There were three
paramount advantages in his equipment: first, Beethoven was a strong
character who only happened to find in music his most suitable means
of self-expression. The full import of his works cannot be understood
unless he is recognized, great creative artist that he was, as first
and foremost a unique personality. Had he not written a note of music
we should have sufficient historical evidence to assure ourselves of
the vigor of his intellect and the elevation of his ideals. Whereas
Haydn and Mozart are to be judged purely as musicians, in Beethoven it
is always something underlying the musical symbols which claims our
allegiance. Furthermore he had the inestimable advantage of finding
the mechanical structure of instrumental music carefully formulated by
his predecessors. The stone had been quarried, the rough cutting done
and the blocks lay ready for a genius to use in the erection of his
own poetically conceived edifice. And these forms were still fresh and
vigorous; they had not yet hardened into formalism. In Beethoven's
works we rarely find form employed for its own sake, as a mere "tour
de force" of skilful workmanship, rather is it made to adapt itself to
the individual needs of the composer. Finally Beethoven's career
coincided with momentous changes and upheavals in the social,
political and artistic world. He is the embodiment of that spirit of
individualism, of human freedom and self-respect which found its
expression in the French Revolution, in our American War of
Independence and in the entire alteration of social standards.
Beethoven at all costs resolved to be himself. With him music ceases
to be a mere "concourse of sweet sounds"; it must always bring some
message to the brooding human soul, and be something more than a
skilful example of abstract ingenuity. These personal tendencies of
Beethoven were fostered by the spirit of the times, and his music
became in turn a vital expression of revolt against existing
conditions and of passionate aspiration towards something better. He
was the first musician to free himself from the enervating influence
of having to write exclusively for aristocratic patronage. Such was
the social emancipation of the period that he could address himself at
first hand to a musical public eagerly receptive and constantly
growing. His representative works could never have been composed in
the time of Haydn and Mozart; for though in formal structure the
logical devel