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Music and Letters 2003 84(1):19-54; doi:10.1093/ml/84.1.19
© 2003 by Oxford University Press
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Pilgrimages to Beethoven: Reminiscences by His Contemporaries

K. M. Knittel1

1 The Musicology Faculty at University of Texas at Austin

The reminiscences that recount visits to Beethoven have been treated primarily as sources of biographical information, and there has been much scholarly concern regarding their trustworthiness as historical documents. A significant number, however, use a single plot, that of a quest or pilgrimage, indicating that, in all likelihood, most have been shaped and embroidered by their authors. Precisely because they have been ‘fictionalized’, these narratives can provide insight into how and why the Beethoven myth managed to overpower history. The article suggests some reasons why the authors' insistence on—and our acceptance of—Beethoven's inaccessibility might be so seductive.


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