What did Ludwig van Beethoven contribute to the world?

Most of the things are already said, so I won't repeat them. One thing however needs a little correction. Beethoven wasn't the only well known deaf composer. Smetana was also deaf. I think Beethoven's biggest contribution was that he was the first really independent composer. He wrote what he thought was necessary, not what people wanted. I think that provided the real key to the Romantic area. Some examples: 1) The first Symphony in C Major. Starts with the following chord sequence. C7-F (Is it F Major?) G7-am (Is it C Major?) D7-G (No its G Major)----7(Or...... C Major?) ----C 2) In the 3th Symphony, there is a part where the french horn plays the theme Eb,G,Eb, Bb (So that makes a chord of Eb) on top of a tremolo Ab,Bb (Which is Part of Bb7) 3) in the 8th Symphony, there is a part where you can find the key of fis minor in a Symphony in F Major(!!) for a few bars. Just by playing with a chord. Db, F, Ab, B which belongs to F major. But Db, F, Ab, Cb (Same notes) belongs to Gb or F#. He keeps playing with this and eventually they clash together. etc.

Beethoven is on an almost even par with Mozart. Mozart was more prolific but certainly it can be argued he wasn't more talented than Beethoven. Ask someone on the street to hum a few bars of a classical composition and odds are they will hum the opening of Beethovens Fifth Symphony. Beethovens' contributions cannot be understated. His masterpiece he composed while nearly completely deaf is just mind-boggling. Composing the Ninth Symphony on the memory of what a note sounded like is an achievement equal to Isaac Newtons' Laws of Motion...Beethoven is awesome...

mozart was asked how he composes,,,,,,answer was(approximately) 'don't know where it comes from,but all of a sudden there it is from beginning to end,all of it,in an instant,and i have to work like crazy to get it all down,lest i lose it from my head",,beethoven, the theme occurs to me in form of a few bars,i elaborate on piano,rewriting,and changing until it is as i want it,,,,,,,,,,,,beethovens 9th(& last) symphony was conducted by 'der alte selbst' .wa was it,1823.....in his state of stone deafness(200 yrs later,hair clippings showed the reason;lead poisoning had been the cause of deafness and bizzare behaviour) soprano caroline unger had to turn b around to recognize an ovation,,,,,he couldn't hear anything,,,,,,,he could only feel vibration through the floorboards,,,,,,,schuberts 9th symphony used a few notes of the ode to joy in the fourth movement of his last symphony

He didn't open the door to the Romantic era in music. He kicked it down.

Beethoven is the only deaf composer I know. That alone makes him special. He also kept a conversation book (because he had become deaf) in which he discusses music among other things, which gives us an insight of the times. Personally, I think he's great because of how much of himself he placed into his music, especially the 9th symphony. PS. I also like Mozart

what he did was give music even though he was going deaf and people telling him he wasnt good enough. it wasnt much of what he contributed but more of what he went through to give such wonderful masterpieces.

Music is as individual as the musicians who make it. Mozart's happy angelic melodies bear very little resemblance to Beethoven's dark moodiness. (apart from Don Giovanni)Listen to the second movement of Beethoven's 9th symphony- that music is grueling...relentless, almost depressing - and then it bursts into the 3rd movement- the Ode to Joy redeems all) Art is self expression- Beethoven contributed to the world a piece of his soul. As did Mozart. As does every musician who has the courage to put his/her music out into the world. All music justifies it's own existance because it captures a moment- a snapshot if you will- of the musicians heart and soul at that moment in time. Thank god for that.