Experiencing Beethoven: A Listener's Companion

by Geoffrey Block

The life and music of Beethoven still fascinate classical music lovers, new and old. His many symphonies, sonatas, concertos, string quartets, and his one opera enchant audiences, challenge performers, engage students, and support scholars in their work. In Experiencing Beethoven, music historian Geoffrey Block explores in layman’s terms a highly representative body of about two dozen Beethoven instrumental and vocal works, offering listeners who know him well, or are just discovering him, an opportunity to grasp the breadth and depth of his musical genius.

Designed for those unversed in musical terminology or theory, Experiencing Beethoven places the composer’s works within the evolving context of his personal and professional life and social and cultural milieu. Block sheds light on the public and private audiences of Beethoven’s music, from the concerts for the composer’s own financial benefit to the debut of the “Eroica” Symphony at the palace of Prince Lobkowitz to the historic public premiere of his Ninth Symphony.

Experiencing Beethoven paints a portrait of the composer’s youth in Bonn, his early triumphs and artistic maturation in Vienna, and—despite the challenges his music posed to his contemporaries— the recognition he received during his lifetime as the most acclaimed composer of the era. Block conveys the range and scope of Beethoven’s achievement, from his heroic style to his lyricism, grappling throughout with the composer’s power to communicate his idealistic musical vision to listeners in both his time and ours. Finally, Experiencing Beethoven explores why Beethoven’s music continues to enjoy an unwavering appeal in an age saturated with a range of musical styles.

Genres: Music

290 pages, Hardcover

Published September 29, 2016

Reviews

[Benjamin Fasching-Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Considering that other books in this series are Led Zeppelin or even Billy Joel, I was expecting less music theory jargon and more clues in plain English of what to listen for. This doesn’t cover everything Beethoven but touched on a number of big hits and unfamiliar pieces, giving a bit of context: Biographical, critical reception, place in the current repertoire, before going in to more detailed analysis of structure. Occasionally the author threw me a bone, with a description I could understand in my non-musical mind and it was always a thrill to hear that bit in a piece and make the connection between what I was reading and what I was hearing. I guess it’s more meant for a classroom setting. It would all work better as a podcast or film where they would play the bits they are talking about, talk some more and then play the whole thing with subtitles maybe, for example “adagio” or “key of D major” for pinheads like me who don’t know it when they hear it. BBC 3 had a lot of Beethoven last year, cuz of the 250th birthday, and their Composer of the Week show did Beethoven every other week... something like that is far more helpful than a book. My experience of Beethoven has changed, and I feel like I just discovered the String Quartets. I have definite opinions now about what kinds of orchestras sound best for the symphonies and I have a new appreciation for Beethoven’s rich sense of humor.