Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven (Bonn, 15, 16 or 17 December 1770 – Vienna, 26 March 1827) was a German composer, musician, virtuoso and conductor. His style in his early period directly follows that of Mozart and Haydn, with whom he is counted among the First Viennese School. He brought Classicism to its completion and led the transition to Romanticism in his late period. He is considered one of the most influential composers. His oeuvre has had a dominant influence on nineteenth-century music.

Ludwig van Beethoven was the son of the Rhineland, court singer of the Prince-Bishop Johan van Beethoven and his wife Magdalena Keverich. His grandfather, Lodewijck van Beethoven, came from Mechelen and later settled in Bonn as court singer of the Prince-Bishop. This descent explains the Dutch prefix in the name. And Beethoven possibly indicates (according to B. Cooper) a "original origin from a beet farm". In contradiction to this "obvious" etymology, it may concern the village of Bettenhoven (Bettincourt) in Haspengouw, now a sub-municipality of Borgworm in the province of Liège, in which case the etymology would refer to the farm of Bettingen (Betto family). At the end of the fifteenth century we find in Kampenhout a certain Jan van Bettehoven (ca. 1485-1571), seventh great-grandfather of the composer.