Jan Swafford is an author and composer of classical music. He's written canonical biographies on Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, and Ives, and is a composer of works such as Landscape with Traveler, From the Shadow of the Mountain, and The Silence at Yuma Point.
Episode transcript
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Timestamps
(0:00:00) Intro
(0:00:43) Beethoven and immortality
(0:02:35) Mozart and human nature
(0:04:43) Mozart and romanticism
(0:08:13) Artistic genius
(0:12:38) Beethoven’s late period
(0:15:10) Composers and virtuosos
(0:19:00) Beethoven’s father
(0:21:02) Influence of the enlightenment
(0:26:08) Identifying the next Beethoven
(0:31:23) Aristocratic patrons
(0:34:11) The German genius
(0:38:45) Modern art
(0:41:54) Artistic influences
(0:45:45) Explaining your art
(0:49:55) The solo composer
(0:51:50) What would Beethoven say today?
(0:55:39) Modern recordings
(1:02:22) Future of art
(1:04:57) Jan’s compositions
(1:11:47) Enthusiasts and the internet
(1:13:29) Interpreting history
(1:18:02) Music v literature
(1:23:07) Three great spiritual forces
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Links
- Jan's homepage
- Jan's piece "They That Mourn"
- Mozart biography
- Beethoven biography
- Brahms biography
- Ives biography
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