Understanding Music - Essay Example

 Not too long after his lessons with Haydn, Beethoven was employed by Prince Lichnowsky, who was more lenient about Beethoven’s musical independence. Between the years of 1792 and 1802, Beethoven began publicly performing his compositions that consisted mainly of keyboard and chamber works. Unfortunately, it was also during this time that Beethoven discovered that he was going deaf. During 1802 to 1812, despite his disadvantage, Beethoven penned some of his most famous compositions, including Symphony No.

5 in C Minor, his most well-known work (Yudkin, pg. 199). Besides this symphony, he also wrote five other symphonies, four concertos, five string quartets, an opera, numerous orchestral overtures, and many other chamber pieces. By 1817, when Beethoven was forty-seven, he was completely deaf. This did not stop him from doing what he did best, though. Indeed, while he was unable to hear anything, Beethoven composed and performed the Ninth Symphony, as well as the last of his piano sonatas. The Ninth Symphony is yet another of his works that have outlived Beethoven and is considered to be his most complex.

Alas, it was in 1827 that Beethoven died of natural causes.