| Abstract |
This new study of Beethoven and his music is written as a continuous, chronological narrative that sets the works against the musical and biographical background from which they emerged. Such an approach results in close integration of life and works, and is particularly appropriate in the case of Beethoven: firstly because composition was his central preoccupation ('I live entirely in my music', he once wrote), and secondly because recent research on his numerous musical sketches has produced a much clearer picture of his everyday compositional activity, leading to many new insights into the interaction between his life and music. The author illuminates Beethoven's artistic achievements both by examining the origins of his works and by commentary on some of their most striking and original features. Statements in earlier biographies have been scrutinized carefully and are accepted here only if supported by sound evidence. This thorough reassessment extends even to translations of individual German words, and many well-known but fictitious anecdotes have been eliminated. Conversely, numerous details discovered in recent years are for the first time incorporated into a general study of Beethoven - notably information from sketch studies and from a new edition of his correspondence. The many fresh conclusions will be of interest to both specialists and the musical public at large. |
