Thank you for this comment. I would say that the term single handedly was not the best choice. I also agree with you that CPE Bach was a large part of the shift between baroque and classical. However, I feel like Beethoven was a large catalyst for romanticism. I can't say that I know exactly how big CPE Bach was in his time, but I feel like the fact that large majority of composers that followed Beethoven were greatly influenced by him. I am not going to say that this did not happen with CPE Bach, I just have not done the research to determine that. I will do some listening and reading and see what I can find over the next week or so. However, I have listened to a lot of Schubert's music (he is one of my favorite composers) and read up a lot on his life. I feel like Schubert's shift to romanticism was largely following in the footprints of Beethoven. Schubert was a huge fan of Beethoven's work. This is easily heard in many of his later works, which are obviously innovative and obviously inspired by Beethoven. I also feel like the fact that Schubert's music was undiscovered until years later (when Schumann, Mendelssohn, and other composers discovered it) demonstrates that his innovations were late to the cultural party, and did not exactly inspire the cultural shift.

In regards to my second comments, I feel like innovation is a large portion of the role of composers. However, I feel like Beethoven was very outright in the changes he made. He took music as far as he could with the influence he had (which was great). I will not argue that other composers do not innovate, but I feel like Beethoven's innovation had a cultural impact larger than that of any other composer (Except maybe Wagner). But this point was also a valid point that I respect.

In regards to the string quartet, my theory teacher is a cellist, so I am going to mention your point to him. I am quite interested to hear his take on Beethoven's effect towards the string quartet. I am a huge fan of the Mendelssohn String Octet, so I agree when it comes to the amazing > Sextets.