Beethoven

(Ludwig van), one of the greatest of musical composers, b. Bonn 16 Dec. 1770. His genius early displayed itself, and at the age of five he was set to study the works of Handel and Bach. His many compositions are the glory of music. They include an opera “Fidelio,” two ma es, oratorios, symphonies, concertos, overtures and sonatas, and are characterised by penetrating power, rich imagination, intense pa ion, and tenderne . When about the age of forty he became totally deaf, but continued to compose till his death at Vienna, 26 March, 1827. He regarded Goethe with much the same esteem as Wagner showed for Schopenhauer, but he disliked his courtline . His Republican sentiments are well known, and Sir George Mac farren, in his life in the Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography , speaks of him as a “Freethinker,” and says the remarkable ma in C. “might scarcely have proceeded from an entirely orthodox thinker.” Sir George Grove, in his Dictionary of Music and Musicians , says: “Formal religion he apparently had none,” and “the Bible does not appear to have been one of his favorite books.” At the end of his arrangement of “Fidelio” Moscheles had written, “Fine. With God’s help.” To this Beethoven added, “O man, help thyself.”