The master’s thesis aims to answer the question of how a composer’s personal life struggles influenced his composing. It seeks to shed light on the factors of distress as they appear in selected musical examples. The thesis situates the composer within the concept of the subject within the work itself – how his personality and experiences manifest in the work and what compositional techniques he uses to create a sense of helplessness and anguish. It examines selected 19th-century composers who suffered greatly in their lives due to personal hardships and their symphonies that marked the Romantic period, often performed to this day. Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor is chosen as the starting point for such symphonies, as it also highlights another central concept – revolution in music. The analysis of the selected works shows that the characteristics and features of this central symphony can also be found in other works, thereby confirming the composer’s reasons for composing such resonant music.
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