Beethoven: Immortal and Beloved

Ludwig von Beethoven is inarguably one of the greatest composers Western civilization has ever produced. The staying power of his music is undeniable, with pieces like “Ode to Joy,” “Für Elise,” and “Moonlight Sonata” routinely used in everything from movies to commercials even now, nearly 200 years after his death. The dun dun dun DUUUUUN of his 5th Symphony is so well known you likely heard it in your head as you read it, even if those are the only notes you know from the entire piece. Beethoven was, quite simply, a musical genius.

He wrote nine symphonies (a rumored tenth symphony remains elusive); 18 concertos (some of which have been lost to time or remain only as fragments); pieces for soloists with orchestras; incidental music and overtures; chamber music for strings, pianos, and woodwinds; over three dozen piano sonatas; 20 piano variations; shorter piano pieces and duets; vocal works ranging from choral with orchestral accompaniment to folk songs; operas, and even canons and musical jokes. This is a limited list of the works Beethoven churned out in his 57 years on the planet, many of them written after he’d already begun to lose his hearing. Even if you think you’ve never heard anything by Beethoven, you absolutely have, and thus should probably know a little bit about the man.