The reading by Lewis Lockwood, Prologue: "Youth Maturity, Old Age: Three Letters" (from his book, Beethoven: The Music and the Life), argues for a strong relationship between our understanding of Beethoven's biography and our appreciation of his works. It challenges another view, held by writers such as Donald Francis Tovey and Carl Dahlhaus, that the examination of the composers life is not essential to appreciating his compositional achievements. For your essay, please write a paper that supports one view or the other. Within it, discuss whether or not Beethoven's Heiligenstadt Testament of 1802 benefits your understanding and appreciation of Beethoven's middle-period works such as the Symphony No. 3, Eroica (1804).
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