Beethoven (Life & Times S.) - Hardcover

This is one title in a series of short, illustrated biographies. They tell the stories of those who have shaped our present and our past, from Beethoven to Dietrich, from Einstein to Churchill and suitable for students and the general reader. Ludvig van Beethoven is a legendary figure in world culture, but who is the man behind that legend? Geck offers a vivid portrait of a difficult but fascinating man with a tangled and still controversial love life. He explores Beethoven's place in Vienna's music scene and in Western musical history, with particular emphasis on the development of the piano sonatas, the symphonies and the late string quartets. This is an authoritative, yet accessible biography of a self-styled cultural hero, presented warts and all.

Martin Geck studied musicology, theology and philosophy at Munster, Berlin and Kiel. He took his doctorate in 1962 and in 1966 became the founding editor of the Gesamtausgabe of the works of Richard Wagner. He wrote a number of musicological textbooks and was appointed full professor of musicology at Dortmund University in 1976. He has edited and written many books, articles and entries into encyclopaedic works on the history of German music in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, concentrating on the work of Buxtehude, Brahms, Bach, Beethoven, E T A Hoffmann, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Wagner. He is also the author of Bach (Haus Publishing)."