Full Description
This authoritative biography of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was a landmark in its meticulous research and use of source material. For the American author Alexander Wheelock Thayer (1817-97), it represented a lifelong labour of love, yet it remained unfinished at his death. His friend Hermann Deiters (1833-1907) edited and translated Thayer's work into German, publishing three volumes which covered Beethoven's life to 1816. Since Deiters also died before the biography could be completed, musicologist Hugo Riemann (1849-1919) was called upon to conclude the work. The final German volumes appeared in 1907 and 1908. It was the American critic Henry Edward Krehbiel (1854-1923) who prepared the present work, the first and considerably revised English version, published in three volumes in 1921. Volume 1 covers Beethoven's career through to 1802, the year of the Heiligenstadt Testament.
Contents
Introduction; 1. Fall of the ecclesiastical-civil states in Germany; 2. Beethoven's ancestors in Belgium; 3. Birth of Ludwig van Beethoven; 4. Beethoven a pupil of Neefe; 5. Elector Max Franz; 6. Beethoven again; 7. The family von Breuning; 8. The national theatre of Elector Max Franz; 9. The last three years of Beethoven's life in Bonn; 10. Beethoven's creative activity in Bonn; 11. Beethoven in Vienna; 12. Music in Vienna at the time of Beethoven's arrival there; 13. Beethoven in society; 14. The years 1796 and 1797; 15. General Bernadotte; 16. Beethoven's social life in Vienna; 17. Beethoven's character and personality; 18. Beethoven's brothers; 19. The year 1801; 20. Important letters of 1801; 21. Beethoven's love-affairs; 22. The year 1802.
