Synopses & Reviews
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was a genius so universal that his popularity, extraordinary even during his lifetime, has never ceased to grow. It now encircles the globe: Beethoven's most famous works are as beloved in Beijing as they are in Boston.
Edmund Morris, the author of three bestselling presidential biographies and a lifelong devotee of Beethoven, brings the great composer to life as a man of astonishing complexity and overpowering intelligence. A gigantic, compulsively creative personality unable to tolerate constraints, he was not so much a social rebel as an astute manipulator of the most powerful and privileged aristocrats in Germany and Austria, at a time when their world was threatened by the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte.
But Beethoven's achievement rests in his immortal music. Struggling against progressive, incurable deafness (which he desperately tried to keep secret), he nonetheless produced towering masterpieces, such as his iconic Fifth and Ninth symphonies. With sensitivity and insight, Edmund Morris illuminates Beethoven's life, including his interactions with the women he privately lusted for but held at bay, and his work, whose grandeur and beauty were conceived "on the other side of silence."
Review
“Morris clearly admires his subject not only for the work but also for his constant fight against the odds, and he has written an ideal biography for the general reader.” Publishers Weekly
Review
“Vivid...Morris deftly sorts his way through Beethovens biography.” New York Times Book Review
Review
A New York Times Book Review Editorand#39;s Choice A Christian Science Monitor Top 10 Book of the Month
andquot;Swaffordandrsquo;s craftsmanship shines...The book is two books: a biography and a series of journeys through the music, a travelogue with an excitable professor. Readers will want to have a recording playing so they can match metaphors to sounds. I found myself engaged by his imagery, sometimes delighted and surprised.andquot;
andndash;Jeremy Denk, New York Times Book Review
andquot;Impassioned and informed...Swaffordandrsquo;s exuberance is infectious, prompting the reader to revisit works both famous and obscure.andquot;
andndash;The New Yorker
andquot;[T]he stately rhythm, carefully etched detailing and oceanic sweep of this ambitious book mirror the complexity and richness of Beethovenand#39;s revolutionary Romanticism...surrender to it and itandrsquo;s easy to be swept away...Swafford comes marvelously equipped to take on the enormousness of Beethovenand#39;s life and work andndash; his heights of inspiration, depths of suffering, the roots and range of his masterworks...Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph doesnand#39;t drown in its musicology so much as achieve a buoyant balance of technical and human detail.andquot;
andndash;Matt Damsker, USA TODAY
andquot;Compelling...Despite the wealth of historical detail, this is no dry academic tome, but a biography full of colorful descriptions of the composer and his milieu...Comprehensive, detailed, and highly readable, this is an entertaining biography that should find favor with music lovers and history buffs.andquot;
andndash;Seattle Times
andquot;Swafford creates the perfect blend of a historical person and musical genius...Monumental...A truly remarkable biography.andquot;
andndash;Christian Science Monitor
andquot;Swaffordandrsquo;s writing on Beethovenandrsquo;s music is perceptive and illuminating. But just as impressive is his sympathetic portrait of Beethoven the man. Swaffordandrsquo;s book, which should be placed alongside the excellent biographies by Lewis Lockwood and Maynard Solomon, does not diminish any of the composerandrsquo;s flaws. Instead, it suggests that these flaws were inconsequential compared with the severity of the composerandrsquo;s anguish and the achievement of his music.andquot;
andndash;Washington Postand#160;
andquot;Swafford has a knack for bringing in the reader wholly unschooled in the technical vernacular of classical music. That skill is in evidence in this blend of biography and musical assessment. Even if you donand#39;t know the difference between a leitmotif and a lighthouse, donand#39;t sweat it, for this is, more than anything, a saga of a man at odds with so many things: convention, social mores, himself, women, his family ... If this isnand#39;t exactly the Beethoven that Schroeder of and#39;Peanutsand#39; fame worshiped, itand#39;s a more believable characterization, and, more than that, one gets a better sense of how this roiling personality produced works to roil the human soul.andquot;
andndash;Boston Globe
andquot;An immersive, comprehensive view...The book has a biopic feel...Livelyandquot;
andndash;The New York Review of Books
andquot;This combination of gripping biography and readable analysis of Beethovenandrsquo;s compositions is a book for all Beethoven enthusiasts, full of insights and memorable vignettes, old and new.andquot;
andndash;Washington Timesandquot;A highly rewarding read, with a lightness of touch that makes history come to life.andquot;
andndash;The Economist
andquot;Magisterial, warm, and engaging...A triumph of scholarship and musical affinity... Jan Swafford is to be saluted.andquot;
andndash;The Independent
andquot;Swafford traces the life and art of Beethoven in eye-opening, rational detail and gives you a more human, more fascinating portrait of Beethoven the radical evolutionary than even the Beethoven the Romantic of legend...When Swafford writes about Beethovenand#39;s raptusandndash;the trance-like state friends remakred upon when he was most lost in his musical worldandndash;you feel as if you were there, listening to the improvisations flowing from the virtuosoand#39;s fingers...For those who cannot read music, Swaffordand#39;s published excerpts can look daunting, but with a little work and a good CD collection, anyone can follow Swaffordand#39;s journeys through Beethovenand#39;s journeys. The payoff is more than worth it.andquot;
andndash;Big Think
andquot;Magnificent...Some of the most enjoyable segments of his book are the spirited and knowledgeable readings of Beethovenandrsquo;s various compositions. These passages are so passionate that they virtually propel the reader across the room to the CD collection, to play the pieces being so smartly described...A stunning tour de force, a Beethoven biography to shine for a lifetime.andquot;
andndash;Open Letters Monthly
andquot;Monumental...Engaging and entertaining...Beethoven aficionados and lovers of classical music will want this book, as will readers interested in biography and the artistic milieu of late 18th- and early 19th-century Europe.andquot;
andndash;Library Journal, starred review
andquot;A thorough, affectionate, and unblinking account of the life of the great composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)...Due to the authorandrsquo;s unsurpassed research and comprehension, we stand in the presence of a genius and see all his flawed magic.andquot;
andndash;Kirkus, starred review
andquot;In this brilliant, exhaustive story, biographer and music historian Swafford (Johannes Brahms) brings new life to Beethoven.andquot;
andndash;Publishers Weekly, starred review
Synopsis
"Brilliant....This book is a perfect marriage--or should one say, duet--of subject and author, every word as masterly as the notes of the artist it illuminates." -- Christopher Buckley, Forbes
"This is not just criticism but poetry in itself, with the additional--and inestimable--merit of being true." -- Washington Post Book World
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edmund Morris (The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex, Dutch) is one of America's most distinguished biographers, known for his rich, compulsively readable prose style. His biography of Beethoven, one of the most admired composers in the history of music, is above all a study of genius in action, of one of the few giants of Western culture. Beethoven is another engaging entry in the HarperCollins' "Eminent Lives" series of biographies by distinguished authors on canonical figures.
Synopsis
“Brilliant....This book is a perfect marriage—or should one say, duet—of subject and author, every word as masterly as the notes of the artist it illuminates.” — Christopher Buckley,
Forbes“This is not just criticism but poetry in itself, with the additional—and inestimable—merit of being true.” — Washington Post Book World
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edmund Morris (The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex, Dutch) is one of Americas most distinguished biographers, known for his rich, compulsively readable prose style. His biography of Beethoven, one of the most admired composers in the history of music, is above all a study of genius in action, of one of the few giants of Western culture. Beethoven is another engaging entry in the HarperCollins “Eminent Lives” series of biographies by distinguished authors on canonical figures.
Synopsis
The definitive book on the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven, written by the acclaimed biographer of Brahms and Ives.
Synopsis
Jan Swaffordand#8217;s biographies of Charles Ives and Johannes Brahms have established him as a revered music historian, capable of bringing his subjects vibrantly to life. His magnificent new biography of Ludwig van Beethoven peels away layers of legend to get to the living, breathing human being who composed some of the worldand#8217;s most iconic music. Swafford mines sources never before used in English-language biographies to reanimate the revolutionary ferment of Enlightenment-era Bonn, where Beethoven grew up and imbibed the ideas that would shape all of his future work. Swafford then tracks his subject to Vienna, capital of European music, where Beethoven built his career in the face of critical incomprehension, crippling ill health, romantic rejection, and and#8220;fateand#8217;s hammer,and#8221; his ever-encroaching deafness. Throughout, Swafford offers insightful readings of Beethovenand#8217;s key works.
More than a decade in the making, this will be the standard Beethoven biography for years to come.and#160;
About the Author
Jan Swafford is an award-winning composer whose music has been played around the US and abroad byandnbsp;ensembles including the symphony orchestras of St. Louis, Vermont, and Harrisburg, and by the Dutch Radio Orchestra. He is the author of Johannes Brahms: A Biography, which was a New York Times Notable Book, and Charles Ives: A Life with Music, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and winner of the PEN/Winship Award. He is also the author of The Vintage Guide to Classical Music. His writing and commentary on music has been featured on NPR and in Slate, the Guardian, Gramophone, and elsewhere. Swafford teaches music history, theory, and composition at the Boston Conservatory.
Table of Contents
Introductionand#8195;xi1.and#160;Bonn, Electorate of Cologneand#8195;1
2.and#160;Father, Mother, Sonand#8195;21
3.and#160;Reason and Revolutionand#8195;40
4.and#160;Loved in Turnand#8195;56
5.and#160;Golden Ageand#8195;69
6.and#160;A Journey and a Deathand#8195;84
7.and#160;Bildungand#8195;95
8.and#160;Stem and Bookand#8195;112
9.and#160;Unreal Cityand#8195;132
10.and#160;Chains of Craftsmanshipand#8195;145
11.and#160;Generalissimoand#8195;166
12.and#160;Virtuosoand#8195;186
13.and#160;Fateand#8217;s Hammerand#8195;207
14.and#160;The Good, the Beautiful, and the Melancholyand#8195;242
15.and#160;The New Pathand#8195;269
16.and#160;Oh, Fellow Menand#8195;301
17.and#160;Heaven and Earth Will Trembleand#8195;331
18.and#160;Geschrieben auf Bonaparteand#8195;370
19.and#160;Our Hearts Were Stirredand#8195;402
20.and#160;That Haughty Beautyand#8195;436
21.and#160;Schemesand#8195;462
22.and#160;Darkness to Lightand#8195;484
23.and#160;Thus Be Enabled to Createand#8195;516
24.and#160;Myths and Menand#8195;544
25.and#160;My Angel, My Selfand#8195;580
26.and#160;We Finite Beingsand#8195;613
27.and#160;The Queen of the Nightand#8195;657
28.and#160;What Is Difficultand#8195;697
29.and#160;The Sky Above, the Law Withinand#8195;738
30.and#160;Qui Venit in Nomine Dominiand#8195;789
31.and#160;You Millionsand#8195;826
32.and#160;Ars Longa, Vita Brevisand#8195;857
33.and#160;Plaudite, Amiciand#8195;898
Appendixand#8195;937
Works Citedand#8195;946
Notesand#8195;956
Indexand#8195;1056