First published in 1927, J. W. N. Sullivan's “Beethoven - His Spiritual Development” explores the subject of Beethoven's spirituality, which the author believes he expressed through his greatest musical compositions. Contents include: “Art and Reality”, “Music as Isolated”, “Music as Expression”, “Beethoven’s Characteristics”, “The Morality of Power”, “The Mind of Beethoven”, “The Hero”, “The End of a Period”, “Love and Money”, “The Hammerclavier Sonata”, “God the Companion”, etc. A fascinating study of Beethoven's work not to be missed by fans of classical music. John William Navin Sullivan (1886–1937) was a popular literary journalist and science writer who wrote some of the first accounts of Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity for the laymen. Sullivan was acquainted with a number of important writers in 1920s London including T. S. Eliot, Aldous Huxley, and Aleister Crowley. Read & Co. Books is republishing this classic work now in a new edition complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.

An annual of international Beethoven studies, Beethoven Forum sustains and promotes the high level of scholarship inspired by Beethoven's extraordinary works. Volume 2 represents the wide range of approaches that enrich the understanding and appreciation of Beethoven and his interpreters. Michael C. Tusa describes Beethoven's life-long affinity for the key of C-minor, showing Beethoven's consistencies in technique and structure. Tia Denora clarifies how Beethoven's early recognition as a great musician was linked to the social aspirations of his Viennese patrons. Beginning with Tovey's renowned metaphor of the harmonic "Cloud" in the Eroica symphony, Lawrence Earp reconsiders the extensive attention Beethoven gave to the passage. Lewis Lockwood resolves issues that have troubled scholars and musicians about the Scherzo of the F Major String Quartet (Op. 59, No. 1). William Drabkin, one of the world's premier authorities on the Missa Solemnis, analyzes the sketches and autographs of that mass's later movements. Noting the renewed interest in questions about the meaning of music, Kevin Korsyn proposes a rereading of J. W. N. Sullivan's Beethoven: His Spiritual Development and shows its relevance to the comprehension of the A Minor String Quartet, (Op. 132). The importance of Carl Dahlhaus's Ludwig van Beethoven und seine Zeit was immediately acknowledged upon its publication in 1987. Translated into English in 1991, the book will further extend its influence. To assess that influence, three Beethoven scholars provide independent appraisals of the book. Hermann Danuser places the book in the context of Dahlhaus's other works and stresses Beethoven's determination to give each of his works individuality. John Daverio discusses the cultural background to Dahlhaus's outlook on "wit" and "reflectivity." And James Webster critiques the assumptions that underlie Dahlhaus's musical analyses. All relate the book to Dahlhaus's other works and indicate in what ways the book can serve as a catalyst for future study.

When Emily Brontë was studying music in Brussels in 1842, she was drawn into the city's appreciation of Beethoven. After her exposure to the works of the great composer, Brontë's creativity flourished and she went on to compose what was to be her only novel--Wuthering Heights. In Emily Brontë and Beethoven, Robert K. Wallace continues to work from the perspective he developed in his Jane Austen and Mozart--integrating two fields that have traditionally been kept apart. Wallace compares Brontë and Beethoven through a close examination of the Romantic traits that their works share. Innovative and stimulating, Wallace's study extends literary criticism into a new context where equilibrium, balance, proportion and symmetry serve as a fulcrum to launch the reader into a new understanding of the formal parallels, the moods and emotions that connect music and literature.

Joseph Kerman is one of the most eminent, wide ranging, and readable of today's writers on music. Admirers of his many books - on musicology, opera, Beethoven, and Elizabethan music - will find much to interest them in this collection of essays, taken from general journals, such as the Hudson Review and the New York Review of Books, as well as more specialized publications.

The Grosse Fuge, composed by Ludwig van Beethoven in his late period, has an involved and complicated history. Written for a string quartet but published as an independent work, the piece raises interesting questions about whether music without words can have meaning, and invokes speculation about the composer and his frame of mind when he wrote it. Kahn looks closely at the musical, aesthetic, philosophical, and historical problems the work raises, considering its history, structure and development, meaning, and response among critics and contemporaries. Kahn also studies Beethoven's difficulties with publishers and sponsors, his everyday life, and his character in light of recent advances in the pharmacology of depressive illness. The book places both Beethoven and the Grosse Fuge in their historic and social contexts, arguing that Beethoven intended the Fuge as the finale of his String Quartet Opus 130 and created a substitute finale for the quartet at his publisher's urging; not because he was unhappy with the work. Beethoven is examined as a freelance musician: a vocation whose members were frequently excluded from society and the protection of its laws, including respect for copyright. Viewed in this light, Beethoven's famous quirks and resentments become understandable, even rational. Kahn also devotes a chapter to the phenomenon of synesthesia—a sense of motion through three-dimensional volumes of space—examining how some works of Western music can evoke synesthesia in listeners. He also speculates that Beethoven's creative dry spell in his late 40s was caused by an extended bout with clinical depression. Written for a general audience and including a bibliography and index, this fascinating study will interest scholars and fans of classical music and Beethoven.

The life and music of Beethoven still fascinate classical music lovers, new and old. His many symphonies, sonatas, concertos, string quartets, and his one opera enchant audiences, challenge performers, engage students, and support scholars in their work. In Experiencing Beethoven, music historian Geoffrey Block explores in layman’s terms a highly representative body of about two dozen Beethoven instrumental and vocal works, offering listeners who know him well, or are just discovering him, an opportunity to grasp the breadth and depth of his musical genius. Designed for those unversed in musical terminology or theory, Experiencing Beethoven places the composer’s works within the evolving context of his personal and professional life and social and cultural milieu. Block sheds light on the public and private audiences of Beethoven’s music, from the concerts for the composer’s own financial benefit to the debut of the “Eroica” Symphony at the palace of Prince Lobkowitz to the historic public premiere of his Ninth Symphony. Experiencing Beethoven paints a portrait of the composer’s youth in Bonn, his early triumphs and artistic maturation in Vienna, and—despite the challenges his music posed to his contemporaries— the recognition he received during his lifetime as the most acclaimed composer of the era. Block conveys the range and scope of Beethoven’s achievement, from his heroic style to his lyricism, grappling throughout with the composer’s power to communicate his idealistic musical vision to listeners in both his time and ours. Finally, Experiencing Beethoven explores why Beethoven’s music continues to enjoy an unwavering appeal in an age saturated with a range of musical styles.

Themelios is an international, evangelical, peer-reviewed theological journal that expounds and defends the historic Christian faith. Themelios is published three times a year online at The Gospel Coalition (http://thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/) and in print by Wipf and Stock. Its primary audience is theological students and pastors, though scholars read it as well. Themelios began in 1975 and was operated by RTSF/UCCF in the UK, and it became a digital journal operated by The Gospel Coalition in 2008. The editorial team draws participants from across the globe as editors, essayists, and reviewers. General Editor: Brian Tabb, Bethlehem College and Seminary Contributing Editor: D. A. Carson, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School Consulting Editor: Michael J. Ovey, Oak Hill Theological College Administrator: Andrew David Naselli, Bethlehem College and Seminary Book Review Editors: Jerry Hwang, Singapore Bible College; Alan Thompson, Sydney Missionary & Bible College; Nathan A. Finn, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; Hans Madueme, Covenant College; Dane Ortlund, Crossway; Jason Sexton, Golden Gate Baptist Seminary Editorial Board: Gerald Bray, Beeson Divinity School Lee Gatiss, Wales Evangelical School of Theology Paul Helseth, University of Northwestern, St. Paul Paul House, Beeson Divinity School Ken Magnuson, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Jonathan Pennington, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary James Robson, Wycliffe Hall Mark D. Thompson, Moore Theological College Paul Williamson, Moore Theological College Stephen Witmer, Pepperell Christian Fellowship Robert Yarbrough, Covenant Seminary

Examines America's early reception to Beethoven, the use of his work and image in American music, movies, stage works, and other forms of popular culture, and related topics.

How did Ludwig van Beethoven help overthrow a tsarist regime? With the establishment of the Russian Musical Society and its affiliated branches throughout the empire, Beethoven's music reached substantially larger audiences at a time of increasing political instability. In addition, leading music critics of the regime began hearing Beethoven's dramatic works as nothing less than a call to revolution. Beethoven in Russia deftly explores the interface between music and politics in Russia by examining the reception of Beethoven's works from the late 18th century to the present. In part 1, Frederick W. Skinner's clear and sweeping review examines the role of Beethoven's more dramatic works in the revolutionary struggle that culminated in the Revolution of 1917. In part 2, Skinner reveals how this same power was again harnessed to promote Stalin's campaign of rapid industrialization. The appropriation of Beethoven and his music to serve the interests of the state remained the hallmark of Soviet Beethoven reception until the end of communist rule. With interdisciplinary appeal in the areas of history, music, literature, and political thought, Beethoven in Russia shows how Beethoven's music served as a call to action for citizens and weaponized state propaganda in the great political struggles that shaped modern Russian history.

Explores the links between anger, rage, violence, evil, and creativity and describes a dynamic therapeutic approach that can help channel anger and violent impulses into constructive and creative activity.