Beethoven Born in Bonn

December 16, 1770

In a narrow house on the Bonngasse, a court musician's son was baptized. His alcoholic father, hoping for another Mozart, would beat him at the clavier past midnight. The boy's ears would fail him; his will would not. He would change what music was allowed to say. By the time deafness fully consumed him he had composed nine symphonies that redrew the boundaries of orchestral expression.