1. March 1827
   July 1776
2. January 1756
   December 1770

Though no records exist documenting Beethoven's birth date, he was baptized on Dec. 17, 1770. At the time, the custom of the Catholic Rhine region dictated parents wait no longer than 24 hours after birth to baptize the child, thus making it very likely Ludwig's birthday came on Dec. 16.

1. Vienna
   Ghent
2. Cologne
   Bonn

Beethoven was born in Bonn, the then-capital of the Electorate of Cologne. Bonn is in Germany today, but in Beethoven's time, it was still the Holy Roman Empire. In fact, the city served as the capital of one the largest principalities, which included northern Germany and parts of Belgium and Holland.

1. June 18, 1812
   June 18, 1815
2. March 26, 1827
   Dec. 5, 1791

Beethoven died in Vienna on March 26, 1827. His student, Therese Countess of Brunsvik, wrote, "Never had an emperor a funeral to equal it. Thirty-thousand people accompanied him to the gravesite."

1. His father
   His grandfather
2. King Ludwig II of Bavaria
   His uncle

The composer's father, Johann (1740-92) was the son of Flemish singer Ludwig van Beethoven (1712-73). The elder Ludwig moved to Bonn in 1732 and within a year secured a position in the chorus at the court of then-Archbishop-Elector Clemens August of Bavaria.

1. Kaspar and Johann
   Maria and Magdalena
2. Magdalena and Philipp
   Maria and Wolfgang

Kaspar Anton Karl van Beethoven was born in 1774, and Nikolaus Johann came along in 1776. Out of seven children, the three brothers were the only ones who survived to adulthood.

1. Once
   Twice
2. Three times
   Never

Beethoven never married, though several women had played important roles in his life and work. After his death, love letters he wrote to an unidentified "Immortal Beloved" had been found among his personal effects, and it's precipitated much speculation in the years since.

1. Giulietta Guicciardi
   Baroness Sophie de Bawr
2. Bettina Brentano
   Therese Countess of Brunsvik

Sophie de Bawr was born Alexandrine-Sophie Goury de Champgrand and was only two years younger than Beethoven. She was a French writer and composer who survived the revolution.

1. "What abominable waste of time in such things — why this deep grief, where necessity speaks?"
   "I can only live, either altogether with you or not at all."
2. "God knows I never sought anything in you except yourself. I wanted simply you, nothing of yours."
   "Is it not a real building of heaven, our Love — but as firm, too, as the citadel of heaven."

Beethoven may have had his own way with words, but this line that's not from his letter was penned by the 12th-century French nun Heloise and is among her correspondence with philosopher Peter Abelard.

1. Once
   Twice
2. Three times
   Never. His ashes were scattered in the Danube River.

Upon his death in 1827, Beethoven was originally laid to rest in the Waehringer Ortsfriedhof, in one of Vienna's outlying districts. His burial site underwent repairs in 1863, and his body was reburied in a metal coffin. In 1888, his body was again exhumed and then buried at the Zentralfriedhof in central Vienna.

1. Symphony No. 3
   Variations and Fugue for Piano in E-flat major
2. Both A and B
   None of the above

In 1801, Beethoven composed his 3rd Symphony, which would become known as Sinfonia Eroica, or the heroic symphony. In 1802, he composed 15 variations for solo piano on the same theme he used in the climax of Symphony No. 3.

1. Morohito, Emperor Koukaku of Japan
   Augustus Caesar
2. Holy Roman Emperor Francis II
   Napoleon Bonaparte

Beethoven saw Napoleon as a champion of the democratic ideals of the French Revolution, but upon finding out Bonaparte had declared himself emperor, the composer said, "Then he is nothing but an ordinary man! He is going to trample the rights of man underfoot, and his ambition will make him the greatest of tyrants." Beethoven the scratched out Napoleon's name from the dedication.

1. Symphony No. 3
   Symphony No. 4
2. Symphony No. 5
   Symphony No. 6

Composed in 1808, Beethoven's 6th Symphony is unusual for its time in that it has a five-movement structure. In a letter to his friend, the Baroness Therese Malfatti, he wrote, "How happy I am as soon as I can wander in the woods, in the forests among the trees, the rocks! No man could love the countryside as much as I."

1. Symphony No. 5
   Symphony No. 6
2. Symphony No. 7
   Dies Irae

Symphony No. 5 in C minor, composed in 1808, is also known as the Symphony of Fate. Scholars of the composer debate over whether the work reflected Beethoven's worsening deafness or his enthusiasm for the ideals behind France's revolution.

1. Richard Wagner
   E.T.A. Hoffman
2. Jacques Offenbach
   Carl Maria von Weber

Beethoven spent much of 1811 and 1812 composing his Symphony No. 7 in A major. The German composer Richard Wagner took heavy inspiration from Beethoven. Wagner wrote, "Never has an art offered the world anything so serene as these symphonies in A and F major, and all those works so intimately related to them, which the master produced during the divine period of his total deafness."

1. None
   One
2. Two
   Six

Beethoven's only opera, "Fidelio," premiered in Vienna on Nov. 20, 1805, one week after French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte occupied the city. It kind of flopped, but can you blame the guy?

1. A Viennese pastry
   A French violinist
2. A German silver coin
   A crossroads southwest of Vienna

Beethoven dedicated his last sonata for violin and piano to Rodolphe Kreutzer, who he described as "the premier violinist of Paris." It turns out the Frenchman never even played the sonata that bears his name.

1. Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op.57
   Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2
2. Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13
   Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor WoO 59

Beethoven completed "Quasi Una Fantasia" in 1801, dedicating it to his student, Countess Giulietta Guiciardi. Of her, he wrote, "She loves me, and I love her." Owing to their respective social standings, he could not marry her. The sonata's name is attributed to a German music critic named Ludwig Rellstab.

1. Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57
   Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor. Op. 27, No. 2
2. Piano Sonata No. 8 in C-minor, Op.13
   Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74

Beethoven wrote this stately piece in 1798. He did not name the piece, but his publisher did. The Symphony No. 6 in B minor is also named Pathetique, but it was composed by the Russian Pyotr Tchaikovsky.

1. Anton Schindler
   Alexander Wheelock Thayer
2. Theodore Albrecht
   Karl Alois, Prince Lichnowsky

Prince Lichnowsky was one of Beethoven's staunchest supporters and patrons, right up until their friendship ended on account of an argument. Schindler wrote "Life of Beethoven" in 1840, though his credibility as a historian has been nearly destroyed by Thayer, who wrote the three-volume "The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven." Music historian Theodore Albrecht wrote "Ludwig van Beethoven: A Guide to Research" and edited three volumes of "Letters to Beethoven and Other Correspondence."

1. 12
   27
2. 60
   96

While we have to take Schindler's account with a grain of salt, he did write, "Coffee seems to have been the nourishment which [Beethoven] could least dispense ... " That much sounds pretty reasonable.

1. Macaroni with Parmesan cheese
   A haddock-like Danubian fish with potatoes
2. Hungarian Ofen wine
   All of the above

Schindler wrote, "all fish dishes were [Beethoven's] special predilection." He also said Ludwig was partial to a glass of beer in the evenings, as well as "a pipeful of tobacco."

1. Violin
   Bassoon
2. Piano
   This is a trick question. Beethoven didn't play an instrument.

Well, technically, the fortepiano first. The development of the modern piano increased the fortepiano's range from five octaves to five and one-fifth in 1790. Technology raised that number to six in 1810 and seven in 1820.

1. Piano Concerto No. 1 in C
   Piano Concerto No. 4 in G
2. Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major
   Violin Concerto in D

Beethoven completed Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat, his final concerto, in 1811. He dedicated it to his benefactor and student Archduke Rudolf of Austria (1788-1831). One tale has it that upon hearing the work, a French soldier in the audience became overwhelmed and cried out, "C'est l'empereur!" The more likely scenario is the Emperor Concerto was named so by John Baptist Cramer, the English publisher of the work.

1. Seven
   Nine
2. 10
   11

In theory, there's a Beethoven's 10th. It was cobbled together from the composer's notes by music scholar Barry Cooper. Even if all the parts were from the same composition, Beethoven did not complete a Symphony No. 10.

1. Kapellmeister
   Assistant court organist
2. Choir singer
   First organist

By 1784, Ludwig had already been playing the organ at the court of Maximilian Friedrich, archbishop-elector of Cologne. Max Friedrich made things official on February 29, 1784, giving the 13-year-old Ludwig an annual salary of 150 florins.

1. 6
   7
2. 9
   10

Taking a page from Leopold Mozart's book, Johann van Beethoven had Ludwig debut alongside one of his own pupils on March 26, 1778. Johann billed his son as 6 years old, but the boy was actually 7. The turnout to the boy's performance was a little underwhelming.

1. Minuet and Trio in G major, KV1
   Nine Variations on a March by Dressler, WoO 63
2. Three Piano Sonatas, WoO 47
   Music for a Ballet on Horseback, WoO 1

Nine Variations on a March by Ernst Christoph Dressler for piano in C minor was Beethoven's first published work; he then completed the Three Piano Sonatas, dedicating them to Elector Maximilian Friedrich. The Minuet and Trio in G was actually Mozart's first composition.

1. 8
   10
2. 11
   13

Nine Variations on a March by Dressler came out in late 1782 when Beethoven was eleven years old. He completed the Three Piano Sonatas the following year. Ludwig dedicated his first composition to Felice, Countess Wolff-Metternich, whose husband was president of the High Court of Appeals in Bonn.

1. The letters to the Immortal Beloved
   The Heiligenstadt Testament
2. The Conversation Books
   A Communication to my Friends

In May 1802, Beethoven went to Heiligenstadt, an hour's carriage ride from Vienna proper to rest and recuperate. On Oct. 6, 1802, Beethoven wrote his brothers describing his anguish at his increasing deafness and its effect on not only his social life but also his sense of purpose. He wrote a second part to this letter on Oct. 10, 1802. In the testament, Beethoven addressed Karl Kaspar by name but referred to Johann as [blank] Beethoven.

1. Leo Tolstoy
   Fyodor Dostoyevsky
2. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
   Vladimir Nabokov

Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata serves as the centerpiece to Tolstoy's eponymous novella, which related the events that lead the main character to commit uxoricide. The main character, a man named Pozdnyshev, said of the work, "Ugh! A dreadful thing, that sonata. Especially that [Presto] movement."

1. Richard Wagner
   E.T.A. Hoffman
2. Jacques Offenbach
   Carl Maria von Weber

In describing the 5th Symphony, Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffman wrote: " ... the heart of every sensitive listener is certain to be deeply stirred by one emotion, that of nameless, haunted yearning, and right to the very last chord, indeed for some moments after it, he will be unable to emerge from the magical spirit-realm where he has been surrounded by pain and pleasure in the form of sounds." From "E.T.A. Hoffmann's Musical Writings: Kreisleriana; The Poet and the Composer; Music Criticism."

1. Baroque to Classical period
   Classical period to the Romantic era
2. Classical period to Modernism
   Renaissance to Classical period

The Classical period lasted from the mid-1700s to the early 1800s. Music's Romantic era began in the early 1800s and continued through the early 1900s. Beethoven's career bridged the two periods, and though his compositions were very much grounded in Classical period sensibilities, some argue that his later works helped shape the aesthetic of the Romantic era.

1. Joseph Haydn
   Antonio Salieri
2. Johann Christian Bach
   Andrea Luchesi

Beethoven left Bonn to study with Haydn in Vienna in late 1792 until about 1795. Their relationship had its ups and downs, but Beethoven ultimately dedicated his Piano Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 2, No. 2 to his teacher in 1796. The Italian composer Andrea Luchesi served as Kapellmeister, a musical director of sorts, at the same court chapel where Beethoven served as assistant organist, though there is no evidence a teacher-student relationship existed between the two.

1. His brother Karl Kaspar's son
   His brother Johann's daughter
2. Anton Schindler's son
   Andrea Luchesi's son

In late 1815, Ludwig's brother Karl Kaspar died, leaving his 9-year-old son, also named Karl, under the co-guardianship of his wife, Johanna, and Ludwig. From 1816 to 1820, the composer fought a vicious custody battle for sole guardianship of Karl, which he won. On a separate note, Beethoven's other brother, Johann, despite Ludwig's best efforts, managed to marry his housekeeper turned mistress, Therese Obermeyer. Johann never had children.

1. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
   Heinrich Heine
2. Rainer Maria Rilke
   Friedrich Schiller

Toward the end of his life, Beethoven underwent a burst of creativity that culminated in the Missa Solemnis in D major, Op. 123; the Diabelli Variations, Op. 120, in 1823; and the Ninth Symphony in 1824. Schiller's "Ode to Joy" was influenced by Freemason poetry, and while neither Beethoven nor Schiller were masons, the sentiment of universal brotherhood resonated with both of them.