# Classical music and biography



## RonPrice (Aug 23, 2005)

CLASSICAL MUSIC AND BIOGRAPHY

Part 1:

It is always interesting and sometimes even important to have intimate knowledge of a composer's life, but it is not essential in order to understand the composer's works. In Beethoven's case, one must not forget that in 1802, the year he was contemplating suicide-as he wrote in an unsent letter to his brothers that came to be known as the "Heiligenstadt Testament"-he also composed the Second Symphony, one of his works that was most positive in spirit, thus showing us that it is of vital importance to separate his music from his personal biography and not to conflate the two.

These words in this part of my website come from Daniel Barenboim(1942-), the Israeli Argentine-born pianist and conductor. He has served as music director of several major symphonic and operatic orchestras and made numerous recordings. Currently, he is general music director of La Scala in Milan, the Berlin State Opera, and the Staatskapelle Berlin; he previously served as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre de Paris. Barenboim is also known for his work with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, a Seville-based orchestra of young Arab and Israeli musicians, and as a resolute critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

Part 2:

In his essay in *The New York Review of Books*, April 2013, Barenboim does not provide an elaborate psychological study of the man Beethoven through an analysis of his works, or vice versa. The focus of his essay is Beethoven's music. "It must be understood," writes Barenboim, "that one cannot explain the nature or the message of music through words. Music means different things to different people and sometimes even different things to the same person at different moments of his life. It might be poetic, philosophical, sensual, or mathematical, but in any case it must, in my view, have something to do with the soul of the human being." Barenboim says that music is metaphysical, but the means of expression are purely and exclusively physical: sound. "I believe it is precisely this permanent coexistence of metaphysical message through physical means," says Barenboim, "that is the strength of music. It is also the reason why when we try to describe music with words, all we can do is articulate our reactions to it, and not grasp music itself."

For more on this subject go to:http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/apr/04/beethoven-and-quality-courage/


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

As Leonard Bernstein said a lot sooner than Barenboim,

"Why do so many of us try to explain the beauty of music, thus depriving us of its mystery?"


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

hpowders said:


> As Leonard Bernstein said a lot sooner than Barenboim,
> 
> "Why do so many of us try to explain the beauty of music, thus depriving us of its mystery?"


Explanations almost always make our experience even more wonderful. I cannot imagine anyone finding music less interesting or beautiful just because they've learned, say, how sound waves "move through" air.


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## Blancrocher (Jul 6, 2013)

Along the same lines, from Alfred Brendel's recent book (excerpts from which are in the NYRB):



> There are those who believe that delving into the biography of artists ensures a deeper perception of their art. I am not one of them. The notion that a work of art has to mirror the person of the artist, that man and work are an equation, that the integrity of the person warrants the integrity of his production-such belief seems to me to belong, particularly in the area of music, to the realm of wishful thinking. (The poet Christian Morgenstern has his hero Palmström assert that "there cannot be what must not be.")
> 
> Beethoven's frequently chaotic handwriting in his letters and musical autographs reminds us of his domestic disarray as we know it from pictures and descriptions. In complete contrast, there is the enduring order of his compositions.
> 
> ...


http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/jul/11/alfred-brendel-a-pianists-a-to-v/

That said, I'll just mention a few very interesting books in the public domain that I recently read online, in case anyone's of interest:

Stravinsky's autobiography: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/36169/36169-h/36169-h.htm

Liszt's life of Chopin (much of it compiled, I gather, by his mistress, the Princess Sayne-
Wittgenstein): http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4386/4386-h/4386-h.htm

Essays and reviews by Schumann: https://archive.org/details/musicmusicianse00schu


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

science said:


> Explanations almost always make our experience even more wonderful. I cannot imagine anyone finding music less interesting or beautiful just because they've learned, say, how sound waves "move through" air.


As with Grace Kelly's face, I simply let beauty speak for itself.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I've learned that lesson myself. One cannot correlate positively events in a composer's life with the emotional content of music composed at the same time. I used to think one can.


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