For most of the last ten years of Beethoven's life, Anton Schindler was
closely associated with the composer as pupil, secretary, servant, and
factotum. This relationship gave him an incomparable vantage point for
writing a personalized, detailed biography of the great man.
In 1840 Schindler published the first, hastily written version of the
biography, which was translated into English the following year by Ignaz
Moscheles, the eminent pianist and Beethoven disciple. It was not until
1860, however, that Schindler published a carefully written, thoroughly
revised edition, containing a great deal of new material. It is this
third edition that is reprinted here in an English translation by
Constance S. Jolly.
Extensively annotated by Beethoven scholar Donald W. MacArdle, this
edition of the biography offers not only Schindler's intimate view of
the composer -- his music, how he was viewed by his contemporaries, his
personality, deafness and irascible behavior, and other aspects of his
daily life -- but incorporates 100 years of subsequent Beethoven
research. The result is an indispensable source of information about one
of history's greatest musical geniuses -- a standard reference work as
appealing to the general music lover as it is essential to the Beethoven
scholar.