Author: Myunghwa Jang Publisher: GRIN Verlag ISBN: 3640773691 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 23
Book Description
Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2010 in the subject Sociology - Media, Art, Music, The University of Malaya, language: English, abstract: Written with librettist, Joseph von Sonnleithner, Beethoven’s first version was divided into three acts in the style of a German Singspiel. In a singspiel, a fresh start has to be made after every spoken interruption. Fidelio was first performed on November 20, 1805 after being delayed due to issues with the censors. The opera opened to a small audience and negative reviews. A year later Beethoven attempted a revision of Fidelio for the same theatre. Due to a change in management Beethoven was presented with a new librettist by the name of Stephan von Breuning. After a great deal of struggle, a very reluctant Beethoven agreed to a much more condensed and concise version of the opera. The newly revised version was performed on May 29, 1806. Again the audience was not Beethoven’s ideal audience and the show failed once again. After reading a refined libretto by Georg Friedrich Treitschke, Beethoven agreed the revival but insisted on a complete revision in which he virtually started over. Nearly every number was altered in some fashion. The third and final version of the opera opened with great success on May 23, 1814. It took Beethoven over a decade to complete his only opera. Throughout the many revisions he produced four different overtures. The first, now known as Leonore #2 was written for the opera’s premiere in 1805. Because some sections proved to be too difficult Beethoven began reworking the overture for the opera’s revival in 1806. The new version became known as Leonore #3. Beethoven’s final revision composed for the 1814. Production was called the Fidelio Overture. After his death a fourth overture was found. Entitled Leonore #1 it is believed he either wrote it first or for a production of Fidelio in Prague that never happened. Leonore #3 is often played between the two scenes in Act 2. However, many critics such as Henry W. Simon consider this practice to be “abhorrently inartistic” due to the dramatic nature of the piece.
Author: Alexander Wheelock Thayer Publisher: Library of Alexandria ISBN: 146558322X Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 1474
Book Description
If for no other reasons than because of the long time and monumental patience expended upon its preparation, the vicissitudes through which it has passed and the varied and arduous labors bestowed upon it by the author and his editors, the history of Alexander Wheelock Thayer’s Life of Beethoven deserves to be set forth as an introduction to this work. His work it is, and his monument, though others have labored long and painstakingly upon it. There has been no considerable time since the middle of the last century when it has not occupied the minds of the author and those who have been associated with him in its creation. Between the conception of its plan and its execution there lies a period of more than two generations. Four men have labored zealously and affectionately upon its pages, and the fruits of more than four score men, stimulated to investigation by the first revelations made by the author, have been conserved in the ultimate form of the biography. It was seventeen years after Mr. Thayer entered upon what proved to be his life-task before he gave the first volume to the world—and then in a foreign tongue; it was thirteen more before the third volume came from the press. This volume, moreover, left the work unfinished, and thirty-two years more had to elapse before it was completed. When this was done the patient and self-sacrificing investigator was dead; he did not live to finish it himself nor to see it finished by his faithful collaborator of many years, Dr. Deiters; neither did he live to look upon a single printed page in the language in which he had written that portion of the work published in his lifetime. It was left for another hand to prepare the English edition of an American writer’s history of Germany’s greatest tone-poet, and to write its concluding chapters, as he believes, in the spirit of the original author. Under these circumstances there can be no vainglory in asserting that the appearance of this edition of Thayer’s Life of Beethoven deserves to be set down as a significant occurrence in musical history. In it is told for the first time in the language of the great biographer the true story of the man Beethoven—his history stripped of the silly sentimental romance with which early writers and their later imitators and copyists invested it so thickly that the real humanity, the humanliness, of the composer has never been presented to the world. In this biography there appears the veritable Beethoven set down in his true environment of men and things—the man as he actually was, the man as he himself, like Cromwell, asked to be shown for the information of posterity. It is doubtful if any other great man’s history has been so encrusted with fiction as Beethoven’s. Except Thayer’s, no biography of him has been written which presents him in his true light. The majority of the books which have been written of late years repeat many of the errors and falsehoods made current in the first books which were written about him. A great many of these errors and falsehoods are in the account of the composer’s last sickness and death, and were either inventions or exaggerations designed by their utterers to add pathos to a narrative which in unadorned truth is a hundredfold more pathetic than any tale of fiction could possibly be. Other errors have concealed the truth in the story of Beethoven’s guardianship of his nephew, his relations with his brothers, the origin and nature of his fatal illness, his dealings with his publishers and patrons, the generous attempt of the Philharmonic Society of London to extend help to him when upon his deathbed.
Author: Scott Burnham Publisher: Princeton University Press ISBN: 0691218323 Category : Music Languages : en Pages : 398
Book Description
Few composers even begin to approach Beethoven's pervasive presence in modern Western culture, from the concert hall to the comic strip. Edited by a cultural historian and a music theorist, Beethoven and His World gathers eminent scholars from several disciplines who collectively speak to the range of Beethoven's importance and of our perennial fascination with him. The contributors address Beethoven's musical works and their cultural contexts. Reinhold Brinkmann explores the post-revolutionary context of Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony, while Lewis Lockwood establishes a typology of heroism in works like Fidelio. Elaine Sisman, Nicholas Marston, and Glenn Stanley discuss issues of temporality, memory, and voice in works at the threshold of Beethoven's late style, such as An die Ferne Geliebte, the Cello Sonata op. 102, no. 1, and the somewhat later Piano Sonata op. 109. Peering behind the scenes into Beethoven's workshop, Tilman Skowroneck explains how the young Beethoven chose his pianos, and William Kinderman shows Beethoven in the process of sketching and revising his compositions. The volume concludes with four essays engaging the broader question of reception of Beethoven's impact on his world and ours. Christopher Gibbs' study of Beethoven's funeral and its aftermath features documentary material appearing in English for the first time; art historian Alessandra Comini offers an illustrated discussion of Beethoven's ubiquitous and iconic frown; Sanna Pederson takes up the theme of masculinity in critical representations of Beethoven; and Leon Botstein examines the aesthetics and politics of hearing extramusical narratives and plots in Beethoven's music. Bringing together varied and fresh approaches to the West's most celebrated composer, this collection of essays provides music lovers with an enriched understanding of Beethoven--as man, musician, and phenomenon.
Author: Lewis Lockwood Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company ISBN: 0393326381 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 621
Book Description
Written for the general reader, this book reveals how Beethoven's great works reflect both his artistic individuality and the deepest philosophical and political currents of his age.
Author: Bennett Reimer Publisher: ISBN: Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 224
Book Description
Presents key ideas and practical suggestions for implementing the music standards through performance. Based on a Northwestern University Music Education Leadership Seminar.
Author: Clyde T. McCants Publisher: McFarland ISBN: 9780786414420 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 208
Book Description
Opera is a unique expression of the human mind and spirit--a play that communicates plot, characterization and story almost entirely through music. Unfortunately, because of restraints of time, location and income, few people have the opportunity to see operas performed on a regular basis. Public libraries are an easily accessible alternative for gaining operatic knowledge and exposure, offering the public a chance to hear, see, and develop an appreciation of opera. This work is a two-part guide for libraries that want to assemble a comprehensive collection of operatic materials. Part I is a list of recommended operas ranging over four hundred years of operatic history and including a variety of different styles and languages. The goal of Part I is to provide recommendations for a comprehensive library collection of video and sound operatic recordings. Part II suggest books, periodicals, and online resources that could be an integral and important part of a library's opera collection. This section also discusses the care and maintenance of sound and video recordings, offers suggestions for locating hard-to-find operatic material, and explores the library's role in sparking patron interest in opera.
Author: Lewis Lockwood Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 9780674028098 Category : Music Languages : en Pages : 316
Book Description
Beethoven's string quartets have rewarded the engagement of scholars, performers, and audiences for almost two hundred years. This book and its accompanying recording invite you to experience three of these profound and beautiful works of music from the inside, with a renowned Beethoven scholar and the Juilliard String Quartet as your guides.
Author: Myunghwa Jang
Author: Burton D. Fisher
Author: Steven Vande Moortele
Author: Alexander Wheelock Thayer
Author: Scott Burnham
Author: Lewis Lockwood
Author: Bennett Reimer
Author: Clyde T. McCants
Author: Lewis Lockwood
Author: Ludwig van Beethoven