Beethoven: A Study in His Spiritual Development

Book title: Beethoven, a study in the development of his spirit Author: J. B. L. Sullivan Publisher: Al-Rafidain Printing and Publishing House Category: Novel Number of pages: 205 About the book: Since I knew this book more than twenty years ago, I have read it more than three times, and I do not know how many times I read the chapter about the last string quartets. I say I read it, but reading a book about Beethoven, no matter how deeply immersed in the secrets of this being who heard everything except the noisy sounds of the world, without following Beethoven's music in the corridors and labyrinths of the soul, without continuous repetitive listening stubbornly against the stubbornness of life for every musical phrase he wrote, this being who never stopped coming to us without the fatigue of waiting, and whom we sometimes wait for as the invisible oxygen—this reading does not suffice, just as talking about swimming does not replace swimming, nor does describing a color substitute for seeing it. So let us go to Beethoven and listen to him before listening to others about him. If this rightful leadership is achieved, talking about him becomes a conversation about a visit through which we gained a very close friend—not that stern face that stares at us from his pictures, nor that rebellious recluse whom people sometimes avoided because of his intense aversion to people, but the pure, honest, joyful, continuous, affectionate divine companion, and the generous hand and spirit, the cosmic sadness that emanates from him as an individual. That is Beethoven in his music: a force without arrogance and gentleness, without softness and audible radiance. And what he most wrote was a reorganization of feelings through a spiritual experience unmatched in the history of art, as confirmed by more than one person who was touched by the sun of his music.