ABSTRACT
The position of the composer between about 1730 and 1820 had begun to be less certain depending on the place in which he functioned. Such early free-lance composers as Handel, Haydn, Mozart, and even Beethoven occupied dubious social spheres. For a long time after him most composers had to function as performers to support themselves either as virtuosos or conductors of operas and orchestras. Early journals reviewing new music did recognize the superiority of such composers as Haydn and Mozart, but they clearly regarded their works as the products of excellent craftsmen rather than of men of original genius. A letter of the composer, Stephen Heller, a close friend of Berlioz, to Eduard Hanslick delicately suggests that Berlioz liked the role of rejected revolutionary with his string of disciples. Publishers are afraid that their past business-practices will reinforce their reputation as the composer’s traditional enemy.
