Beethoven & I

[MeandJess]

I've just joined this Forum and look forward to some inspiring changes of opinion. I've always loved Beethoven and never found his music hard to understand, even the last quartets and when I was a lot younger than I am now!

I have 17 books on the great man and looking for more. I am surprised there is no up-to-date book on the symphonies. I have the classic Tovey analysis, but they are very old. There doesn't seem to be a book either that goes into the music in great detail.

I am not sure that you need to know how Beethoven was feeling to understand the music. What do others think?

[Peter]

Welcome to the forum!

Charles Rosen's the Classical style has a good section on Beethoven and goes into some depth of analysis of a few major works. The Beethoven companion is also very useful.

I agree it isn't necessary to know how Beethoven was feeling or to know about his life in order to understand the music, but I do think it enriches the experience - I'm always fascinated by the lives of great composers, some of course being more interesting than others. Surely Liszt has to have had the most incredible life of them all!

[Pastorale]

Welcome to the forum!

Charles Rosen's the Classical style has a good section on Beethoven and goes into some depth of analysis of a few major works. The Beethoven companion is also very useful.

I agree it isn't necessary to know how Beethoven was feeling or to know about his life in order to understand the music, but I do think it enriches the experience - I'm always fascinated by the lives of great composers, some of course being more interesting than others. Surely Liszt has to have had the most incredible life of them all!

Why Liszt?

[Michael]

I am not sure that you need to know how Beethoven was feeling to understand the music. What do others think?

Welcome to the forum. I am inclined to agree with you: a work of art should stand by itself without any knowledge of its creator. However, it doesn't diminish the achievement by knowing what went on behind the scenes, so to speak.

In Beethoven's case, these insights can be surprising. At the time of the Heilegenstadt Testament, when the composer was on the brink of suicide, one could be forgiven for thinking that this was the occasion when Beethoven composed the funeral march of the "Eroica". On the contrary, he was completing his second symphony which is full of life and good cheer.

It's not necessary to know this, but it does add something to one's appreciation of the creative process.

(A couple of weeks ago I was looking at the actual Heilegenstadt Testament in the Beethovenhaus in Bonn. I could have stared at it all day but other viewers kept getting in my way. )




.

[Fidelio]

[QUOTE=MeandJess;69186] I am surprised there is no up-to-date book on the symphonies. /QUOTE]

Hello and welcome. The Charles Rosen is a great book.

Take a look at Beethoven's Symphonies: An Artistic Vision
by Lewis Lockwood.

Another great read is The Symphony in Beethoven's Vienna by David Wyn Jones

[Peter]

Why Liszt?

Try reading Alan Walker's wonderful 3 volume biography of Liszt and you'll see why! He simply had an amazingly varied and interesting life. A brief glimpse here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Liszt

[Hollywood]

I am inclined to agree with you: a work of art should stand by itself without any knowledge of its creator. However, it doesn't diminish the achievement by knowing what went on behind the scenes, so to speak.

I agree as well. There are so many works that I love from other composers who I have never read any bios on. Once I do get around to reading any info about their lives, then perhaps I may see that composer's work in a different light or maybe understand it better. But to tell you the truth I really don't look up data on a composer's life every time I hear a piece I like. There are really only about 3 composers, whose music I love, that I have read quite a few books about their lives and music (Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert).

Before I forget, I too want to welcome you to the forum. Greetings from Beethoven's Heiligenstadt.

[Albert Gans]

Hollywood in Heiligenstadt????

[Hollywood]

Hollywood in Heiligenstadt????

Yeap. I live not too far from the Heiligenstadt Testament Haus. Actually I live near 4 Beethoven houses.

[Pastorale]

Yeap. I live not too far from the Heiligenstadt Testament Haus. Actually I live near 4 Beethoven houses.

You're soooooooooo lucky!!! I want to live there

[Albert Gans]

Hi Hollywood,

4???? It's more than that.... I'm not sure anyone knows exactly how many places he lived in in Vienna.... he went back to the Pasqualati flat several times, or the Theater an der Wien... I think it is safe to say he stayed in more than 25 lodgings at one point or another over the 35 years he lived in Vienna. I think that you mean 4 places one can visit: the Eroica Haus, Heiligenstadt and Pasqualati, I know. Which is the 4th?

Albert