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Why Beethoven?

No composer changed music history more profoundly than Beethoven. His symphonies, string quartets, and piano, violin and cello sonatas set the standard against which all future compositions are judged. Leonard Bernstein wrote, “Many, many composers have been able to write heavenly tunes…But this is all mere dust – nothing compared to the magic ingredient sought by them all: the inexplicable ability to know what the next note has to be. Beethoven had this gift in a degree that leaves them all panting in the rear guard.”

And yet, no composer had a more acute handicap—deafness beginning at age 23.

He was unhappy in love…socially awkward…and tormented.

And still, he gave us the most profound, life-affirming, inspiring music ever written. His Ode to Joy still remains the universal expression of human freedom 184 years after his death.

Why Beethoven? Perhaps because by immersing ourselves in his incomprehensible genius, we will begin to understand what Victor Hugo meant when he said, “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”

BEETHOVEN LINKS:
Click here for 3-minute video excerpt of the finale of Beethoven Symphony No. 1.
Ira. F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies
List of Beethoven’s compositions
Download free scores for Beethoven’s compositions
Beethoven Bio
Beethoven Maennerchor (Site of TPR event)
Beethoven Haus
Beethoven Biography.net
Beethoven Listening Library at Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Free download Beethoven Piano Music