7. Beethoven

With Beethoven we walk onto the bridge spanning the Classical Era with the Romantic Era. Although his music is firmly planted in the sonata form, he transformed it during his lifetime into something that would give birth to a completely new kind of music in the 19th century: Romanticism.

Beethoven has often been called the giant of classical music: in one sense, there is no one as large as he was. His personality was big, his music was big, and his influence on everyone who came after him was even bigger. He saw himself as part of the new revolutionary enlightenment that was sweeping across Europe, and he sought to put his views of the world into his music.

Beethoven’s compositions are perhaps the most personal of all the music we have yet studied. He has an unmistakable sound and feel that is, well… Beethoven. There is a good reason why the only name written above the stage at Boston’s Symphony Hall is his. There has never been another composer like him.