The late Pitts Sanborn wrote this booklet under the title _Beethoven and
his Nine Symphonies_ and stated in a short preface that it made “no
claim to originality and no secret of its indebtedness to the masterly
treatises on the same subject.” I have left Mr. Sanborn’s pages on the
symphonies virtually intact and have only expanded the work a little by
incorporating here and there matter about other major works of
Beethoven’s, especially some of the concertos, overtures, piano and
vocal works, besides certain of the greater specimens of his chamber
music. Even if this procedure probably lends the booklet a patchy
character, I have followed it in order to supply a rather fuller picture
of the composer’s creative achievements. No more than my predecessor do
I make the slightest claim to originality of matter or treatment, or
deny my indebtedness to Thayer and Paul Bekker.