Beethoven`s Piano Sonatas: A Short Companion
by Dr. Charles Rosen, Charles Rosen
Book Summary Information
Author: Charles Rosen, Dr. Charles RosenEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2001-11-01
ISBN: 0300090706
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Yale University Press
Book Reviews of Beethoven`s Piano Sonatas: A Short Companion
Book Review: con brio
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a nice read for hard-core Beethoven-heads. It'll change the way you approach playing the pieces, or at the least change the way you listen to them. There's nothing wrong with just listening to the music and absorbing it, not worrying about why a particular change is brilliant or why it should affect you. It's like watching a movie and just letting the movie touch you however it does, not worrying about why the director chose a particular camera angle or what some set detail might be referencing. But it is hard for modern listeners to realize just how much some of Beethoven's compositions broke against the assumptions of the time. When the harmonies pivot on thirds, for example, modulating through a series of keys before landing where the ear expects it, it doesn't necessarily hold the same tension to modern ears. Wagner, as well as every composer of cinematic background music, have now manipulated Beethoven's techniques to the point of emotional burlesque. But you get extra credit for being the first, and still the best, to do it.
But the best parts of reading Rosen- a scholar whose words are mostly measured- are those brief moments when he gushes. When he expands on the revolutionary character of the music. When he stops intellectualizing about music and briefly speaks as an admirer in awe. Compositional theory can only go so far, after all. Eventually you give yourself over to the sheer transcendence of this brilliant music.
It reminds me of a calculus teacher I had once. He was just about the slowest, driest lecturer I had ever had. But one day, when discussing the fact that the derivative of sine is cosine, his gaze softened. His voice choked for a moment, "this is when math becomes something more than logic, something more beautiful. There is nothing in the Universe that says the derivative of a sine wave will be a cosine wave. It didn't have to be..." I nice little warble of emotion broke through and I briefly cared about calculus.
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