Late Beethoven: Music, Thought, Imagination

341 Pages·2003·3.139 MB·English

by  Maynard Solomon

LATE BEETHOVEN
This page intentionally left blank
L ATE BEETHOV EN
MUSIC, THOUGHT, IMAGINATION
MAYNARD SOLOMON
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
BERKELEY • LOSANGELES • LONDON
The University of California Press
gratefully acknowledges a subvention from the
Music Endowment Fund of the University
of California Press Associates.
University ofCalifornia Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University ofCalifornia Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2003 by Maynard Solomon
Some ofthe chapters in this book were previously
published;they are listed in the Acknowledgments.
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Solomon, Maynard.
Late Beethoven :music, thought, imagination /
Maynard Solomon.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn0-520-23746-3 (alk.paper)
1.Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770–1827—Last
years. 2.Composers—Austria—Biography.
3.Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770–1827—Criticism
and interpretation. I.Title.
ml410.b4 s655 2003
780'.92—dc21 2002013906
Manufactured in the United States ofAmerica
12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication is both acid-free
and totally chlorine-free (tcf).It meets the minimum
requirements ofansi/niso z39.48–1992 (r1997)
(Permanence ofPaper).8
For Eva, again
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Prologue: A Sea Change 1
1. The End of a Beginning:The “Diabelli” Variations 11
2. Beyond Classicism 27
3. Some Romantic Images 42
4. Pastoral, Rhetoric, Structure:The Violin Sonata in G, op. 96 71
5. Reason and Imagination:The Aesthetic Dimension 92
6. The Seventh Symphony and the Rhythms of Antiquity 102
7. The Masonic Thread 135
8. The Masonic Imagination 159
9. The Shape of a Journey:The “Diabelli” Variations 179
10. Intimations of the Sacred 198
11. The Sense of an Ending:The Ninth Symphony 213
12. The Healing Power of Music 229
Abbreviations 243
Notes 245
Index of Compositions 301
General Index 307
This page intentionally left blank
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A project that began twenty years ago as a book on Beethoven and Ro-
manticism gradually ramified into a more ambitious book on late Beetho-
ven and especially on some of the hallmarks and sources of his late style.
While the book can be read as a collection of separate studies, it is intended
as a series of diverse but related perspectives on the imaginative world within
which Beethoven dwelt during his last fifteen years and on the ways in which
his thought and music may be interrelated.
All of the chapters were written with this book in mind.Seven of them—
the prologue and chapters 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 12—are previously unpublished
in any form.Four ofthem have appeared, or will appear, in somewhat diªerent
form in Festschriften and memorial volumes honoring my dear friends and
cherished correspondents Lewis Lockwood, Robert L.Marshall, the late Alan
Tyson, and the late Harry Goldschmidt.The previously published chapters
have been considerably revised and expanded and now represent my latest
thinking on their respective topics.
Friends and colleagues who by their comments, suggestions, and infor-
mation have improved one or another chapter include Wye J. Allanbrook,
Mark Evan Bonds, Sieghard Brandenburg, Bruce Cooper Clarke, Marianne
Goldberger, Grita Herre, Joseph Kerman, Richard Kramer, Thomas J.Ma-
thiesen, the late Max Rudolf, Heinz Schuler, Stephen Moore Whiting, and
Robert S.Winter, along with Messrs.Lockwood, Marshall, and Tyson.I am
deeply grateful to each and every one of them. Warm thanks also to the
eager and challenging participants in my seminars as a visiting professor at
SUNY Stony Brook and at Columbia, Harvard, and Yale universities, and
ix