Beethoven’s earlier compositions were regarded as the clever product of an ambitious young musician.  Although later in life, he all but repudiated the published work of these years, some of the thoughts from the sketch-books of this period were utilized in the work of his best years.

He acquired a habit early in life of carrying a note-book when away from his rooms, in which he recorded musical ideas as they came to him.  His brain teemed with them; these he entered indiscriminately, good and bad, assorting them later, discarding some, altering others, seldom retaining a musical thought exactly as it was first presented to his consciousness.  Music became the one absorbing passion of his life.  It took the place of wife and children; it was of more importance to him than home or any other consideration.  His compositions show continual progress toward artistic perfection to the end of his life, and this was attained only by infinite labor.

It may not be out of place here to reflect on the essentially unselfish character of the man of genius.  He lives and strives, not for himself, but for others; he pursues an objective end only.  Among the forces making for the regeneration of mankind, he is foremost.

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.