Interesting/Strange Facts:
- Beethoven often dipped his head in cold water before composing!
- Beethoven loved cooking, so much so that he named one of his pieces "Christ! On the Mount of Olives"
- He was jealous that Rimsky-Korsakov wrote an opera called "Mozart and Salieri" instead of "Mozart and Beethoven"
- He designed one of his piano sonatas to be played with building implements and called it the "Hammer-Klavier Sonata"
- He wrote another of his sonatas entirely at night and so called it the "Moonlight Sonata"
- Beethoven's father was an alcoholic and emotionally abusive to Beethoven when Beethoven was growing up;
- Beethoven's height was 5' 3"
- Beethoven had unusually bad skin;
- Beethoven was very temperamental and would end performances if he became aware of anyone
- in the audience talking;
- When Beethoven's brother died, Beethoven bribed officials to obtain custody of his brother's son, thus taking his nephew away from his brother's wife; and
- Beethoven's deafness was the result of lead poisoning, and lead poisoning was also the cause of
- Beethoven's death.