The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven: Volume 2

The 1921 three-volume English edition of a landmark biography of one of the world's greatest composers.

Alexander Wheelock Thayer (Author), Hermann Deiters (Author), Hugo Riemann (Author), Henry Edward Krehbiel (Edited and translated by)

9781108064743, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 5 September 2013

432 pages, 1 b/w illus.
25.4 x 17.8 x 2.2 cm, 0.75 kg

This authoritative biography of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) was a landmark in its meticulous research and use of source material. For the American author Alexander Wheelock Thayer (1817–97), it represented a lifelong labour of love, yet it remained unfinished at his death. His friend Hermann Deiters (1833–1907) edited and translated Thayer's work into German, publishing three volumes which covered Beethoven's life to 1816. Since Deiters also died before the biography could be completed, musicologist Hugo Riemann (1849–1919) was called upon to conclude the work. The final German volumes appeared in 1907 and 1908. It was the American critic Henry Edward Krehbiel (1854–1923) who prepared the present work, the first and considerably revised English version, published in three volumes in 1921. Volume 2 covers the period 1803–18, including the custody wrangles over Beethoven's nephew.

1. The year 1803
2. The year 1804
3. The year 1805
4. The year 1806
5. Beethoven's friends and patrons
6. Princes and counts as theatrical directors
7. The year 1808
8. Jerome Bonaparte's invitation
9. The years 1807–9
10. The year 1810
11. The year 1811
12. The year 1812
13. The year 1813
14. The year 1814
15. The year 1815
16. The year 1816
17. The year 1817
18. The year 1818.

Subject Areas: Classical music [c 1750 to c 1830 AVGC4]