ABSTRACT
The eighteen-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven was placed at the head of the family. His brother Carl Ludwig Junker was no doubt preparing for the musical career planned for him; and Nickolaus Johann was apprenticed to the Court Apothecary. Despite his responsibilities as head of a household consisting of a besotted father and two unsatisfactory—or at least uncongenial—brothers, Ludwig now entered on a period of about four years of happiness. His position, both social and professional, improved steadily. He composed a romantic ballet, which was performed, but he appears to have been chiefly esteemed as a pianist. More important for his future as an orchestral composer was the fact of his playing the viola in the theatre band for four years. In November, 1792, Beethoven left Bonn for Vienna, there to take up with Haydn the course of study that had no doubt been discussed when the two met a few months earlier.
