This book is therefore a collection of quotations drawn from the writings of musicians, musicologists, performers, critics, and from Beethoven’s own writings and letters, which, I believe, may help us to understand the various, and often seemingly contradictory, aspects of his personality. I also think that some of them may provide guidance for the comprehension of his work to those who approach Beethoven for the first time, without having read much about him or heard much of his music.

To read an entire volume on Beethoven—for instance the books of Solomon, Rosen, or Thayer—and to extract all that they are able to tell us, may be laborious and fatiguing. Music, even when it is “serious” music, full of meaning, such as Beethoven’s, must represent an oasis of peace and relaxation, especially in these tumultuous and aggressive times—an oasis to which one may return to draw an hour of serenity and, as Beethoven liked, and I am sure still likes, to fill our hearts with “joy.”

This book proposes, above all, not to weary the reader. It is written so that it need not be read at one stretch, page after page, chapter after chapter, seeking a story and a conclusion, as must necessarily be done with biographical or musicological books. It is, as I have mentioned, a series of quotations, gathered in groups, which may help us to know the character of the Master, his religious or political opinions, the opinions of others about him, his place in the history of music, the most important events of his life, or his works in their genesis and first performances. The quotations are sometimes brief, even of only a few lines, but at times two or three pages long. They have been chosen so that each constitutes a paragraph in itself and, even read in isolation, has its own meaning. To each of the Master’s works a small chapter is dedicated, which may be read in its entirety or likewise in paragraphs. The book may therefore be opened at random; its reading may last only a few minutes and be limited even to a single paragraph. It is the classic book to keep at the bedside, by the fireside, or beside the armchair of moments of relaxation, whether in working time or in vacation.

It is, in substance, a kind of Breviary, in which the reader will find information on what we know of the Master, based on the results of studies carried out in the approximately one hundred and eighty years that have elapsed since his death. The reading and meditation of these brief notes should help to understand why this man has had such an important role in the history of music and of our culture, and to bring the reader closer to the comprehension of his works. If some of those into whose hands this book may fall are moved to deepen their reading on Beethoven and to listen, with a little more attention, to his music, becoming, as one says today, a “fan” (if Beethoven needs any!), I shall be glad, for I shall have attained my purpose. Yet I must confess that, even in the contrary case, I am content nonetheless, since the gathering of this material has accompanied me for many years, from my youth and from my first contacts with Beethoven’s music, helping me to know him better and to love ever more the products of his genius.

The quotations are rigorously reported with the name of the author, and the volume or article from which they are taken is cited in the List of Books and Writings Consulted. In the text there are here and there interpolated words or brief phrases, enclosed in square brackets [ ]. These are words, insertions, or information that I have had to add to render comprehensible the sense of the cited passages, when, for reasons of brevity, I have had to cut parts of the original text. The paragraphs written by myself are likewise enclosed in square brackets [ ]. But even in these parts there is little original or personal. They are usually summaries of facts, events, stories, judgments, or hypotheses reported in the literature, which it would have been too long to cite extensively. The names of those who have established the facts, expressed the judgments, or advanced the hypotheses are always clearly cited in the course of the text, unless they are items now, so to speak, passed into history. Typical examples of this way of summarizing are found in the chapter on Beethoven’s Biographies and in that concerning the Immortal Beloved, and at times at the beginning of the illustration of individual works.

In writings on Beethoven, in general, the citation of his letters is not accompanied by the precise indication of the source. In square brackets [ ] is here reported the number attributed to the cited letter of Beethoven, according to one of the three editions that I have been able to study: Ludwig van Beethovens sämtliche Briefe. Herausgegeben von Emerich Kastner. Völlig umgearbeitete und wesentlich vermehrte Neueausgabe von Dr. Julius Kapp. Leipzig, Hesse & Becker Verlag, 1923; Le lettere di Beethoven, by E. Anderson, Turin, ILTE, 1968; Ludwig van Beethoven. Epistolario, Vols. I–V, by Sieghard Brandenburg, published under the aegis of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, by Skira, Geneva–Milan, 1999–2003 (still incomplete). According to the source, the number of the letter is preceded by “K.,” “A.,” or “E.” (for example: [K.47], [A.1023], [E.367]).

Carlo Alberto Pagni Frette