Why was/is beethoven so important?

He would have been considered as a great composer if he had not changed the course of music from the Clical Period to the Romantic Period. No other one composer could be considered the founder of a musical period. Bach was the culmination of the Baroque Period, Mozart took what the composers in the Clical Period had done. and improved on it. Beethoven not only was a great Clical composer, but took that style and started developing it into the Romantic Period.