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The Bizarr Master. The Beethoven-Image in Sweden between 1800 and 1840

Beginn:2001
Laufzeit:end of 2008
Ansprechpartner:Anders Gabriel Sundström
Adresse:Lyckås, 22610 Lemland, Åland, Finnland
e-mail: andersgs@aland.net
 
The dissertation will elucidate the impressions Beethoven's music and person made in Sweden between the years 1800 and 1840. In 1800 Sweden was still a poor, conservative kingdom with an outdated infrastructure, distribution of political power and cultural life. By 1840 the country had been transformed into a liberal bourgeois society that came increasingly to resemble countries on the Continent. And in another ten years' time Sweden would be well on its way to becoming a modern state.
No one in Sweden in the year 1800 knows who Beethoven is - with the exception of individuals travelling in Europe who could have mentioned him privately. But already in the decade after 1810 and the 1820s Beethoven has admirers who strive to get his music performed in Sweden. They defend Beethoven as well, which was necessary since his music encountered scathing criticism on the part of those who retained the musical and cultural standards of bygone times. They considered Beethoven's music to be bizarre and lacking in unity and melody - he was thought a genius who was unable to handle his talent. Thus, for example, audiences in 1834 laughed to scorn the last movement at the first Swedish performance of the Ninth Symphony - "... a great many lovers of Beethoven nevertheless with rather embarrassed expressions on their faces..."
The dissertation will show that the idealistic and Christian outlook on life and art was the world view of the Romantics could well be applied to their conception of Beethoven's music and destiny. According to these persons - German poets, philosophers, estheticians of music and Swedish representatives of academies, political authorities, composers, writers on musical topics, as well as people at the grass-roots level - music was now seen as the highest of the fine arts, as "handmaid of religion".
 
Beteiligte:Dissertation (adviser: Dr. Johannes Brusila, department of musicology, Åbo Academy, Åbo, Finnland)