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The Cambridge companion to Beethoven / edited by Glenn Stanley.

Contributor(s): Stanley, Glenn.
Material type: materialTypeLabelBookSeries: Cambridge companions to music.Publisher: Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2000Description: xiii, 373 p., [5] p. of plates : ill. ; 26 cm. + pbk.ISBN: 9780521580748; 0521589347; 9780521589345.Other title: Companion to Beethoven.Subject(s): Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770-1827 -- Criticism and interpretation | Music | Music | Musicians, singers, bands & groupsDDC classification: 780.92 STA Summary: This companion provides a comprehensive view of Beethoven and his work. It covers topics such as: the composer as a private individual, as a professional and at the work-place; his methods as a composer; his professional activities when not composing.
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Item type Current library Call number Copy number Status Notes Barcode
General lending MTU Kerry North Campus Library First Floor Main 780.92 STA (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 38888000455851
General lending MTU Kerry North Campus Library Store 780.92 STA (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available Available on Top Floor of the Library.  38888000455836
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Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This Companion, first published in 2000, provides a comprehensive view of Beethoven and his work. The first part of the book presents the composer as a private individual, as a professional, and at the work-place, discussing biographical problems, Beethoven's professional activities when not composing and his methods as a composer. In the heart of the book, individual chapters are devoted to all the major genres cultivated by Beethoven and to the elements of style and structure that cross all genres. The book concludes by looking at the ways that Beethoven and his music have been interpreted by performers, writers on music, and in the arts, literature, and philosophy. The essays in this volume, written by leading Beethoven specialists, maintain traditional emphases in Beethoven studies while incorporating other developments in musicology and theory.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 306-362) and indexes.

This companion provides a comprehensive view of Beethoven and his work. It covers topics such as: the composer as a private individual, as a professional and at the work-place; his methods as a composer; his professional activities when not composing.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

  • Part I A Professional Portrait
  • 1 Biographical considerations and chronology
  • 2 Beethoven at work, musical activist and thinker
  • 3 The compositional act: sketches and autographs
  • Part II Style and Structure
  • 4 'The spirit of Mozart from Haydn's hands': Beethoven's musical inheritance
  • 5 Phrase, period, theme
  • 6 'The sense of an ending': goal-directedness in Beethoven's music
  • Part III Genres
  • 7 The piano music: concertos, sonatas, variations, small forms
  • 8 Beethoven's chamber music with piano: seeking unity in mixed sonorities
  • 9 Manner, tone, and tendency in Beethoven's chamber music for strings
  • 10 Sound and structure in Beethoven's orchestral music
  • 11 Beethoven's songs and vocal style
  • 12 Beethoven's essay in opera: historical, text-critical, and interpretative issues in Fidelio
  • 13 Beethoven's sacred and liturgical compositions: songs, oratorio, masses
  • Part IV Reception
  • 14 'With a Beethoven-like sublimity': Beethoven in the works of other composers
  • 15 Beethoven's music in performance: historical perspectives
  • 16 The four ages of Beethoven: musicians (and a few others) on Beethoven
  • 17 Beethoven at large: reception in literature, the arts, philosophy, and politics

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

If there were a gigantic Beethoven puzzle with thousands of pieces, puzzle solvers could find in this volume a few of the defining pieces of that puzzle. Stanley (Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs) has collected 17 disparate articles with no real unifying theme other than the act of discovery in defining and discussing problems about Beethoven's music and its reception. This diversity can be seen simultaneously as a strength and a weakness. The editor chose contributors who are leading Beethoven scholars--e.g., Scott Burnham, Nicholas Marston, Barry Cooper, Elaine Sisman, Richard Kamien. Concentrating most heavily on genres and reception, the essays are short, averaging only 17 pages. Some are enlightening, for example, Nicholas Marston's "The Sense of an Ending." This volume will be used by undergraduates as a tasting menu of current research, and undergraduates and scholars alike will find ample further reading in the extensive, useful bibliography. Stanley's collection is recommended for academic libraries with extensive resources, where it will join the multivolume Beethoven Forum (1992- ; v. 1, CH, Apr'93), a similar Beethoven collection and a must-have. M. N.-H. Cheng; Colgate University