Beethoven in America

by Broyles, Michael

• ISBN13: 9780253357045
• ISBN10: 0253357047
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-10-27
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

Beethoven permeates American culture. His image appears on countless busts, and coffee mugs; his music is heard in movie scores, TV soundtracks, commercials, and pop songs; he is Schroeder's god in Peanuts and Chuck Berry's freaked-out parent in "Roll over Beethoven." In this book, Michael Broyles seeks to understand Beethoven as he exists in the American imagination and how he became a cultural icon. Broyles examines the composer's appearance in a variety of contexts: American commercialism, the Afrocentrist and black power movements, and the modernist critique of Romanticism. He considers portrayals of Beethoven in American film and theater and the uses of his music in film scores, as well as references to Beethoven and his music in disco, country, rock, and rap. In the end, one thing is certain: to examine Beethoven on American soil is to examine America itself.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Arrival and Sacralization
Arrival in America	p. 13
Denning Beethoven	p. 41
Deification and Spiritualization	p. 68
Science, Scholars, and Critics
Beethoven, Modernism, and Science	p. 97
"The Warm Tropical Summer of Sketch Research" Beethoven and the Cold War	p. 117
Reactions to Modernism: Musical Meaning and the Classical Canon	p. 139
Beethoven and The Dramatic Arts
Beethoven on the Silver Screen	p. 167
Beethoven's Music in Film	p. 210
Beethoven in the Theater	p. 240
Beyond Classicism: Beethoven In American Society And Culture
"Beethoven Was Black": Why Does It Matter?	p. 267
Beethoven in Popular Music	p. 292
Beethoven Everywhere	p. 323
Notes	p. 355
Bibliography	p. 383
Index	p. 399
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