Mark Evan Bonds Books

The Beethoven Syndrome: Hearing Music as Autobiography traces the rise, fall, and persistence of a radical new mode of listening from the middle of the eighteenth century to the present.

Before the nineteenth century, instrumental music was considered inferior to vocal music. Kant described wordless music as "more pleasure than culture," and Rousseau dismissed it for its inability to convey concepts. But by the early 1800s, a dramatic shift was under way. Purely instrumental music was now being hailed as a means to knowledge and embraced precisely because of its independence from the limits of language. What had once been perceived as entertainment was heard increasingly as a vehicle of thought. Listening had become a way of knowing. Music as Thought traces the roots of this fundamental shift in attitudes toward listening in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Focusing on responses to the symphony in the age of Beethoven, Mark Evan Bonds draws on contemporary accounts and a range of sources--philosophical, literary, political, and musical--to reveal how this music was experienced by those who heard it first. Music as Thought is a fascinating reinterpretation of the causes and effects of a revolution in listening.

Focusing on the impact of Beethoven's symphonies, this book delves into how five prominent composers—Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, and Mahler—responded to his formidable legacy. Through their struggles to both emulate and surpass Beethoven, the narrative sheds light on the evolution of the symphony and the profound influence Beethoven had on the musical landscape of the nineteenth century. The exploration deepens our appreciation of each composer's unique contributions in the shadow of this towering figure.

Six compact discs complement the text and Anthology of Scores. Produced by Naxos of America in close coordination with Prentice Hall, these recordings draw on the resources of many different recording labels and feature some of the most distinguished artists and ensembles of our time, such as the Gothic Voices, Anonymous 4, the Hilliard Ensemble, the Orlando Consort, Les Arts Florissants, the Concerto Italiano, the English Baroque Soloists, and the Quatuor Mosaiques. Representative soloists include Paul O'Dette, Louis Bagger, Emily van Evera, Malcolm Bilsson, and Jessye Norman. The discs are arranged chronologically and mirror the content and structure of the anthology.

Beethoven's music expresses far more than just the iconic scowl we so often imagine when listening to his works. In this fresh perspective, Mark Evan Bonds proposes a new way of hearing Beethoven's music as a series of variations on the composer's entire self, not just his scowling self.