Beethoven: The Universal Composer (Eminent Lives) | Edmund Morris

Beethoven: The Universal Composer (Eminent Lives) | Edmund Morris | Best Beethoven biography available

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Beethoven: The Uni...

	Beethoven: The Universal Composer (Eminent Lives) Edmund Morris Harper Collins, 2005 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 23 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) was a genius so universal that his popularity, extraordinary even during his lifetime, has never ceased to grow. It now encircles the globe: Beethoven's most famous works are as beloved in Beijing as they are in Boston.

Edmund Morris, the author of three bestselling presidential biographies and a lifelong devotee of Beethoven, brings the great composer to life as a man of astonishing complexity and overpowering intelligence. A gigantic, compulsively creative personality unable to tolerate constraints, he was not so much a social rebel as an astute manipulator of the most powerful and privileged aristocrats in Germany and Austria, at a time when their world was threatened by the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte.

But Beethoven's achievement rests in his immortal music. Struggling against progressive, incurable deafness (which he desperately tried to keep secret), he nonetheless produced towering masterpieces, such as his iconic Fifth and Ninth symphonies. With sensitivity and insight, Edmund Morris illuminates Beethoven's life, including his interactions with the women he privately lusted for but held at bay, and his work, whose grandeur and beauty were conceived "on the other side of silence."

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Well written short biography of Beethoven

Edmund Morris' biography of Ludwig van Beethoven, part of the "Eminent Lives" series, is delightful. Edmund Morris has written biographies of Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. He also plays piano, studies music, and has been examining Beethoven for decades and decades. The combination works very well here.

The front dust jacket comments place this 200 page volume in perspective. "Edmund Morris, the author of three bestselling presidential biographies and a lifelong devotee of Beethoven, brings the great composer to life as a man of astonishing complexity and overpowering intelligence." This book is well worth looking at, if one wishes an accessible biography of Beethoven coupled with an insightful reading of his music (at least I think that it is insightful).

Morris begins by noting that (Page 2): "Of all the great composers, Beethoven is the most enduring in his appeal to dilettantes and intellectuals alike." Agree or disagree, that is a common view of the composer. Morris points out that Beethoven's early compositions were pretty radical for the day--only to become even more so in his late works (e.g., the Grosse Fugue).

This book covers the personal life of Beethoven, much of it rather tortured. His family life was not especially great. His father in essence exploited him as a "child prodigy," even lying about Ludwig's age to make him seem more incredible as a young artist. We see his pain as deafness sets in and his personal life remains unfulfilled, with his "Heiligenstadt Testament." Then, the "Immortal Beloved" letter of 1812 (Morris, by the way, provides an answer as to who this person was--different from whom I had concluded played this role when I took the question seriously 20 or so years ago). There is also the strained relationship with his brother and his nephew Karl. Was he an ogre with Karl? An inept "father figure"? What?

This is a most literate biography, covering his early years, his interactions with Mozart and Haydn, his development of relationships with nobles who would provide financial support for his work. But what makes it special for me is that Morris appears to know Beethoven's music well, and he folds his musical observations into the text in a way that I find enchanting. He notes how some early notes later became the Third Symphony and how some written comments later became the heart of the 9th Symphony. Those who have seen the movie "Eroica" can appreciate Morris' description of the first rehearsal.

The chapter labeled "Valedictory" lays out Beethoven's last months. The final chapter, "Epilogue," attempts to give some closure the book (how successful I leave to the individual reader). This is a relatively brief biography, but literate, properly critical, and appreciative of Beethoven's contributions to our heritage. I do believe that this would be a welcome volume for someone who wants entrée to Beethoven the person and Beethoven the artist.

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Best Beethoven biography available

Unlike other books by Mr. Morris, this accurate biography of Beethoven's life is based on fact instead of vivid recreation of fiction. This book is poignant and very descriptive and goes as far as updating facts about Beethoven's life (based on serious and ardouos research), something other scholars had avoided. There are tons of metaphors contrasting Beethoven's compositions with the current literary movement of the time: Sturm und Drang, and this gives the reader a chance to delve in into German-Austrian society of the time and how the subject interacted with it. It is a book both witty and funny, capable of arousing serious doubts among intellectual circles for the author discusses Beethoven's supposed homosexuality and his misathropy without having much evidence for the former. I highly recommend this book simply because it is descriptive, well written and hillarious ( I couldn't stop laughing at the way Mr. Morris suggested how picky and obstinate Beethoven was--all in a witty way). For those who do not have a background in classical music, music theory to be more specific, this book would prove to be challenging--reading Classical Music for Dummies will suffice as an introduction for this splendid piece of research.

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Wonderful audio performance available

I would like to second an earlier reviewer in his praise John McDonough's audio performance of this book via a Recorded Books CD.

Although I know Beethoven's work well, I've never read a biography of him, so I have no frame of reference. All I can say is that I love this one. Problems of emphasis, etc., cited by more knowledgeable reviewers notwithstanding, this is a moving biography, and I just ordered a print copy to review comments he made on some early works I'm not familiar with and to return to certain movements, especially of the string quartets and piano sonatas, that the author analyzes so eloquently.

This book is worth reading just for the author's analysis of the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata, which most of us burnt out on long ago because we've heard it so often in "easy listening" formats. Morris draws one's attention to what made this movement--and still makes it--revolutionary.

This biography strikes just the right balance for a listener who knows just a bit of music theory. I think it would be especially valuable to someone who is just coming to know Beethoven's works--to give him/her a sense of where to go next.

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An initimate portrait of the man, less the music

Beethoven the Universal Composer is a thoughtful portrait of the man, less the music. The book describes how music truly inhabited Beethoven and impelled him through life, but the focus is on his relationships,generally tempestuous, often manic, at times obsessive. Combined with his tragic deafness, his mercurial personality in these relationships often alienated him from the community of mankind touched so deeply by his music.

I listened to this book unabridged on audio narrated by John McDonough. McDonough is a true star in this performance. His rich sonorous voice captures the magnitude and awesomeness of Beethoven's life force, with a power that rivals the incomparable George Guidall in audio performance. What the audio is missing is Beethoven's music itself, which could have been integrated for greater richness alongside the descriptions of the music.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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