Ludwig van Beethoven
Born in December 1770, Beethoven's body of work is divided into three eras: the early period, where he emulated great predecessors Haydn and Mozart, the middle period, where his encroaching hearing loss led to large-scale, defiantly heroic orchestral works including the famous "dun-dun-dun-dah!" Fifth Symphony, and the late period, which yielded works of immense intellectual depth from a composer who existed in a world of near-total silence. Beethoven ushered out the Classical period with the back of his hand and fathered the Romantic era. By his death in 1827, he had left an indelible mark on the history of Western music.