Roll Over Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was born 250 years - a quarter of a millennium - ago today.  It's thus the sestercentennial anniversary of his birth.

Is he the greatest composer that ever lived?  Some would argue that Mozart was, but Beethoven gets high marks for perfecting a grand romantic style that brought classical music into the nineteenth century as the Enlightenment was taking hold over Europe.  Certainly, his works are more accessible than Mozart's, and they rank among the most recognizable pieces of music in Western civilization, such as the Ode to Joy from the Ninth Symphony, the Moonlight Sonata, and of course his Fifth Symphony.  The Fifth Symphony is too good, given how many have bastardized it from using it in commercials to turning it into a disco instrumental ("A Fifth of Beethoven"?  Really, Walter Murphy?). 

His Ninth Symphony, his grandest work, premiered in 1824, three years before his death, and he wrote it while in frail health and going deaf.  He persevered in writing it and defied the odds to create a majestic work with a great choral section.  He thus set a standard for future composers to follow.

But no one did it like Ludwig.