Beethoven took the musical world into which he was born, mastered it, and then yelled, “Hey, everybody, follow me!”as he transformed the Classical era into the Romantic Era. Grove’s Dictionary of Music describes him as “… probably the most admired composer in the history of Western music” and for good reason. He lived a tragic life, but gave us gifts that we treasure still, and the emotion in his music is unrivaled. We’ll delve into his life and some of those gifts.