Beethoven facts for kids: 20 things to know

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer who lived from 1770 to 1827. Here are 20 facts about him for a school project, a poster, or a composer study. Each one is short enough to copy onto a card.

His childhood

1. He was born in December 1770 in Bonn, Germany. He was baptized on December 17. No record gives the day of his birth.

2. He was named after his grandfather, Ludwig, who led the music at the court in Bonn.

3. His father was his first teacher, and a harsh one. He made the boy practice late into the night.

4. He gave his first public concert at seven.

5. He left school at about 11 to work as a musician. All his life, he found spelling and multiplication hard.

6. At 13, he had a paid job as an organist at the court.

His life in Vienna

7. At 21, he moved to Vienna to study with the composer Haydn. He lived there for the rest of his life. Read did Mozart and Beethoven ever meet?

8. He was famous first as a pianist. He could make up music on the spot, and he won contests against other pianists.

9. He never married and had no children. After his brother died, he raised his nephew, Karl.

10. He moved house dozens of times in Vienna.

His hearing

11. He began to lose his hearing at about 27. He was not born deaf. Read was Beethoven deaf?

12. In his last years, he could hear almost nothing. Visitors wrote their questions in notebooks, and he answered out loud.

13. He wrote his Ninth Symphony when he could no longer hear an orchestra. At the first performance, a singer turned him around so that he could see the audience clapping.

His habits

14. He took a long walk almost every day. He carried a notebook to catch musical ideas.

15. He worked on his ideas for years. His notebooks show the opening of the Fifth Symphony in many versions.

16. It is said that he counted out 60 coffee beans for each cup.

His music

17. He wrote 9 symphonies, 32 piano sonatas, 16 string quartets, 5 piano concertos, and 1 opera.

18. The rhythm that opens his Fifth Symphony is three short notes and one long one. That is the letter V in Morse code. In the Second World War, radio broadcasts used it as a signal for “victory.”

19. The “Ode to Joy” from his Ninth Symphony is the anthem of the European Union.

20. Two of his pieces are on the golden records that left Earth aboard the Voyager spacecraft in 1977.

One more

Thousands of people filled the streets of Vienna for his funeral in 1827. The composer Franz Schubert walked in the procession and carried a torch.

Four things people get wrong

“He was born deaf.” He was not. He heard well for the first half of his life.

“He named the Moonlight Sonata.” He did not. A writer gave it that name after Beethoven died.

“Für Elise was a hit in his lifetime.” It was not printed until 40 years after his death.

“The ‘van’ in his name means he was a nobleman.” It does not. The name came from his family’s roots in what is now Belgium.

For facts about more composers and instruments, read fun facts about classical music.

Things to do together

Make a poster. Pick five facts. Write each one in a box and draw a picture for it.

Quiz night. Turn ten of the facts into questions. Take turns asking them.

Hear the V. Tap three short and one long on a table. Then play the opening of the Fifth Symphony.

Sixty beans. Count out 60 dried beans. Ask how long it would take to do that every morning.

Print and play

Print the Beethoven fact sheet. Read Beethoven for kids for his life story and the pieces to play first. Follow the four notes in the Symphony No. 5 listening guide. Test what you know with the composer quiz.

For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.