Ludwig van Beethoven was, and remains today, an olympian figure in the history of classical music. His influence on the last 150 years of music is unequalled; while generationally a member of the Classicist fold, he was in fact the first Romantic, and pre-figured virtually all music that followed the Romantic era as well. Perhaps no other composer in history wrote music of such exhilirating power and expressiveness; certainly no other composer did so against greater odds.
Beethoven was born in Bonn in 1770. His father, a music enthusiast, dreamed of molding his son into the next Mozart. Beethoven never exhibited the astonishing prodigy characteristics of his predecessor, but he was unusually talented, learning the piano, organ and violin at an early age. At 14, he was already proficient enough on the organ to receive a professional appointment. His family life was chaotic; his father was an alcoholic, and his mother died suddenly when he was only 17. After that tragedy, his domestic situation declined even more, and this condition - combined with support from Haydn - compelled him to leave home in 1790 and travel to Vienna to study composition.
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Edvard Munch
Norwegian painter and printmaker whose intense, evocative treatment of psychological and emotional themes was a major influence on the development of German Expressionism in the early 20th century. His painting The Cry (1893) is regarded as an icon of existential anguish.
A gifted Norwegian painter and printmaker, Edvard Munch not only was his country's greatest artist, but also played a vital role in the development of German expressionism. The Cry, probably his most familiar painting, is typical in its anguished expression of isolation and fear.