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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