BEETHOVEN, Ludwig van (1770—1827), German composer, who brought about gigantic alterations in the nature and techniques of music—an achievement matched by few other artists. He found music a rococo-dramatic art, the orchestra a relatively small ensemble, and the piano a newly established successor to the harpsichord. By his aggressive, iconoclastic, even egotistic nature, and by his huge ability to manipulate and balance musical ideas and forces, Beethoven marked his later creations with his own stormy, tender, lyrical, and intellectual character. By employing textless music to communicate philosophical ideas and to serve as autobiography, he pushed music far along the road toward 19^th century romanticism and bequeathed to his successors the portrait of the great creator as culture hero. He expanded the size of the orchestra and the possible length of orchestral compositions, preparing the way for Schubert, Berlioz, Richard Wagner, Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler, Anton Bruckner, and Richard Strauss. He went far toward establishing the piano as the foremost musical instrument. Not a great craftsman when handling the human voice, Beethoven excelled in all other branches of music. The taste of the 20^th century inclines to call Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven the greatest of all musical creators.

路德维希·凡·贝多芬（1770年至1827年），德国作曲家，他给音乐的性质和技巧带来了巨大改变—一种其他艺术家几乎很少能达到的成就。他发现了一种洛可可风格的戏剧艺术，一种相对较小的合奏管弦乐队，以及新设立的大键琴继承者的钢琴。凭借他咄咄逼人，打破旧习，甚至自我的本性，而且凭借他巧妙地处理和平衡音乐理想与力量的巨大能力，贝多芬用他那暴风雨般的、温柔的、抒情诗调的以及知性的性格展现了他后来的创作。通过使用无主题音乐来传达哲学观念以及作为自传，他将音乐推向了十九世纪浪漫主义的道路，并将作为文化英雄的伟大创作者的形象遗赠给他的继承者们。他扩大了管弦乐队的规模以及管弦乐作品可能的长度，为舒伯特，柏辽兹，理查德·瓦格纳，约翰内斯·勃拉姆斯，古斯塔夫·马勒，安东·布鲁克纳以及理查德·施特劳斯铺平了道路。他努力将钢琴确立为最重要的乐器。尽管在处理人的声音时，贝多芬并不是一位伟大的工匠，但他在音乐的其它方面都表现卓越。二十世纪的品味倾向于将巴赫，莫扎特和贝多芬称为所有音乐创作者中最伟大的音乐家。

     Early Years.  Beethoven was born at Bonn, probably on Dec. 16. 1770, and was baptized on December 17. Of Flemish-German descent, he as the second of seven children of Johann van Beethoven, who sang tenor in the chorus of the elector of cologne. Ludwig’s mother was Maria Magdalena Laym (nee Kewerich). The boy demonstrated musical talent as early as his sixth year, and his father tried to develop him into a child prodigy like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. At 10, Ludwig was sent to study with Christian Gottlob Neefe, the elector’s court organist. Neefe nourished him on Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier and Wrote in 1783: “If he goes on as he has started, he will certainly become a second Mozart.”

早年  贝多芬生于波恩，大约在1770年12月16日，并于12月17日受洗礼。佛兰德人—德国人血统，他是约翰·范·贝多芬七个孩子中的第二个孩子，约翰是科隆选举人合唱队的男高音。路德维希的母亲是玛丽亚·马格达莱纳·莱姆（尼·科韦里赫）。早在他六岁时这个男孩就展现出了音乐才能，而他的父亲试图将他培养成像沃尔夫冈·阿玛德乌斯·莫扎特那样的神童。十岁时，路德维希被送去与选举人宫廷的风琴手基督徒戈特洛布·尼夫学习。尼夫用约翰·塞巴斯蒂安·巴赫的《平均律钢琴曲集》滋养了他，并于1783年写道：“如果他一如既往，他就一定会成为第二个莫扎特”。

In 1784, Beethoven was appointed assistant court organist to Elector Maximilian Franz, an enlightened young ruler. Beethoven visited Vienna for the first time in the spring of 1787, meeting Mozart, who was too much involved in the composition of Don Giovanni to do much more than listen to his playing and praise him. Beethoven was summoned back to Bonn by the illness of his mother, who died a few weeks later. His father had become a drunkard, and the family would have been poverty-stricken but for the help offered Ludwig by his friends.

1784年，贝多芬被指定为选举人马克西米兰·弗兰茨，一位开明的年轻统治者的宫廷助理风琴手。贝多芬于1787年春第一次访问了维也纳，遇到了莫扎特，由于莫扎特忙于《唐乔瓦尼》的作曲，没有多听他的演奏和赞扬他。由于其母亲的病情，贝多芬被召回了波恩，几周后母亲就去世了。其父变成了一名酒鬼，如果没有他朋友们提供的帮助，这个家庭就会陷入贫困。

In November 1789, Beethoven persuaded the elector to make him legal head of his family and to pay him half of Johann’s salary. In this way he succeeded in bringing some order into his home. The young man’s compositions began to circulate in manuscript. The great Joseph Haydn, visiting Bonn in July 1792, examined a cantata that the 21-year-old Beethoven submitted to him, and encouraged him to continue composing. Beethoven’s noble patrons persuaded the elector to finance a trip to Vienna and probable lessons with Haydn. Just ahead of the troops of revolutionary France, Beethoven left Bonn in November 1792, never to return, and installed himself at Vienna.

1789年11月，贝多芬说服选举人让他成为他家的一家之主，并付给他约翰薪水的一半。用这种方式，他成功维持了一家的秩序。这个年轻人的作曲开始以手稿的形式流传。1792年7月，伟大的约瑟夫·海顿访问了波恩，审阅了二十一岁的贝多芬递交给他的一部大合唱，并鼓励他继续进行创作。贝多芬的贵族赞助人说服了选举人资助他去维也纳旅行，也可能是随海顿授课。正好在法国革命军之前，1792年贝多芬离开了波恩，在维也纳安顿下来，从此再也没有回来。

Vienna.  Johann van Beethoven died in December 1792, and for a time the moneys arriving in Vienna from Bonn were often interrupted. Haydn gave Beethoven some lessons for almost nothing, even inviting the young man to join him on his second visit to England. Beethoven, armed with introductions from his Bonn patrons, was soon taken up by several wealthy Viennese families. He attracted pupils, became renowned for his astonishing ability to improvise at the keyboard, and generally began to savor life fully for the first time. Continuing to study and to compose, he was soon widely famous as a virtuoso pianist.

维也纳  约翰·凡·贝多芬于1792年12月去世，一段时间从波恩汇到维也纳的钱经常被中断。海顿几乎是免费为贝多芬开了一些课，甚至邀请这位年轻人在他第二次访问英格兰时加入他们。贝多芬，有了其波恩赞助人的介绍，不久就得到了几个富有的维也纳家庭的资助。由于他在键盘上惊人的即兴演奏能力，他吸引了许多学生，变得很著名，并第一次开始充分地享受生活。不断的研究和作曲，他不久就作为钢琴大家而广为人知。

At this period Beethoven traveled extensively in Austria, Bohemia, Germany, and Hungary, winning particular success in Prague. In 1798 he began to suffer from incipient deafness, the resulting shock apparently being directly related to the increased power, even ferocity, of his compositions of the time, including the Pathetique Sonata, Opus 13, for piano. On April 2, 1800, he gave his own first public concert, which included pieces by Haydn and Mozart as well as his own septet for wind instruments and strings and his C Major (First) Symphony. The symphony shocked many Viennese, who were more favorably disposed toward the music Beethoven wrote for the ballet Die Geschopfe des Prometheus (The Creations of Prometheus). He himself became extremely displeased with his creative efforts and in 1802 said: “I am discontented with my works up to now; from here on I shall take a new path.” On Oct. 10, 1802, he dated at the village of Heiligenstadt the overwhelming document known as the Heiligenstadt Testament.

在此期间，贝多芬游历了奥地利，波希米亚，德国以及匈牙利，尤其在布拉格大获成功。1798年他开始遭受早期听力不佳的折磨，显然与他那段时间作曲时直接增加的功率导致的震动有关，甚至是猛烈的撞击，包括为钢琴而作的第十三号作品《悲怆奏鸣曲》。1800年4月2日，他举办了他自己的第一场公开音乐会，其中包括海顿和莫扎特的作品和他自己的为管乐器以及弦乐的七重奏，以及他的C大调（第一）交响乐。该交响乐震惊了许多更喜欢贝多芬为芭蕾舞《Die Geschopfe des Prometheus》（普罗米修斯的创造）创作音乐的维也纳人。可他自己对他创作性的努力很不高兴，并在1802年说道：“到现在，我对我的作品也不满意；从这里开始，我将开辟一条新路。”1802年10月10日，他在海黎根施塔特村签署了被称为《海黎根施塔特遗嘱》的决定性文件。

The testament is a nearly incoherent outpouring of grief and rage against the senseless cruelties of life. Part of Beethoven’s tragic intensity was the result of his increasing deafness, part resulted from his continued treatment for a physical condition that was very probably syphilitic. He became more and more an irascible, imperious, difficult, antisocial man. Though increasingly isolated inside himself, he fell in love numerous times, frequently with young girls of noble birth who were clearly beyond his reach. A document almost as shattering as the Heiligenstadt Testament is the so-called “Letter to the Immortal Beloved,” an unsent outpouring of passionate yearning for a girl who cannot be identified. Beethoven never married.

遗嘱几乎是对生活中无意识的残酷行为的悲伤和愤怒的语无伦次的流露。贝多芬的一部分不幸是来自他逐渐的耳聋，一部分是来自他对身体状况持续的治疗，很可能是梅毒。他变成了一个越来越易怒，专横，执拗，反社会的人。尽管他内心越来越孤独，但他多次频繁地与贵族少女恋爱，很明显她们是他可望而不可及的。一份与《海黎根施塔特遗嘱》一样令人震惊的文件是被称为“致永远爱人的信”，是对一个无法确认身份的姑娘未发出的热情渴望的流露。贝多芬从未结过婚。

Middle Period.  Beethoven’s personal eccentricities, his proud boorishness, and even his lack of personal cleanliness were accepted as the marks of the genius he was. A short muscular, stocky man, he had a bush of wild hair and fierce, piercing black eyes in a notably ruddy face. His upper-class friends suffered at his hand but stubbornly remained faithful to him. They supported him by providing comfortable lodgings, by giving him money, and by patronizing his concerts and publications on April 5, 1803, for example, his Second (D Major) symphony and his Third (C Minor) Piano concerto were first heard at a public concert. By 1804 he was composing such of his great piano sonatas as the Waldstein (Opus 53) and the Appassionata (Opus 57), and probably had embarked on his only opera, Fidelio. The opera was delayed, finally being performed on Nov. 20, 1805, when Vienna was under French occupation. It was given THREE times and was a failure. Beethoven’s friends persuaded him to revise it and to reduce its THREE acts to two. It was restaged on March 29, 1806, with more promise of success, but Beethoven quarreled with the impresario, and it was withdrawn after two performances. More than eight years later he again revised it; it was then produced with enormous success on May 23, 1814, and was chosen to open the Hofoper’s 1815 season. (See also FIDELIO.)

中期  贝多芬的个人怪癖，他自豪的粗鲁，甚至他的邋里邋遢都被认为是他天才的标志。一个身材矮壮，肌肉结实的男人，他长着一头乱发，面相凶猛，面色红润的脸上生就一双敏锐的黑色眼睛。虽然他上流社会的朋友们忍受着他的折磨，却顽固地保持着对他的忠心。他们为他提供舒适的住所，给他金钱，而且赞助他的音乐会，以及在1803年4月5日的出版物，例如，他的第二（D大调）交响曲和他的第三（C小调）钢琴协奏曲都是在公共音乐会上首次听到的。到了1804年，他正在创作像《瓦尔德施泰因》（作品53号）和《热情》（作品57号）这样伟大的钢琴奏鸣曲，而且很可能已经开始创作他唯一的歌剧《弗德里奥》。当时维也纳已在法国的占领下，该歌剧延期了，最终在1805年11月20日上演。它上演了三次，但都不成功。贝多芬的朋友们劝他修改，将该剧的三幕改成两幕。带着更多成功的希望，1806年3月29日重新演出，但贝多芬与经理发生了争吵，并在两场演出后停演了。八年多以后，他又修改了它；它在1814年5月23日面世，获得了巨大的成功，并被选为宫廷歌剧院1815年季的开场剧。

Meanwhile, by 1805, Beethoven had begun to sketch his Fifth (C Minor) symphony, his Fourth (G Major) Piano concerto, and the first of hisRasoumovsky (Razmovski) string quartets. In 1806, in the midst of the Napoleonic disorders, he composed his only violin concerto, first heard on December 23 of that year. While Beethoven worked on the concerto, his desk was littered with advanced sketches of his Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth symphonies. The Fourth (B Major) was first heard in the spring of 1807; the Fifth (C Minor) and sixth (Pastoral, F Major) were played at a concert on Dec. 22, 1808, which included half a dozen others of his works (the premieres of the Choral Fantasy and the Fourth Piano Concerto).

与此同时，到1805年贝多芬开始构思他的第五（C小调）交响乐，第四（G大调）钢琴协奏曲，以及他的第一部《Rasoumovsky 》（拉苏莫夫斯基）弦乐四重奏。1806年，在拿破仑混乱时期，他创作了他唯一的小提琴协奏曲，于该年12月23日首次演奏。在贝多芬创作该协奏曲时，他的书桌上胡乱堆着他第四、第五和第六交响曲的草稿。第四（B大调）于1807年春首次演奏；第五（C小调）和第六（牧歌，F大调）于1808年12月22日在一场音乐会上演出，其中包括了他其它一半的作品（《合唱幻想曲》的首映式和第四钢琴协奏曲）。

When he had completed his Third symphony, in E Flat (known as the Eroica Symphony) in 1804, Beethoven decided to inscribe it to Napoleon, thinking of him as a democratic liberator: this inscription he later angrily struck out. Nevertheless, he seriously considered, as late as 1808—1809, an offer from Jerome Bonaparte, king of Westphalia, to become his Kapellmeister at Kassel. Hearing of this THREE of Beethoven’s Viennese patrons, including the young Archduke Rudolf, joined to offer him a yearly income, and he decided not to emigrate. Although after Haydn’s death on May 31, 1809, Beethoven was unquestionably the most famous of living musicians, the years from 1809 to 1813 appear to have been relatively inactive for him. He was by then almost totally deaf, but as one of the world’s most famous men he led a very active social life. In 1811 he encountered Johann Nepomuk Maelzel, inventor of the metronome, with whom he formed a close, if passing, friendship. In 1812, visiting fashionable Teplitz (Teplice), he met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who said of him: “His talent amazed me; unfortunately, he is an utterly untamed personality, not altogether wrong in holding the world to be detestable, but not making it any more enjoyable either for himself or for others by his attitude.” During this year Beethoven completed his seventh (A Major) and eighth (F Major) symphonies.

当他在1804年完成了降E调（被称为《英雄交响曲》）的第三交响曲时，贝多芬决定将它献给拿破仑，认为他是一位民主的解放者：后来他愤怒地划掉了这个题词。虽然如此，一直到1808年至1809年，他认真地考虑了威斯特法利亚国王杰罗姆·波拿巴的提议，成为了卡塞尔管弦乐队的指挥。听说贝多芬的三位维也纳赞助人，包括年轻的鲁道夫大公加入了为他提供年薪的行列，这样贝多芬决定不移民了。虽然，在1809年5月31日海顿去世以后，贝多芬无可争议地成为了当时最著名的音乐家，但从1809年至1813年这些年中，对他来说似乎并不怎么活跃。那时他几乎完全失聪了，但作为世界最著名的人物之一，他引领了非常活跃的社交生活。在1811年，他遇到了节拍器的发明者约翰·内波穆克·梅尔策尔，同他建立了亲密的友谊，即使是短暂的。在1812年，他参观了时尚的Teplitz（特普利采），他遇见了约翰·沃尔夫冈·冯·歌德，歌德说：“他的天资让我惊叹；不幸的是，他是位完全不驯服的人，认为这个世界可憎并不完全有错，但他的态度并未使自己或他人获得更多的快乐”。就在这一年，贝多芬完成了他的第七（A大调）和第八（F小调）交响曲。

In May 1813, hearing of the duke of Wellington’s victory over Joseph Bonaparte’s troops at Vitoria, Spain, Beethoven agreed to compose for the panharmonicon, a music-playing machine invented by Maelzel, a piece to be played in England, Wellington’s Victory is orotund trash, yet Beethoven astonishingly orchestrated it for performance in Vienna, where its success was stupendous. Almost unnoticed in the din of its first performance on Dec. 8, 1813, as the premiere of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. The Eighth symphony was first heard on Feb. 27, 1814.

1813年5月，当听说惠灵顿公爵战胜了在西班牙维多利亚的约瑟夫·波拿巴的军队时，贝多芬同意为百音琴谱曲，一种梅尔策尔发明的由机器演奏的音乐，曲子在英格兰演奏，惠灵顿的胜利就像是在瞎扯，然而贝多芬为在维也纳的演出将它令人惊讶地编成了管弦乐曲，获得了巨大的成功。作为贝多芬的第七交响曲的首演，1813年12月8日在第一场演出的喧嚣声中几乎未引起人们的注意。1814年2月27日，第八交响曲首次演奏。

When the Congress of Vienna convened on Nov. 1, 1814, to rearrange the world disordered by Napoleon, Beethoven was the object of keen interest to the visiting sovereigns and their entourages. The Austrian government lent him the two halls of the Redoutensaal for a series of concerts, and he personally invited the sovereign, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, and other visiting dignitaries. The first concert attracted 6,000 people, and the series earned Beethoven a large sum of money. The year 1815 found him in comfortable circumstances, although his brother Karl died, leaving a widow, whom Beethoven detested, and a nine-year-old son, Karl, of whom he was coguardian with the widow. This boy was to be the cause of much unhappiness and ill-advised behavior on his uncle’s part. In Nov. 16, 1815, Beethoven was awarded the freedom of the city of Vienna, thus becoming tax exempt. The death of his patron Prince Lobkowitz in 1816, however, reduced his income, and for the first time in years he was pressed for money.

当1814年11月1日维也纳议会重新安排因拿破仑造成的无序世界时，贝多芬是来访的君主和他们的随行人员特别感兴趣的对象。奥地利政府借给他两个大厅来举办一系列音乐会，而他个人邀请了君主查尔斯·莫里斯·德塔莱朗·佩里戈尔，以及其他的来访高官。第一场音乐会吸引了六千人，这一系列音乐会为贝多芬挣得了大笔金钱。1815这一年，尽管他的弟弟卡尔去世了，留下了一位贝多芬厌恶的寡妇以及他与那寡妇同为监护人的一个九岁大的儿子，卡尔。这个男孩就是未来他叔叔许多不愉快和非理智行为的原因。1815年11月16日，贝多芬获得了维也纳荣誉市民，因此可以免税。然而，1816年他的赞助人洛布科维茨王子去世，他的收入减少了，多年来他第一次感到了缺钱的压力。

Last works.  Between 1817 and 1823, Beethoven completed the last 5 of his 32 piano sonatas. In 1818 he began a mass intended for use at the installation of his friend archduke Rudolf as archbishop of Olmutz (Olomouc). He did not complete it until Feb. 27, 1823; the Missa solemnis was first sung at a private performance in St. Petersburg on April 6, 1824. As early as 1812, Beethoven had planned a symphony in D minor. He worked at it desultorily until 1823, when he seriously set to work to complete it he decided to make its last movement a choral setting of Friedrich von Schiller’s Ode to Joy and pronounced the Ninth symphony complete on Sept. 5, 1823. He had accepted £50 from the Philharmonic Society of London in return for a promise that it would receive his new symphony to the king of Prussia. When the audience broke into frantic applause, the deaf Beethoven was unaware of the enthusiasm until someone turned him around so that he could see the demonstration.

晚年  在1817年与1823年间，贝多芬完成了他三十二首钢琴奏鸣曲的最后五首。1818年，他着手为朋友鲁道夫大公谱写在担任奥尔米兹大主教就职仪式上使用的弥撒。他直到1823年2月27日才完成；1824年4月6日，弥撒曲在圣·彼得堡一个私人演出中首次演唱。早在1812年，贝多芬就计划过一部D小调交响曲。直到1823年前他都进行的杂乱无章，当他认真工作去完成它时，他决定将它的最后乐章作为弗里德希·冯·席勒的《欢乐颂》合唱的背景，并宣布第九交响曲于1823年9月5日完成。他收到了伦敦爱乐协会的50英镑，作为回报协会将收到他为普鲁士国王谱写的新交响曲。当观众爆发出疯狂的欢呼时，耳聋的贝多芬没有察觉到这种热情，直到有人让他转过身来，他才看到了那场面。

From 1824 to 1826, Beethoven completed the five string quartet (Opus 127, 130, 131, 132, and 135) that many critics regard as the towering peak of his achievement. He also began to sketch a tenth symphony. He was increasingly ill during this period and worried unceasingly over the wastrel his nephew Karl had become. The boy’s attempted suicide in the summer of 1826 further unnerved him. After a senseless and futile visit to the country in an attempt to persuade his prosperous brother Johann to name young Karl as his heir, Beethoven furiously rushed back to Vienna in an open carriage, arriving on December 2 and taking to his bed with a high fever. After his 56^th birthday (Dec.16, 1826) he also quarreled with his nephew, who shortly joined his regiment and never saw his famous uncle again. Franz Schubert visited him. When a set of George Frideric Handel’s works arrived from London, Beethoven looked through it and said: “Handel is the greatest of us all.” During February 1827 he was five times tapped for dropsy. He was given the last sacrament on March 24. Two days later Vienna was beset by a late afternoon storm. The dying man opened his eyes, shook his fist at the sky, and died; it was March 26, 1827. His funeral THREE days later was an IMPRESSIVE public in the streets and by another multitude at the cemetery. For it was the funeral of one of the two or THREE most famous men in the world.

从1824年到1826年，贝多芬完成了五首弦乐四重奏（作品127号，130号，131号，132号和135号）以至于许多评论家认为那是他成就的巅峰。他还开始了第十交响曲的构思。在这一时期他的病情愈来愈重，而且不断地操心他的侄子，败家子卡尔。1826年夏，那个男孩企图自杀使他更加不安。在一次试图劝说他富有的兄弟将继承权赋予年轻的卡尔，对该国进行了毫无意义和徒劳的访问之后，贝多芬愤怒地乘坐一辆敞篷马车，于12月2日赶回了维也纳，可高烧让他卧病在床。在他五十六生日后（1826年12月16日），他还与他的侄子吵了一架，而不久他的侄子便加入了军队，再也没有见过他著名的叔叔。弗朗兹·舒伯特探望过他。当一套来自伦敦的乔治·弗德里希·享德尔的作品到来时，贝多芬看后说道：“享德尔是我们所有人中最伟大的”。1827年2月间，他五次被查出浮肿。3月24日他接受了最后的圣礼。两天后维也纳被一场午后的暴雨所笼罩。临终的人睁开了双眼，对着天空挥动着拳头，然后死了；时间是1827年3月26日。三天后，他的葬礼令街道上的公众和在墓地的另一群人印象深刻。因为它是这个世界上两三个最著名的人物之一的葬礼。

CREATIVE PERIODS

Custom long has divided Beethoven’s numerous works into THREE periods. These inexact, overlapping categories represent actual changes in style. The first period shows Beethoven as the direct heir and imitator of Haydn and Mozart. Opening about 1800, the second period, far more idiosyncratic, includes the majority of his most popular work: symphonies Nos. 2 to 8 inclusive, Fidelio, the last THREE piano concertos, the violin concerto, the Leonore, Egmont, and Coriolan overtures, the Rasoumovsky string quartets, other chamber music, and 14 of the piano sonatas. The third of the Beethoven periods, one of distillation and summation, encompasses the Ninth symphony, the five final string quartets, and the Missa solemnis. Critics still discuss whether or not Beethoven’s deafness influenced the special character of his later works.

创造性时期

长久以来的习惯将贝多芬的众多作品划分为三个时期。这些不严格，重叠的类别代表着风格上的实际变化。第一个时期展示了贝多芬作为海顿和莫扎特直接的继承人和模仿者。大约从1800年开始，有更多特质的第二个时期，包括他大多数最受欢迎的作品：包括第四至第八在内的交响曲，《费德里奥》，最后的三首钢琴奏鸣曲，小提琴协奏曲《利奥诺》，《埃格蒙特》和《科里奥兰》序曲集，《拉苏莫夫斯基》弦乐四重奏，其它的室内音乐，以及十四首钢琴奏鸣曲。贝多芬时期的第三阶段，一个净化和总结的时期，完成了第九交响曲，最后的五首弦乐四重奏以及《庄严的弥撒》。至今，评论家们依然在讨论是否贝多芬的失聪影响了他后期作品的特性问题。

                          HERBERT WEINSTOCK, Author of “Men of Music”

                           赫伯特·魏因斯托克，“音乐人”的作者

                                                 2020年12月23日译

（译者注：该词条位列《大美百科全书》1985年版，第3卷，第457至459页）