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Author: Jeremy Yudkin
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Published: 2020
Total Pages: 573
ISBN-13: 1580469930
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Marking the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth, this volume presents twenty-one completely new essays on aspects of Beethoven's personal life, his composing process, his manuscripts, and his greatest works.
Author: Lewis Lockwood
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2003
Total Pages: 632
ISBN-13: 9780393050813
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Written for the general reader, this book reveals how Beethoven's works reflect both his artistic individuality and the deepest philosophical and political currents of his age.
Author: Paul Griffiths
Publisher: New York Review of Books
Published: 2021-10-26
Total Pages: 313
ISBN-13: 168137580X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Shortlisted for the 2020 Goldsmiths Prize Based on the German composer's own correspondence, this inventive, counterfactual work of historical fiction imagines Beethoven traveling to America to write an oratorio based on the Book of Job. It is a matter of historical record that in 1823 the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston (active to this day) sought to commission Beethoven to write an oratorio. The premise of Paul Griffiths’s ingenious novel is that Beethoven accepted the commission and traveled to the United States to oversee its first performance. Griffiths grants the composer a few extra years of life and, starting with his voyage across the Atlantic and entry into Boston Harbor, chronicles his adventures and misadventures in a new world in which, great man though he is, he finds himself a new man. Relying entirely on historically attested possibilities to develop the plot, Griffiths shows Beethoven learning a form of sign language, struggling to rein in the uncertain inspiration of Reverend Ballou (his designated librettist), and finding a kindred spirit in the widowed Mrs. Hill, all the while keeping his hosts guessing as to whether he will come through with his promised composition. (And just what, the reader also wonders, will this new piece by Beethoven turn out to be?) The book that emerges is an improvisation, as virtuosic as it is delicate, on a historical theme.
Author: Jan Swafford
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2014
Total Pages: 1107
ISBN-13: 061805474X
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The definitive book on the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven, written by the acclaimed biographer of Brahms and Ives.
Author: Harvey Sachs
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Published: 2011-11-08
Total Pages: 242
ISBN-13: 0812969073
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →The premier of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Vienna on May 7, 1824, was the most significant artistic event of the year—and the work remains one of the most precedent-shattering and influential compositions in the history of music. Described in vibrant detail by eminent musicologist Harvey Sachs, this symbol of freedom and joy was so unorthodox that it amazed and confused listeners at its unveiling—yet it became a standard for subsequent generations of creative artists, and its composer came to embody the Romantic cult of genius. In this unconventional, provocative book, Beethoven’s masterwork becomes a prism through which we may view the politics, aesthetics, and overall climate of the era. Part biography, part history, part memoir, The Ninth brilliantly explores the intricacies of Beethoven’s last symphony—how it brought forth the power of the individual while celebrating the collective spirit of humanity.
Author: Michael Broyles
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2011-10-27
Total Pages: 432
ISBN-13: 0253357047
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Examines America's early reception to Beethoven, the use of his work and image in American music, movies, stage works, and other forms of popular culture, and related topics.
Author: Sanford Friedman
Publisher: New York Review of Books
Published: 2014-09-02
Total Pages: 313
ISBN-13: 1590177886
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Inspired by the famous composer’s notebooks, this biographical novel offers “a perfect portrait of an irascible genius” and “revelatory fossils of the last year of Beethoven’s anguished life” (Edmund White) Deaf as he was, Beethoven had to be addressed in writing, and he was always accompanied by a notebook in which people could scribble questions and comments. In a tour de force fiction invention, Conversations with Beethoven tells the story of the last year of Beethoven’s life almost entirely through such notebook entries. Friends, family, students, doctors, and others attend to the volatile Maestro, whose sometimes unpredictable and often very loud replies we infer. A fully fleshed and often very funny portrait of Beethoven emerges. He struggles with his music and with his health; he argues with and insults just about everyone. Most of all, he worries about his wayward—and beloved—nephew Karl. A large cast of Dickensian characters surrounds the great composer at the center of this wonderfully engaging novel, which deepens in the end to make a memorable music of its own.
Author: Matthew Guerrieri
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 2014-03-04
Total Pages: 386
ISBN-13: 0804170193
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →A TIME Magazine Top 10 Nonfiction Book of 2012 A New Yorker Best Book of the Year Los Angeles Magazine's #1 Music Book of the Year This revelatory book of music history examines what is perhaps the best known and most-popular symphony ever written—and its famous four-note opening. Reaching back before Beethoven’s time, Matthew Guerrieri uncovers premonitions of the opening notes in the rhythms of ancient Greek poetry and the music of the French Revolution. He discusses the Fifth’s impact when it premiered, tracing the artistic, philosophical, and political reverberations across Europe to China, Russia, and the United States, from Romanticism to ring tones, from propaganda to pop. This fascinating piece of musical detective work is a treat for music lovers of every stripe.
Author: Anton Schindler
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Published: 1996-01-01
Total Pages: 562
ISBN-13: 9780486292328
DOWNLOAD EBOOK →Intimate biography by Beethoven's pupil and secretary recalls composer's personality, contemporaries, deafness, irascible behavior, etc. Extensively annotated by Beethoven scholar Donald MacArdle. Revised 3rd edition. Editor's Notes. Introduction. Includes 7 illustrations.
