Beethoven, Laura Tunbridge
Beethoven, Laura Tunbridge
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Beethoven
A Life in Nine Pieces

Author: Laura Tunbridge

Narrator: Laura Tunbridge

Unabridged: 7 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/08/2020


Synopsis

A major new biography published for the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, offering a fresh, human portrayal.

The iconic image of Beethoven is of him as a lone genius: hair wild, fists clenched, and brow furrowed. Beethoven may well have shaped the music of the future, but he was also a product of his time, influenced by the people, politics, and culture around him. Oxford scholar Laura Tunbridge offers an alternative history of Beethoven's career, placing his music in contexts that shed light on why particular pieces are valued more than others, and what this tells us about his larger-than-life reputation.

Each chapter focuses on a period of his life, a piece of music, and a revealing theme, from family to friends, from heroism to liberty. We discover, along the way, Beethoven's unusual marketing strategies, his ambitious concert programming, and how specific performers and instruments influenced his works. This book offers new ways to understand Beethoven and why his music continues to be valued today.

About Laura Tunbridge

Laura Tunbridge is professor of music at the University of Oxford. She is the author of three monographs-Schumann's Late Style, The Song Cycle, and Singing in the Age of Anxiety-and the recipient of a three-year Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust for a project on string quartets.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Diana on April 27, 2023

Beethoven: A Life in Nine Pieces [2020] – ★★★★★ Through just nine musical pieces, Laura Tunbridge places Beethoven in one particular time and place in her well-researched book, presenting an intimate and detailed image of the great composer. Did you know that one music piece (a Septet) that made Beeth......more

Goodreads review by Paul on November 18, 2020

This book did much to reverse the aversion created by a sadistic Scottish music teacher with a penchant for Beethoven. I found it totally uplifting. The biography has pieces of music as chapter titles, so it was so easy to find each piece on Youtube, listen it a few times, and then read the chapter.......more

Goodreads review by Martha on February 13, 2022

I was not the intended audience for this. I never studied music and really to enjoy Tunbridge’s analysis I think you must be better prepared than I. However, I recently read Ruth Padel’s wonderful _Beethoven Variations: Poems on a Life_ and got interested in his biography. There is some in this book......more