BeethovenThe connections between a great artist's life and work are subtle, complex, and often highly revealing. In the case of Beethoven, however, the standard approach has been to treat his life and his art separately. Now, Barry Cooper's new volume incorporates the latest international research on many aspects of the composer's life and work and presents these in a truly integrated narrative. Cooper employs 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 confluence of life and work than is usually achieved, for two reasons. First, composition was Beethoven's central preoccupation for most of his life: "I live entirely in my music," he once wrote. Second, recent study of his many musical sketches has enabled a much clearer picture of his everyday compositional activity than was previously possible, leading to rich new insights into the interaction between his life and music. This volume concentrates on Beethoven's artistic achievements both by examining the origins of his works and by expert commentary on some of their most striking and original features. It also reexamines virtually all the evidence--from fictitious anecdotes right down to the translations of individual German words--to avoid recycling old errors. And it offers numerous new details derived from sketch studies and a new edition of Beethoven's correspondence. Offering a wealth of fresh conclusions and intertwining life and work in illuminating ways, Beethoven will establish itself as the reference on one of the world's greatest composers. |
Contents
Farewell to Bonn 17902 | |
The Conquest of Vienna 17925 | |
Financial Security? 180910 | |
Immortal Beloved 181112 | |
The Political Phase 181315 | |
Declining Productivity 181517 | |
Gigantism 181820 | |
Completion of the Mass 18202 | |
Completion of the Ninth 18224 | |
End of an Era 18247 | |
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Adagio Allegro Antonie Brentano appears Archduke Rudolph aria Artaria autograph score bagatelles bars bass Beethoven 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 Fidelio finale flat major florins folksong settings Franz fugue genre Haydn Hess ideas Immortal Beloved Johann Josephine Karl Karl’s later Leonore letter Lichnowsky main theme March melody Missa solemnis motif Mozart musicians Neefe Ninth Symphony opera orchestra original overture performance Piano Concerto piano sonatas piano trio played première 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 Therese Thomson tonal tonic Vienna Violin Sonata Wegeler writing written wrote