Author: Eric Ludwig von Knipe Publisher: Dorrance Publishing ISBN: 1480945684 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 153
Book Description
Beethoven’s Eternal Promise By: Eric Ludwig von Knipe Nick, an aspiring musician, runs away from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Trying to escape the pain of his girlfriend’s death, he finds himself alone and homeless on the streets of London. He is haunted by a legendary, but very dead, musician from another century. Nick turns to drugs to drown everything out. He is rescued by Madeline, a beautiful Austrian doctor. After spending a couple hundred years in hell, Beethoven is given a chance at redemption. He must win over the love of his life so he can spend eternity with her. He finds in Nick the perfect conduit to make all his dreams come true. Inspired by Madeline’s faith in him and Beethoven’s persistence, Nick forms a band and soon reaches rock star status. But the strain and stress of Beethoven’s constant presence mixed with the demands of his new life cause Nick to spiral out of control. Will Beethoven, through Nick, create a final masterpiece to save his soul? Will Nick survive his encounters with this mad man or will it prove too much for his fragile mind?
Author: Ruth Padel Publisher: Knopf ISBN: 0593317734 Category : Poetry Languages : en Pages : 125
Book Description
“Padel’s imagery and imagination took me deeper into Beethoven than many biographies I’ve read.” —Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times A fascinating poetic journey into the mind and heart of a musical genius, from the author of the celebrated Darwin: A Life in Poems Ruth Padel's new sequence of poems, in four movements, is a personal voyage through the life and legend of one of the world's greatest composers. She uncovers the man behind the music, charting his private thoughts and feelings through letters, diaries, sketchbooks, and the conversation books he used as his hearing declined. She gives us Beethoven as a battered four-year-old, weeping at the clavier; the young virtuoso pianist agonized by his encroaching deafness; the passionate, heartbroken lover; the clumsy eccentric making coffee with exactly sixty beans. Padel's quest takes her into the heart of Europe and back to her own musical childhood: Her great-grandfather, who studied in Leipzig with a pupil of Beethoven's, became a concert pianist before migrating to Britain; her parents met making music; and Padel grew up playing the viola, Beethoven's instrument as a child. Her book is a poet and string player's intimate connection across the centuries with an artist who, though increasingly isolated, ended even his most harrowing works on a note of hope.
Author: Norman Lebrecht Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1639364129 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 297
Book Description
Without Beethoven, music as we know it wouldn’t exist. By examining one hundred of his compositions, a portrait emerges of the man behind the music. Lebrecht has immersed himself in the rich catalog of Beethoven recordings and presents a unique picture of the man through his music. He selects the best recordings of one hundred key pieces, showing the composer as we’ve never seen him before. Unruly, offensive, and hopeless in so much of his life, yet driven to a fault and devoted to his art, conquering deafness to pen masterpieces. Norman Lebrecht has been grappling with this icon at the heart of music for his entire life. Who was the irascible, unpredictable, warped genius who stretched what music could do to the breaking point? In this unique examination, Lebrecht attempts to understand the power of this man through his compositions, the history of who has performed them, and what it has meant to successive generations of audiences. In turn a detective story (we learn who Elise of “Fur Elise” is for the first time) and a confession, Why Beethoven aims to rise to the challenge of how to encompass the relentless energy of this singular genius. With a narrative that mirrors the wayward sequence of Beethoven’s compositions, Beethoven emerges as a cornerstone of the world as we know it.
Author: David Benjamin Levy Publisher: Yale University Press ISBN: 9780300099645 Category : Reference Languages : en Pages : 262
Book Description
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, a masterpiece that has influenced virtually every Western composer since its premiere, has become associated with the marking of momentous public occasions. In 1989, Chinese students played its finale through loudspeakers in Tiananmen Square, and Leonard Bernstein led a performance in Berlin to celebrate the razing of the Berlin Wall. This lively and up-to-date book focuses on Beethoven's Ninth, exploring the cultural and musical meanings that surround this powerful work of genius. David B. Levy sets the scene with a brief survey of nineteenth-century Germanic culture and society, then analyzes the Ninth symphony in detail with special emphasis on the famous choral finale. He discusses the initial performances in 1824 under Beethoven's direction and traces the symphony's critical reception and legacy. In the final chapter of the book, Levy examines interpretations of the work by prominent conductors, including Wagner, Mahler, and Weingartner. A fully annotated discography of selected recordings completes this comprehensive volume.
Author: Daniel K. L. Chua Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 019976932X Category : Music Languages : en Pages : 289
Book Description
Over the last two hundred years, Beethoven's music has been synonymous with modernity's 'absolute' value-freedom. Author Daniel KL Chua explores how Beethoven's music engages with freedom's aspirations and dilemmas, challenging the current image of Beethoven, and suggesting an alterior freedom that can speak ethically to the twenty-first century.
Author: Maynard Solomon Publisher: Univ of California Press ISBN: 0520243390 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 340
Book Description
Using Beethoven's letters, diaries and conversation books, this text traces his attraction to a constellation of heterogeneous ideas, drawn from Romanticism, Freemasonry, comparative religion, Eastern initiatory ritual, Mediterranean mythology, aesthetics and classical and contemporary thought.
Author: Eric Ludwig von Knipe
Author: Ruth Padel
Author: Paul Bekker
Author: Norman Lebrecht
Author: David Benjamin Levy
Author: Daniel K. L. Chua
Author: David Eric Berg
Author: George Grove
Author: George Grove
Author: Maynard Solomon