2020, the year of Beethoven. Get ready to celebrate this exceptional composer! (1/7)

1770 saw the birth of one of the world’s greatest composers, Ludwig van Beethoven. Neither classical nor romantic, Beethoven is simply Beethoven, and his figure rises like a colossus straddling the two centuries.

The young Beethoven arrived on the musical scene during a favorable historical period. He inherited from Haydn, one of his teachers in Vienna in 1792, and from Mozart a style and musical forms that were well-developed, but which lent themselves to further growth. Through the influence of external circumstances and the force of his own genius, he transformed this legacy and became the source of everything that characterized the Romantic period.

Beethoven lived at a time when powerful new forces were sweeping through society, forces that influenced him and his work. Like Napoleon and Goethe, Beethoven was a child of the enormous upheaval that was fermenting throughout the 18th century, and which erupted in the French Revolution.

His ^250th birthday will be celebrated around the world throughout 2020, and BCUL will also be paying tribute to him with a series of seven articles. Follow us on our blog!

Discover this exceptional composer through our first selection of documents available at the BCUL site Riponne.