ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns how Beethoven's "hypervirile role" as the most masculine composer relates to his position at the center of the classical music canon as its greatest composer. It suggests that the definition of masculinity as formulated during Beethoven's lifetime contains a contradiction that enforces an image of Beethoven simultaneously as specifically masculine and as ungendered, universal. The chapter proposes two historical factors responsible for the notion of Beethoven's unsurpassable masculinity: first, Beethoven's association with politics and the public sphere; and second, the understanding of his music in narrative terms. To begin, it is necessary to define what author mean by "masculinity." On the hundredth anniversary of Beethoven's death in 1927, Remain Rolland proclaimed Beethoven's masculinity and rejected the Romantics' association of the composer with feminine qualities. Kramer subscribes to the general view of Beethoven as "the embodiment of musical culture," but gives it a negative valuation.
