Aimer Beethoven : Les années d'apprentissage d'Henri-Frédéric Amiel, amateur de musique genevois (1840-1860)

Abstract

During two decades (1840-1860), Henri-Frederic Amiel, as well as being philosophy professor at the University of Geneva, had a career as music amateur that he described extensively in his large diary. Extremely keen on Beethoven, he gradually discovered what was called « grande musique ». At the same time, a new art of listening was being created by different practices based on explanatory texts, physical gestures and an aesthetics of effort. Amiel's passion was not exclusive of lighter types of music that were in fact part of the world of the music amateur during the 19 t h century. This cultural universe was indeed filled with contradictions, but only superficially.