The Heart of Beethoven

157 pp. Beethoven's life, more dramatically than any other of mankind's major poets, was the source of his art. As a young man he lived the rebellious emotionalism of the Romantic movement, and gave first full expression to it. In his mature years such triumphant works as the third, fifth, and seventh symphonies - still, after 150 years, the world's most "popular" music - bodied forth his personal interpretation of the French Revolution: its release of faith in the individual's capacity to shape his destiny. Deaf and on the threshold of death, Beethoven carried art finally into depths of subjective perception not plumbed by other artists.