therefore, Bach could devote himself to composing nonreligious instrumental music.

In 1721, Bach married Anna Magdalena Wilcken, a professional singer. They had 13 children. Bach moved to Leipzig in 1723 and spent the rest of his life there. He became the director of music for St. Thomas's School, which provided music for churches in the city. About 1740, he developed serious eye trouble, and in his last years he was nearly blind. He died of a stroke in 1750.

Bach was a devout Lutheran, and his religious feeling is reflected in his works. With many other baroque composers, he felt almost everything people do and believe is religious. Many of these composers felt baroque music and art helped protect people against the advance of doubt bred by the Renaissance ideas of scientific, rational inquiry. Bach often wrote I.N.J., for the Latin words meaning In the Name of Jesus, on the manuscripts of even his nonreligious works.

The people of Bach's time appreciated him as an organist, but generally ignored his compositions. His complete works fill about 60 volumes, but only 9 or 10 of his compositions were published during his lifetime. The people of his time considered his complex baroque compositions too elaborate. Instead, they preferred a simpler, more lively style. His reputation as a composer was not firmly established until 1829, when the German composer Felix Mendelssohn revived his "Passion According to St. Matthew."

Bach did not concern himself with writing much on musical theory, and did not experiment with or originate new forms. He composed in almost all of the musical forms of his day except opera. His skill covered the widest range of musical combinations--dramatic and intimate, and from the most complex counterpoint to the simplest chords. He always tried to convey meaning and avoid mere showiness. He used a kind of musical shorthand in his works, in which the chords formed from the bass part were indicated by figures. This is called figured bass or, in Italian, basso continuo.

Bach carefully based each movement of his work on a characteristic mood such as joy, and tended to maintain the mood more consistently than later composers, including Beethoven. Bach's love of counterpoint influenced the most simple and most complex of his pieces. He frequently restated a melody by imitation, repeating it in a higher or lower voice than in the original melody. Bach also used a constant unit of rhythm through a given movement. His works mixed the national music styles of his day, chiefly French, Italian, British, and German.

Bach was convinced that through his music he could serve his church, his community, his principality, or his patron. As a result, his works not only provided enjoyment for listeners, but they also had instructional value for the musicians who performed them. The choirs that performed his works were small, usually about 12 people, some of whom sang solo parts. The instrumental ensembles he used were also small. Thus Bach concentrated on creating a sense of spiritual, rather than physical, bigness.

The First Period (1703-1708) consists of works written in Arnstadt and Muhlhausen. These somewhat loosely organized works show the influence of the composer Dietrich Buxtehude (see BUXTEHUDE, DIETRICH). Bach's cantata Gottes Zeit, intended to be performed at funerals, is a strong, expressive work of this period.

The Second Period (1708-1717) consists of works composed at Weimar. There, Bach wrote many brilliant organ works and several cantatas in the northern European style. But some of his works reflect the concentrated clarity of the Italian style. Bach's famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor was written during this period.

The Third Period (1717-1723) consists of works written at Anhalt-Cothen. Most are instrumental compositions, written for solo or ensemble (group) performance. Bach completed Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier in 1722. Book I and Book II (completed in 1744) each have 24 preludes and fugues, written in each of the 12 major and 12 minor keys. He incorporated more Lutheran hymns into his works, as in the set of organ chorale preludes called the Little Organ Book.

Bach completed the six Brandenburg Concertos in 1721, and dedicated them to the ruler of the province of Brandenburg. He also wrote four Orchestral Suites, or Overtures, six sonatas and partitas for solo violin, and six suites for solo cello. He wrote French Suites for the harpsichord. His arrangements of his own or Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi's solo violin concertos for keyboard instead of violin with orchestra show his growing ability to use counterpoint to increase the substance and texture of such works.

The Fourth Period (1723-1745) consists of works written at Leipzig. These are principally works for chorus and orchestra, but also include significant collections of solo instrumental works. His cantatas of this period show more organization than his earlier works.

Bach's great sense of telling a story dramatically without stage properties or settings is demonstrated in the form and imaginative breadth of The Passion According to St. John (1723) and The Passion According to St. Matthew (1729). In these, Bach relied on a narrative story more than he did in his sacred cantatas. Even the Christmas Oratorio, a series of six cantatas written in 1734, is more a series of Christmas meditations than a narration of the Christmas story. Bach's secular cantatas, including the Coffee Cantata, depended more on plot narration than did the religious cantatas. Bach often illustrated episodes by using melodies or chords to describe an event like the crowing of a cock or a physical or spiritual occurrence like an ascent into heaven.

Bach's Mass in B minor adapted certain operalike forms to religious purposes, expressing a universal idea of Christianity. A close relationship between worship and musical study also can be seen in Bach's Keyboard Practice, which includes his Concerto in the Italian Style; the monumental Aria with 30 Variations, known as the Goldberg Variations; and six partitas for harpsichord.

Bach showed astonishing ability to carry to maturity compositional types he treated in his earlier years. He composed the Mass in B minor about 15 years after he wrote the splendid Magnificat (1723). Book II of the Well-Tempered Clavier presented in a less unified form the systematic succession of keys found in Book I. He also composed his concertos for one, two, three, or four harpsichords during this period. Most of these works are arrangements of earlier concertos for melody instruments with orchestral accompaniment.

The Fifth Period consists of works from Bach's last five years. These compositions display strong unity of organization and were usually based on one melody. The major works include Canonic Variations on a chorale "Von Himmel hoch," Musical Offering, and The Art of Fugue. This last work, left unfinished, contains 18 individual sections arranged in progressively greater complexity, but all based on one melodic line.

Mozart, pronounced MOHT sahrt, Wolfgang Amadeus, pronounced am uh DAY uhs (1756-1791), an Austrian composer, is considered one of the greatest and most creative musical geniuses of all time. With Joseph Haydn, he was the leading composer of the classical style of the late 1700's. Mozart died before his 36th birthday, but he still left more than 600 works.

Click the picture to hear a Mozart Composition

Mozart was born in Salzburg. His father, Leopold, was the leader of the local orchestra, and also wrote an important book about violin playing. At the age of 3, Wolfgang showed signs of remarkable musical talent. He learned to play the harpsichord, a keyboard instrument that preceded the piano, at the age of 4. He was composing music at 5, and when he was 6, he played for the Austrian empress at her court in Vienna.

Before he was 14, Mozart had composed many works for the harpsichord, piano, or the violin, as well as orchestral and other works. His father recognized Wolfgang's amazing talent and devoted most of his time to his son's general and musical education. While serving as his teacher, Leopold took Wolfgang on concert tours through much of Europe. Wolfgang composed, gave public performances, met many musicians, and played the organ in many churches. In 1769, like his father before him, he began working for the archbishop of Salzburg, who also ruled the province. The Mozarts often quarreled with the archbishop, partly because Wolfgang was often absent from Salzburg. The archbishop dismissed young Mozart in 1781.

Mozart was actually glad to leave Salzburg, a small town, and seek his fortune in Vienna, one of the music capitals of Europe. By this time people took less notice of him, because he was no longer a child prodigy. But he was a brilliant performer and active as a composer.

Mozart married in 1782. He earned his living in Vienna by selling his compositions, giving public performances, and giving music lessons. None of these activities produced enough income to support his family. Mozart even traveled to Germany for the coronation of a new emperor, but his concerts there did not attract as much attention as he hoped. Mozart died in poverty on Dec. 5, 1791.

Operas. Mozart excelled in almost every kind of musical composition. Several of his 22 operas gained wide recognition before and after his death, and they still please audiences all over the world. The Marriage of Figaro (1786) and Don Giovanni (1787) are operas Mozart composed with words in Italian. The Magic Flute (1791) has German texts. Each of these operas contains arias (songs for single voices), recitative (rapidly sung dialogue), ensembles in which several people sing at the same time, and choruses. The orchestra provides an ever-changing expressive accompaniment. The drama ranges from comedy to tragedy.

Symphonies. Mozart wrote over 40 symphonies, many of which are performed today. Some originally were overtures (orchestral introductions) for operas, and last only a few minutes. His later symphonies, which are the most popular, are full-length orchestral compositions that last 20 to 30 minutes. Most consist of four movements (sections). His last and most famous symphony, Number 41 (1788), is nicknamed the Jupiter.

Church music. Mozart composed a great amount of church music, most of it for performance at the Salzburg Cathedral. He wrote Masses and shorter pieces called motets; and he set psalms to music, especially for the vespers (afternoon or evening) service. The music is beautiful and varied. It includes choral and solo parts, usually with accompaniment by organ and orchestra. Mozart's best-known sacred work is the Requiem (Mass for the Dead). He began it in 1791 and while writing it seems to have become concerned about his own death. Parts of the Requiem were composed during his final illness. He died before the work was finished.

Other works. Mozart wrote other, generally lighter, orchestral works, called serenades. Some were intended for outdoor performance. One has become well known as Eine kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music, 1787). Mozart also wrote many compositions called concertos for a solo instrument such as violin or piano, with orchestral accompaniment. He often played the solo part.

Throughout his life Mozart composed chamber music--works for a small number of instruments in which only one musician plays each part. Mozart concentrated on string quartets (two violins, viola, and cello). He was influenced in this by Haydn, whose quartets he admired, and to whom he dedicated six quartets.

Mozart's sonatas for keyboard (harpsichord or piano) and for violin and keyboard are outstanding. The piano was then still fairly new and was widely played by amateurs. More than any other composer, Mozart helped to make the instrument popular.

Hiis style. In spite of his hardships and disappointments, much of Mozart's music is cheerful and vigorous. He had a sense of humor and liked puns and practical jokes. He composed many lighter works. These works include the opera Cosi Fan Tutte (All Women Are Like That, 1790), much of his early instrumental music, and canons (rounds) with nonsense words.

Mozart also produced deeply serious music. His most profound works include his late piano concertos, several string quartets, the string quintet in G minor, and his last three symphonies--E flat major, G minor, and the Jupiter. Larger works contain both serious and light elements, as does Don Giovanni.

Mozart belonged to the Order of Freemasons and wrote several compositions for their meetings. Some scenes from his fairy-tale opera The Magic Flute were inspired by Masonic traditions and beliefs.

A catalog of Mozart's works was first prepared in the 1800's by Ludwig Kochel, a German music lover. Mozart's works are still identified by the numbers Kochel assigned to them. A famous music and theater festival held each summer in Salzburg features his works.

See also CLASSICAL MUSIC (The classical period); OPERA (Mozart; the opera repertoire). For a Reading and Study Guide, see Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, in the Research Guide/Index, Volume 22.