most.

There is little of importance to record concerning Beethoven for the few
years following the publication of his opus 1. He continued to perform
occasionally in public, and also gave a few lessons, but his time was
taken up with study and composition for the most part. It was a period
of earnest endeavor, the compositions of which consist of the better
class of piano music, as well as trios, quartets and occasional songs,
his work being much in the style of Mozart and Haydn; the quality of
emotional power and intellectuality not yet having appeared to any
extent.

His great productions, those that show his genius well developed, are
coincident with the beginning of the nineteenth century. The years 1800
and 1801 were an epoch with him as a composer. He was now thirty, and
was beginning to show of what stuff he was made. These two years saw the
production of some of the imperishable works of the master, namely: the
First Symphony, the Oratorio _Christus am Oelberg_, and the Prometheus
Ballet Music. It is probable that he had given earnest thought to these
works for some years previously, and had had them in hand for two years
or more before their appearance. The First Symphony calls for special
mention as in it the future Symphonist is already foreshadowed. He was
almost a beginner at orchestral work, but it marks an epoch in this
class of composition, raising it far beyond anything of the kind that
had yet appeared. Viewed in the light of later ones it is apparent that
he held himself in; that he was tentative compared with his subsequent
ones. Considered as a symphony and compared with what had been produced
in this class up to that time, it is a daring innovation and was
regarded as such by the critics. He broadened and enlarged the form and
gave it a dignity that was unknown to it before this time.

Beethoven's sonatas are as superior to those that had preceded them as
are his symphonies. He enlarged them, developed the Scherzo from the
Minuet and made them of more importance in every way. With Haydn the
Minuet was gay and lively, a style of music well adapted to Haydn's
particular temperament and character; but Beethoven in the Scherzo
carried the idea further than anything of which Haydn had dreamed.
Before Beethoven's First Symphony appeared, he had composed a dozen or
more sonatas and was in a position to profit by the experience gained
thereby. He felt his way in these, the innovations all turning out to