Description

Book Synopsis

Jan Swafford''s biographies of composers 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 world''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 ''fate''s hammer'', his ever-encroaching deafness. At the time of his death he was so widely celebrated that over ten thousand people attended his funeral.

This book is a biography of Beethoven the man and musician, n

Beethoven Anguish and Triumph

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    A Paperback / softback by Jan Swafford

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      Book details

      Publisher Faber & Faber
      Published 1 October 2015
      ISBN-13 9780571312566
      978-0571312566
      ISBN-10 057131256X
      Also in:
      Biography Biography: arts and entertainment Entertainment Art music, orchestral and formal music

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      Jan Swafford''s biographies of composers 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 world''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 ''fate''s hammer'', his ever-encroaching deafness. At the time of his death he was so widely celebrated that over ten thousand people attended his funeral.

      This book is a biography of Beethoven the man and musician, n

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