Thoughts on LvB

Beethoven has this stereotype of being a mean, arrogant, grumpy man, but seriously, a musician who gets steadily deafer and deafer over 20 or so years? I would be too. He was suicidal by age 32 (probably even before) according to the Heiligenstaedter Testament, but "his art" kept him alive. I think I'd get a kick out of him though, because of things like this:

"The piano variations I have written will be rather difficult to play...because I knew they'll try to play these new pieces and that they'd struggle [Viennese pianists]."

He wanted revenge against the Viennese pianists who passed off his talents as their own (In Search of Beethoven). The humor is slightly ill-hearted, but funny! If you think about it, here is this 20-something who KNOWS he's a genius, and therefore has the confidence for it! I'm a 20-something and could only wish to have a hundredth of the mind he had.

One of the many reasons why he really is one of the greatest composers is his use of a motif. He was SO economical. Dun-dun-dun-duuun! You know what four notes I'm talking about, the four-note motif that starts off the 5th Symphony, and is heard throughout that first movement. Over and over again... but it never gets old! It's catchy anyway, but to create an entire symphony on four notes is aMAzing.

And I have Ludwig to thank for making the piano what it is today. Without his demands for more keys...a bigger sound... well, Liszt probably would have taken his place in history books in that aspect.

Here I'd like to share my favorite portrait of Beethoven. I would really like to know the background of this, because he obviously had to pose like that for as long as the artist took to paint him... so did he choose to pose like that, and to portray what, or did the artist catch him doing that and wanted him to keep that pose...? He's with a lyre, so I don't know if it has something to do with that. Oh of all the great mysteries of Beethoven, I dwell over this one.