“Beethoven”

Abstract ‘Beethoven’ asks why Beethoven’s contemporaries knew relatively little about him as an individual. It was only after his death that an image of him began to emerge, fuelled by the discovery and publication of the Heiligenstadt Testament, the letter to the Immortal Beloved, and a series of reminiscences and biographies. More and more, the public came to hear Beethoven’s music as a form of sonic autobiography, and critics went to great lengths to associate specific events in his life with specific compositions. Beethoven’s reputation as the most consequential composer in the history of Western music grew exponentially in the century after his death. The many monuments and statues erected in his honour bear witness to a sense of intense national and cultural pride on the part of Germans, who regarded him as the musical counterpart to Goethe. Over time, political parties from the far left to the far right would co-opt Beethoven’s music to serve their various causes. His hold on popular culture continues unabated, having found its way into disco, rap, and popular song, and his life has been the subject of multiple feature-length films.