As I listen to Beethoven’s third symphony in a small coffee shop in Pueblo, Colorado on my IPod and write this post I realize that Beethoven had finally found his own voice. Prior to writing the third he was still writing fairly conventional music for his time. The music he was now composing was unprecedented and broke all the rules from his predecessors. In a recent post from the Harvard Business Review blog, Robert Greenberg, a music historian said that Beethoven reserved the right to do exactly as he pleased. He also mentioned that the music was expressively free and innovative. Once he started writing this new type of music, a group of influential people opposed him publicly and personally.
How Beethoven handled opposition
A violinist asked him directly whether these works were music at all. Beethoven responded unfazed, “Oh”, he said, “they are not for you, but for a later age”. Beethoven did not let this hostility stop him from continuing to write music in his style and never stopped innovating.
Music was never the same
- Chopin, Mendelssohn, Schuman, Brahms, Verdi, Schubert and Liszt as well as several modern composers claimed him as the principal shaping force in their musical career.
- Because his music has the power to encourage the spirit of individual freedom China in the 1970s banned his music.
- In 1985, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy from his 9th Symphony became the official national anthem for the European Community.
- He is the subject of biographies, movies, plays, poems, and is widely acknowledged universally around the world.
I’m not a classical music expert but for me, he represents a larger than life genius who despite all his troubles, disabilities and personal circumstances was able to change music forever and did not let the pundits stop him from expressing his own voice.
- Do you resist innovation or quickly embrace it?
- Have you experienced opposition, ridicule or a hostile reaction because you embraced innovation?
