Ludwig Van Beethoven (pronounced bay-toe-ven) is one of the most famous and influential composers of all time. He lived and composed during both the Classical and Romantic Periods and changed the way the world thought about music.

Five Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Beethoven

1) He was actually the third Ludwig van Beethoven in his family.

2) He studied with Mozart's teacher — Franz Joseph Haydn.

3) He was unlucky in love.

4) We don't really know why he became deaf.

5) He died during a thunderstorm at age 56.

Beethoven was born in 1770 in the city of Bonn, Germany. His father and his grandfather were both musicians. Beethoven shoed his musical talent at a young age and his father was his first teacher. His father hoped that Ludwig would become a famous child performer like Mozart and made him work very hard. Beethoven said that sometimes his father would come home form the pub late at night and pull him out of bed and make him practice.

Ludwig's father was not a kind teacher. But Ludwig's talent was so great that he loved music anyway and started performing in public when he was only eight years old. By the time he was 12, Beethoven was already composing and he was being taught by one of the best teachers in Bonn, Christian Gottlob Neefe. He learned to play piano, organ and violin.

Beethoven went to Vienna for the first time when he was 17. It was 1786 and Vienna was the musical centre of the world. Beethoven got to Vienna with the hopes of meeting Mozart. It's not clear if they ever met because soon after he arrived, Beethoven got a letter telling him to come home because his mother was dying. Beethoven left Vienna and hurried back to Bonn to look after his mother. After she died, Beethoven had to take over being in charge of his family because his father was not able to. Beethoven stayed in Bonn, working in an orchestra until 1792.

In 1792, Beethoven traveled back to Vienna and stayed there for the rest of his life. Beethoven took lessons with Franz Foseph Haydn and with a less famous teacher name Albrechtsberger. Beethoven wanted to become a famous pianist and composer so he started to perform in private houses and to get his composition published.

Beethoven was starting to become famous and he travelled to places like Prague to perform his music. In 1800, he gave his first public concert with his own music and h conducted his First Symphony.

Different publishers wanted him to let them publish his new works. In 1801, Beethoven wrote his famous piano Sonata No. 14, nicknamed, "Moonlight". He wrote it for his girlfriend, Giulietta Guicciardi, but her parents refused to let her marry him.

Beethoven never found the right woman to marry and this caused him great sadness for the rest of his life.

In a letter dated June 29, 1801, Beethoven told a friend in Bonn about a terrible secret he had kept for some time. He knew he was becoming deaf. Although Beethoven was becoming on of the greatest composers of all time, he was finding it hard to hear. He often heard a high-pitched ringing sound in his ears and found it difficult to hear what people were saying to him.

Beethoven stopped giving piano concerts but continued composing. He had always had a difficult personality but as he struggled more and more with his deafness, he became more and more irritable. He was very exact about everything, right down to how his coffee was prepared, and he was known for his wild moods.

He like to take long walks in the country where he would get inspiration for his music.

Beethoven's best known compositions include 9 symphonies, 5 concertos for piano, 32 piano sonatas and 16 string quartets. He also composed other chamber music, choral works, songs and one opera.

Beethoven's nine symphonies changed the way symphonies were composed forever. In his ninth symphony, he included a chorus which had never been done before.

Beethoven died in 1827 at the age of 56. About 20,000 people lined the streets for his funeral.

The Third Symphony has a special name given to it by Beethoven. "The Eroica" or "Heroic" Symphony. This symphony was the beginning of Beethoven's change from a Classical style composer to a Romantic style composer. He started to use sound to tell us how he felt, and what being alive meant to him. The piece caused a sensation and changed the idea of what a symphony could be.

This symphony was originally dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon was a French general who Beethoven admired. In the early years, Beethoven thought Napoleon was a self-made man who fought for freedom, justice and equality.

Beethoven uses each movement of the symphony to describe a particular moment in Napoleon's life. The 1st movement tells about Napoleon's heroism. The second movement is a funeral march, describing the sadness when a soldier is killed. Some people think that Beethoven was also mourning for his hearing which he was beginning to lose. The 3rd and 4th movements are upbeat and happy - a prediction of how Napoleon's legacy and spirit would continue. Some people think that these movements also show Beethoven's hope that he would continue to compose, even if his hearing got worse.

The symphony was originally titled "Bonaparte" but as you know from the videos above, Napoleon eventually betrayed the ideas he originally stood for. Instead of helping the people to rule themselves, he became emperor. The story is told that when Beethoven heard that Napoleon had crowned himself emperor, he wanted to rip up the symphony! Luckily for us, he just changed the title and the dedication. The Eroica Symphony went on to be one of his greatest hits!

The Fifth Symphony is a great example of Beethoven's use of motif. A motif is a short musical idea. Beethoven was the master of the motif and he wrote the most famous motif ever - the fate motif - of his Symphony No. 5.

The fate motif is easy to hear and you can identify it by singing the words "Beethoven's Fifth" whenever you hear it. In the first minute of the symphony the motif is repeated 46 times!

In the second movement, which is slower, it's a little harder to hear but it's there. In the third movement, which is a dance, it's very easy to hear again. The motif now feels like a march.

The fourth movement follows the third directly (without stopping for the audience to cough or the musicians to rest). It is in a major key which some people think is happier but it definitely sounds triumphant. You can still hear the motif but you're left wondering if Beethoven thought he might overcome his fate and his hearing might come back.

Beethoven loved nature and spent a lot of time on walks in the country. He wrote the Sixth Symphony to tell a story of just such a walk. Like the Third Symphony (Eroica), the sixth symphony has a name, "Pastoral" which means land or country (as opposed to city).

The Pastoral Symphony has five movements instead of the usual four and Beethoven tells us what he is writing about bby giving a title and description to each movement.

1. Awakening of cheerful feelings on arrival in the countryside

2. Scene by the brook

3. Merry gathering of country folk

4. Thunder. Storm

5. Shepherd's song. Cheerful and thankful feelings after the storm

Everyone hears music in his or her own way and Walt Disney heard a completely different story in Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony. He used the piece in the movie "Fantasia" and showed the world the story that he heard.

But, I wonder... was that what Beethoven had in mind?

The second movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony is one of my favourites! It's based on a very simple rhythm that's repeated and builds in intensity as it is repeated and varied throughout the movement.

Beethoven wrote nine symphonies which influenced composers for the rest of time. The Ninth Symphony, also known as the "Choral Symphony" was the first time in history that a composer used a chorus in a symphony.

When Beethoven wrote the Ninth he was completely deaf, which is an amazing thing to do. The ability to hear music in his head, and write about joy when he was so sad about his hearing, are some of the things that make Beethoven one of the greatest composers ever.

"Ode to Joy", the fourth movement of the symphony, is the most famous. It's a theme and variations (a musical idea that is changed when it's repeated) on a melody that is really famous.

A lot of people know the melody but don't know that there are many ways in which it's sung and played during the symphony.

Every time we hear the melody it's a little different and Beethoven made sure that the music fit the words of the poem.

The poem "Ode to Joy" was written by a German poet and playwright named Friedrich Schiller in the summer of 1785. It talks about the emotion of joy, what causes us to be joyful, and why. The idea of the poem is to create joy in the reader.

"Let us sing more cheerful songs, more full of joy!

Your magic power re-unites all that custom has divided,

All men become brothers under the sway of your gentle wings."