Beethoven v. Mozart: This time, it's personal!

Which Classical Music Composer Are You?

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770 - 1827)
Growing up, Beethoven endured mental/physical abuse by his demanding and alcoholic father who pushed him to become a musician in order to augment the family income. In 1795, Beethoven became publicly known as a rising and brilliant composer. But in 1801, his confidence began to disappear as his hearing slowly deteriorated, and in 1818 became completely deaf. He sank into depression and paranoia, and was viewed as an eccentric by others. Though musical tastes had changed in the 19th century (people then preferred light rossini operas), Beethoven's genius as a composer was still known and respected. Beethoven died in early 1827 during a thunderstorm. Sources say that Beethoven rose up and lifted his right fist as thunder lighted his room, and soon after, sank into eternal sleep. His funeral was attended by around 30,000 people.
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There is a long standing argument between SSB and Sy revolving around whether Mozart or Beethoven was the better composer...and I've actually had this debate many times, with many people. It kind of reminds of of the line in "Pulp Fiction" where Uma Thurman's character says something about the fact that a person can either be an Elvis fan or a Beatles fan, but not both. The level of intensity and passion that gets stirred up by this debate, especially among people who spend little to no time listening to or even pondering upon classical music, is always surprising.

As for me, I like Beethoven better, so much so that I actually took the above quiz around ten times to get to the right combination of answers to give me a 'Beethoven' return. The passion, intensity, and torturousness of his hard work come through in every note. Alongside the beauty of any given piece, you can hear the frustration and suffering he went through to arrive at the beauty.

Mozart, on the other hand, could compose a beautiful piece at will, seemingly out of thin air. Observers at the time noted that it was as if God Himself was delivering the music to Mozart's fingers, which to me sounds a lot like cheating. Beethoven, without the benefit of Mozart's precious "divine intervention", composed his 9th symphony, including the 'Ode To Joy', perhaps the greatest musical piece ever to testify to the glory of the Lord Almighty, while he was deaf! Take that, Godboy!

So whether you are a true aficionado of the arts, or you like Mozart instead, I'd love to hear what anyone weighing in on the subject would have to say.