Beethoven
Anguish and Triumph
HarperCollins · Print & ebook · August 5, 2014
Jan Swafford’s biographies of Charles Ives and Johannes Brahms have established him as a revered music historian, capable of bringing his subjects vibrantly to life.
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- Who it’s for
- A richly human portrait connects Beethoven’s life, his era, and the music that outlasted both.
- Themes
- Beethoven’s life and career, Readings of Beethoven’s music, Deafness and adversity
- Genres
- Musicians' Lives, Composer & Musician Biographies, German History
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Start with this bookAbout this book
Jan Swafford’s biographies of 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.
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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. Throughout, Swafford offers insightful readings of Beethoven’s key works. More than a decade in the making, this will be the standard Beethoven biography for years to come.
Music and the Man
A richly human portrait connects Beethoven’s life, his era, and the music that outlasted both.
Come here for
- Insightful readings of Beethoven’s key works
- The Enlightenment ideas behind his musical world
Expect
- A biography that looks past the legend
- A career shaped by illness, deafness, and critical incomprehension
Where it sits
| Musicians' Lives | 80% |
|---|---|
| Composer & Musician Biographies | 45% |
| German History | 17% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Musicians' Lives
- Lives in Entertainment
- Lives in History
- Disability Memoirs
Show all 8 publisher categories
- Western European History
- 18th-Century History
- 19th-Century History
- Classical
- Authors
- Jan Swafford
- Publisher
- HarperCollins
- Published
- August 5, 2014
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Beethoven’s life and career · Readings of Beethoven’s music · Deafness and adversity
- Reading lane
- Musicians' Lives