BeethovenOxford University Press, USA, 30. nov 2000 - 426 pages This major new study of Beethoven and his music is written as a single, continuous narrative, using a strictly chronological approach that enables each work to be seen against the musical and biographical background from which it emerged. The result is a much closer integration of life and works than is often achieved. The approach works particularly well for Beethoven for two reasons. Firstly, composition was his central preoccupation for most of his life: 'I live entirely in my music', he once wrote. Secondly, recent study of his large numbers of musical sketches has enabled a much clearer picture of his everyday compositional activity than was previously possible, leading to many new insights into the interaction between his life and music. The volume concentrates on Beethoven's artistic achievements both by examining the origins of his works and by commentary on some of their most striking and original features. Statements in earlier biographies have been treated with caution, and have been accepted only where they are supported by sound evidence. Everything-even down to the translations of individual German words-has been reassessed as far as is feasible, in an effort to avoide recycling old errors. Many well-known but fictitious anecdotes have thereby been eliminated, while conversely numerous details discovered in recent years have been incorporated into a general Beethoven biography for the first time-notably information derived from sketch studies and from a new edition for correspondence. This volume reaches many fresh conclusions that should be of interest to both specialists and the general musical public. - |
Contents
1 Young Genius 177083 | 1 |
2 Adolescence 17849 | 14 |
3 Farewell to Bonn 17902 | 29 |
4 The Conquest of Vienna 17925 | 44 |
5 Wider Horizons 17968 | 67 |
6 First Quartets and First Symphony 17991800 | 84 |
7 Hope and Despair 18012 | 105 |
8 After Heiligenstadt 18023 | 131 |
12 Immortal Beloved 181112 | 216 |
13 The Political Phase 181315 | 237 |
14 Declining Productivity 181517 | 254 |
15 Gigantism 181820 | 280 |
16 Completion of the Mass 18202 | 300 |
17 Completion of the Ninth 18224 | 320 |
18 End of an Era 18247 | 343 |
Appendices | 379 |
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Common terms and phrases
Adagio Allegro appears Archduke Rudolph aria Artaria autograph score bagatelles bars bass Beet beginning Bonn Breitkopf & Härtel Breuning Cantata Carl cello chord coda completed composed composition contrast conversation books copy Czerny D major Deym Diabelli ducats earlier early Eroica eventually evidently F major F minor Fidelio finale flat major florins folksong settings Franz fugue genre Gneixendorf Haydn Hess hoven ideas Immortal Beloved Johann Josephine Karl later Leonore letter Lichnowsky main theme March melody Missa solemnis motif Mozart musicians Ninth Symphony opera orchestra original overture performance Piano Concerto piano sonatas piano trio played probably Prometheus published quintet revised Ries ritornello Schindler second movement second subject sent set of variations singspiel sketchbook sketches slow introduction slow movement solo sonata form song string quartet style thematic Therese Thomson tonal tonic Vienna Violin Sonata Wegeler writing written