Ernst Ludwig Gerber, Brief an Ambrosius Kühnel in Leipzig, Sondershausen, 4. September 1811, Autograph

Gerber writes publisher Kühnel concerning his hew historic-bibliographical encyclopedia of musicians to be published by Kühnel in Leipzig in 1812-1814. He defines aspects of the compositional technique and explains certain articles in detail. He calls Mozart the first Jacobin in music". About Beethoven he basically writes the following: "Concerning Beethoven I am up-to-date. That means: twelve years after having written his article, I absolutely agree with you. Although, if Mozart had the right to soar as high as he was able to, thereby reverting the musical taste, Beethoven also must be given the right to go even further. By the way, I obviously must have made a mistake here. In my opinion the first and greatest instrumental composer is and will be Haydn; as such for Beethoven one might say: one of the first and greatest instrumental composers. And that he now is. If however, imitators followed his example and composing like Beethoven became common, music would end up in chaos and confusion."