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    Mr. Beethoven

    £11.69
    £12.99
    Price-Match is available in-store for recommended titles in CCCU module handbooks
    ISBN: 9781999797492
    Products specifications
    Attribute nameAttribute value
    AuthorGriffiths, Paul
    Pub Date30/04/2020
    BindingPaperback
    Pages326
    Publisher: HENNINGHAM FAMILY PRESS
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    Paul Griffiths uses Oulipoaen constraints to imagine Beethoven visiting Boston to fulfill a commission to write a Biblical Oratorio for the Handel and Hayden Society.

    What if Beethoven had travelled to the United States? Taking up a commission to write a Biblical oratorio for Boston's Handel and Haydn Society?

    As Mr. Beethoven wrestles with his librettist and his muse, he comes to rely on two women. Thankful, who conducts his conversations using Martha's Vineyard sign language, and a kindred spirit: Mrs. Hill. Meanwhile all Boston waits in anxious expectation of a first performance Mr. Beethoven will never hear.

    Variously admonishing the amateur music society and laughing in the company of his hosts' children, the immortal composer is brought back to the fullness of life. Griffiths invents only what is strictly possible. His historiography weaves through the text in counterpoint, making this also a story about the fragility of the past and the remaining traces of the man: Mr. Beethoven.