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Beethoven Variations: Poems on a Life
From the author of the bestselling Darwin: A Life in Poems, Ruth Padel’s new collection follows in the footsteps of one of the world’s greatest composers, Beethoven, and investigates what his life and music might mean to us today
Two hundred and fifty years since Beethoven was born, Ruth Padel goes on a personal search for him, retracing his steps through war-torn Europe of the early nineteenth century, delving into his music, letters, diaries and the conversation books he used when deaf, to uncover the man behind the legend. Her quest, exploring the life of one of the most creative artists who ever lived, turns more personal than she expects, taking her into the sources of her own creativity and musicality. From a deeply musical family herself, Padel’s parents met through music, and she grew up playing chamber music on viola – Beethoven’s instrument as a child. Her father’s grandfather, a concert pianist born on the German–Danish border, studied in Leipzig with a friend of Beethoven before immigrating to the UK. The poems in this illuminating biography in verse conjure not only Beethoven’s life and personality, but her own music-making and love both of the European music-making tradition to which her father’s family belongs, and to the continent itself Europe.
Two hundred and fifty years since Beethoven was born, Ruth Padel goes on a personal search for him, retracing his steps through war-torn Europe of the early nineteenth century, delving into his music, letters, diaries and the conversation books he used when deaf, to uncover the man behind the legend. Her quest, exploring the life of one of the most creative artists who ever lived, turns more personal than she expects, taking her into the sources of her own creativity and musicality. From a deeply musical family herself, Padel’s parents met through music, and she grew up playing chamber music on viola – Beethoven’s instrument as a child. Her father’s grandfather, a concert pianist born on the German–Danish border, studied in Leipzig with a friend of Beethoven before immigrating to the UK. The poems in this illuminating biography in verse conjure not only Beethoven’s life and personality, but her own music-making and love both of the European music-making tradition to which her father’s family belongs, and to the continent itself Europe.
3 pages, Audiobook
First published January 30, 2020
12 people are currently reading
166 people want to read
About the author
Ruth Padel
55 books44 followersRuth is an English poet and writer. She has published poetry collections, novels, and books of non-fiction, including several on reading poetry. She has presented Radio 4′s Poetry Workshop, visiting poetry groups across the UK to discuss their poems.
Her awards include First Prize in the UK National Poetry Competition, a Cholmondeley Award from The Society of Authors, an Arts Council of England Writers’ Award and a British Council Darwin Now Research Award for her novel Where the Serpent Lives.
Ruth lives in London and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Member of the Bombay Natural History Society, an Ambassador for New Networks for Nature, a Patron of 21st-Century Tiger and a Council Member of the Zoological Society of London.
Her awards include First Prize in the UK National Poetry Competition, a Cholmondeley Award from The Society of Authors, an Arts Council of England Writers’ Award and a British Council Darwin Now Research Award for her novel Where the Serpent Lives.
Ruth lives in London and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Member of the Bombay Natural History Society, an Ambassador for New Networks for Nature, a Patron of 21st-Century Tiger and a Council Member of the Zoological Society of London.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
March 7, 2021
My new favorite form of biography. I really enjoyed this and found quite a few of the poems to be some of the most beautiful i have ever read. I found reading them aloud to myself helped me to fully engage with the poems.
April 27, 2020
Padel's writing takes us inside Beethoven's mind, life, and work in highly skillful, original, heartfelt ways. She takes some of what she acknowledges are apocryphal stories about him a little more seriously than I might have, but I suppose poets are going to take poetic license! She's created a portrait of the master that's both sympathetic and critical, and a delight to read.
March 22, 2021
This was something of an experimental read for me. I enjoy a good bio, but remain unsold on a lot of modern poetry, so I was interested in checking out how the combination of the two would work for me. And it was, in fact, interesting. The author seems singularly suited to the task of creating a Beethoven biography in verse, not just as a fan and a poet, but also as a musician from a multigenerational musician family I would imagine it makes her someone who understands music (classical and otherwise) and rhythm (poetic and otherwise) on a pretty profound level.
The book comprises four distinct intervals of Beethoven’s life from cradle to grave and an actual (poetry free) bio too, so if the poems don’t give you much of an idea of the events, the supplemental information will, but the goal here seems to be the marriage of the two, with the poems providing the emotions and the biographical material facts, dates, etc.
The poems aren’t just biographical, they are also very personal, retracing Padel’s steps as she visits all the significant places of Beethoven’s life. It seems not a very happy life at that, the man had constant financial and romantic difficulties, deemed too ugly by some women (really? are the portraits we have too flattering? because he seems ok looking), too lowborn, etc. There was all that sibling animosity. And that weird obsessive relationship with his nephew. And that temper. And, of course, of course, his ever decreasing ability to hear, infinitely more devastating for a musician…and yet, and yet, despite all that, somehow he managed to bring so much light and beauty into the world. It’s really astonishing the way he was able to rise above the daily tribulations and create such magic.
So as far as experiments go, it was a perfectly decent one. It didn’t really change my opinion of modern poetry, I still want it to rhyme, pedestrian as it may seem to the real fans. In this form, it reminds me of elegantly turned out sentences with some rhythm to them, almost like some stylized novel. It was possible for me to appreciate some of the beauty of the language, which I’m going to take as a win. And the supplemental bio was most informational, so now whenever I’ll listen to Beethoven, it’ll be with informed ears. For how quick, original and educational this was, it a worthy read.
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
The book comprises four distinct intervals of Beethoven’s life from cradle to grave and an actual (poetry free) bio too, so if the poems don’t give you much of an idea of the events, the supplemental information will, but the goal here seems to be the marriage of the two, with the poems providing the emotions and the biographical material facts, dates, etc.
The poems aren’t just biographical, they are also very personal, retracing Padel’s steps as she visits all the significant places of Beethoven’s life. It seems not a very happy life at that, the man had constant financial and romantic difficulties, deemed too ugly by some women (really? are the portraits we have too flattering? because he seems ok looking), too lowborn, etc. There was all that sibling animosity. And that weird obsessive relationship with his nephew. And that temper. And, of course, of course, his ever decreasing ability to hear, infinitely more devastating for a musician…and yet, and yet, despite all that, somehow he managed to bring so much light and beauty into the world. It’s really astonishing the way he was able to rise above the daily tribulations and create such magic.
So as far as experiments go, it was a perfectly decent one. It didn’t really change my opinion of modern poetry, I still want it to rhyme, pedestrian as it may seem to the real fans. In this form, it reminds me of elegantly turned out sentences with some rhythm to them, almost like some stylized novel. It was possible for me to appreciate some of the beauty of the language, which I’m going to take as a win. And the supplemental bio was most informational, so now whenever I’ll listen to Beethoven, it’ll be with informed ears. For how quick, original and educational this was, it a worthy read.
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
January 27, 2022
When I read a poem from Beethoven Variations by Ruth Padel that was shared in a newsletter I put it on my wish list. When Amazon offered me a credit towards the book, I snatched it up.
Padel tells the story of the composer’s life through poems that draw from Beethoven’s life and her own life as a musician. Many poems begin with a quotation from Beethoven. She includes a timeline of the composer’s life after the poems.
The poems convey Beethoven’s tumultuous life: the early loss of his mother, his demanding father, his unhappy love affairs, grappling with his growing deafness, his failure to nurture his adopted son.
Certain lines really struck me.
You know creation comes/with pain. The stolen gift draws punishment in its wake/and ends in the rock, the vulture and the chain.
I learned that creating comes/from need. Also surprise./That you put yourself in the way of grace/and let the material lead. But there’s also risk.
…where he wrote/Quartetto Serioso–lightning-struck,/angry, almost a joke/about confronting, about going on whatever./Abrupt, experimental, as all of us are/in the end, as we face the end.
This music will be played at his own funeral./Shining instruments of the dark:/no more historic fight/but resignation, sacred light. He’s bereft,/heartbroken, aground/pouring everything into pure carnelian of sound.
Black cobweb crossings out./ Five sharps/light wriggling insects.
The book left me sorrowful. Beethoven’s life was such a combination of genius achieving musical heights and abject pain, sorrow, and failure in his personal life.
This is not a ‘complete’ biography as much as a personal encounter with the composer, and could enhance a deeper understanding of Beethoven and his legacy.
I had recently read another creative biography on Ludwig von Beethoven, Beethoven: A Life in Nine Pieces by Laura Tunbridge which considers nine pivotal works by the composer to gain insight into his life.
There are so many interesting and unique ways to encounter a historic figure, each offering its own rewards.
Padel tells the story of the composer’s life through poems that draw from Beethoven’s life and her own life as a musician. Many poems begin with a quotation from Beethoven. She includes a timeline of the composer’s life after the poems.
The poems convey Beethoven’s tumultuous life: the early loss of his mother, his demanding father, his unhappy love affairs, grappling with his growing deafness, his failure to nurture his adopted son.
Certain lines really struck me.
You know creation comes/with pain. The stolen gift draws punishment in its wake/and ends in the rock, the vulture and the chain.
I learned that creating comes/from need. Also surprise./That you put yourself in the way of grace/and let the material lead. But there’s also risk.
…where he wrote/Quartetto Serioso–lightning-struck,/angry, almost a joke/about confronting, about going on whatever./Abrupt, experimental, as all of us are/in the end, as we face the end.
This music will be played at his own funeral./Shining instruments of the dark:/no more historic fight/but resignation, sacred light. He’s bereft,/heartbroken, aground/pouring everything into pure carnelian of sound.
Black cobweb crossings out./ Five sharps/light wriggling insects.
The book left me sorrowful. Beethoven’s life was such a combination of genius achieving musical heights and abject pain, sorrow, and failure in his personal life.
This is not a ‘complete’ biography as much as a personal encounter with the composer, and could enhance a deeper understanding of Beethoven and his legacy.
I had recently read another creative biography on Ludwig von Beethoven, Beethoven: A Life in Nine Pieces by Laura Tunbridge which considers nine pivotal works by the composer to gain insight into his life.
There are so many interesting and unique ways to encounter a historic figure, each offering its own rewards.
November 28, 2021
A very clear and interesting project. The craft here is impressive and the subject equal parts inspiring and tragic. There is a bit of distance that gets between the writer and reader and I think that's the main obstacle Padel faces with a collection of biography poems. On the plus side she is able to imagine a soulful truth about Beethoven, however, there are gaps and distortions in the big picture. I think that's why the endnotes exist, to fill in the the gaps. The poems work better in the context of Beethoven's life but they can't provide that context on their own. Either they are to be poetic notes on his life or a poetic biography in complete. I think there's a tension between those visions of the book and I'm not sure it satisfies either.
Still, these are excellent poems and an interesting collection. Very worthwhile!
Still, these are excellent poems and an interesting collection. Very worthwhile!
June 27, 2021
The poems are brilliant. The 'Life-Notes' reads like a Little Golden Book about Beethoven.
Winter evening. All Souls' Night
in St Ignatius Old Cathedral, Linz,
where he wrote his 'Equali' fanfares for the dead.
White walls, gold leaf, dark wood.
I'm thinking of him beneath these vaulted ceilings,
seeing these same fingerprints of light.
Winter evening. All Souls' Night
in St Ignatius Old Cathedral, Linz,
where he wrote his 'Equali' fanfares for the dead.
White walls, gold leaf, dark wood.
I'm thinking of him beneath these vaulted ceilings,
seeing these same fingerprints of light.
May 3, 2021
Very disappointing - not much poetry at all; far more explanations of sny the author wrote. what she did.
August 16, 2021
How much do you know about Beethoven's life? Most people had heard at least some of his compositions and probably know that he lost his hearing but the rest had usually been reserved for music historians (and people who just happen to read a biography).
Ruth Padel grew up with Beethoven. Not literally - she is not that old but she grew up in a musician family, playing the viola and Beethoven was part of her life (plus there is a a grandfather with personal history with the composer). She splits his life into 4 periods (as most historians do) and writes 12 poems for each of them. Some are about the composer's life or music. Some are about Padel's own history with his music and about a trip through the places he lived in. And some are somewhere in the middle - mixing the history with the personal. A lot of the poems start with a quote - from one of Beethoven's books or from a biography or another book about him.
You do not need to know much about Beethoven - Padel's poetry does a pretty good job in guiding you through his life. Although the more you know, the more you will see in some of those poems. But you do not need to go and find another biography - at the end of the book, the poet adds a coda: Life-Notes (I am not sure if this section is supposed to be poetry or prose - I consider it prose but modern poetry can be weird and there is something poetic in the notes and especially the format).
If you are looking for an insightful biography, this book is not for you. But it actually works as a biography - marrying poetry and music is not new although usually it is the other way around - music describes and elevates poetry. Here it is the other way around.
It is a very personal book - while the history is all there, the personal connection is the guiding principle through the collection. Which makes it a stronger one than it would have been if it had tried to go for the history only - poetry without feelings cannot work.
One thing to be careful about if you read this as a biography - due to the format, the scholarly debates are only lightly touched on (for example Für Elise had always been a bit of a mystery - scholars are not entirely sure who it was written for. Padel thinks it was Therese Malfatti - despite the title of the work - and does not even touch on the other options. Historians have had different opinions through the centuries and the question is wide-open - together with the fact that this Elise may have been a transcription error some time back in the days...). And if you want to read more about the composer, Padel added a pretty good Further Reading at the end of the book (together with a list of selected works from the composer).
My biggest issue with this book is that now I cannot stop listening to recordings of Beethoven's music - I am partial to piano works at the best of days and he was a master of the form. Which is not such a hardship after all.
Ruth Padel grew up with Beethoven. Not literally - she is not that old but she grew up in a musician family, playing the viola and Beethoven was part of her life (plus there is a a grandfather with personal history with the composer). She splits his life into 4 periods (as most historians do) and writes 12 poems for each of them. Some are about the composer's life or music. Some are about Padel's own history with his music and about a trip through the places he lived in. And some are somewhere in the middle - mixing the history with the personal. A lot of the poems start with a quote - from one of Beethoven's books or from a biography or another book about him.
You do not need to know much about Beethoven - Padel's poetry does a pretty good job in guiding you through his life. Although the more you know, the more you will see in some of those poems. But you do not need to go and find another biography - at the end of the book, the poet adds a coda: Life-Notes (I am not sure if this section is supposed to be poetry or prose - I consider it prose but modern poetry can be weird and there is something poetic in the notes and especially the format).
If you are looking for an insightful biography, this book is not for you. But it actually works as a biography - marrying poetry and music is not new although usually it is the other way around - music describes and elevates poetry. Here it is the other way around.
It is a very personal book - while the history is all there, the personal connection is the guiding principle through the collection. Which makes it a stronger one than it would have been if it had tried to go for the history only - poetry without feelings cannot work.
One thing to be careful about if you read this as a biography - due to the format, the scholarly debates are only lightly touched on (for example Für Elise had always been a bit of a mystery - scholars are not entirely sure who it was written for. Padel thinks it was Therese Malfatti - despite the title of the work - and does not even touch on the other options. Historians have had different opinions through the centuries and the question is wide-open - together with the fact that this Elise may have been a transcription error some time back in the days...). And if you want to read more about the composer, Padel added a pretty good Further Reading at the end of the book (together with a list of selected works from the composer).
My biggest issue with this book is that now I cannot stop listening to recordings of Beethoven's music - I am partial to piano works at the best of days and he was a master of the form. Which is not such a hardship after all.
April 25, 2024
3.5 rounded up
.
Padel has a profound love for Beethoven and this is a fascinating and unique way to write a biography. Some of the poems were very lovely, but I wish the book had been set up differently. At the end are notes on Beethoven's life that coincide with the poems and I would have liked those to be either at the beginning of each new section or interspersed within the poems themselves to add some context. This is a personal opinion though, perhaps those who are very knowledgeable about Beethoven's life wouldn't have this problem. If I read it again I'll go back and forth between the poems and factoids.
.
My favorites from the collection:
-"Home Town"
-"Meeting Mozart"
-"The Memento"
-"The Boy on Dragon Rock"
-"City of Music"
-"Earthquake"
-"Moonlight Sonata"
-"A Flute of Lilac Wood"
-"Until It Please the Fates to Break the Thread"
-"The Pencil"
-"Three Days"
-"In the Lydian Mode"
.
Padel has a profound love for Beethoven and this is a fascinating and unique way to write a biography. Some of the poems were very lovely, but I wish the book had been set up differently. At the end are notes on Beethoven's life that coincide with the poems and I would have liked those to be either at the beginning of each new section or interspersed within the poems themselves to add some context. This is a personal opinion though, perhaps those who are very knowledgeable about Beethoven's life wouldn't have this problem. If I read it again I'll go back and forth between the poems and factoids.
.
My favorites from the collection:
-"Home Town"
-"Meeting Mozart"
-"The Memento"
-"The Boy on Dragon Rock"
-"City of Music"
-"Earthquake"
-"Moonlight Sonata"
-"A Flute of Lilac Wood"
-"Until It Please the Fates to Break the Thread"
-"The Pencil"
-"Three Days"
-"In the Lydian Mode"
February 22, 2020
I love Ruth Padel's writing on the poems of others and my poetry-reading is so much richer as a result of her critical studies books. But sadly, and somewhat ironically, I was left wanting more from the forms and weight of her writing here - not the history, the literature.
There is real pleasure and interest to be found in the book, however; the weaving of details from Ruth Padel's life and that of Beethoven is an ongoing interface, an interesting seam in the strata and, of course, I learnt things about the composer beyond my cultural clichés. The book deserves to sell well among music enthusiasts and today, now, I feel the need to listen and add to all the Beethoven in my collection. So sincere thanks RP.
There is real pleasure and interest to be found in the book, however; the weaving of details from Ruth Padel's life and that of Beethoven is an ongoing interface, an interesting seam in the strata and, of course, I learnt things about the composer beyond my cultural clichés. The book deserves to sell well among music enthusiasts and today, now, I feel the need to listen and add to all the Beethoven in my collection. So sincere thanks RP.
April 2, 2021
I am very curious about different ways of organizing poems. These are poems in the form of a biography. For me, I'm not sure of the success of either the poems as biography. Perhaps it's better to focus on one or the other. This book is composed of poems and then a brief biography of Beethoven's life.
November 20, 2021
“Darwin: A Life in Poems” poet Ruth Padel presents another poetry collection about a larger-than-life person, this one about composer Ludwig von Beethoven. She reveals Beethoven’s life and his lore in four movements, touching on the man behind the music. I enjoyed this unique biographical method, in the form of poetry, and Padel’s honoring the man whose work is music to many ears.
September 9, 2023
I know the story of Beethoven’s life from reading biographies, but this was a new experience. I expected it to be poems based solely on his life, but Padel has injected her experiences into the biographical information. This, at first, was unexpected, but I grew to enjoy this as much as the poems that dealt strictly with Beethoven.
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January 30, 2023Such an achievement…a series of poems that manages to captures aspects of Beethoven’s tragic biography and his explosive art. Padel’s poetry is both clear and forceful. In “Eroica,” she writes: “you are havoc on the brink, a jackhammer/shattering the night and soaring past world-sorrow.”
July 9, 2020
A Masterpiece
May 29, 2021
a stunning collection // a beautiful mix of biography & memoir in delightful, imagistic poems
June 19, 2021
Interesting concept, with poems that move in a mostly chronological fashion through Beethoven's life, but are somewhat autobiographical. Truncated Beethoven biography at the end.
October 6, 2021
I adore this book of poetry.
October 25, 2021
I found the verse unnecessarily impenetrable. One of my questions about some modern poetry: Do poets want the reader to understand it or benefit from i!, or are they just preening?
November 26, 2021
He didn't try to be Beethoven the immortal, he was just a man enjoying music.
December 10, 2021
Enjoyed!
February 2, 2025
An interesting collection of poems.
August 20, 2021
What a life! Musical brilliance. Going deaf. Battles with his family. Lost or imagined lovers. Madness. Neglect. Sorrow.
No loving brother here. How wonderful it might have been had Ludwig had a Theo.
No loving brother here. How wonderful it might have been had Ludwig had a Theo.
September 11, 2023
I'll state at the outset that I am not a musician. Can't make any sense of written notes on a staff. But I can patiently listen and am forever imprisoned in the velvety grip of Beethoven's immortal music.
He never lets you go . . . relentless, all consuming -- yes!
I love this little book. Poignant in every detail. (After reading my public library's copy, I bought my own copy to re-read and treasure.)
Perhaps poetry, after all, is the best way to capture the ineffably sublime beauty that the Herr Beethoven left us. Yes?
He never lets you go . . . relentless, all consuming -- yes!
I love this little book. Poignant in every detail. (After reading my public library's copy, I bought my own copy to re-read and treasure.)
Perhaps poetry, after all, is the best way to capture the ineffably sublime beauty that the Herr Beethoven left us. Yes?
June 2, 2021
p o e t r y • r e v i e w
First thank you so much to @aaknopf for sending me this gorgeous hard back copy of Ruth Padel’s poetry collection, Beethoven Variations: Poems on a Life. This was my first publisher request and received copy of any book and I know I will treasure it forever.
To be honest, I find reviewing poetry incredibly difficult. Poetry is such a personal experience and we all feel impact from different aspects of this art. Whether you are more intrigued by imagery or word choice, structure or story telling, these will all significantly form our thoughts and takeaways.
For me, Beethoven Variations hit all the right notes. A mixture of memories, childhood, history, music, and introspection, these poems pulled at the strings of my heart. I acknowledge that this is strongly tied to my own experiences playing the Viola since 5th grade. Both Beethoven and Padel play the viola as well which was a particularly exciting and heartwarming point of relation between the three of us.
If you enjoy poetry, history, or music I would definitely recommend this collection.
First thank you so much to @aaknopf for sending me this gorgeous hard back copy of Ruth Padel’s poetry collection, Beethoven Variations: Poems on a Life. This was my first publisher request and received copy of any book and I know I will treasure it forever.
To be honest, I find reviewing poetry incredibly difficult. Poetry is such a personal experience and we all feel impact from different aspects of this art. Whether you are more intrigued by imagery or word choice, structure or story telling, these will all significantly form our thoughts and takeaways.
For me, Beethoven Variations hit all the right notes. A mixture of memories, childhood, history, music, and introspection, these poems pulled at the strings of my heart. I acknowledge that this is strongly tied to my own experiences playing the Viola since 5th grade. Both Beethoven and Padel play the viola as well which was a particularly exciting and heartwarming point of relation between the three of us.
If you enjoy poetry, history, or music I would definitely recommend this collection.
September 8, 2023
A collection of poems that weave Beethoven's life and music with the poet's life and music. Interesting theme and I learned a lot about Beethoven.
from Listen: "She's listening to him, he's listening to her. / Questions, answers, the all-you-can't-say / stream to and fro. Angry, agonised, and tender / as the history of marriage."
from Therese: "I feel I'm seeing her in a rear-view mirror. / I know what it's like to persuade yourself into love."
from Forever Yours, Forever Mine, Forever Us: "Sometimes giving up what you love leads on / to everything you wanted in your life / but that doesn't mean it wasn't loss."
from Listen: "She's listening to him, he's listening to her. / Questions, answers, the all-you-can't-say / stream to and fro. Angry, agonised, and tender / as the history of marriage."
from Therese: "I feel I'm seeing her in a rear-view mirror. / I know what it's like to persuade yourself into love."
from Forever Yours, Forever Mine, Forever Us: "Sometimes giving up what you love leads on / to everything you wanted in your life / but that doesn't mean it wasn't loss."
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews