I never heard of drive-by cannoning's after Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture so i do not sign up to the notion that music leads to violence but composing it leading to violence, now that's another story.I was a stroppy sod in life but that was due to my dumb luck of being one of the greatest ever composers and going stone death.
People told me that i couldn't be a great musician because i was deaf but did i listen? Nope, couldn't even if i wanted to, see the previous sentence.
I was a child prodigy and the French Revolution began when i was still only 18 and i was inspired by the revolutionary atmosphere and the man who embodied the spirit, Napoleon.
The marches of Napoleon encouraged me, my Third symphony was written about Napoleons victories but it backfired a bit when he abandoned his Republican values and declared himself Emperor.
Then he invaded my hometown of Vienna and had the cheek to offer me the position of imperial court virtuoso and i angrily rejected an offer to compose for the big nosed idiot.
I began drinking heavily and my financial problems were getting worse and by this time i was almost competely deaf and although i was still composing, i couldn't hear it but my drinking got so bad that i developed pancreatitis and cirrhosis of the liver and eventually in 1827 i died surrounded by my friends to whom i uttered my final immortal words: 'Applaud, my friends, the comedy is over'.
Whether they did or not i'm not sure, i had my eyes closed and was deaf as a post and don't bother with the old joke about me going from composing to decomposing, that is only funny the first 5,000 times i heard it, or saw it written down in my case.
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