The Life of Beethoven [Hardcover]

An account of Beethoven's life as a creative musician.'My compositions bring me in a good deal. I state my price and they pay.' Beethoven was an inspired composer but he was also a working musician with sound commercial sense. This account of Beethoven reveals the life of a creative musician in Bonn and Vienna in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It describes his early years as a court musician, his attempt to pursue a public career as a pianist-composer, the effects of increasing deafness, and his difficult relationships with patrons and musical institutions of the day.'My compositions bring me in a good deal. I state my price and they pay.' Beethoven was an inspired composer but he was also a working musician with sound commercial sense. This account of Beethoven reveals the life of a creative musician in Bonn and Vienna in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It describes his early years as a court musician, his attempt to pursue a public career as a pianist-composer, the effects of increasing deafness, and his difficult relationships with patrons and musical institutions of the day.This account of Beethoven reveals the life and times of a creative musician in Bonn and Vienna in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. While paying due regard to the image of Beethoven as one of the most single-minded composers in the history of music, this biography places his work in the context of the musical life of the period. Through an understanding of the changing nature of musical patronage, the private and public concert, the impact of the Napoleonic Wars on culture and society--in addition to the effects of Beethoven's increasing deafness and his difficult relationships with both patrons and the musical institutions of the day--a varied and dynamic picture of the life and career of the musical genius emerges.1. The young courtier; 2. A new career in Vienna; 3. Cursing his creator and his existence; 4. Drama and symphony; 5. ló6