Beethoven
A Political Artist in Revolutionary Times
256 pages
|
4 color plates, 20 halftones, 26 line drawings
|
6 x 9
|
© 2020
- Contents
- Review Quotes
Table of Contents

Contents
Preface
I. A Tale of Two Cities: Bonn to Vienna
II. The Sublime and Inverted Sublime
III. Beethoven in Heiligenstadt
IV. Path to the Eroica
V. Leonore as “Angel of Freedom”
VI. From Grätz to Wagram and Leipzig
VII. A Double Chill: Beethoven in Metternich’s Vienna
VIII. Then and Now: The Ninth Symphony
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations and Examples
Note about Abbreviations
Sources and Documents
Index
I. A Tale of Two Cities: Bonn to Vienna
II. The Sublime and Inverted Sublime
III. Beethoven in Heiligenstadt
IV. Path to the Eroica
V. Leonore as “Angel of Freedom”
VI. From Grätz to Wagram and Leipzig
VII. A Double Chill: Beethoven in Metternich’s Vienna
VIII. Then and Now: The Ninth Symphony
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations and Examples
Note about Abbreviations
Sources and Documents
Index
Review Quotes
Mark Swed | Los Angeles Times
“Kinderman’s study shows how the great composer maneuvered in times much like our Trumpian own. . . Hardly a page goes by in [this] superbly written book without offering an unexpected reason to care about Beethoven.”
Kirkus Reviews
“Drawing on letters, sketchbooks, manuscripts, and abundant scholarship, concert pianist and music scholar Kinderman argues convincingly that Beethoven (1770-1827) was 'far from indifferent' to political events that roiled Europe during his lifetime. Offering minutely close exegeses of Beethoven’s works. . . Kinderman shows how the composer responded to the 'tensions and contradictions' of the time.”
Patrick Summers, artistic and music director, Houston Grand Opera
“Kinderman has written a fresh and fascinating book packed with intriguing thoughts and unexpected alignments about how Beethoven’s politics translated themselves into Beethoven’s music. This is a book that awakens the reader not only with its content but with the love and enthusiasm of its author.”
Lewis Lockwood, author of 'Beethoven: The Music and the Life'
“This book is a timely contribution to the current trend toward interpreting art primarily in political terms. Placing his aesthetic commentary in a well-grounded biographical and historical context, Kinderman illuminates the political aspects of Beethoven’s life and outlook. He goes on to discuss the ways in which a number of Beethoven’s important works reflect the composer’s lifelong belief in freedom and progress as both personal and universal values.”
Scott Burnham, author of 'Beethoven Hero'
“With a keen ear attuned to both musical and historical salience, Kinderman reveals the animating presence of the political in almost every aspect of Beethoven’s life, his work, and his legacy. In doing so, he illuminates the crucial context from which to assess Beethoven’s astonishing achievement of a moral ideal that has resounded from the Age of Revolution to our own times.”
Alfred Brendel, pianist and author
“Kinderman, one of the leading authorities on Beethoven, has succeeded here in connecting an impressive panorama of Beethoven’s life and works with the rarely touched aspect of the composer’s political leanings, an approach that yields particularly memorable insights in connection with his only opera, Leonore/Fidelio.”
Sir John Eliot Gardiner, conductor
“To explore Beethoven’s world as Kinderman does in this revelatory book is to confront multiple tensions and contradictions. Kinderman shows how the political relevance of Beethoven’s music remains tangible: how, for example, in an age of global warming, humanly altered weather patterns, and political indifference to environmental degradation, Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony is ‘more pertinent than ever before.’ Kinderman combines a scholarly probing of the source material with an astute analysis of selected works by Beethoven, always rooted in their historical and political context. But what makes this beautifully written monograph so telling is the way Kinderman relates Beethoven’s passionate but erratic response to the political turmoil of his age to our own times.”
For more information, or to order this book, please visit https://press.uchicago.edu
Google preview here
You may purchase this title at these fine bookstores. Outside the USA, see our international sales information.