Inhalt:
Obert, Simon, co-author
This book accompanies the Paul Sacher Foundation's exhibition at the Bonn
Beethovenhaus. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, composers have
referred to Beethoven in their music. The volume explores this subject and
illustrates it with documents from the Foundation's archives in
Basel.Although the notion of a musical 'mainstream' with Beethoven as its
fons et origo barely holds today, countless composers of the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries have referred to Beethoven in their music or
creatively sought to distance themselves from him. This volume illustrates
his ongoing relevance using documents from the collections of the Paul Sacher
Foundation. Designed to accompany the eponymous exhibition in the Bonn
Beethovenhaus, it adopts the four thematic areas of that exhibition:
'Learning and Teaching with Beethoven,' 'Idealizations,' 'Strategies of
Reference,' and 'Distortion - Dismantlement.' It explores the contexts,
techniques, and ideological thrusts of Beethoven references in musicians of
very wide-ranging backgrounds, from Anton Webern, Bela Bartok, and Richard
Strauss to Mauricio Kagel, Cathy Berberian, and Kaija Saariaho. The selected
documents are captured in photographic reproduction and accompanied by
detailed commentary. Each section is preceded by an introductory essay
discussing general aspects of recent Beethoven reception.