Customer Reviews

Beethoven (Master Musicians (Paperback Oxford))

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The work of great artists is inexhaustible. In Beethoven's case, his music remains a stunning achievement. His achievement as a composer, together with the nature of his character, his deafness, his thwarted love affairs, and his relationships to his musical predecessors and successors, has led to a fascination with him and to a literature that is likely to be written and rewritten as long as people listen to his music. As is Beethoven's music, and is is history, Beethoven's life and character, and the means by which one is to understand them, are open to a multitude of approaches.

In his Preface, Cooper writes (at x) that "surprisingly little is known for certain about Beethoven." He points out that some studies, such as Maynard Solomon's fine biography that appeared shortly before Cooper's own, featured a psychoanalytical approach to Beethoven that attempted a fuller explanation of Beethoven's character than those that had been attempted by other writers at the cost of questionable psychological theory and speculation in the face of a scarcity of evidence. Cooper endeavors to write a biography that holds closer to the known facts about Beethoven's life and to emphasize those facts that may shed life on his activities as a composer.

Cooper also spends a great deal of his book analysing the music itself. There are lengthy accounts of the origins of the symphonies, concertos, quartets, sonatas,songs, masses, of Fidelio, of the folksongs and other parts of Beethoven's output. There are generous musical analyses and quotations. I was particularly impressed with Cooper's attention to some of Beethoven's work that is not as well known as it deserves to be, such as the Opus 7 piano sonata, the Creatures of Prometheus Ballet, and the oratorio, Christ on the Mount of Olives. These works are analyzed insightfully and lovingly.

As Cooper acknowledges, his study is perhaps less detailed than is Solomon's on Beethoven's life. His book does, however, offer its own perspective on Beethoven. Broadly speaking, Cooper is more sympathetic to certain aspects of Beethoven's actions than has been the case with many other writers. Unlike Solomon, Cooper takes Beethoven's side, for the most, part, in his dispute with his sister-in-law over the custody of Karl, Beethoven's nephew. Also, he disputes Solomon's account that Beethoven frequented prostitutes. In both these matters, I am not sure that Cooper has the better of the evidence. The portrayal endeavors to see Beethoven favorably without making him something different than a human being with fallibilities.

I also found interesting Cooper's discussion of Beethoven's religious views. Beethoven's views on such matters, as is the case with the views of any thinking person on these matters, were highly personal and difficult for a third party, such as a biographer writing 250 years after the fact, to ascertain and expound. Cooper acknowledges that Beethoven was not for most of his life a practicing Christian but finds him a devout believer in God as the source of human morality. Solomon's account emphasizes more Beethoven's predilection towards the Enlightenment. A difficult question, and I suspect that Beethoven had components of both views in him.

Too many recent biographers feel a need to deprecate their subjects. This is definitely not Cooper's approach to Beethoven. (For that matter, it was not Solomon's approach either.) Cooper writes of Beethoven that "despite much sniping from twentieth-century critics, his reputation as a giant among composers remains intact as we enter the twenty-first century." (Preface x)

This book is not hero-worship but it presents an inspiring and historically plausible account of a composer and a man who is worthy to be revered for his vision, attainments and character. This book will be treasured by those who love Beethoven's music. May it encourage the reader to become acquainted or reaquainted with these works of the human spirit.

This surprisingly engaging and informative biography of Beethoven is written as a continuous narrative history, and is certainly a work that any Beethoven enthusiast would wish to have in the library. At some 400 pages of small text, the work is a carefully researched and highly detailed piece which presents a comprehensive portrait of this musical genius. Beethoven "comes alive" in the work, and one forgets that the work is describing a person who passed away some two centuries ago.

The work integrates Beethoven's personal life with a critical look at his musical work. This approach allows us to not only understand the entire opus of collected works, but to place individual pieces into the unfolding context of Beethoven's life. There is no sparing of details, but the book is nevertheless able to convey these details in a manner that doesn't require us to be musical experts to understand the descriptions. We also find in the text some eminently interesting details, such Beethoven's estimation of George Frederic Handel as the greatest of composers, a preference for Streicher pianos, and Beethoven's wrestling with the "finale problem" that kept his "Symphony in C," now sometimes nicknamed "Symphony 0," permanently unfinished. But these are just interesting notes in a symphony of words which Cooper has put together for us: the entire work is an immense musical play which we observe with great interest and pleasure.

The book also provides some very helpful informational addenda which serve as continuing reference for our Beethoven studies. These include a comprehensive "calendar" of Beethoven's life from 1770 to 1827 (including for each entry the year, Beethoven's current age, the event, and contemporary musicians and musical events), a comprehensive listing of Beethoven's works (including WoO, Hess, and opus numbers as appropriate), and a small personality glossary describing key people in Beethoven's life.

The book is an easy recommend to the Beethoven enthusiast, the music student, or the Beethoven scholar. The work easily stands on its own as a solid piece of historical scholarship, but when coupled with a good collection of Beethoven recordings (say, the Deutsche Grammophon "Complete Beethoven Edition" CD-ROM series), the work serves as a continuing reference for anyone wishing to know more about Beethoven's music.

I ordered this book for my wife and I who are avid Beethoven fans. Our hopes were that we could learn about who he was. In our opinion, he is the greatest classical music composer of all time. Whenever we listen to his music, we wonder about what a genius and musical revolutionary he was.

The book begins with great promise such that we start learning about this man's life and what made him so great. Nonetheless, the book degenerates into incredibility detailed musical descriptions that only a musical expert could comprehend. My wife and I just fans and have never studied music in the depth needed to understand what the author describes in those parts of the book where he analyzes the composer's music.

The historical parts that describe Beethoven's life are well done. Unfortunately, this is not enough to overcome the book's overemphasis on the in-depth analysis of his music. Too bad!

British musicologist and Beethoven scholar Barry Cooper's 2000 biography of the iconic composer is aimed at the serious classical music lover. It combines reconstructing Beethoven's life from as reliable sources as possible and discussing his music. Unlike Lewis Lockwood's 2003 biography, which divides life and music into separate chapters, Cooper interweaves Beethoven's life stories with technical dissection of his music. While this organization works out fine in some areas, in others, it interrupts the life story flow and gets a little frustrating for the reader.

As many of us know, Beethoven's life has been told in many fictional stories, from Schindler down to modern fictions and films. One of Cooper's goals is to present as accurate a picture of Beethoven the person as allowed by available sources that can be deemed reliable. To this end he did a lot of research and subsequently quotes a lot of sources in the book. The amount of cross-referecing and fact-checking must have constituted a daunting task, and we must salute Cooper for this dedication. The end result is, I think, the most accurate portrait of Beethoven the man in the literature; this alone, makes this book indispensable to readers interested in Western music history as well as those interested in Beethoven.

The music discussions are for the most part technical rather than descriptive, as there are lots of referenes to harmonic chords, motive constructions, etc., etc. One thing I've realized over the years of studying Beethoven's music is, because his music is often made of the simplest music elements (e.g., the 5th's opening 4 notes, the violin concerto's opening with 5 timpani notes, the 9th's ode melody), getting into the technical details often makes his music seem mundane and boring, which of course is absolutely not the case when you listen to the music. Therefore, Cooper's technical discussions in this present volume seem too much for the casual reader (arpeggio? ritornello?) but too insufficient for a professional musicologist. Also, even though Beethoven was the first composer to consistently make the end of his music as grand and significant as the beginning, often Cooper surprisingly focuses only on the beginning (the first movement) while dicussing little of the end (last movement).

Despite my gripes about the music discussion parts of the book, I do think this is the best Beethoven book available to the serious reader. This is a tremendous amount of treasure on both the life and the music of Beethoven. A casual reader who just wants to learn about Beethoven's life may want to consider Beethoven: The Universal Composer (Eminent Lives) but that book contains many popular myths.

As a Beethoven fan I was initially attracted to the cover of this book, until I discovered its contents. The amount and quality of information is outstanding and Barry Cooper doesn't spare any words to guide us through the life, creative process and personality of this incredible composer. In a nutshell, a book not to be missed by any classical music enthusiast.

"Beethoven" by Barry Cooper is much more than I had hoped when I ordered the book. I have been a lover of Beethoven's music for years. I always liked the movie "Immortal Beloved" and wondered how true to life the story was. As it turns out, the movie is only loosely based on Beethoven's life. There are many ficticious episodes in the movie (the writers raked his name through the mud!) and it perpetuates many ill-conceived rumors and stories. As is often the case, reality is even better than fiction. This book reveals Beethoven a the upstanding, devout and charitable personality one who is familiar with his music would expect to find.

Beethoven's life makes for an amazing and entertaining story - especially in juxtuposition to the music that he lived to create. This book super-analyzes the significant pieces from his career - almost to a fault. If you are very learned in musical and compositional theory, this analysis will be a strong point. If, however, you have less knowledge of musical form, this book can get a little difficult at times. This did not reduce my enjoyment by much (I still rated it 5-stars) because the book is so strong in every aspect. This is THE book to read if you want to learn about Beethoven.

This is a very well written book in my opinion, and I had no great difficulty finishing it, however the title could be a little more specific because the contents weighed heavily towards in-depth musical analysis which frankly had my eyes glazing over for pages at a time. I'll keep the book, and expect to refer back to his comments on individual works as they (hopefully!) become more familiar to me. But as an introduction to "Beethoven", I feel I was misled into thinking I would also be reading more than a cursory sketch of the man's life. Comments about the man and his life beyond composing seemed almost an encumbrance to the author, forcing him to pause in the detailed analysis of Beethoven's sketch books and the trails and tribulations of his publications.

Here's the rub; as a beginner in the exploration of Beethoven's life and work, I was hoping for countless examples of something that happened only once. The report of Beethoven's "tears" over the writing of the Cavatina movement in Opus 130 had me locating that work and listening very carefully to it. Then I understood that Opus 133 was the original Finale, so now I'm listening to the two pieces along side each other. My breath is taken away, quite frankly. Now I am researching which artists have released Opus 130 with the Grosse Fuge (Opus 133) placed as the Finale, and I have bought one already (The Juilliard String Quartet).

But I had hoped for a book's worth of such insights and discoveries. Sadly, only that one morsel. If you are steeped in musical learning and you know all you need to know about the life of the man, this may be the most brilliant book you could choose. For me, however, I am back at the amazon site, looking for another book which can maybe meet my objectives, musical and biographical.

As John Suchet is quoted as saying, on the back cover, "For the determined reader, the book is a treasure trove". A determined reader, indeed, but also an expert reader. Please be warned. All the best.

This biography of Ludwig van Beethoven provides a portrait of Beethoven the composer more than the personality of the man. Barry Cooper is a noted musicologist and this is reflected in his approach to Beethoven. He provides in depth detail about the music, probably much more than the average concertgoers would prefer. For example, Mr. Cooper discusses the various key modulations that make Beethoven's approach to music revolutionary. Mr. Cooper does deal fairly with Beethoven's relationship to his nephew Karl and his legal battle to keep his nephew from the perceived corrupting influence of his mother Johanna. He also provides a good discussion about the famous "Immortal Beloved." However, Beethoven's personality and habits are drawn but not fleshed out with a lot of detail. For example, Beethoven was frequently obliged to change his residence often due to his irascible personality and unruly habits. Mr. Cooper does not cover the more colorful aspects of Beethoven on such a level. He does relate anecdotal information about Beethoven the man but, clearly, it is Beethoven the composer who interests the author.

The book is well written if a bit dry at times when discussing musical details. Mr. Cooper provides musical examples to illustrate his points and there also is a series of plates. This is an excellent volume about Beethoven and his place in musical history. However, if you were interesting in reading more about Beethoven's personality I would look elsewhere.

A heady mix of history which focuses on music theory, Cooper's biography of Beethoven is everything the music scholar could hope for. The best and lesser known of the great composer's works are broken down for style, theme, and technique, all in the context of Beethoven's career. Thus, for those looking for an in depth look at his personal life, more speculative but perhaps interesting information can be found elsewhere. If music composition and theory are your bag, however, then by all means check out Cooper's survey of Beethoven and his work. Based on the depth each piece is examined, it seems impossible not be disappointed on this front. For myself, a non-scholar, skipping the super technical yet diving into the thematic expositions has proven itself invaluable listening to the concertos, symphonies, and quartets, since. Therefore, be warned that in "Beethoven," the music not the man takes center stage.