The Beethoven Revolution: A Case Study in Selection by Consequence.

Music as a pervasive cultural practice serves many functions for a community, and its selection is determined by the interaction between multiple contingencies at individual, group, and society levels. An analysis was recently conducted on the dynamic interaction between contingencies in frescoes art that promoted the Mexican Muralist movement (Malott, 2019, 2020). Following this example, we provide a selectionist account of the music of Ludwig van Beethoven in the 250th anniversary of his birth. We explored the variation, selection, and transmission of his music over the course of his life and career in the sociopolitical milieu of his time, as well as after his death. The dissemination of Beethoven's music was characterized by aggregate products resulting from a number of interlocking contingencies, which created a high demand for his music. Our analysis highlights two levels of relational processes in the selection of Beethoven's music: The relational repertoire that enabled Beethoven to compose masterpieces while he was completely deaf, and the symbolic meaning of his music in promoting the values of freedom and democracy in many societies.