author
Alexander Teetgen
Best known for a lively Victorian study of Beethoven’s symphonies, this little-known writer moved easily between music criticism, poetry, and literary argument. His surviving work suggests a curious, wide-ranging mind with a strong taste for close reading and bold opinion.
1 Audiobook
Beethoven's Symphonies Critically Discussed
by Alexander Teetgen
About the author
Alexander Teetgen was a 19th-century English-language writer whose best-known book is Beethoven's Symphonies Critically Discussed, first published in 1879 with a preface by John Broadhouse. Project Gutenberg describes it as a critical study of Beethoven’s symphonies, and later readers have noted it as part of an early English tradition of serious Beethoven criticism.
Other books attributed to him include Fruit From Devon, Lyrical Vignettes of the North Coast, and Other Poems and Shakespeare's "King Edward the Third," Absurdly Called, and Scandalously Treated As, a "Doubtful Play", which points to a body of work stretching across poetry, music writing, and literary debate. A New York Public Library catalog entry also shows him as a correspondent in 1904, suggesting activity into the early 20th century.
Reliable biographical details about his life appear to be scarce online, so much of his profile has to be reconstructed from his publications rather than from standard reference biographies. Even so, the range of subjects he tackled gives a clear impression of a thoughtful Victorian-era critic and man of letters.