Did Beethoven respect Bach?

With respect, your question doesn't make sense, at least as I think you intended it. Music exists, is created, composed, in its social context... read more

They were both Germans. Beethoven, a contemporary of Mozart, was born 20 years after the death of Bach. They're two of the "three Bs" of classical music - Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Bach lived in the Baroque period while Beethonven was a crucial figure in the transition from the Classical to the Romantic era. Beethoven was an admirer of Bach. read more

Beethoven might make jest of having to memorize the Forty-Eight - but these put so much Bach into his head and gave him such fluency with counterpoint, quite evident in his music, that it seems he would have to respect the Thuringer, merely for giving him something beyond the doodly-works of the early Classic period (the exceptions being Beethoven's forebears Haydn and Mozart, both steeped in counterpoint as well). read more