The Beethoven Myth

The music of Beethoven is probably the greatest single contribution to the history of music and undoubtedly Beethoven stands out among the great masters for his genius and colossal ability. However as an interpreter of the finer feelings of man, he does not stand out in the same way. Beethoven was not a great composer; he was a great musician and probably did more for music than any other man.

He wrote at a time when the culture of the West which was his background, like the contemporary social and economic systems, was undergoing a great change. The old feudal and early commercial society was giving place to the more mundane capitalist society. It was the interim between the formal more intellectual music that the exclusive and dignified upper classes of the past demanded and the purely emotional romantic music that appealed to the new less intellectual upper classes of capitalism. The nicely completed formalism of Bach was too distant and thoughtful for these more, virile and mentally superficial followers of music. They demanded something more readily appreciated, something that appealed to their cruder emotional make-up. So music became more superficially emotional and exciting as in Frank and Debussy. Those who could afford the luxury of music were now more numerous and more worldly. They could not appreciate "Of Mice and Men," they demanded "Gone with the Wind," technicolour, deathbeds and all.

And Beethoven?