Beethoven

by Maynard Solomon

A biography of Beethooven that brings the scholarship into the 20th century. The most hearfelt and brillian full-lenght study of Beethooven in more than a 100 years. A major accomplishment.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, History, Classical Music, Biography Memoir, Music Biography

576 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

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

[Michael Finocchiaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this biography far less than that of Jan Swafford. I found it a bit dry in style and sometimes bogged down in musical scores. It is highly revered I believe but for the non-musician, it is not always easy to follow or fun to read. I did not find that it provided me more insight than Swafford had so enjoyed reading it far less.

[robin friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Note: My first online review, posted on Amazon, September 11, 2000. I have been revisiting my Beethoven reviews for the commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth.

The Immortal Composer

This is the second edition of Solomon's biography of Beethoven and it is an improvement in terms of both analysis and lucidity.

The book is written from a psychoanalytic point of view that all may not find convincing. However, the rudiments of Mr. Solomon's analysis, in terms of tracing Beethoven's life problems, his difficulties with women, with peers, and with himself to his childhood experiences probably transcends any specific psychological dogma and is insightful.

The book is a biography rather than an attempt at technical musical analysis. Even so, it elucidates the music well and with an obvious love for it. I found the discussion of Beethoven's final period works, and of his sometimes neglected vocal writings, particularly good.

The sections on Beethoven's relationship with Haydn, on his testament written upon the discovery of his impending deafness on the immortal beloved, and on his relationship with his nephew are all thoughtful and helped me better understand Beethoven.

A wonderful book for anybody who loves this composer or wants to learn more about why other people love him.

[Michael Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you wish to preserve your view of Beethoven, the genius who lived a perfect - trouble free life, do not read this book.

The struggle .... Was real.

[Hadley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Readable and informative, by an author who's careful with sources and does the music justice. The Freud stuff isn't nearly as prominent as some reviews might suggest.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd give this biography 3 and a half stars for it's insight into Beethoven's behavior and character. Beethoven was a musical genius. He has an important role in classicism and romanticism in Germany. His music is revolutionary. I like Beethoven's late string quartets and his piano concertos. The composer was a very interesting character.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best biographies of a musician ever written. Solomon's solution of the "Immortal Beloved" puzzle is a brilliant piece of detective work.

[Eugenio Gomez-acebo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una biografía humana y muy centrada en la vida de Beethoven (y no tanto en su obra). En especial incide en las motivaciones psicológicas del genio de Bonn y en tratar de explicar su comportamiento anormal, sus frustraciones y anhelos más íntimos, en un ejercicio de especulación musicológica que no sé si guarda mucha relación con la grandeza sublime de su música.

Desde sus padres, un matrimonio poco promisorio que había soportado la oposición de los padres, y donde la madre María Magdalena es una esposa dolorida, sufriente y virtuosa de un borracho inepto. Un padre violento con Louis, que lo obligaba a ponerse al piano. Un niño torpe e inútil en la escuela, que tenía problemas graves con la aritmética más simple. El resurgir del genio musical, la relación con Haydn y con la alta sociedad vienesa, su mala salud de hierro, en especial la sordera que lo aquejó, el episodio de su amada inmortal, aquí discutido en detalle y explicado que era Antoine Brentano, de soltera Antoine von Birkenstock, sus ideas políticas, basadas en el iluminismo: el amor altruísta, la razón y los ideales humanistas. La tortuosa relación con su cuñada y con su sobrino Karl, figura clave en sus últimos años y su enfermizo control sobre la vida de Karl, donde Beethoven quiso jugar el rol de padre que nunca fue.

Una vida tormentosa y enormemente fructífera en lo musical. La parte donde explica su música es interesante e invita a uan escucha más atenta de muchas de sus obras, aunque sobran demasiados tecnicisimos musicológicos y falta calor y color de su música.

[Albert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scholarly presentation, including a careful unwinding of the immortal beloved mystery, but the alternating presentation of "the life" and "the music" disintegrates the biography somewhat.

['Aussie Rick' · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firstly an admission, I have no prior knowledge of Beethoven other than I enjoy listening to his music. That said I enjoyed this book although I had problems getting around some of the technical details in regards to his music. I bought this book some time ago but only got around to reading it after watching the video `Immortal Beloved'. This book answered a number of questions for me and certainly provided a deep and interesting look at the man behind the music I love so much. The author has broken the book into four sections covering the life of Beethoven. At the end of each section he describes the music that Beethoven composed during those periods of his life (`Bonn', `Vienna: Early Years', `The Heroic Period' & `The Final Phase'). I found this worked well although like I stated early my education in regards to music appreciation was some-what lacking and I found parts of the book describing Beethoven's music beyond me. I am sure if you want to learn about the genius that was Beethoven this book should satisfy you and if you have some understanding of music and music composition you will enjoy those sections of the book dealing with his works.

[Sarah Milne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is about as complete a biography of Beethoven as you are going to get. Unless you have a degree in music some of it will probably go in one ear and out the other, but that's not the end of the world. (Honestly, though, it did get boring at times.) The author offers up a plethora of information, much of which would have been better left to the end notes. A note for non-historians here: writing a historical work does not mean that every date and name must be included in the text - oh hell no.

The book was originally written in 1977, so perhaps...PERHAPS...the dreadful forays into psychoanalytical history could be forgiven. However, when the author revised the book in 1998 he should have cut, hacked, and slashed out what he could. Then again, he may have felt that it was too entwined in the text, like a malignant tumor wrapped around the body's nervous system. Heaven forbid that he did not recognize how outmoded the genre has become. And for good reason. I'm not against speculation, per se, but please, please, put down the Freudian analysis, back way slowly, and no one gets hurt.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This thorough and probing biography of Beethoven was fascinating from beginning to end. Solomon takes on both the facts of Beethoven's life and a deep, thoughtful analysis of the composer's psyche, artistic life, and socio-political context. he takes on both the inner and outer forces in Beethoven's life and thus succeeds in presenting a complex and finely nuanced portrait of the composer as a full person rather than the great, misunderstood artist of myth and legend. Solomon definitely does not back away from Beethoven's less attractive attributes or even from his mental and emotional problems. Luckily, it's all discussed with great sympathy and no sensationalism. I could have wished for a little more analysis of the music and a little less analysis of the man and his psychology, but it was all so illuminating and interesting that I still found this book immensely satisfying.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of psychoanalysis. I'm sure some of Solomon's Freudian conclusions are debatable, but he did a good (or appeared to a good) job of giving plenty of support for them, and it made the book very fascinating and quick to read. Solomon also is not the most "objective" author (refering to Beethoven as "Vienna's greatest composer" several times, just as a small example), but show me an objective biography and I'll show you a perfect circle. This book just drove home the point that an artist's psychological struggles/abnormalities are a necesscery part of their creative genius. Look at Schumann, or van Gogh, or Bob Ross

[Eryn Manela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for a class years and years ago (circa 1995). I found the Freudian analysis profound at the time, but as a professional musicologist I am less convinced by some of the author's claims. Nevertheless, my grandmother, who was a Jungian psychotherapist, borrowed this book and used it to put herself to sleep each night during the last years of her life, so the book is more useful than merely as a paperweight, doorstop, or monitor stand.

[Shelley Alongi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obviously I forgot just about everything in this book between the first time I read it and the second time. I like the drive and quiet of this composer. I first discovered the music in college when I worked on my recital and picked the only sonata I knew: the Moonlight, op. 27 no. 2. I didn't quite know what I was getting myself into, but I learned it. At my recital my teacher said I made playing it look easy. At the time it wasn't easy learning it. Thirty years distant if I were to pick this up again it would be much easier, not because I'm especially limber of hand but because I understand the chord structure and how the melodies relate to each other. I have a liberal arts degree in music which covers theory, history and some performance. I play piano amaturely for two churches and spend time practicing. I still work on fingering and I'll pick up this sonata again to work on fingering. As a result when it comes to the musical portions of this book I understand them much better now because I've become more familiar with the symphonies and sonatas. My weaknesses lie with the quartets, trios and incidental music.

What I had forgotten most was the life and complications. I forgot how restless and jealous and intrusive he was, at least in the presentation of Solomon. Solomon goes out of his way to clear his name of any assumptions by explaining the veracity of lack of it on the part of the sources. I suppose it is hard two hundred and fifty plus years after a birth to rightly place ones circumstances. I can't help but think about how the modern era would rewrite this book. He would most likely be called a masogonist and a skitzophrenic. Anything else? Parts of this are hard reading. Solomon is admirable for his separation between man and music. I suspect none of this information would be new to anyone more steeply emersed in music history than I am. But it was a selection I chose to play for an introit based on the second movement of the seventh symphony that made me go back in my library and pick up this book again. I doubt I'll ever listen to any of his music again without adding my newly reaquired information. The portrait of the man and his music is both sympathetic and objective. The man is part product of his times, history, psychological makeup and raising. He is a contradiction in views and influences that are presented in this easy style. The musical explanations are full of terms which those not familiar with musical forms may find hard to follow. Certainly I would need to review my definitions though I can grasp them because of being familiar with the music. If you're looking for both kinds of information one could easily skip chapters and glean the information desired.

[Nathael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excelente biografía, bastante completa y muy bien documentada. Todo lo que el autor dice remite a sus fuentes.
Es un libro con corte académico, así que no es una narrativa casual o muy fácil de digerir si uno no está acostumbrado a lecturas así, pero dentro de los estándares de este tipo de libros resulta bastante fácil y digerible a diferencia de otros.
El libro se enfoca más que nada en su vida, pero también abarca un poco su obra, un 70% vida y 30% música. No entiendo las críticas o quejas de que el análisis musical es muy poco, pues no es un libro de análisis musical o sobre su obra, es una biografía.
De igual manera tampoco entiendo la queja de que el libro habla "mucho" de "teorías psicológicas" o o de psicología. Por dos veces o tres en las que el autor trata de dar explicación a a ciertas conductas o acciones de Beethoven remitiendo a una explicación psicológica o alguna teoría, no son más de cinco páginas en un libro de cuatrocientas. Quiero creer que no pasaron de la página cien para atreverse a decir esto 🤡

[duj fhsg · Rating 4 out of 5]

covers beethovens life and all his important works
a surprising amount of psychoanalysis which struck me as possibly irresponsible given that he is not a psychologist, including several direct references to freud, without any indication of freuds dismissal by psychology since
a good biography, but one which I hesistate to refer to as objective in the future. Plan to read another biography and se how it compares.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deserves five stars for authority, but I gave it three overall because I found it rather a slow and ponderous read. Certainly Solomon did a comprehensive and to date definitive job but I think there is room for another biographer to continue work on the material of the composer’s life and publish another more accessible work.

[Betty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite Beethoven biography. The author did his research, and I give him credit for (in my opinion) uncovering the Immortal Beloved mystery. I just was not into the authors psychoanalyzing Beethoven and quoting Freud to explain why Beethoven behaved the way he did. It felt more like an opinion, and that’s not why I read a biography.

[Paul Jellinek · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting Beethoven biography that focuses on the psychological forces that Solomon believes shaped the great composer's music, this book did not send me to my CD collection and inspire me to listen to Beethoven with "fresh ears"--which for me is the true test of any great book about music or musicians.

[Tony Hull · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading this was like watching paint dry. No, watching paint is much more exciting. I didn't expect the book to be entertaining, just interesting. One star for existing, one star for informing. That's it.

[Joshua Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I reread this one every five years or so. The definitive biography of Beethoven.

[Ourania · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the BEST books on Beethoven.

[Chris Buckley · Rating 4 out of 5]

great in-depth Biographical work

[Steven Delbove · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great bio, much better then the other Beethoven book I read. Very interested in his Mozart book too by him.

[Darcy Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written! I learned a lot about Beethoven from Solomon's book.

[Ricardo Gomez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biográficamente buena información. Sus conclusiones acerca de laa sicología del compositor me parecen demasiado subjetivas.

[Zeke Sokoloff · Rating 5 out of 5]

A phenomenal biography from one of the leading musicologists of his generation. If you want to start to untangle the web of contradictions that is Beethoven’s life and music, this is the place to begin.

[Pablo Orezzoli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most comprehensive and up to date biography out there. Seminal work and incredible investigative details.

[César Aufheben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excelente lectura para conocer la vida detrás del artista Ludwig Van Beethoven.

[Rapunzella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Greatest book ever written.