I compose, conduct and play the piano. I trained in the Classical style and my music drove the move into Romantic music, expanding the symphony, the piano sonata and the string quartet.
The person outside the work — what they're learning and tinkering with.
I came to Vienna in 1792 to study, not yet to publish. I worked on counterpoint under Haydn, then Albrechtsberger, and studied Italian vocal style with Salieri — training that made my Op. 1 a success.
From the 1810s I studied older music — Gregorian chant, Palestrina, Bach and Handel — and built its polyphony, church modes and Baroque devices into a new late style of composition.
My most important Bonn teacher, Christian Gottlob Neefe, taught me composition. I published my first work in 1783, worked as assistant organist and later Court Organist, and played viola in the court orchestra.
