Ludwig van Beethoven – The Duality of Genius
Influences - Frederick Schiller’s “Ode to Joy”
Opus 125, Fourth Movement – Analysis
Like many geniuses, Ludwig van Beethoven was a man who fit Walt Whitman’s immortal lines in Song of Myself, “Do I contradict myself?/Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large. I contain multitudes)” (Whitman 96). Indeed, Beethoven was a man of contradictions and certainly appears to have contained multitudes. He was one of the greatest composers of all time, one whose style and level of achievement have seldom been equaled, but he could also be petty, antisocial, and a man driven by fear and unrequited love. He was often rude to waiters, servants, and the general populace, many of whom he held in the utmost of contempt. One of Beethoven’s favorite insults was the word “ass”, of which, he was quite fond, “Beethoven liked the insult ‘ass.’ He used it quite often, intensifying the insult by singling people out as ‘the ass of all asses.’ (Esel allen Esel in German). Beethoven even wrote a short a capella fugue with ‘Esel allen Esel’ as the theme” (Beethoven 1). Nonetheless, Beethoven composed nine symphonies, 7 concertos, 17 string quartets, 32 piano sonatas, 10 sonatas for violin and piano, 5 sonatas for cello and piano, an opera, 2 masses and several overtures in his 57 years (Encarta 1). Yet, there was a pervasive duality within Beethoven, from his pretensions of nobility to his humble lineage and from his contempt and antisocial nature to his enthusiasm and imagination in the music which celebrated the triumph of music over life.
Beethoven grew steadily deaf until he completely lost his hearing around the age of 30. This contributed to his antisocial nature, and the passionate artist was often brusque with waiters, maids and anyone else who displeased him. Once, in a restaurant, he was given the wrong dish and he cursed the waiter and threw...