Literally the title of his composition means “For Elise”. Whoever the mysterious Elise was — she might have been a misreading of “Therese”, the woman Ludwig von Beethoven was known to have courted, but other theories, just as compelling, exist — she apparently inspired the composer to create one of history’s most enduring musical pieces. Beethoven was the grandson of a well-known musician, and his musical skills were discovered and nurtured early on, to the point where as a teenager he could already play on par with some of his teachers and provide enough for his parents and brothers.

On this day, April 27, 1810, Beethoven wrote Fur Elise. It was never published by him — a dealer named Ludwig Nohl found the untitled musical piece in a manuscript dedicated to an Elise, 25 years after the composer’s death.

One of Beethoven’s ardent wishes was to study under Mozart, and although he never got the opportunity, in one way he surpassed the master anyway. Beethoven composed Fur Elise and many of his other masterpieces while completely deaf. But as he told in a letter to his friend Franz Gerhard Wegeler, he didn’t need hearing to get his ideas: “They come unsummoned, directly, indirectly – I could seize them with my hands – out in the open air, in the woods, while walking, in the silence of the nights, at dawn, excited by moods which are translated by the poet into words, but by me into tones that sound and roar and storm about me till I have set them down in notes.”