Beethoven

FUN WITH MAPS – ISSUE 2021-239 DAILY FEATURE:

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (December 17, 2021) – In Issue 2021-239 of Steve Kovacs Fun with Maps, we celebrate a music master.

ODE TO JOY FOR THE BIRTHDAY BOY

Today is Beethoven’s birthday, sure to celebrated by Linus in the Peanuts comic strip.  Not as impressive as last year when he turned 250, a son of Bonn, Germany, but still a landmark occasion.

If you visit Vienna, Austria, you can follow in the great musician’s footsteps on the “Beethoven Trail.”  At the Haus de Musik, you can learn about Beethoven and the other composers who made Vienna their home during the Classical period; you can even lift a baton and conduct one of his symphonies as the Vienna Philharmonic plays.

Beethoven’s temperament and financial status meant he moved a great deal during his adult life, so if you visit, don’t be surprised to find historic markers everywhere!  But his death mask and supposedly his ghost can be found in the Beethoven Museum, one of his many residences.

His Ode to Joy from the Ninth Symphony is the Anthem of the European Union.

His remains join those of Strauss, Schubert, and Brahms in Vienna’s Zentralfriedhof Cemetery.  Dah, dah, dah, dah…

Here is Ortelius’s map of Beethoven’s adopted country of Austria from 1602.

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Antique Maps & Fun Facts here on Loveland Beacon.