Beethoven Essays

by Maynard Solomon

Maynard Solomon is the author of a classic biography of Beethoven which has become a standard work throughout the world, having been translated into seven languages. In Beethoven Essays , he continues his exploration of Beethoven’s inner life, visionary outlook, and creativity, in a series of profound studies of this colossal figure of our civilization.

Solomon deftly fuses a variety of investigative approaches, from rigorous historical and ideological studies to imaginative musical and psychoanalytic speculations. Thus, after closely documenting Beethoven’s birth and illegitimacy fantasies, his “Family Romance,” and his pretense of nobility, Solomon offers extraordinary interpretations of the composer’s dreams, deafness, and obsessive relationship to his nephew. And, following his detailed uncovering of a complex network of recurrent patterns in the Ninth Symphony, he considers the narrative and mythic implications of Beethoven’s formal design.

Solomon examines the broad patterns of Beethoven’s creative evolution and processes of composition, the radical modernism of his music, and his intellectual, religious, and utopian strivings. A separate section on the “Immortal Beloved” includes the fullest biography of Antonia Brentano yet published. Closing the volume is Solomon’s translation and annotated edition of Beethoven’s Tagebuch , the moving, intimate diary that the composer kept during the critical period that culminated in his last style. Here, as throughout Beethoven Essays , Solomon offers scholarship that is at the cutting edge of Beethoven research.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography

384 pages, Paperback

First published July 8, 1988

About the author

Maynard Solomon was a co-founder of Vanguard Records as well as a music producer, and later became a writer on music

Reviews

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/4 stars

[Georges Melki · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book on Beethoven's life and works is grossly overrated, to say the least. Especially with regards to the "Immortal Beloved" riddle, which Solomon thinks to have solved "beyond any reasonable doubt". Already many years before the chapter in this book on the Immortal Beloved, Solomon had written an article(1972) titled "New lights on Beethoven's letter to an Unknown Woman", in which he claims that the "unknown woman" is Antonie Brentano, despite all the evidence refuting this hypothesis, and which he couldn't have read at that time as it was available in German only. (BTW, his German is so rudimentary that he cannot distinguish between "Wollen Sie bey meiner Frau"(at my wife's) and mit meiner Frau(with my wife) schlafen!!!") Despite of this, his theory was adopted by many historians and musicologists, and became a kind of "paradigm", especially in the States, where you are not allowed to contradict Solomon! Even Barry Cooper, in his "The Beethoven Compendium", states that "Maynard Solomon's arguments in favor of Antonie Brentano are the most plausible...". There are many authors who think otherwise: Jean and Brigitte Massin, Harry Goldschmidt, Marie-Elisabeth Tellenbach are but a few who proved that the letter could only have been addressed to Josephine Brunsvik Deym. And if you want to know the last word on this issue, without consulting too many sources, here is a book that summarizes all of them and refutes Solomon's arguments very convincingly: "The Immortal Beloved Compendium" by John E. Klapproth. I highly recommend reading this book if you are interested in the truth about Beethoven's "Unsterbliche Geliebte"!

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume brings together various essays Maynard Solomon wrote about Beethoven, concentrating on the composer's inner life and creativity. Solomon draws on psychology, historical research, and close readings of Beethoven's letters and other writings. All of the essays were interesting, but some were more convincing than others. The essays on Beethoven's feelings about his family and his background leaned too much into Freudian and other old-fashioned psychology for my tastes. Solomon is at his best when investigating Beethoven's creativity, his philosophical inclinations, and the identity of the Immortal Beloved. The essays on those subjects were enlightening and insightful.

[Lacritica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of this essays are good. Interesting book: original point of view, also if it isn't always convincing.

[Lindegard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth it for the translation of Beethoven's Tagebuch. But Solomon shouldn't psychoanalyze Beethoven in other essays. That is quite ridiculous.