Classic(al) Rockstar

When one thinks of classical music, they might picture ballroom dancing, powder wigs and those ridiculous pointy shoes. Tea cups clinking, British accents, and wealthy laughter. One does not, however, imagine raucous parties or excessive alcohol consumption and certainly not rage-writing some of the most magnificent piano compositions of all time or an artist dipping his head in cold water before the start of a performance.

Ludwig van Beethoven’s real life completely upends the image of a traditional classical composer. Rather, I have reason to believe that Beethoven was the world’s first rockstar, even if the archetype had not been coined yet.

The word, rockstar, invokes many things for me, one of which is an image of excess: wild after-parties, excessive substances, and not enough clothing. From the outside, it may look like a glamorous life full of one’s wildest dreams and more. But behind the glitz and glam are real human beings, complex and rife with personal troubles, some of which seep into their art. Add in the complexities of navigating unfathomable levels of fame and sudden wealth and you’ve got a highly reactive concoction that could blow up the next time you turn your back. Fame can cost a person everything—privacy, relationships, mental wellbeing, and sometimes, their life.

A rockstar is like a phoenix, living a short but bright and fiery life and always leaving pieces of themselves behind when they burn up. It is often that a rockstar’s genius is not truly recognized or appreciated until after their death.

Take Jeff Buckley, for example, who released his only studio album, Grace, in 1994. Among critics and fans, the album did well but quickly and quietly fell off. That was until a massive resurgence in 1997, when Buckley passed away at age thirty. He was well known and loved among his peers, much like Beethoven, but the full impact of his art was not recognized until after his death.

Like many modern rock stars – Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin – Beethoven’s life was riddled with hardship as he grappled with heartbreak and addiction. While not a part of the 27 Club, Beethoven’s chaotic lifestyle contributed to his early death at the age of fifty-six.

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Music was almost immediately the most important thing in young Beethoven’s life, until it became the only important thing in his life. He lived and breathed music, seeing it “not as entertainment, but as a moral force” (La Salle University) and had an unwavering dedication to his craft, almost like a disciple of his own religion. Beethoven began piano lessons at age five and discipline came in the form of violence from his highly competitive father, Johann van Beethoven. Johann isolated him, first from his two siblings and eventually from his peers by removing him from school at age ten to spend more time on music. You could say it paid off, as musical success came to him at a young age. Beethoven published his first original works at age twelve and replaced adult musicians in the King’s Court at thirteen. He was well-known, well-off, and has gone down in history as one of the greatest musicians to ever walk the planet, but Beethoven was not very well liked. By anyone. It is how he coped with this isolation that gave him the makings of a rockstar.

In bold rockstar fashion, Beethoven knew damn well the value of his own work. Search & Discover wrote that, “he demanded freedom, did not respect authority, and felt equal to aristocrats. Yet he sought and accepted fees, favors, free meals, and personal friendships from exactly those who had both wealth and influence.” He was an opportunist; Beethoven knew exactly how society operated and how to maneuver relationships and situations within it to benefit him to the utmost degree – what one might today call a social climber.

Despite Beethoven’s belief that he was equal to the aristocrats around him, they did not agree. According to Hoffman Academy, people believed him to be, “loud, rude, and disorderly.” He did not fit into the pristine image of Classical era high class the way those around him did, wearing the same clothes repeatedly even when they were dirty.

Like many songwriters today, much of Beethoven’s music was based on personal experiences with love, heartbreak, and yearning. He was notoriously unlucky in the romance department, never marrying and having very few relationships. One particularly popular Beethoven piece is “Moonlight Sonata,” which is made up of three movements that get progressively more complicated. It is highly descriptive and conveys a wide range of emotions without words. It was a love letter, dedicated in 1802 to one Countess Julie ‘Giulietta’ Guicciardi, a student of Beethoven’s at the time, and not the first of whom he’d fallen in love with.

I have a playlist specifically called, “Very Long Songs That Deserve to be Long,” and “Moonlight Sonata” is tacked onto the bottom of a mixture of songs like “Layla” by Derek and The Dominoes and “The Rain Song” by Led Zeppelin. These are pieces that tell a story, taking their time to do so and sparing no detail.  

Another recognizable work of Beethoven’s is “Für Elise,” inspired by another student, Therese Malfatti, who Beethoven had loved and proposed to in 1810. She was 21 years younger than him when Beethoven proposed to her, and she rejected him in favor of aristocrat Wilhelm von Droßdik.“Für Elise” is a captivating piece, one that starts off light and hopeful. It is a piece beginner pianists learn in week two of lessons; it is simple but elegantly tells the story of a hopeful admirer–another love letter, as the title literally translates to, “For Elise.” At the halfway point, though, there is a major tone shift and the piece almost resets. Instead of being the same gentle love letter, it turns into a song of outrage and desperate confusion, as the notes take on a more rapid, heavy, and dark tone.

Beethoven did not need vocals to tell his story. A modern equivalent of "Für Elise” might be something like “I Can’t Make You Love Me” by Bonnie Raitt, or  “November Rain” by Guns N’ Roses (peak 80s power ballad if you ask me). All are forlorn love songs wrought with yearning and touched by bitterness.

On top of years of rejection and mental illness, Beethoven began to lose his hearing by the time he was 28. This only worsened the state of his well-being, as music had been his primary source of motivation to keep living, and suddenly he could no longer hear it like before. This loss was a slow burn that Beethoven had to slowly mourn over fourteen years until it was gone entirely. This only worsened his alcoholism, an illness which had also inflicted his father. While multiple causes of death have been proposed, it is clear that Beethoven blatantly disregarded his well-being; seemingly, no lifestyle changes were made even after his health began to deteriorate. Whether these destructive tendencies were intentional or not is up to interpretation.

This makes me think of a couple different, but equally tragic, modern examples – one being Janis Joplin who died unexpectedly at 27 of an accidental drug overdose. She entered the music scene with existing addiction issues, which only worsened with professional pressures and party culture. Kurt Cobain, a renowned and widely recognized rockstar, is a similar case; he spent many years struggling with bipolar disorder, depression, and suicidal ideation. Music was a great coping mechanism, but with Nirvana’s rise in fame and popularity, Cobain struggled immensely with the expectations of the industry. He ultimately died by suicide at 27.

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A more recent case is Amy Winehouse, whose career was on a rocket to the moon when she passed away from alcohol poisoning in 2011. All of these artists viewed music as a way of coping with their struggles such as familial expectations, failing or harmful relationships, isolation from genuine love and care.

There’s a reason that the rockstar cliche is one of excess, full of drugs, sexual indulgences, and more drugs. Joplin, Cobain, Winehouse, even Beethoven all had people concerned for their well-being in the time leading up to their deaths — they had just gone too far over the edge. The isolation and depression Beethoven experienced led him to lean on alcohol to numb his suffering. He died on March 26, 1827, after fifty years of playing the piano and thirty years of deafness.

Many of Beethoven’s most famous works were composed after he had already begun to lose his hearing. Although learning the piano was instilled in him with his father’s violent tactics, he turned it into something beautiful to serve himself. He did not let his inability to hear stop him from mastering his craft, like Claude Monet refused to stop painting even after his sight deteriorated, like George Harrison continued to whistle and hum even after cancer stole his voice, and like David Bowie put out one final album just three days before his death.

Beethoven’s dedication to his craft in the face of adversity is a testament to the human spirit and an inspiration to artists across the globe, regardless of medium. He continued to live only to create music, even though his coping mechanisms were killing him. It is this deadly combination that makes Ludwig van Beethoven the original rockstar.

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