Description
Book SynopsisTraces Beethoven's attraction to a constellation of heterogeneous ideas, drawn from Romanticism, Freemasonry, comparative religion, Eastern initiatory ritual, Mediterranean mythology, aesthetics, and classical and contemporary thought.
Trade Review"[F]or sheer interpretive genius and an uncommon gift for rendering in prose the complex, humanly compelling subtleties of Beethoven's music and life, few approach Maynard Solomon.... [E]very chapter in Solomon's book is full of subtle, deeply satisfying accounts of what actually went into Beethoven's late-style works." - Edward Said; "With a bow to the immortal study by J. W. N. Sullivan, Late Beethoven could have also been called 'Beethoven: His Spiritual Development.' Solomon weaves amazingly diverse threads, chapter by chapter, into the fabric of Beethoven's belief system, his take on nature, divinity, human purpose, morality, and the mission of music. This is a book of surprises by an author whose combination of breadth of thought, imaginativeness, aesthetic sensitivity, and learning is really wonderful." - Joseph Kerman, author, with Alan Tyson, of The New Grove Beethoven "Maynard Solomon writes with an unrivaled control of a vast cultural and intellectual sweep that reaches beyond Ancient Greece, and with a graceful precision that disguises the rich complexity of his ideas. Distilling from the late works their sources in both the overarching themes of mankind and the troubled psyche of the composer, he has forever altered a familiar landscape." - Richard Kramer, author of Distant Cycles"
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Prologue: A Sea Change 1. The End of a Beginning: The "Diabelli" Variations 2. Beyond Classicism 3. Some Romantic Images 4. Pastoral, Rhetoric, Structure: The Violin Sonata in G, Op. 96 5. Reason and Imagination: The Aesthetic Dimension 6. The Seventh Symphony and the Rhythms of Antiquity 7. The Masonic Thread 8. The Masonic Imagination 9. The Shape of a Journey: The "Diabelli" Variations 10. Intimations of the Sacred 11. The Sense of an Ending: The Ninth Symphony 12. The Healing Power of Music Abbreviations Notes Index
