Handel, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Dvorak, Stravinsky, Messiaen . . . Men of genius as different as their music – but all inspired by deep spiritual convictions. Peter Kavanaugh uncovers the spirituality of twenty of music’s timeless giants, revealing legacies of the soul as diverse as the masterpieces they created. Warmly written, beautifully illustrated, and complete with listening recommendations for each composer, Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers is a fascinating look at the inner flame that lit the works of these masters.
Book Info:
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* Books Details:
- Sales Rank: #59224 in Books
- Published on: 1996-04-01
- Released on: 1996-03-19
- Original language:
English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: .65″ h x
5.29″ w x
8.01″ l,
.40 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 256 pages
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
List of film score composers – Wikipedia, the free
The following is a list of notable people who compose or have composed soundtrack music for films (i.e. film scores), television, video games and radio. Contents 1 A
THE SYMBOLISM AND SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE NUMBER NINE
“The Symbolism and Spiritual Significance of the Number Nine” By Dee Finney and others as named. .
Soul – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the ancient Egyptian religion, an individual was believed to be made up of various elements, some physical and some spiritual. See the article Egyptian soul for
Spiritual Significance of the Peacock | Defining Words
Hey, Melissa, This is a great word of comfirmation for the time that we are moving in. There are 3 places in the bible that peacocks are mentioned (1 Kings 10:22, 2
Spiritual Sounding Board | Finding resolve amidst the
Finding resolve amidst the dissonance of “churchianity” (by Julie Anne)
Howard David Johnson – Realistic Art: The Art Galleries of
Who is American Illustrator Howard David Johnson? In one of David’s invitations to the Florence Biennale Contemporary Art Exhibition, (a partner in the United Nations
Spirituality & Practice: Resources for Spiritual Journeys
Spiritual Practice of the Day Spiritual Reading of the Day: Thubten Chodron on compassionate responses More Spiritual Readings Practicing Spirituality
Spiritual Meaning of 777 Intuitive Journal
Hi, Im from Sweden and until 2 years i never would have believed in these kind of things but like i said 2 years ago it started i see the number 777 everywhere at
The Cutting Edge – Spiritual Insights Into The New World
Christian site which examines the coming of a New World Order prophesied through the Bible. Articles and other resources.
- Sales Rank: #59224 in Books
- Published on: 1996-04-01
- Released on: 1996-03-19
- Original language:
English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: .65″ h x
5.29″ w x
8.01″ l,
.40 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 256 pages
Handel, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Dvorak, Stravinsky, Messiaen . . . Men of genius as different as their music – but all inspired by deep spiritual convictions. Peter Kavanaugh uncovers the spirituality of twenty of music’s timeless giants, revealing legacies of the soul as diverse as the masterpieces they created. Warmly written, beautifully illustrated, and complete with listening recommendations for each composer, Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers is a fascinating look at the inner flame that lit the works of these masters.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
86 of 92 people found the following review helpful.
An inspiring book. . .
By David Zampino
. . .with some flaws which limit it’s appeal.Noted Christian composer Patrick Kavanaugh has done a good job in presenting his thesis; namely that many, if not most, of the great composers over the last 400 years, were men of spirituality — even if not always completely orthodox in their expressions of that spirituality. As far as that goes, the point is quite valid.However, at times, Kavanaugh seems to be stretching his thesis to include less obvious examples (Schubert, for instance) when more obvious examples could have been used. (However, he does do the musical world a good service by rehabilitating Wagner and demonstrating that while he was a man with many faults, he cannot and should not be held responsible for the actions of Hitler!)Also frustrating was Kavanaugh’s habit of ascribing specific internal motives to several of the featured composers. In addition, there is a strong anti-Catholic bias in the book which I found distasteful. Those composers with Protestant backgrounds had their Protestantism emphasized, while those with Catholic backgrounds had their Catholicism minimized and even ridiculed. For me, this was unnecessary and intellectually dishonest.This being said, I would still like to see another volume. Many, many other composers come to mind which could fill such a book. And hopefully, some of the anti-Catholic bias could be filtered out.
41 of 47 people found the following review helpful.
Interesting read, but somewhat superficial
By K. Eames
As both a classical music fan and a Christian, I was initially excited by this book. A quick perusal before purchasing let me know it would not be an in-depth exploration, but brief biographical sketches of the composers. While the author did a good job of providing a balanced presentation of the facts (see the chapter on Chopin), the book suffers from a kind of redactive shallowness that comes from attempting to look for genuine Christian faith in two-dimensional biographical material. The weakness of this approach is that it looks for certainty about individual faith from the sociocultural milieu in which the composers lived, where spiritual language was the norm. It is important to note that, while the author uses “spiritual” in the title, he means “Christian,” or so it appears by his attempt to reconcile the unorthodox beliefs and conduct of men like Wagner and Beethoven with orthodox faith. The small postscripts at the end of each chapter that linked a character trait with each composer was trite and did not add any value to the book. I tended to skip them. Finally, there were some disappointing omissions: Vivaldi, Schumann, Mahler, Arvo Part and John Tavener come to mind. All in all, an interesting but unremarkable read.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
Revealing the inner life
By Alan Lekan
“People of faith” will likely be the most interested in these mini-biographies of the great composers that focuses mostly on the spiritual (mostly Christian) aspects of their lives. In that light, this book helps fill-in some of the personal faith aspects of each composer that are rarely expounded upon in depth in the other biographies. Kavanaugh’s distillations here extract many of the most personal conversations and writings of these composers in an attempt to “reconstruct” their inner, spiritual life. And while some of the common lingo in the letters written in 18th/19th century Europe did indeed contain more neutral and polite “God talk,” most of the direct quotes go way beyond that to reveal deeply personal and theological thoughts about what that composer felt about God, faith and the relation to their musical lives. Kavanaugh cites Brahms as a notable example who supposedly revealed very deep theological thoughts and personal beliefs to writer/friend Abell, who published them finally in 1955 after years of avowed silence (“Talks with Great Composers”). Many will also find the author’s account of Chopin’s last years particular touching as the great poet-pianist embraced the faith within him that had faded to a flicker amidst the hedonistic Parisian lifestyle of the 19th century. Other composers listed here will appear to some readers to be somewhat of a stretch regarding the presence of a genuine faith in God and love of mankind in their lives. But, again, Kavanaugh presents other, more hidden aspects of their lives not common in other biographies that are worth hearing.However, trying to really understand the inner life and faith of a person – any person then or now – is a tricky proposition. It is tempting to extrapolate and make simple conclusions about a complex person based on a few words in a letter, and Kavanaugh might do this at times. But, other times the original writings Kavanaugh quotes seems to more clearly reveal a deeply spiritual person that might not have been apparent to others then or now. Overall though, this book is very revealing and presents a rather unique and detailed account of the spiritual lives of these great composers. As such it is a useful adjunct book on the topic. One caveat: given that the author’s perspective here, you will not find any discussion on other religious or spiritual leanings outside mainstream 18th/19th century European Catholic/Protestant faith but will need to consult other sources if that is your interest. Other highly recommended books for general study of the great composers are (1) “The Gift of Music” which gives excellent biographies on 36 composers and also gives some Christian perspective … and (2) “Lives of the Great Composers (Schonberg) which is one of the legendary references for the study of the composers and musical eras but reads more like a good novel than an academic treatise.
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