Sonatine ut majeur kuhlau biography

The sonatinas of Kuhlau have done so much to help us along in our work as piano students or teachers that it is rather surprising that more is not known of their composer. For Kuhlau was no mean figure in the musical world of his day, and rose from the deepest poverty (he sang in the streets for a living at one time) to a post of great distinction. He also enjoyed the friendship of many prominent people, musicians and otherwise, not least of which was that of Beethoven himself.

Frederick Daniel Rodolphe Kuhlau was born 1786 at the little village of Luneburg, Hanover. When he was still a small boy his mother sent him to the fountain for water one dark night, and as he stumbled through the gloom he fell, with the result that he injured one of his eyes. Subsequently he lost the sight of the injured member, and was thus placed in the position of Otto Sevcik in our own day. This did not prevent him from studying music, however, and in spite of the poverty of his parents he learned to pl