Publishers Weekly
08/26/2019
In this extensive work, historian Clubbe (The Beethoven Journal) expertly links Ludwig van Beethoven’s music with the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and Napoleon Bonaparte. Clubbe posits that Beethoven (1770–1827) was a lifelong revolutionary, growing up in the relatively liberal city of Bonn (now in Germany), where he became an avid follower of the Enlightenment and its revolutionary political idealism. As a young man Beethoven moved to Vienna, where he studied with Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn. In addition to being the center of the classical music world, Vienna was home to the capital of the Hapsburg Empire—a conservative city rife with censorship and political oppression. For Beethoven, the need to live in Vienna for his musical career made it impossible for him to give voice to his political views. Instead, Beethoven expressed his thoughts through his music, particularly his Eroica symphony (initially dedicated to Napoleon) and his only opera, Fidelio, both of which were revolutionary compositions for the time in subject matter and musical structure. This astute biography will appeal most to classical music fans, as well as those interested in the history of Enlightenment and revolutionary thinking in late 18th-century Europe. (July)
Tim Page
"A thoughtful cultural history that takes into account the times in which Beethoven lived and worked—and they were times of revolution."
New Statesman - Emily Bootle
"A thorough account of Beethoven’s inspirations, collaborators, and his turbulent times."
author of Polyphonic Minds Peter Pesic
"Using historical, artistic, and literary sources in new ways, John Clubbe illuminates Beethoven’s political identity, particularly his attitude toward Napoleon. This vivid and passionate book will help anyone who cares about Beethoven’s music to understand the beliefs he had to hide from the Austrian authorities."
Dr. William Meredith
"In astonishing detail and breadth, Clubbe has—after a lifetime of study devoted to Beethoven and Napoleon—created a political biography of the composer that is unique and compelling. It has the potential to reshape our image of Beethoven as it reframes his works within the context of the revolutions and revolutionary figures the composer knew from his earliest days in Bonn. While focusing on the composer’s fascination with Napoleon, Clubbe vividly brings the entire era to life, weaving reformers, revolutionary ideals and literature, censorship and repression, and the ultimate failure of the grand revolutionary experiments into one rich fabric."
Library Journal
05/17/2019
That Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) was revolutionary as a musician and a composer, there can be no doubt. That the era's revolutionary fervor had a profound influence on him, as it did on all those who lived through it, is likewise well understood. Even so, it is an ambitious challenge to connect these two themes explicitly, to assert, for instance, that one can hear strains of fraternité in his cantata on the death of Emperor Joseph II. Clubbe (The English Romantic Poets; Froude's Life of Carlyle) eschews musicological and biographical analysis, rightly observing that Beethoven has already been subject to plenty of both. But the author's attempt to examine Beethoven's work through the lens of cultural history is overly reliant on speculation and incorporates a great deal of historical summary and description of other artistic developments of the period while failing to make evident implicit or explicit links between these and Beethoven's work. VERDICT A disjointed and often frustrating reading experience, with moments of real insight. For devoted Beethoven fans.—Genevieve Williams, Pacific Lutheran Univ. Lib., Tacoma
School Library Journal
05/17/2019
That Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) was revolutionary as a musician and a composer, there can be no doubt. That the era's revolutionary fervor had a profound influence on him, as it did on all those who lived through it, is likewise well understood. Even so, it is an ambitious challenge to connect these two themes explicitly, to assert, for instance, that one can hear strains of fraternité in his cantata on the death of Emperor Joseph II. Clubbe (The English Romantic Poets; Froude's Life of Carlyle) eschews musicological and biographical analysis, rightly observing that Beethoven has already been subject to plenty of both. But the author's attempt to examine Beethoven's work through the lens of cultural history is overly reliant on speculation and incorporates a great deal of historical summary and description of other artistic developments of the period while failing to make evident implicit or explicit links between these and Beethoven's work. VERDICT A disjointed and often frustrating reading experience, with moments of real insight. For devoted Beethoven fans.—Genevieve Williams, Pacific Lutheran Univ. Lib., Tacoma
