The Dark Side of Classical Music

Well, now well look at the life of composers (compousers) who marked (markt)
the history of music, about his music you can find information very easily (isly),
so I'm going to say things that probably you dont know of their lives.
1. The first, is a composer (compouser) of the eighteenth century, it is the most
recognized (recognaist) composer of the classical period, and his name is
Wolfgang Amadeus (who ever heard (jerd) of him? Anyone?) . well see
hes a german man and his last name is Mozart. Well, he known (noun) for his
prodigious and early talent for music and the composition of more than 600
works in his 35 years of life, many of them masterpieces of music of all time.
With only 5 years, already (olredy) he played (pleit) the violin and keyboard and
also (olso) had composed (compoust) his first musical works. He was a
freelance musician (miusishian) and spent many economic difficulties (dificoltis)
until an emperor offered (ofert) a steady (estedy) job a few years before his
death (ded). When Mozart died ( dait) he was in broke and had two young
children.
His illness increased (incrist) and made him depressed (deprest). One day
when his wife was driving with him, to give him a little distraction, Mozart began
(bigan) to speak of death, and declared (decleirt) that he was writing the
Requiem for himself, moreover he was sure (shure) hed been poisoned
(poisont). The poisoning hypothesis (jaipothesis) have not evidence. and the
theories (tioris) involving the murder (mo-urder) ranging (reinying) from blaming
(blaming) one of his colleagues to blame the Masons (meisons), Jews (yius), or
both; the point is that the illness that really killed (killt) Mozart is unknown
(announ).
After, Mozart stopped (stopt) writing the Requiem and left this ideas aside, he
changed (cheinsht)his mood and his health came (queim) back better. And long
after with other ideas he began to write again. Then the illness returned (ritornt),
together with the strong feeling that he was being poisoned (poisont) and he
couldn't get up from his bed because he suffered (sofert) from severe (sevir)
swelling, pain and vomiting and he died (daid) about two weeks later.
A few days before he died, his whole (jol) body became (biqueim) so swollen
that he was unable to make the smallest movement (muvment), moreover, there
was a stench or smell, which reflected (riflectet) an internal disintegration which,
after death, increased (incrist) until (antil) that the (di) autopsy was impossible
The day of the end, he had the score of the Requiem on his bed, and himself
sang one of the voices; and his friends that were present, the other voices.
They were at the beginning of one part called Lacrimosa when Mozart began to
cry, put the score on one side, and eleven hours later, at one o'clock in the
morning departed this life, according to his sister-in-law Mozart's last breaths
were as if he wanted, with his mouth, imitating the drums of his Requiem.

2. Now well see another composer, his name is Ludwig Van and Im sure you
know it. We're talking about Beethoven, he changed the way to make music in
his time, he was a revolutionary, something like a rocker in the fifties, with the
small difference that Beethoven existed without rock, but hardly the rock exist
as we know without Beethoven.
His father was a fairly unimportant musician who worked at the court. He gave
him his first lessons in keyboard and violin. When Beethoven's father saw his
talent for music, he wanted to make him the new Mozart, but although was a
child prodigy like Mozart, while Mozart as a little boy was taken all over Europe
by his father, Beethoven never traveled until he was 17. His father forced him to
study so much that he was forced to leave school, and became introverted and
shy child. When he finally traveled, probably had one or two lessons from
Mozart, but then Beethoven got a letter saying that his mother was dying, so he
back to his house.
Soon his mother died, and Beethoven had to help to look after the family
because his father had become an alcoholic. Then he started to compose and
tried to do his own career. Finally he moved to Vienna for the rest of his life, he
would have loved to have had some more composition lessons from Mozart, but
Mozart had just died.
Later Beethoven was starting to become famous and wrote much music.
However, he was far from happy because he realized that he was starting to
become deaf and after to compose a piece for his girlfriend 16 years old, when
he asked for her marriage, her parents refused and married her to another 20year-old man instead.
He earned money by pleasing the aristocrats, dedicating works to them in return
for fees, and by selling his music to publishers. Occasionally he earned money
from concerts. He was not able to have the job of Kapellmeister to the emperor,
but in 1809 three rich aristocrats gave him a salary for the rest of his life on
condition that he stayed in Vienna. This meant that Beethoven did not have to
worry so much about money.
Beethoven admired several women, including one to whom he wrote a
passionate letter. She is known as the Immortal Beloved, but no one knows
who she was. Beethoven seems to have become depressed because he never
found true happiness in love.
However, when he was in his thirty began to lose his hearing. His deafness
became worse with age and finally seventeen years later he was completely
deaf but he continued to compose. During this time he composed some of his
greatest works.
In a letter Beethoven told a friend in Bonn about a terrible secret he had for
some time. Just at the moment when he was starting to become known as one
of the greatest of all composers, he knew that he was becoming deaf,
something that now he was starting to admit it to himself. Understand what
people said to him began to be difficult for him.

In a travel to the country he wrote a famous letter which is known as the

Heiligenstadt Testament, there he told about his frustration at his deafness. He
asks people to forgive him if he cannot hear what they are saying. He said that
he had often thought of suicide, but that he had so much music in his head
which had to be written down that he decided to continue his life. This very
emotional letter was found amongst his papers after his death. It was never sent
to anyone.

Beethoven had many problems when his brother Caspar Carl died, leaving a 9year-old son. The boys mother may have been incapable of looking after him,
but Beethoven had to prove this in a court of law. For several years he looked
after his nephew, but it was a difficult relationship and it involved a lot of legal
letters and quarrels with people. In 1826, Karl tried to shoot himself. He
survived, but people persuaded Beethoven to stop being his guardian. Karl
went into the army.

The last years were unhappy years for Beethoven. During this time he
composed very little. Then, in 1817, he recovered and wrote his last two
symphonies, a mass called Missa Solemnis, his last five piano sonatas, and a
group of string quartets which were so modern and difficult that very few people
at the time understood the music. Nowadays, people think they are the greatest
works ever written for string quartet.
His Ninth Symphony is called the Choral Symphony because there is a choir
and soloists in the last movement. At the time people did not understand this
either, because a symphony is normally a work for orchestra, not a work with
singers. Beethoven chose the words of a poem by the German poet Friedrich
Schiller: An die Freude (Ode to Joy). It is all about living together in peace and
harmony, so that it sends an important message to people. This is why it has
been chosen in recent years as the National Anthem for the European Union.
The Ninth Symphony was performed at a concert on May 7, 1824. After the
scherzo movement the audience applauded enthusiastically, but Beethoven
could not hear the applause and one of the singers had to turn him round so
that he could see that people were clapping.
Beethoven died on March 26, 1827. About 20,000 people came onto the streets
for his funeral. The famous poet Franz Grillparzer wrote the funeral speech.
One of the torchbearers was Franz Schubert. Schubert died the next year. In
1888 Beethovens and Schuberts remains were moved to another cemetery in
Vienna and were placed side by side.
Beethovens music is usually divided into three periods: Early, Middle and
Late. Most composers who live a long time develop as they get older and
change their way of composing. Of course, these changes in style are not

sudden, but they are quite a good way of understanding the different periods of
his composing life.
His first period includes the works he wrote in his youth in Bonn, and his early
days in Vienna up to about 1803. His middle period starts with the Eroica
Symphony and includes most of his orchestral works. His last period includes
the Ninth Symphony and the late string quartets.
Beethoven is probably the most famous of all composers, and the most written
about. He had a wild personality and this was something that the Romantics in
the 19th century always expected from great artists. The Romantics thought
that the artist was somehow a person with exaggerated qualities who was not
like normal people. Beethoven had a very strong personality. He lived in the
time of the French Revolution and had strong views on independence and ways
of living free from tyranny. This made him a hero in many peoples eyes.
His music was so famous that many composers in the 19th century found it
quite hard to compose because they thought they would be compared to him.
For example, Johannes Brahms, took a long time to write his First Symphony.
He thought that everyone was expecting him to be the next Beethoven. It was
only towards the end of the 19th century that Gustav Mahler wrote several
symphonies which include singing, although he does this very differently to
Beethoven.