Culture critic and pianist Edward Said was working in his own period of Late Style as he wrote this book, dying at age 67, before he was able to complete the work. Fortunately, he left enough material behind that could be used by his friend, Michael Wood, to finish the composition.
Although it feels cut short in some areas, this is perhaps an example of late style itself--a bit discordant and disconnected. It seems to be what Mr. Said called late style: an idiom of later life. Mr. Said was intrigued and fascinated by artists and musicians working in their final years.
Many do not seem to create or produce in order to provide a sense of closure to a lifetime of achievement and a body of work that should show wisdom, but rather to charge headlong into unanswered and unfinished business with a new adolescent-flavored energy. It can seem destructive, but perhaps in a way bringing down the old and thrusting forth the new. These artists even create new business to unsettle the public.
Their works seem to be peculiar to the late stage of life as a reaction of sorts to impending death--a last loud hurray. One artisan, Glenn Gould, was loudest in his silence, choosing not to perform on stage at all in later years and having people wondering why not. He stopped live performances and chose only to record his work for sale. As Mr. Said taught in his Columbia University class, "Late Works/Late Style," it is as if older artists of all genres often seek conflict, controversy, and upheaval.
Many do not seem to create or produce in order to provide a sense of closure to a lifetime of achievement and a body of work that should show wisdom, but rather to charge headlong into unanswered and unfinished business with a new adolescent-flavored energy. It can seem destructive, but perhaps in a way bringing down the old and thrusting forth the new. These artists even create new business to unsettle the public.
Their works seem to be peculiar to the late stage of life as a reaction of sorts to impending death--a last loud hurray. One artisan, Glenn Gould, was loudest in his silence, choosing not to perform on stage at all in later years and having people wondering why not. He stopped live performances and chose only to record his work for sale. As Mr. Said taught in his Columbia University class, "Late Works/Late Style," it is as if older artists of all genres often seek conflict, controversy, and upheaval.
People think they are perhaps crazy. It is as if these dying artisans are crying, "No, not yet!" and fighting off immortality to maintain their creative say and give the survivors something to ponder. Further, what they do create clashes with current fair, but foreshadows things to come in the disciplines of each after their deaths, in the next generation of the arts. Death seems to be dragging them off with difficulty, while their last flash of ideas proceeds further.
Examination of the Artists
The author examines a wide range of artists, including centuries of composers, writers, musicians, playwrights, and a film director. Beethoven's late works foreshadowed 20th century modern music with clashing chords, tension, a tonal melodies, and alternative beats. The author states that this late music was "at the core of what was new in modern music of our time." There is the thought included that Beethoven had perhaps absorbed too much information for his lifetime and gone mad with it, desperately expelling it for all to view.
Examination of the Artists
The author examines a wide range of artists, including centuries of composers, writers, musicians, playwrights, and a film director. Beethoven's late works foreshadowed 20th century modern music with clashing chords, tension, a tonal melodies, and alternative beats. The author states that this late music was "at the core of what was new in modern music of our time." There is the thought included that Beethoven had perhaps absorbed too much information for his lifetime and gone mad with it, desperately expelling it for all to view.
Astronomer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa's The Leopard was his only major work, written in 1955-56 before he died in 1957. It was rejected by publishers until 1959, when it won the Italian high literary award, Premio Strega. Thereafter, some of his stories and essays were also published. His late style comprised writing itself, which is much different from not writing for previous decades.
He spoke out about the upheaval in 1860's Italy, gaining notice with lines like, "Unless we ourselves take a hand now, they'll foist a republic on us. If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change." This is the controversy of late style in action, and a sentiment that could be applied to Cold War Italy as well as 1860 Sicily.
Other artists examined include Mozart, Jean Genet, Glenn Gould, Arnold Schoenberg and Richard Strauss, director Luchino Visconti who filmed The Leopard, Euripides (The Bacchae and Iphigenia at Aulis), Thomas Mann (Death in Venice), Theodor Adorno, and Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy. In contrast to these individuals, Said also includes some that seemed to communicate a supernatural calm in their last works: Sophocles, Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Matisse, Bach, and Wagner.
He spoke out about the upheaval in 1860's Italy, gaining notice with lines like, "Unless we ourselves take a hand now, they'll foist a republic on us. If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change." This is the controversy of late style in action, and a sentiment that could be applied to Cold War Italy as well as 1860 Sicily.
Other artists examined include Mozart, Jean Genet, Glenn Gould, Arnold Schoenberg and Richard Strauss, director Luchino Visconti who filmed The Leopard, Euripides (The Bacchae and Iphigenia at Aulis), Thomas Mann (Death in Venice), Theodor Adorno, and Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy. In contrast to these individuals, Said also includes some that seemed to communicate a supernatural calm in their last works: Sophocles, Shakespeare, Rembrandt, Matisse, Bach, and Wagner.
The Rest of the Story
This book contains many interesting ideas. However, the author spends a lot of time considering the German musician-philosopher Theodor Adorno's own ideas in examining the artists targeted in the book. This contributes to a great deal of attention to detail in spots and some over-wordiness in academic scrutiny. However, the text is still interesting and the forward by Michael Wood is very good as well. Mr. Said's thoughts have, indeed, raised much controversy in the past and present among literary and music critics who are arguing that Beethoven did not exhibit the Saidian late style. It is my own opinion that he did. This book certainly provokes thoughts and opinions.
Constantine Cavafy's work often spoke of exile and loneliness and these are conditions that Mr. Said attributes to late style itself in that it is a sort of exile used for expressing oneself prior to death. As Said asks, "Does one grow wiser with age and are there unique qualities of perception and form that artists acquire as a result of age in the late phase of their career?" The answer to both parts of that question is likely affirmative. Numerous people hurry and produce more nearer a deadline that farther from it. Perhaps the most production, even brainstorming in action--thinking out loud in the arts in action--occurs nearest the deadline of physical mortality.
This book contains many interesting ideas. However, the author spends a lot of time considering the German musician-philosopher Theodor Adorno's own ideas in examining the artists targeted in the book. This contributes to a great deal of attention to detail in spots and some over-wordiness in academic scrutiny. However, the text is still interesting and the forward by Michael Wood is very good as well. Mr. Said's thoughts have, indeed, raised much controversy in the past and present among literary and music critics who are arguing that Beethoven did not exhibit the Saidian late style. It is my own opinion that he did. This book certainly provokes thoughts and opinions.
Constantine Cavafy's work often spoke of exile and loneliness and these are conditions that Mr. Said attributes to late style itself in that it is a sort of exile used for expressing oneself prior to death. As Said asks, "Does one grow wiser with age and are there unique qualities of perception and form that artists acquire as a result of age in the late phase of their career?" The answer to both parts of that question is likely affirmative. Numerous people hurry and produce more nearer a deadline that farther from it. Perhaps the most production, even brainstorming in action--thinking out loud in the arts in action--occurs nearest the deadline of physical mortality.
