Beethoven in Love; Opus 139 Concerto Quasi Una Fantasia Howard Jay Smith 9780996559201 Books
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A daring, compelling, and impeccably researched historical novel that offers dramatic new insight into the life of the greatest composer the world has ever known. Its fresh perspective and deeply felt understanding of Beethoven's motivations, passions, and challenges speak eloquently to us today, connecting us to our own successes, failures, and dreams, and ultimately to the true consequence of our lives. At the moment of his death on a snowy afternoon in March, 1826, Ludwig van Beethoven pleads with Providence to grant him a final wish—one day, just a single day of pure joy. But first he must confront the many failings in his life, so the great composer and exceedingly complex man begins an odyssey into the netherworld of his past life. As he struggles to confront its ugliness, we encounter the women who loved and inspired him. In their own voices, we discover their Beethoven—a lover with whom they savor the profound beauty and passion of his creations. And it’s in the arms of his beloveds that he comes to terms with the meaning of his life and experiences the moment of true joy he has always sought.
Beethoven in Love; Opus 139 Concerto Quasi Una Fantasia Howard Jay Smith 9780996559201 Books
If you’re considering originality, you’d have to give this book five stars. Though an admittedly novelized look at Beethoven’s life, it is unlike any earlier biographies. Combing the rich available record, author and erstwhile screenwriter Howard Jay Smith concludes Beethoven’s story was more than a series of musical triumphs—and unravels it with docudrama flair. “Beethoven in Love; Opus #139”—the number presumably refers to an unwritten post-final work in the Beethoven canon—begins with the 56-year-old composer on his deathbed in 1827 Vienna. As thunderbolts rent the heavens, the dying man reflects on his life. Pained by a parade of failed love affairs, troubled by family chaos—including an adopted nephew’s suicide—and overly dependent on fickle aristocratic patrons, he agonizes about what will come next. Will he reach those pearly gates? Or will he sink into some unfathomable void? Will he even be remembered? The questions unfold not simply as dreamy musings, but as conversations between the dying Beethoven—always Louis, never Ludwig—and a ghost-like Napoleon, who has already found his place in a theatrical beyond more like a scene out of The Magic Flute than the New Testament heaven of Beethoven’s Catholic boyhood. Like a kindly Viennese shrink rather than the hero of Austerlitz, Napoleon probes Beethoven about his failures in love, bulks his ego with visions of the powerful pianos of the future that will make his compositions sound even grander and dazzles him with talk of new musical forms called jazz and rock that will owe a profound debt to his ideas. It’s all very farfetched, of course, but as a dream sequence it has a certain plausibility. In real life, Beethoven so idolized the revolutionary with his promises of liberté, égalité, fraternité, he dedicated his Third Symphony to him—until Napoleon crowned himself emperor and renamed it “Eroica.” But when “Beethoven in Love; Opus #139” leaves these imaginative sequences involving the emperor and his needy patient, we get more conventional biographical treatment. Much of this is readable and entertaining, based on excerpts from actual letters and documents from Beethoven’s life (unfortunately, left uncredited for their sources). These are useful in filling out the details of Beethoven’s story, from his birth in Bonn as the son of a drunken court musician through his development as a piano prodigy and prolific womanizer and ultimately as the successor to Mozart and Haydn in musical Vienna. But as exercises of imaginative composition, they aren’t nearly the fun as Beethoven’s bantering with the emperor. Enjoy these conversations—and deduct a star from the rest of what turns out to have been a bravura life.Product details
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Tags : Beethoven in Love; Opus 139: Concerto Quasi Una Fantasia [Howard Jay Smith] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. A daring, compelling, and impeccably researched historical novel that offers dramatic new insight into the life of the greatest composer the world has ever known. Its fresh perspective and deeply felt understanding of Beethoven's motivations,Howard Jay Smith,Beethoven in Love; Opus 139: Concerto Quasi Una Fantasia,Say Yes Quickly Books,0996559205,Literature & Fiction Literature,FICTION Historical
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Beethoven in Love; Opus 139 Concerto Quasi Una Fantasia Howard Jay Smith 9780996559201 Books Reviews
Beethoven has been my hero since I was a child. I was so excited to find this book, and then so disappointed with it. It started out somewhat amusing, but reading page after page about Beethoven and Napoleon having a discussion in some imagined world after death got pretty tedious after a while. The descriptions of the young ladies in his life became repetitious. I did enjoy the descriptions of the music, however. But after about 100 pages, I had to put it down. Sorry, Mr. Smith, I really wanted to like your book.
Howard Jay Smith has written a brilliant and remarkable story around the afterlife of Beethoven. Skillfully woven words that charmed and enchanted with every page. More, more.
Absolutely fell in love with this book.
Great to have a good read re Beethoven. The insight from a fictionalize view is good. If you love Beethoven read this book.
This has to be one of my all-time favorite books. I can hardly put it down. Fascinating study inside the life and soul of the great Ludwig Van Beethoven. From his many relationships and love interests, to his haunting dreams, to his meeting with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Beethoven in Love; Opus 139 is a marvelous adventure into the thoughts and spirit of what made Beethoven such a complex and passionate musical master. I highly recommend this book. It would make a beautiful gift to anyone!
Can a novel be a collection of lies that tell a greater truth? Yes! In his last seconds of consciousness before death, Beethoven shakes his fist at his Creator. Why has he been cast out as history’s cruel joke, a deaf composer who was also denied family and love? He pleads with Providence to grant him one final wish— a single day of pure joy. Beethoven in Love; Opus 139 begins and ends at that moment. In-between we travel with him through a fog of memories during which he must confront his many failings before he can pass through the Gates of Elysium and find the happiness he seeks. By exploring Beethoven’s life through fiction can we better comprehend the man behind the music and in so doing find universal truths that illuminate our own lives? How do any of us come to terms with the failings of our life and find peace at the moment of our death? A brilliant and beautiful masterpiece.
If you’re considering originality, you’d have to give this book five stars. Though an admittedly novelized look at Beethoven’s life, it is unlike any earlier biographies. Combing the rich available record, author and erstwhile screenwriter Howard Jay Smith concludes Beethoven’s story was more than a series of musical triumphs—and unravels it with docudrama flair. “Beethoven in Love; Opus #139”—the number presumably refers to an unwritten post-final work in the Beethoven canon—begins with the 56-year-old composer on his deathbed in 1827 Vienna. As thunderbolts rent the heavens, the dying man reflects on his life. Pained by a parade of failed love affairs, troubled by family chaos—including an adopted nephew’s suicide—and overly dependent on fickle aristocratic patrons, he agonizes about what will come next. Will he reach those pearly gates? Or will he sink into some unfathomable void? Will he even be remembered? The questions unfold not simply as dreamy musings, but as conversations between the dying Beethoven—always Louis, never Ludwig—and a ghost-like Napoleon, who has already found his place in a theatrical beyond more like a scene out of The Magic Flute than the New Testament heaven of Beethoven’s Catholic boyhood. Like a kindly Viennese shrink rather than the hero of Austerlitz, Napoleon probes Beethoven about his failures in love, bulks his ego with visions of the powerful pianos of the future that will make his compositions sound even grander and dazzles him with talk of new musical forms called jazz and rock that will owe a profound debt to his ideas. It’s all very farfetched, of course, but as a dream sequence it has a certain plausibility. In real life, Beethoven so idolized the revolutionary with his promises of liberté, égalité, fraternité, he dedicated his Third Symphony to him—until Napoleon crowned himself emperor and renamed it “Eroica.” But when “Beethoven in Love; Opus #139” leaves these imaginative sequences involving the emperor and his needy patient, we get more conventional biographical treatment. Much of this is readable and entertaining, based on excerpts from actual letters and documents from Beethoven’s life (unfortunately, left uncredited for their sources). These are useful in filling out the details of Beethoven’s story, from his birth in Bonn as the son of a drunken court musician through his development as a piano prodigy and prolific womanizer and ultimately as the successor to Mozart and Haydn in musical Vienna. But as exercises of imaginative composition, they aren’t nearly the fun as Beethoven’s bantering with the emperor. Enjoy these conversations—and deduct a star from the rest of what turns out to have been a bravura life.
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