Hugo Riemann

This authoritative biography of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) was a landmark in its meticulous research and use of source material. For the American author Alexander Wheelock Thayer (1817–97), it represented a lifelong labour of love, yet it remained unfinished at his death. His friend Hermann Deiters (1833–1907) edited and translated Thayer's work into German, publishing three volumes which covered Beethoven's life to 1816. Since Deiters also died before the biography could be completed, musicologist Hugo Riemann (1849–1919) was called upon to conclude the work. The final German volumes appeared in 1907 and 1908. It was the American critic Henry Edward Krehbiel (1854–1923) who prepared the present work, the first and considerably revised English version, published in three volumes in 1921. Volume 1 covers Beethoven's career through to 1802, the year of the Heiligenstadt Testament.

This authoritative biography of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) was a landmark in its meticulous research and use of source material. For the American author Alexander Wheelock Thayer (1817–97), it represented a lifelong labour of love, yet it remained unfinished at his death. His friend Hermann Deiters (1833–1907) edited and translated Thayer's work into German, publishing three volumes which covered Beethoven's life to 1816. Since Deiters also died before the biography could be completed, musicologist Hugo Riemann (1849–1919) was called upon to conclude the work. The final German volumes appeared in 1907 and 1908. It was the American critic Henry Edward Krehbiel (1854–1923) who prepared the present work, the first and considerably revised English version, published in three volumes in 1921. Volume 3 covers Beethoven's final years, his ninth symphony and late quartets.

One of the most important musicologists of his age, Hugo Riemann (1849–1919) influenced an entire generation in its thinking. He held several teaching posts before settling at the University of Leipzig in 1895. A prolific writer on music theory, publishing works on almost every aspect of the subject, he is best remembered for his celebrated Musik-Lexikon (1882). These three lectures, setting out his thinking on how we listen to music, were first published in 1888 as Wie hören wir Musik? and in 1895 in this English translation by Heinrich Bewerunge (1862–1923), plainchant scholar at St Patrick's College, Maynooth. Each lecture deals with a different aspect of the overarching question posed in the original title, revealing Riemann's thoughts on the transformation of hearing into feeling, the different psychological effects of dynamics, emotional responses to rhythm and harmony, and passive and active listening.