Political Beethoven (new Perspectives In Music History And Criticism)

Musicians, Music Lovers, And Music Critics Have Typically Considered Beethoven's Overtly Political Music As An Aberration - At Best, It Is Merely Notorious; At Worst, It Is Denigrated And Ignored. In Political Beethoven Nicholas Mathew Returns To The Musical And Social Contexts Of The Composer's Political Music Throughout His Career - From The Early Marches And Anti-french War Songs Of The 1790s To The Grand Orchestral And Choral Works For The Congress Of Vienna - To Argue That This Marginalized Functional Art Has Much To Teach Us About The Lofty Beethovenian Sounds That Came To Define Serious Music In The Nineteenth Century. Beethoven's Much-maligned Political Compositions, Mathew Shows, Lead Us Into The Intricate Political And Aesthetic Contexts That Shaped All Of His Oeuvre, Thus Revealing The Stylistic, Ideological, And Psycho-social Mechanisms That Gave Beethoven's Music Such A Powerful Voice - A Voice Susceptible To Repeated Political Appropriation, Even To The Present Day.--book Jacket. Introduction: Political Collaborations -- Music Between Myth And History -- Beethoven's Moments -- The Sounds Of Power And The Power Of Sound -- The Inner Public -- After The War. Nicholas Mathew. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. "Musicians, music lovers, and music critics have typically considered Beethoven's overtly political music an aberration--at best, it is merely notorious; at worst it is denigrated and ignored. In Political Beethoven Nicholas Mathew returns to the musical and social contexts of the composer's political music throughout his career--from the early marches and anti-French war songs of the 1790s to the grand orchestral and choral works for the Congress of Vienna--to argue that this marginalized functional art has much to teach us about the lofty Beethovenian sounds that came to define serious music in the nineteenth century. Beethoven's much-marginalized political compositions, Mathew shows, lead us into the intricate political and aesthetic contexts that shaped all of his oeuvre, thus revealing the stylistic, ideological, and psycho-social mechanisms that gave Beethoven's music such a powerful voice--a voice susceptible to repeated political appropriation, even to the present day"--Back cover Political Beethoven provides a completely new account of the avalanche of political music by Beethoven and his contemporaries composed in the fraught atmosphere of Napoleonic Vienna and explores the musical, ideological and psycho-social mechanisms that have made this music such a potent force in political life to the present day. Political Beethoven explores Beethoven's music as an active participant in political life from the Napoleonic Wars to the present day