New Solomon book
Article on Solomon's latest theories!
"Now comes Late Beethoven , which deals with the composer's music from 1812 until his death in 1827. Although he shrinks from saying it definitively, his research indicates that Beethoven was a practicing Freemason well into his late years.
No records survive to show that Beethoven was a member of any lodge, but Solomon's examination of the Tagebuch , or diary, Beethoven kept from 1812 to 1818 shows that many of the passages from obscure literature the composer copied into the book can be explained only by reference to Masonic sources, and that keeping the diary itself was part of the self-education process required of would-be initiates.
Of course, many public figures of the late 18th century were Masons; the secret society's focus on universal brotherhood went hand in hand with the Enlightenment. In addition to composers like Haydn and Mozart (The Magic Flute is a Masonic opera), Goethe, George Washington and Ben Franklin also knew the secret handshake.
Solomon's focus on Masonic influence on Beethoven, however, enables us to see many of his last works in a very different light, most notably the Ninth Symphony.
The choral finale of that work sets to music the "Ode to Joy" of Friedrich Schiller, a poem recognized in its day as Masonic (though not one himself, Schiller associated with many prominent Masons in Leipzig). Some of the more vaporous lines — "Brothers, above the tent of stars/a loving Father cannot but dwell" — mean one thing when seen as a magnanimous expression of Enlightenment man reaching out to the oppressed, but something altogether more ethereal when seen as an exhortation to fellow Masons to have faith in an all-seeing divinity.
Late Beethoven also is valuable for its exploration of the Seventh Symphony, which Solomon maintains would have been understood in its day as a tribute to the civilization of ancient Greece.
The Seventh's prime motivator is rhythm, and Solomon links the core rhythms of each of the movements to their verbal equivalents. Educated listeners would have heard the insistent pulses of the movements as evocative of classical poetry, Solomon asserts.
There is much more, including trenchant analyses of the beautiful G Major Violin Sonata (Opus 96) as a supreme example of the pastoral style, and the magnificent Diabelli Variations for piano as a profound musical journey in which variation itself can be seen as the core of Beethoven's art ("The capacity for endless metamorphosis is at the heart of his imaginative gift'').
Solomon also takes on the undying question of whether Beethoven should be considered a Classical or Romantic composer, and concludes that he is simply unique, though incomprehensible without reference to the ideas and processes of both periods.
More important than putting him in one or the other category, Solomon argues, is understanding that Beethoven in his time "was widely regarded as a radical modernist" and that recent developments in musicology such as the authentic-instruments movement have tended to "anaesthetize us to the impact of his music."
Late Beethoven is not for everyone; the layman will perhaps find it too specialized and too arcane. But readers with a serious interest in the intellectual armaments of this astonishing composer will appreciate Solomon's varnish-stripping of the portraits of Beethoven we hang in our cultural museum, revealing the vibrant colors and bold brushstrokes beneath."
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'Man know thyself'
"Now comes Late Beethoven , which deals with the composer's music from 1812 until his death in 1827. Although he shrinks from saying it definitively, his research indicates that Beethoven was a practicing Freemason well into his late years.
No records survive to show that Beethoven was a member of any lodge, but Solomon's examination of the Tagebuch , or diary, Beethoven kept from 1812 to 1818 shows that many of the passages from obscure literature the composer copied into the book can be explained only by reference to Masonic sources, and that keeping the diary itself was part of the self-education process required of would-be initiates.
Of course, many public figures of the late 18th century were Masons; the secret society's focus on universal brotherhood went hand in hand with the Enlightenment. In addition to composers like Haydn and Mozart (The Magic Flute is a Masonic opera), Goethe, George Washington and Ben Franklin also knew the secret handshake.
Solomon's focus on Masonic influence on Beethoven, however, enables us to see many of his last works in a very different light, most notably the Ninth Symphony.
The choral finale of that work sets to music the "Ode to Joy" of Friedrich Schiller, a poem recognized in its day as Masonic (though not one himself, Schiller associated with many prominent Masons in Leipzig). Some of the more vaporous lines — "Brothers, above the tent of stars/a loving Father cannot but dwell" — mean one thing when seen as a magnanimous expression of Enlightenment man reaching out to the oppressed, but something altogether more ethereal when seen as an exhortation to fellow Masons to have faith in an all-seeing divinity.
Late Beethoven also is valuable for its exploration of the Seventh Symphony, which Solomon maintains would have been understood in its day as a tribute to the civilization of ancient Greece.
The Seventh's prime motivator is rhythm, and Solomon links the core rhythms of each of the movements to their verbal equivalents. Educated listeners would have heard the insistent pulses of the movements as evocative of classical poetry, Solomon asserts.
There is much more, including trenchant analyses of the beautiful G Major Violin Sonata (Opus 96) as a supreme example of the pastoral style, and the magnificent Diabelli Variations for piano as a profound musical journey in which variation itself can be seen as the core of Beethoven's art ("The capacity for endless metamorphosis is at the heart of his imaginative gift'').
Solomon also takes on the undying question of whether Beethoven should be considered a Classical or Romantic composer, and concludes that he is simply unique, though incomprehensible without reference to the ideas and processes of both periods.
More important than putting him in one or the other category, Solomon argues, is understanding that Beethoven in his time "was widely regarded as a radical modernist" and that recent developments in musicology such as the authentic-instruments movement have tended to "anaesthetize us to the impact of his music."
Late Beethoven is not for everyone; the layman will perhaps find it too specialized and too arcane. But readers with a serious interest in the intellectual armaments of this astonishing composer will appreciate Solomon's varnish-stripping of the portraits of Beethoven we hang in our cultural museum, revealing the vibrant colors and bold brushstrokes beneath."
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'Man know thyself'
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