At the age of 39, Beethoven’s hearing condition worsened. He lead a series of disastrous recitals. People weren’t pleased wight he different type of music he was playing and his “family” of noblemen advised him to go back to the traditional way of playing music.
1814 came, Beethoven was 44, and he created a masterpiece Opera that everybody raged over. The name of the Opera was Fidelio; it was his only Opera. It was so popular it was known for the newly free Europe who had just been saved by the tyranny of Troika.
Towards the end of Beethoven’s life, he leads his reputation into the ground. After his brother died, Casper, Beethoven fought to have sole custody of his son, even though, it said in the will that the boy was to be with his mother. Beethoven went on for five years fighting the mother in court to receive custody of his nephew. I believe that since Beethoven knew he was never going to find the right woman, he was never going to be a father, nor have any children. When he saw that the opportunity was there to possibly have a responsibility and be the father he knew he could be, he went after it.
A careless remark during the trial plugged his reputation into the ground. Beethoven openly reveals that he was not of noble birth and this exposed the fraud of his background that he allowed to spread for so many years but never told anybody. Beethoven was basically a modern artist who hung out with the wealthy, and played for noblemen. Therefore, everybody assumed that he was from royalty, until he revealed who he really was.
Beethoven wins custody of his nephew, but rarely engages with him. At this point in Beethoven’s life, he had lived the bachelor life for his whole life, so he didn’t know how to be a father. He drinks often, he stays up late working on pieces, and when the boy moved in, he left him alone most of the time. The boy hated Beethoven and Beethoven locked himself away to write. His last years were not great, he didn’t write much, and with his hearing almost if not totally lost, he honestly couldn’t hear the music anymore. However, the music kept playing in his head.
In 1823, he would revive himself to an institution he ignored for most of his life, the church. During this time, Beethoven really finds his inner peace, getting involved with religion for the first time, and with nature. He turned his struggles to triumphs, and he composed the Missa Solemnis, a wonderful piece of music and he then had a spiritual awakening. During this period, Beethoven wrote a lot of quartets.
In 1824, the flamboyant Night Symphony, came to be. It was a huge accomplishment on Beethoven’s part because it was the first time anybody had tried to sync a chorus and an orchestra. “There is a well-attested story that, at the premiere of his Ninth Symphony, he had to be turned round to see the tumultuous applause of the audience, hearing nothing.” wrote in the article Beethoven, lost of hearing.
Yet again, rain had come to shower on Beethoven’s life. Having a spiritual awakening and getting more involved with his successful writings, his past had agin creeped upon him. His nephew had tried to commit suicide and when people found out about the story, the boy was taken to his mother, not Beethoven, his legal guardian,but his mother. So this certainly raised some red flags for Beethoven.
Beethoven was experiencing some severe abdominal pains and the stress fro everything going on in his life didn’t help. He was trying to right his 10th symphony but his pain made it too difficult to keep writing. Here is how Romain Rolland describes Beethoven’s final day: “That day was tragic. There were heavy clouds in the sky… around 4 or 5 in the afternoon the murky clouds cast darkness in the entire room. Suddenly a terrible storm started, with blizzard and snow… thunder made the room shudder, illuminating it with the cursed reflection of lightning on snow. Beethoven opened his eyes and with a threatening gesture raised his right arm towards the sky with his fist clenched. The expression of his face was horrifying. His hand fell to the ground. His eyes closed. Beethoven was no more.” (All about Beethoven)
There were 20,00 people at his funeral, he was a celebrity who many people admired. They saw him for the great composer and writer he was. The people of Vienna adored his commitment and aspiration for change in his works. Even to today, it is not sure how Ludwig Van Beethoven died, but many people believe that it was due to the large amounts of lead found in his body. Beethoven has had a drastic impact, and we are still feeling it today.