Product Description

In a series of powerful strokes, the music of Beethoven's last years redefined his legacy and enlarged the realm of experience accessible to the creative imagination. Maynard Solomon's Late Beethoven investigates the phenomenon of the final phase, focusing especially on the striking metamorphosis in Beethoven's system of beliefs that began early in his fifth decade and eventually amounted to a sweeping realignment of his views of nature, antiquity, divinity, and human purpose.
Using the composer's letters, diaries, and conversation books, Solomon traces Beethoven's attraction to a constellation of heterogeneous ideas, drawn from Romanticism, Freemasonry, comparative religion, Eastern initiatory ritual, Mediterranean mythology, aesthetics, and classical and contemporary thought. Through these often arcane sources, Beethoven gained access to a vast reservoir of imagery and ideas with the potential to expand music's expressive and communicative reach. This "multitude of productive images," writes Solomon, "provided kindling for the blaze of his imagination."
Late Beethoven is a rich tapestry of original perspectives on Beethoven's music. Solomon sees the Seventh Symphony as a deployment of the rhythms of antiquity in an effort to revalidate the premises of the Classical world; the Ninth as an essay on the prospects and limits of affirmative, monumental endings; and the "Diabelli" Variations as a doorway to the universe of metaphoric significances that attach to beginnings. In the Violin Sonata in G, op. 96, Solomon finds a restoration of the full range of pastoral experience that the ancient poets had known. In the Grosse Fuge he locates issues of fragmentation and reassembly, and he suggests that pivotal passages of the last sonatas evoke sacred states of being.
These stimulating perspectives illuminate the inner world within which Beethoven dwelled during his last fifteen years and the ways in which his thought and music may be interrelated. Written in accessible and eloquent prose, and with numerous music examples, Late Beethoven is a serious contribution to understanding this miraculous quantum leap in Beethoven's creative evolution.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #239260 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 338 pages

Review
"[F]or sheer interpretive genius and an uncommon gift for rendering in prose the complex, humanly compelling subtleties of Beethoven's music and life, few approach Maynard Solomon.... [E]very chapter in Solomon's book is full of subtle, deeply satisfying accounts of what actually went into Beethoven's late-style works." - Edward Said; "With a bow to the immortal study by J. W. N. Sullivan, Late Beethoven could have also been called 'Beethoven: His Spiritual Development.' Solomon weaves amazingly diverse threads, chapter by chapter, into the fabric of Beethoven's belief system, his take on nature, divinity, human purpose, morality, and the mission of music. This is a book of surprises by an author whose combination of breadth of thought, imaginativeness, aesthetic sensitivity, and learning is really wonderful." - Joseph Kerman, author, with Alan Tyson, of The New Grove Beethoven "Maynard Solomon writes with an unrivaled control of a vast cultural and intellectual sweep that reaches beyond Ancient Greece, and with a graceful precision that disguises the rich complexity of his ideas. Distilling from the late works their sources in both the overarching themes of mankind and the troubled psyche of the composer, he has forever altered a familiar landscape." - Richard Kramer, author of Distant Cycles"

From the Inside Flap
"Maynard Solomon writes with an unrivaled control of a vast cultural and intellectual sweep that reaches beyond Ancient Greece, and with a graceful precision that disguises the rich complexity of his ideas. Distilling from the late works their sources in both the overarching themes of mankind and the troubled psyche of the composer, he has forever altered a familiar landscape."--Richard Kramer, Distinguished Professor, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and author of Distant Cycles: Schubert and the Conceiving of Song

"With a bow to the immortal study by J.W.N. Sullivan, Late Beethoven could have also been called "Beethoven: His Spiritual Development." Solomon weaves amazingly diverse threads, chapter by chapter, into the fabric of Beethoven's belief system, his take on nature, divinity, human purpose, morality, and the mission of music. This is a book of surprises by an author whose combination of breadth of thought, imaginativeness, aesthetic sensitivity, and learning is really wonderful.--Joseph Kerman, author, with Alan Tyson, of The New Grove Beethoven

From the Back Cover
"Maynard Solomon writes with an unrivaled control of a vast cultural and intellectual sweep that reaches beyond Ancient Greece, and with a graceful precision that disguises the rich complexity of his ideas. Distilling from the late works their sources in both the overarching themes of mankind and the troubled psyche of the composer, he has forever altered a familiar landscape."-Richard Kramer, Distinguished Professor, Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and author of Distant Cycles: Schubert and the Conceiving of Song "With a bow to the immortal study by J.W.N. Sullivan, Late Beethoven could have also been called "Beethoven: His Spiritual Development." Solomon weaves amazingly diverse threads, chapter by chapter, into the fabric of Beethoven's belief system, his take on nature, divinity, human purpose, morality, and the mission of music. This is a book of surprises by an author whose combination of breadth of thought, imaginativeness, aesthetic sensitivity, and learning is really wonderful.-Joseph Kerman, author, with Alan Tyson, of The New Grove Beethoven

Customer Reviews

Solomon on Late Beethoven
Maynard Solomon has followed-up his distinguished biography of Beethoven (rev.ed. 1998)with an outstanding study of the music of Beethoven's third period and of the intellectual and emotional changes in Beethoven's outlook that likely contributed to Beethoven's late masterworks. These works include the Ninth Symphony, the Missa Solemnis, the Diabelli Variations, the final string quartets, including the great fugue, and the final five piano sonatas.

Solomon's biography of Beethoven was both notable and controversial for its psychoanalytical approach. I find that approach mostly lacking here. For his approach to Beethoven's inner life and development, Solomon draws extensively on Beethoven's Tagebuch, which Solomon describes as "the intimate diary [Beethoven] kept between 1812 and 1818 to which he confided his innmost feelings and desires" (p.2). Solomon finds a "sea change" (as he titles his Prologue) in Beethoven's system of belief beginning in about 1810. Following Beethoven's comparatively fallow period as a composer between 1812-1816, this change in Beethoven's beliefs bore its consequences in the works of his final maturity. In general, Solomon finds Beethoven's beliefs changed from the rational, enlightment, classical thought that characterized, for Solomon, the first and second period works, to a more romantic belief system that focused on inwardness, theology, (I found it fascinating that Beethoven showed awareness of and interest in Eastern thought in the Tagebuch), nature, and imagination. In sum, Beethoven in his final period came more under the influence of romanticism (whatever that notoriously vague term might mean) than is sometimes realized. Furthermore, with his nearly total deafness and the failure of his attempts to establish a lasting relationship with a woman, Beethoven tried mightily to devote his life to the pursuit of his art rather than to his own personal, less exalted ends.

The book consists of twelve chapters, some of which were earlier published, which Solomon has worked into a coherent whole. Of the twelve chapters, seven are examinations of the sources of Beethoven's thought and deal in broad concepts. Thus two chapters explore the relationship between concepts of classicism and romanticism -- highly slippery concepts as Solomon realizes-- and argue that Beethoven's final work and thought show an increased romantic influence -- particularly in its transcendent element. Two chapters discuss the possible influence of Freemasonry upon Beethoven while an additional chapter discusses the increased religious dimension in Beethoven's final works, including the influence of Eastern thought.

The remaining five chapters focus on individual works. The Diabelli Variations receive two detailed chapters. The first of them explores Diabelli's waltz theme and the attraction it might have had for Beethoven while the second is a detailed analysis of the pattern of each of the 33 variations, including copious musical illustrations. There is an outstanding chapter on Beethoven's opus 96 violin sonata and its source in pastorale. There is a chapter on the seventh symphony (not usually considered a late work) and on the influence it shows of Greek poetical meters, and a thorough chapter on the Ninth Symphony. This description only briefly touches the scope of the book as Solomon has provocative things to say about the last quartets, particularly on the opus 130 quartet and on the question of its two finales: the grosse fugue and the much simpler rondo which Beethoven substituted for it. And, as I mentioned, Solomon says much about the last piano sonatas, the Missa Solemnis and about the song cycle "An die Ferne Geliebte" even though these works do not have a specific chapter devoted to them.

I found it a joy to read this book. It combines a love and emotional understanding of Beethoven's music with deep erudition and a love of learning. Beethoven's music and intellectual development are well-discussed even if the reader finds himself not agreeing with all Solomon's arguments. The book is full of detailed consisderation of specific works including quotations from Beethoven's scores. It is probably a book that will be most appreciated by those who have some familiarity with Beethoven's music, particularly the works of the third period, rather than by those coming to the music for the first time.

This is a difficult, challenging, and revealing study of late Beethoven combining scholarship, philosophical thinking, and a love and understanding of Beethoven's music.

An essential book for the serious musician
Maynard Solomon is probably the most important Beethoven biographer of modern times. His book is essential research for serious musicians and composers who wish to gain insight into late Beethoven. Solomon's writing is dense; every word and paragraph count. Many, many musical examples, so the ability to read music (and knowledge of music theory) is a must. This is not a casual book, but if you are up for it, it is among the most rewarding Beethoven studies around.

Richard Russell
[...]

A counterpoint...
Very disappointing. I expected this book to help me enjoy late Beethoven by illuminating aspects of his music either through analysis of the music itself, relationships with other compositions, or interesting events in Beethoven's life at the time. Instead, the book seems to be a collection of rather academic essays on trends in Beethoven's thinking about religion, romanticism, Masonic beliefs, and so forth. We learn about his passing interest in Egyptian mystery cults (for example), but little if any of this is convincingly related to his actual music.

Quite a bit of the more technical analysis relates to pieces from an earlier period. We learn that most rhythms in the 7th Symphony are analogous to ancient Greek meters, the dactyl for instance. But, given the extensive dictionary of meters given on page 105, we may be excused for asking -- what musical rhythms are not? One whole chapter is given to the Op. 96 violin sonata, again not a later period work.

Example passage: "We are swept into an irreconcilable dialectic between striving for individual autonomy and powerful regressive pulls toward fusion and oblivion..." If this sort of thing helps you understand and enjoy music, you may like this book. Otherwise, you probably won't.

For Beethoven beginners just getting into his symphonies, one book I can heartily recommend is Grove's "Beethoven and his Nine Symphonies." This 1903 book is only available used (and very costly) at Amazon, so check your library. It's way out of date and lacks the benefit of a century of additional research, but it's still the best and most entertaining introduction to the subject I've ever read. In short, it's everything I had hoped that Solomon's work would be, and isn't.