Beethoven jako aktor historyczny. Perspektywa mikrohistoryczna w muzykologii

Abstract

The article focuses on issues of microhistory and the usefulness of  this historiographical practice in musicological research. The author begins by presenting the key issues relating to microhistory,  referring extensively to the book What Is Microhistory? by István  M. Szijártó and Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon. She then quotes and briefly  discusses the most significant musicological works which employed  microhistorical strategy. These are Mark Everist’s book Music Drama  at the Paris Odéon, 1824–1828, Tamara Levitz’s Modernist Mysteries:  Perséphone and Peter J. Schmelz’s article “Shostakovich” Fights the  Cold War: Reflections from Great to Small. The main part of the text  is devoted to Mark Ferraguto’s monograph Beethoven 1806. That publication is wholly based on the microhistorical approach, thus open- ing a new perspective in reflection on the instrumental works by the Master from Bonn. Ferraguto analyses Beethoven’s works from 1806  and early 1807 in the context of the people and the instruments for  which they were composed; he also explores the nature of and reasons  for the composer’s retreat from the „heroic phase”, analysing various  aspects of contemporary musical, social and political life in Vienna.  He does so while concentrating on selected, characteristic moments  which define the given opus. Unlike the earlier musicological works based on the microhistorical strategy, Ferraguto’s monograph is not overburdened with detail,  but makes an excellent job of linking contextual issues with analysis  of musical composition. In this way it enriches musicological research  by providing it with a new, interesting dimension.