Revival: Beethoven (1933)

<p>The original intention was that this book should be entirely biographical. If it be true however that out main interest is (or ought to be) in what a composer did rather than in what he was the truth applies especially to Beethoven and above all at the present time. The scheme of the book has therefore been modified so as to include a survey of his work. An attempt to make such survey cover the whole of Beethoven’s output would result in little more than a catalogue with annotations to brief as to convey hardly anything of the essential quality of the music. It seemed therefore that the limited space would be best used and the needs of the general reader more fully met by a much less rigid and comprehensive method. </p>