Ludwig van Beethoven is, in my opinion, the greatest musical composer of all time. And even after he went deaf in the middle of his career, he still put out the cool jams. Beethoven described the first four notes of his Fifth Symphony as "Fate knocking at [on?] the door," but that's an understatement. This may be the most hardcore romantic work. It's like driving down the highway at 100 mpg with lighting and thunder and cannons and lots of huge eagles flying overhead (see visual representation below). Then there's his piano sonatas, the fourteenth ("Moonlight") being the coolest. It'd make the perfect score for some sad tragedy like Macbeth. The crazy thing is that his soft works, like his sonatas, are just as rockin' as his symphonies. This, plus the incredible volume of his work, makes Beethoven: THE MAN.

Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, performed by Tito's brain.