Introduction

The original intention was that this book should be entirely biographical. If it be true, however, that our main interest is (or ought to be) in what a composer did rather than in what he was, the truth applies especially to Beethoven, and above all at the present time. The scheme of the book has therefore been modified so as to include a survey of his work.

Scope and Approach

An attempt to make such survey cover the whole of Beethoven’s output would result in little more than a catalogue, with annotations too brief to convey hardly anything of the essential quality of the music. It seemed, therefore, that the limited space would be best used, and the needs of the general reader more fully met, by a much less rigid and comprehensive method.

Goals

My aim has been to indicate some, at least, of the more important characteristics of Beethoven’s works, and to show their influence on his successors.