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The Catholic Beethoven offers a new view of Beethoven and his religious music by demonstrating that both the composer and his sacred works were influenced by the German Catholicism of his era to a much greater extent than has been thought. It draws on revisionist historical research into the role of religion in the Enlightenment, especially the Catholic Enlightenment, to interpret both the composer's religious works and documentary evidence of his spiritual outlook. In addition, it is the first book-length treatment of Beethoven's sacred music that is not focused only on the
Missa solemnis, but also examines the Mass in C,
Christus am Ölberge, and the Gellert Lieder.
List of contents
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: German Catholicism in Beethoven's Time: Enlightenment and Restoration
- Chapter 2: Beethoven and the Catholic Enlightenment in Bonn
- Chapter 3: Beethoven's Religious Works before the Missa solemnis: The Gellert Lieder, Christus am Ölberge, and the Mass in C
- Chapter 4: Religion in Beethoven's Library: Christoph Christian Sturm and Ignaz Aurelius Feßler
- Chapter 5: Beethoven and Johann Michael Sailer
- Chapter 6: The Missa solemnis
- Conclusion
About the author
Nicholas Chong is Assistant Professor of Musicology at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. Previously, he served as TOMS Core Faculty Fellow and Lecturer in the Core Curriculum at Columbia University. He holds academic degrees from Columbia University and Yale University, as well as a degree in orchestral conducting from the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati.
Additional text
This book is a game changer. At first, the idea of contextualizing Beethoven in his religious milieu might seem like a tangential if interesting footnote in the crowded literature on the composer but, in Nicholas Chong's hands, it is a thread that unravels tacitly accepted and long-cherished approaches in Beethoven scholarship. Meticulously researched, Chong's clearheaded re-evaluation will challenge the way we think about Beethoven, if not the tradition of Western music built upon his name.
