For over two hundred years, BeethovenÕs music has spoken to us and moved us in ways no previous composer had ever achieved. Born at a pivotal point in European social and musical history, he took the conventions of the classical period and moulded them into the beginnings of Romanticism in music. This one-day course will tell the tragic and inspiring story of BeethovenÕs life, richly illustrated with pictures, readings, and the music of this great composer.