Beethoven#
Summary#
Beethoven represents the last echo of a break and transition in musical style, not the culmination of a great European taste as Mozart was. His music carries the twilight of eternal loss and extravagant hope, embodying the spirit of Europe during the age of Rousseau, the Revolution, and Napoleon. While he remained a European event in music, the sentiment his work expressed has grown increasingly difficult for later generations to apprehend.