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Beethoven, the Man and the Artist, as Revealed in His Own Words by Ludwig van Beethoven
page 20 of 113 (17%)
case of Schiller? In this respect Goethe is much easier."

(1809, after Beethoven had made his experiences with the "Hymn to
Joy" and "Egmont.")



ON COMPOSING



Wiseacres not infrequently accused Beethoven of want of
regularity in his compositions. In various ways and at divers
times he gave vigorous utterance to his opinions of such
pedantry. He was not the most tractable of pupils, especially in
Vienna, where, although he was highly praised as a player, he
took lessons in counterpoint from Albrechtsberger. He did not
endure long with Papa Haydn. He detested the study of fugue in
particular; the fugue was to him a symbol of narrow coercion
which choked all emotion. Mere formal beauty, moreover, was
nothing to him. Over and over again he emphasizes soul, feeling,
direct and immediate life, as the first necessity of an art work.
It is therefore not strange that under certain circumstances he
ignored conventional forms in sonata and symphony. An
irrepressible impulse toward freedom is the most prominent
peculiarity of the man and artist Beethoven; nearly all of his
observations, no matter what their subject, radiate the word
"Liberty." In his remarks about composing there is a complete
exposition of his method of work.

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