BEETHOVEN. When asked to name the single most influentialcomposer of the Western world, few would hesitate. And thespecific style that has come to define the nature of Beethoven'saccomplishment is his heroic style, a style to which only a handful ofhis works can lay unequivocal claim: two symphonies, two piano sonatas,several overtures, a piano concerto.1 For nearly two centuries, asingle style of a single composer has epitomized musical vitality, becomingthe paradigm of Western compositional logic and of all thepositive virtues that music can embody for humanity. This convictionhas proved so strong that it no longer acts as an overt part of our musicalconsciousness; it is now simply a condition of the way we tend toengage the musical experience. The values of Beethoven's heroic stylehave become the values of music. This book asks how this came to be,and why this came to be—in short, why this music matters so.

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