Editing Ludwig van Beethoven (section)

=== 1780–1792: Bonn ===
[[File:Silhouette de Beethoven à 16 ans.png|thumb|right|upright|Silhouette image made of Beethoven when he was sixteen. He wears the uniform and wig suited to his employment as a court musician in Bonn.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://digitalcollections.sjsu.edu/islandora/object/islandora:29_99|title=Silhouette of Beethoven at age 15 &#124; SJSU Digital Collections|website=digitalcollections.sjsu.edu}}</ref>]]
[[File:Christian Gottlob Neefe.jpg|thumb|[[Christian Gottlob Neefe]], one of Beethoven's first music teachers, depicted in a {{Circa|1798}} engraving]]
[[File:Count von Waldstein.jpg|right|thumb|Count Waldstein, depicted in a {{Circa|1800}} portrait by [[Antonín Machek]]]]
In 1780 or 1781, Beethoven began his studies with his most important teacher in Bonn, [[Christian Gottlob Neefe]].{{sfn|Solomon|1998|p=34}} Neefe taught him composition; in March 1783, Beethoven's first published work appeared, a set of keyboard variations ([[WoO]] 63).{{sfn|Stanley|2000|p=7}}{{refn|Most of Beethoven's early works and those to which he did not give an [[opus number]] were listed by Georg Kinsky and Hans Halm as "[[WoO]]", works without opus number. Kinsky and Halm also listed 18 doubtful works in their appendix ("WoO Anhang"). In addition, some minor works not listed with opus numbers or in the WoO list have [[Hess catalogue]] numbers.{{sfn|Cooper|1996|p=210}}|group=n}} Beethoven soon began working with Neefe as assistant organist, at first unpaid (1782), and then as a paid employee (1784) of the court chapel.{{sfn|Thayer|1967a|pp=65–70}} His [[Three Piano Sonatas, WoO 47 (Beethoven)|first three piano sonatas]], WoO 47, sometimes known as {{lang|de|[[Kurfürst]]}} (Elector) for their dedication to Elector [[Maximilian Friedrich von Königsegg-Rothenfels|Maximilian Friedrich]], were published in 1783.{{sfn|Thayer|1967a|p=69}} In the same year, the first printed reference to Beethoven appeared in the ''Magazin der Musik'' – "Louis van Beethoven [sic]&nbsp;... a boy of 11 years and most promising talent. He plays the piano very skilfully and with power, reads at sight very well&nbsp;... the chief piece he plays is ''[[The Well-Tempered Clavier|Das wohltemperierte Klavier]]'' of [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Sebastian Bach]], which Herr Neefe puts into his hands".{{sfn|Kerman|Tyson|Burnham|2001|loc=§ 1}} Maximilian Friedrich's successor as Elector of Bonn was [[Maximilian Franz]]. He gave some support to Beethoven, appointing him Court Organist and assisting financially with Beethoven's move to Vienna in 1792.{{sfn|Thayer|1967a|p=50}}{{sfn|Cooper|1996|p=50}}

During this time, Beethoven met several people who became important in his life. He developed a close relationship with the upper-class [[Helene von Breuning|von Breuning]] family, and gave piano lessons to some of the children. The widowed [[Helene von Breuning]] became a "second mother" to Beethoven, taught him more refined manners and nurtured his passion for literature and poetry. The warmth and closeness of the von Breuning family offered the young Beethoven a retreat from his unhappy home life, dominated by his father's decline due to alcoholism. Beethoven also met [[Franz Gerhard Wegeler|Franz Wegeler]], a young medical student, who became a lifelong friend and married one of the von Breuning daughters. Another frequenter of the von Breunings was [[Count Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel von Waldstein|Count Ferdinand von Waldstein]], who became a friend and financial supporter of Beethoven during this period.{{sfn|Kerman|Tyson|Burnham|2001|loc= § 2}}{{sfn|Cooper|1996|p=55}}{{sfn|Solomon|1998|pp= 51–52}} In 1791, Waldstein commissioned Beethoven's first work for the stage, the ballet ''{{ill|Musik zu einem Ritterballett|de}}'' (WoO 1).{{sfn|Thayer|1967a|pp= 121–122}}

The period of 1785 to 1790 includes virtually no record of Beethoven's activity as a composer. This may be attributed to the varied response his initial publications attracted, and also to ongoing issues in his family.{{sfn|Solomon|1998|pp=36–37}} While passing through [[Augsburg]], Beethoven visited with composer [[Anna von Schaden]] and her husband, who gave him money to return to Bonn to be with his ailing mother.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Thayer |first1=Alexander Wheelock |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ILI5AQAAMAAJ&dq=Nanette+Schaden&pg=PA92 |title=The Life of Ludwig Van Beethoven |last2=Association |first2=Beethoven |date=1921 |publisher=Beethoven Association |language=en}}</ref> Beethoven's mother died in July 1787, shortly after his return from Vienna, where he stayed for around two weeks and possibly met Mozart.{{sfn|Kerman|Tyson|Burnham|2001|loc=§ 2}} In 1789, due to his chronic alcoholism, Beethoven's father was forced to retire from the service of the Court and it was ordered that half of his father's pension be paid directly to Ludwig for support of the family.{{sfn|Thayer|1967a|p=95}} Ludwig contributed further to the family's income by teaching (to which Wegeler said he had "an extraordinary aversion"{{sfn|Solomon|1998|p=51}}) and by playing viola in the court orchestra. This familiarised him with a variety of operas, including works by Mozart, [[Gluck]] and [[Paisiello]].{{sfn|Thayer|1967a|pp=95–98}} There he also befriended [[Anton Reicha]], a composer, flutist, and violinist of about his own age who was a nephew of the court orchestra's conductor, [[Josef Reicha]].{{sfn|Thayer|1967a|p=96}}

From 1790 to 1792, Beethoven composed several works, none of which were published at the time; they showed a growing range and maturity. [[Musicologist]]s have identified a theme similar to those of his [[Symphony No. 3 (Beethoven)|Third Symphony]] in a set of variations written in 1791.{{sfn|Cooper|2008|pp= 35–41}} It was perhaps on Neefe's recommendation that Beethoven received his first commissions; the Literary Society in Bonn commissioned a cantata to mark the recent death of [[Joseph II]] (WoO 87), and a further cantata, to celebrate the subsequent accession of [[Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor|Leopold II]] as [[Holy Roman Emperor]] (WoO 88), may have been commissioned by the Elector.{{sfn|Cooper|1996|pp=93–94}} These two ''Emperor Cantatas'' were not performed during Beethoven's lifetime and became lost until the 1880s, when [[Johannes Brahms]] called them "Beethoven through and through" and of the style that marked Beethoven's music distinct from the classical tradition.{{sfn|Swafford|2014|pp=107–111}}

Beethoven was probably first introduced to [[Joseph Haydn]] in late 1790, when Haydn was travelling to London and made a brief stop in Bonn around Christmastime.{{sfn|Cooper|2008|p= 35}} In July 1792, they met again in Bonn on Haydn's return trip from London to Vienna, when Beethoven played in the orchestra at the [[Redoute, Bad Godesberg|Redoute in Godesberg]]. Arrangements were likely made at that time for Beethoven to study with Haydn.{{sfn|Cooper|2008|p= 41}} Waldstein wrote to Beethoven before his departure: "You are going to Vienna in fulfilment of your long-frustrated wishes&nbsp;... With the help of assiduous labour you shall receive Mozart's spirit from Haydn's hands."{{sfn|Kerman|Tyson|Burnham|2001|loc=§ 2}}