This Companion provides a comprehensive view of Beethoven and his work. The first part of the book presents the composer as a private individual, as a professional, and at the work-place, discussing biographical problems, Beethoven's professional activities when not composing and his methods as a composer. In the heart of the book, individual chapters are devoted to all the major genres cultivated by Beethoven and to the elements of style and structure that cross all genres. The book concludes by looking at the ways that Beethoven and his music have been interpreted by performers, writers on music, and in the arts, literature, and philosophy. The essays in this volume, written by leading Beethoven specialists, maintain traditional emphases on Beethoven studies while incorporating some of the most recent developments in musicology and theory.
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"This volume will be used by undergraduates as a tasting menu of current research, and undergraduates and scholars alike...Stanley's collection is recommended for academic libraries with extensive resources...a must-have." Choice
Book Description
This book discusses Beethoven's music and the personal and historical contexts in which it was composed and has been received. Chapters are devoted to all the major genres cultivated by Beethoven and to the elements of style and structure that cross all genres. The Companion also considers the ways that Beethoven and his music have been interpreted by performers, writers on music, and in the arts, literature, and philosophy. This volume reflects both traditional emphases in Beethoven studies and recent developments in musicology and theory.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Cambridge Beethoven,
By Robin Friedman (Washington, D.C. United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: The Cambridge Companion to Beethoven (Cambridge Companions to Music) (Paperback)
I recently spent considerable time with Beethoven's piano sonatas and string quartets and wanted to read the essays in this book devoted to these genres to supplement my listening. William Kinderman's essay: "The piano music: concertos, sonatas, variations, small forms" deals briefly but insightfully with Beethoven's body of work for the piano, focusing on the first three sonatas of opus 2, the "Waldstein and Appassionata" sonatas from Beethoven's mid-career, and the final three sonatas, opus nos. 109, 110, 111. John Daverio's essay, "Manner, tone, and tendency in Beethoven's chamber music for strings" is a difficult study which uses literary and critical theory to show the differences between the quartets of Beethoven's early and middle period on the one hand and the final quartets on the other hand. Both these essays were challenging and helped me with my listening.
But I couldn't stop with the two essays and proceeded to read the entire book, part of a series which presents the best of musical scholarship and thought on the great composers. This book of studies of Beethoven is edited by John Stanley of the University of Connecticut and consists of 17 essays by 16 scholars (Stanley has two essays) devoted to Beethoven's life and music. If there is a theme running through this varied collection, it is that each essay tries to put Beethoven in a musical or historical context. The book is divided into four parts. The first part, "A Professional Portrait" consists of three essays discussing Beethoven's life, his compositional techniques (the use of sketchbooks), and the traditional division of his works into three periods. This part of the book includes a detailed and useful chronology of Beethoven's life. The second part of the book, "Style and Structure" consists of three essays which deal broadly with Beethoven's works and which discuss similarities and differences between Beethoven and Haydn and Mozart. There is an excellent essay by Roger Kamien on Beethoven's use and development of thematic material which is technical but not beyond the reach of the devoted music lover. The third part of the book, called "Genres" consists of seven essays which examine each of the major genres in which Beethoven composed. As I mentioned, the essays on the string quartets and the piano sonatas initially drew me to the book. The remaining essays cover Beethoven's symphonies, focusing on his imaginative orchestration, the genesis of Beethoven's opera "Fidelio", the chamber music with piano, including the violin sonatas, cello sonatas, and trios and their development over Beethoven's career, the religious music, and the songs. I particularly enjoyed this last essay by Amanda Glauert, "Beethoven's songs and vocal style" which traces Beethoven's songs from their origins in folk music and shows how Beethoven transformed the form. Beethoven's songs, I think, still are insufficiently appreciated. The final section of the book, "Reception" consists of four essays which discuss the influence of Beethoven on other composers, different performance practices for Beethoven's music, the various ways in which Beethoven's music and personality have been viewed by the public (an excellent essay by Scott Burnham), and another excellent essay by David Dennis, concluding the book, which discusses Beethoven's influence on the arts, philosophy, and politics. In reading this volume of essays, I was reminded of the great appeal Beethoven has exerted, and continues to exert on many people. Unlike most other composers of art music, his work has been an inspriation to people of all nationalities, ages, and walks of life from the most learned to the untutored. His music has the capacity to draw listeners in, to make them involved, and to demand a response. I got to know Beethoven's music, and something of his life, as a child and his hold upon me has continued. This book helps to develop and to explain the devotion Beethoven continues to inspire. As Scott Burnham states at the conclusion of his essay, "The Four Ages of Beethoven" (p.291) "Even now, after a century seemingly intent on annihilating all formerly comforting illusions of greatness and transcendent authority offered by the leading figures in our history, we have not yet managed to put the Beethoven myth behind us. For Beethoven continues to require that we grapple with him, continues to ask much of us, to call us out. This, more than anything, is why we cannot let him go: his music remains a sounding provocation to what we are pleased to think of as our better selves." This book will be of most immediate interest to those readers who already know Beethoven's music and who have read some of the many excellent basic studies of his life and works, such as the recent biographies by Maynard Solomon, Barry Cooper, and Lewis Lockwood, among others. Robin Friedman
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Excellent Compendium...,
By Sébastien Melmoth (Hôtel d'Alsace, PARIS) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Cambridge Companion to Beethoven (Cambridge Companions to Music) (Paperback)
With the superfulity of books on a great subject like Beethoven, it can be difficult to know where to start. Well, start here! This is really a nice book filled with authoritative essays on the Master. It's recent, the information up-to-date, and it has a very scholarly ambience of respect and admiration for the great artist, but with a clear-eyed common-sense approach unmuddied by mythos. Highly recommended.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cambridge Companion to Beethoven,
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This review is from: The Cambridge Companion to Beethoven (Cambridge Companions to Music) (Paperback)
This product is a collection of essays by various Beethoven scholars. They tend to be on a general subject and appropriate for music students at a college level or beyond. You do not have to be a Beethoven expert or a seasoned musicologist to understand this work.
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First Sentence:
The idea that Beethoven's music and his career as a composer fall into three periods was first proposed in rudimentary form by an anonymous French author in 1818 - at the very beginning of what we now consider the third period and almost ten years before his death in 1827. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
chamber music with piano, auxiliary cadence, second theme group, new finale, registral expansion, string chamber music, multimovement work, folksong settings, rhythmic acceleration, late quartets, chamber music for strings, tempo modification, fugal finale, violin writing, three piano sonatas, minor quartet, genre aesthetics, sonata style, major quartet, incarnatus est, metronome marks, fugue subject, rondo finale, classical variation, cello sonatas Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Grosse Fuge, Ninth Symphony, Fifth Symphony, Agnus Dei, Carl Czerny, First Symphony, Congress of Vienna, Third Symphony, Wellington's Victory, Archduke Rudolph, Heiligenstadt Testament, Joseph Kerman, Beethoven's Ninth, Charles Rosen, Coriolan Overture, Gustav Klimt, Haydn's Symphony, Prince Nikolaus, Seventh Symphony, Sixth Symphony, Doktor Faustus, Fourth Symphony, Franz Grillparzer, Heiliger Dankgesang, Heinrich Schenker New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
The idea that Beethoven's music and his career as a composer fall into three periods was first proposed in rudimentary form by an anonymous French author in 1818 - at the very beginning of what we now consider the third period and almost ten years before his death in 1827. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
chamber music with piano, auxiliary cadence, second theme group, new finale, registral expansion, string chamber music, multimovement work, folksong settings, rhythmic acceleration, late quartets, chamber music for strings, tempo modification, fugal finale, violin writing, three piano sonatas, minor quartet, genre aesthetics, sonata style, major quartet, incarnatus est, metronome marks, fugue subject, rondo finale, classical variation, cello sonatas Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Grosse Fuge, Ninth Symphony, Fifth Symphony, Agnus Dei, Carl Czerny, First Symphony, Congress of Vienna, Third Symphony, Wellington's Victory, Archduke Rudolph, Heiligenstadt Testament, Joseph Kerman, Beethoven's Ninth, Charles Rosen, Coriolan Overture, Gustav Klimt, Haydn's Symphony, Prince Nikolaus, Seventh Symphony, Sixth Symphony, Doktor Faustus, Fourth Symphony, Franz Grillparzer, Heiliger Dankgesang, Heinrich Schenker New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
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38
books
cite this book:
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- The Beethoven Quartet Companion by Robert Winter on 7 pages
- School of Practical Composition by Carl Czerny on 6 pages
- The Beethoven Companion by Denis Arnold on 6 pages
- Beethoven Hero by Scott Burnham on 6 pages
- Performing Beethoven (Cambridge Studies in Performance Practice) by Robin Stowell on 6 pages
See all 100 books this book cites
- The String Quartets of Beethoven by William Kinderman on 7 pages
- The Cambridge Companion to Mendelssohn (Cambridge Companions to Music) by Peter Mercer-Taylor in Front Matter (1), and Front Matter (2)
- Eight Centuries of Troubadours and Trouvères: The Changing Identity of Medieval Music (Musical Performance and Reception) by John Haines on page 6, and Back Matter
- The Cambridge Companion to Conducting (Cambridge Companions to Music) by José Antonio Bowen in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Music as Thought: Listening to the Symphony in the Age of Beethoven by Mark Evan Bonds in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
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