Bettina von Arnim
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Related e |
Featured: |
Bettina Brentano von Arnim (the Countess of Arnim) (4 April 1785, Frankfurt am Main – 20 January 1859, Berlin), born as Elisabeth Catharina Ludovica Magdalena Brentano, was a German writer and novelist.
Bettina von Arnim was closely related to the German writers Clemens Brentano and Achim von Arnim: the first was her brother, the second her husband. Her daughter Gisela von Arnim became a writer as well.
She was the archetype of the Romantic era’s zeitgeist, and the crux of many creative relationships of canonical artistic figures. Bettina is best known for the company she kept. She had deep friendships with Goethe and Beethoven and tried to foster an artistic union between them. Many leading composers of the time, such as Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Johanna Kinkel and Johannes Brahms, admired her for her spirit and her talents. Her composition style was unconventional, in that it molded and melded her favorite features of the old—folk music and historic themes—with unusual harmonies, phrase lengths and improvisations that became synonymous with the music of the time.