Beethoven: Biography of a Genius

Beethoven: Biography of a Genius PDF Author: George Richard Marek
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 722

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Book Description

Beethoven: Biography of a Genius

Beethoven: Biography of a Genius PDF Author: George Richard Marek
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 722

Get Book Here

Book Description


Beethoven and the Construction of Genius

Beethoven and the Construction of Genius PDF Author: Tia DeNora
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520211588
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
"It was high time that someone tried to explain more fully, and on the basis of the known documents, the course of Beethoven's meteoric rise to fame in Vienna at the end of the eighteenth century. . . . I would consider this cleverly written and authoritative book to be the most important about Beethoven in twenty-five years. No one considering the subject will be able to overlook DeNora's research."—H.C. Robbins Landon, author of Beethoven: His Life, Work, and World "This is a study with the power to reshape our perceptions of Beethoven's first decade in Vienna and substantially refine our notions of the creation and foundations of Beethoven's career."—William Meredith, Ira Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, San Jose State University "Professor DeNora's achievement in placing Beethoven, and the reception of Beethoven's music, in social context is all the more impressive because it goes so much against the grain of conventional habits of thought. In illuminating how changing social institutions created opportunities for Beethoven to gain contemporary and posthumous recognition, and, in so doing, created new forms for thinking and talking about musical achievement—the author at once provides fresh insights into the institutional origins of 'classical' music and offers an exemplary contribution to the sociological study of the arts."—Paul DiMaggio, Princeton University "An important landmark in our understanding of the relationship of the creative musician to society, and a vital contribution to debates about the central phenomenon which distinguishes Western music from other musical traditions: the phenomenon of the Great Composer."—Julian Rushton, University of Leeds "This original book argues that Beethoven's high reputation was created as much by the social-cultural agendas of his aristocratic Viennese patrons in the 1790s as by the qualities of his music. DeNora's persuasive reading of this momentous cultural-artistic event will be welcome to sociologists for its successful contextualization of a hero of 'absolute music,' as well as to musicologists and music-lovers who wish to move beyond the myth of Beethoven as 'the man who freed music.'"—James Webster, Cornell University "Lucid, well-researched, and theoretically informed, Beethoven and the Construction of Genius is one of the best works yet published in the historical sociology of culture. DeNora makes important contributions not only to our knowledge of Beethoven and of the social construction of genius but to the general problems of how identities are created, shaped, and sustained and of how aesthetic claims gain authority."—Craig Calhoun, University of North Carolina

Beethoven

Beethoven PDF Author: George Richard Marek
Publisher: Apollo Editions
ISBN: 9780815203315
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 704

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Beethoven: The Relentless Revolutionary

Beethoven: The Relentless Revolutionary PDF Author: John Clubbe
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393242560
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Book Description
A fascinating and in-depth exploration of how the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and Napoleon shaped Beethoven’s political ideals and inspired his groundbreaking compositions. Beethoven imbibed Enlightenment and revolutionary ideas in his hometown of Bonn, where they were fervently discussed in cafés and at the university. Moving to Vienna at the age of twenty-one to study with Haydn, he gained renown as a brilliant pianist and innovative composer. In that conservative city, capital of the Hapsburg empire, authorities were ever watchful to curtail and punish overt displays of radical political views. Nevertheless, Beethoven avidly followed the meteoric rise of Napoleon. As Napoleon had made strides to liberate Europe from aristocratic oppression, so Beethoven desired to liberate humankind through music. He went beyond the musical forms of Haydn and Mozart, notably in the Eroica Symphony and his opera Fidelio, both inspired by the French Revolution and Napoleon. John Clubbe illuminates Beethoven as a lifelong revolutionary through his compositions, portraits, and writings, and by setting him alongside major cultural figures of the time—among them Schiller, Goethe, Byron, Chateaubriand, and Goya.

The Character of a Genius

The Character of a Genius PDF Author: Peter J. Davies
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN: 0313319138
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Beethoven's often-discussed dark side--marked by paranoia, narcissism, and obsession--is brought into focus by Peter J. Davies, who examines both the composer's genetic roots and the familial cruelty and neglect that defined his childhood. But this book is more than a biography, eschewing facile psychoanalysis in favor of a real exploration of how Beethoven's character shaped the work now universally regarded as among the best music ever written. Davies acutely observes the ways in which suffering can bring, at the same time, both madness and genius. The author begins by tracing the medical history of mental disorders in Beethoven's family, and then goes on to detail the composer's religious beliefs and attitudes, his daily work habits and pastimes, and elements of his character including manic depression. Though the work does not purport to be a musical analysis, it does consider the many ways in which the things that shape an artist go on to shape his art.

Beethoven, A Life

Beethoven, A Life PDF Author: Jan Caeyers
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520390210
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 656

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Book Description
"With unprecedented access to the archives at the Beethoven House in Bonn, ... Beethoven conductor and scholar Jan Caeyers ... weaves together a deeply human and complex image of Beethoven--his troubled youth, his unpredictable mood swings, his desires, relationships, and conflicts with family and friends, the mysteries surrounding his affair with the 'immortal beloved, ' and the dramatic tale of his deafness. Caeyers also offers new insights into Beethoven's music and its gradual transformation from the work of a skilled craftsman into that of a consummate artist"--Publisher marketing.

Beethoven

Beethoven PDF Author: Jan Swafford
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 061805474X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 1107

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Book Description
The definitive book on the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven, written by the acclaimed biographer of Brahms and Ives.

Diagnosing Genius

Diagnosing Genius PDF Author: François Martin Mai
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
ISBN: 077357879X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
Mai's experience as a physician and psychiatrist serves as a basis for his analysis. Working from the symptoms described in the medical evidence, Beethoven's letters and those of his friends, and the reports of his physicians, Mai compares how Beethoven's health complaints would have been understood and treated within the medical, political, and social climate of both his time and ours. He discusses Beethoven's terminal illness and the resulting autopsy report to consider the roles of alcohol, lead poisoning (based on the toxic levels in his hair), and syphilis in causing his death.

Beethoven: The Music and the Life

Beethoven: The Music and the Life PDF Author: Lewis Lockwood
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393326381
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 621

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Book Description
Written for the general reader, this book reveals how Beethoven's great works reflect both his artistic individuality and the deepest philosophical and political currents of his age.

Beethoven and the Construction of Genius

Beethoven and the Construction of Genius PDF Author: Tia DeNora
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520920155
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
In this provocative account Tia DeNora reconceptualizes the notion of genius by placing the life and career of Ludwig van Beethoven in its social context. She explores the changing musical world of late eighteenth-century Vienna and follows the activities of the small circle of aristocratic patrons who paved the way for the composer's success. DeNora reconstructs the development of Beethoven's reputation as she recreates Vienna's robust musical scene through contemporary accounts, letters, magazines, and myths—a colorful picture of changing times. She explores the ways Beethoven was seen by his contemporaries and the image crafted by his supporters. Comparing Beethoven to contemporary rivals now largely forgotten, DeNora reveals a figure musically innovative and complex, as well as a keen self-promoter who adroitly managed his own celebrity. DeNora contends that the recognition Beethoven received was as much a social achievement as it was the result of his personal gifts. In contemplating the political and social implications of culture, DeNora casts many aspects of Beethoven's biography in a new and different light, enriching our understanding of his success as a performer and composer.