discussed elsewhere, in some detail.
             Arguably, it would normally be accepted that a composer would fit into one or another of these periods of music, Haydn and Mozart are identified as belonging to the Classical period, and for example, Schumann and Tchaikovsky, among many others, belong to the Romantic genre. However, Beethoven, with his life-span incorporating the years 1770 to 1827, indicates that he belongs to both and "has traditionally been referred to as the bridge to Romanticism"5. This essay will endeavour to illustrate how the work of Beethoven plays a pivotal role between Classicism and Romanticism, through discussion of the Fifth Symphony.
             At the time of Beethoven's birth, Mozart was only fourteen years old and had completed his third opera, Mitridate. Haydn, at thirty eight, had completed his forty- first symphony6. Although not a child prodigy as was Mozart, Beethoven, under the tutelage of Christian Gottlob Neefe, was an able professional by the age of ten, becoming an adult salaried musician and composer by the age of fourteen7. Beethoven was greatly influenced by both Mozart and Haydn; Beethoven studied theory, for a short time with Mozart, whilst in Vienna in 1787, but unfortunately had to return home as his mother was ill; Beethoven returned again to Vienna in 1792 and was accepted as a pupil by Haydn, upon whom he made a strong impression as a "piano virtuoso and as a composer"8.
             At the premier of his First Symphony, in 1800, the works of both masters were included in the programme9. At the time of this benefit concert, Beethoven was thirty years old, which seems quite old for an eighteenth century composer10, when compared to Mozart for example, who, at the same age, had completed thirty eight of his forty one symphonies.
             It is said that Beethoven's First Symphony "is his nearest approach to Haydn [while] showing a consciousness of Mozart"11. The First Symphony was full of musical surprises for ...