Ian Crisp [log in to unmask] writes:

>Maybe Beethoven, but his deafness complicates things.  Mahler again.  What
>we have of the tenth shows his powers to have been still growing, and he
>died with plenty of potential composing years ahead of him, and moving into
>a time of profound change in music and many other respects.  And there were
>so many areas of music that he never explored at all.

I think that Beethoven's deafness is not something that would have
hindered his music.  The majority of his works were written while he was
deaf.  His later works do show his complications with his emotional state
due to his deafness.  But his music progressed.  I am curious as to the
route Beethoven's music would have taken.  Would the romantic period be the
same? I feel that Beethoven would have explored different areas of music,
and may have progressed the evolution that we know today.

I agree with the Mahler bit.  He did not explore the chamber music
genre.  Being a cellist, I wonder what he would have wrote for the
quartet.  He was an excellent symphonist (orchestrator).  He knew what he
was writing.  He was a brilliant man, and what he contributed to music was
outstanding....but the question arises, what else was brewing in his mind.

Sandy