Sonata Mulattica

by Rita Dove

In a book-length lyric narrative inspired by history and imagination, a much celebrated poet re-creates the life of a nineteenth-century virtuoso violinist. The son of a white woman and an “African Prince,” George Polgreen Bridgetower (1780–1860) travels to Vienna to meet “bad-boy” genius Ludwig van Beethoven. The great composer’s subsequent sonata is originally dedicated to the young mulatto, but George, exuberant with acclaim, offends Beethoven over a woman. From this crucial encounter evolves a grandiose yet melancholy poetic tale.

Genres: Poetry, Music, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Book Club, African American

240 pages, Hardcover

First published April 6, 2009

About the author

Rita Dove, former U.S. Poet Laureate, Pulitzer Prize winner, and musician, lives in Charlottesville, where she is Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia.

Reviews

[Roger Brunyate · Rating 5 out of 5]

 
How Does a Shadow Shine?

Having read so many novels recently written with the sensibility of a poet, I was curious to see what former US Poet Laureate Rita Dove would make of this cycle of 85 poems that together take the form of a novel. A biographical novel about a footnote to musical history: the mulatto violinist George Polgreen Bridgetower. Beethoven (who ought to know) called him a crazy genius (gran pazzo) and was inspired to write him his most difficult violin sonata. But the two quarreled over a girl and, in a fit of pique, Beethoven rededicated the work, forever now known as the Kreutzer Sonata.

So we have a real-life story, or at least some outlines for the writer to fill in. George's father was a self-styled African Prince brought to the Austro-Hungarian court as part, frankly, of a human menagerie; gifted in many languages, he seems to have had an instinctive nose for that touch of exotic wildness that would secure his place in European society. George's mother was a German woman of Polish descent. George himself, as a boy on the Esterhazy estate, comes to the notice of Joseph Haydn, who develops his musical talents to the point where he creates a sensation at his Paris debut at the age of 9, and thereafter gets adopted by the English court. He is 23 when he visits Vienna, falls in then out with Beethoven, and returns in defeat to England; there, he will serve for 20 years as leader of the Prince Regent's orchestra, wander abroad, and return to die in a London suburb at the end of his eighth decade.

It is a rocket of a story with a long dying fall. Poetry doesn't narrate the upward trajectory—for that you need the chronology and racy notes at the back—so much as punctuate the ascent with starbursts of wonder:

I was nothing if not everything
when the music was in me.
I could be fierce, I could shred
the heads off flowers for breakfast
with my bare teeth, simply because
I deserved such loveliness.

But poetry excels prose in its ability to meditate on those plotless later years. Some poems cry out in anger, as here in Rain when George takes leave of the cultural cacophony of Vienna:

Because we're wading through wreckage, we're
not even listening to all the crash and clatter—
chords wrenched from their moorings, smashed
etudes, arpeggios glistening as they heave and sink.
Ciphers, the lot of them.
Their money, their perfumed stink.

Others are almost unbearably poignant, as in Half Life:

I'm a shadow in sunlight,
unable to blush
or whiten in winter.
Beautiful monster,
where to next—
when you can hear
the wind howl
behind you, the gate
creaking shut?

This reference to George Bridgetower's race is of course of interest to Dove, who is of African descent herself. But despite the title, Sonata Mulattica is about many sorts of ways of reducing a person's individuality, even while feting him for some extraordinary success. There is little difference between the prodigy George, his African showman of a father, or the real life negro busker Black Billy Waters, who makes several ribald appearances. Even the great Haydn chafes at being treated like a chattel. Here is George at 9, in recital with another child prodigy:

Two rag dolls set out for tea
in our smart red waistcoats,
we suffered their delight,
we did not fail our parts—
not as boys nor rivals even
but men: broken, then improperly
mended; abandoned
far beyond the province
of the innocent.

I would mention three other things that poetry does extremely well. One is to play with form and style. Dove's range is extremely wide, taking in sonnet and rondeau, popular nursery rhymes and street songs, many types of free verse, some concrete poetry, and even a short verse play. The effect, as she skips from the 18th century to the 21st and back, is rather like what Peter Maxwell Davies does with popular music in his brilliant Eight Songs For A Mad King, simultaneously capturing the period and anatomizing it. But poetry and music are indeed close; that is my second point. Poems like Polgreen Sight-Reading, in which the violinist, half by sheer intuition, struggles with Beethoven's manuscript are amazing evocations of the extraordinary in music:

I've been destined to travel these impossible
switchbacks, but it's as if I'm skating
on his heart, blood tracks
looping everywhere….

Finally, poetry can be intensely personal. One of the most moving poems of all is the last, The End, With Mapquest, where Dove comes back to visit the very ordinary suburb where Bridgetower died, ending with a confession:

Do I care enough, George Augustus Bridgetower,
to miss you? I don't even know if I really like you.
I don't know if your playing was truly gorgeous
or if it was just you, the sheer miracle of all
that darkness swaying close enough to touch,
palm tree and Sambo and glistening tiger
running circles into golden oil. Ah,
Master B, little great man, tell me:
How does a shadow shine?

[Tony]

The skinny: George Polgreen Bridgetower was a violinist progeny, the son of a White European woman and a father who fancied himself a Black "African Prince." Bridgetower traveled from London to Vienna to meet Beethoven and the two hit it off spectacularly. Both music and drinking buddies. Moved by Bridgetower's skills, Ludwig dashed off an impossible violin sonata, which the young Bridgewater played flawlessly from sight reading. Maybe adding a thing or two in his playing. They hugged. Beethoven scrawled across the first page a dedication to Bridgewater, and a title: Sonata Mulattica. Then they went out drinking. A barmaid - her name lost to history - took a shine to Bridgewater, and he hey girl-ed her back, and Beethoven, well . . . Beethoven, being Beethoven, tore out the title page and dedicated and named it instead to the violinist Kreutzer, whose name it has borne ever since, even though Kreutzer couldn't play it and forever derided it. Beethoven went on to have other successes, you may have heard. Bridgewater had those fifteen minutes of fame.

----- ----- ----- -----

I have determined to read pods: various genres of writing about a specific thing or theme - as a way not to get stale. I've done cities and whole oceanas, but I decided since its Beethoven's 250th birthday to look at different ways of getting at this genius and misanthrope. Happy Birthday, Ludwig! So, as a start, here's a book of poems, by a former U.S. Poet Laureate, about that intersection of genius. This would be outside my regular wheelhouse, I knew, but that was the point of the exercise. And it did exactly what I hoped it would do. This story is easier and quicker told as plain episode. But it would then miss the lushness.

----- ----- ----- -----

-- A man can vanish between
the downstroke and the first note's sigh,
from one word to the next, a wink and a nod.
He'll evaporate under a lady's glance
as her smile slides across the room.

----- ----- ----- -----

-- Good Lord, her lips--she's licked them.
Now they're opening, pink tongue
peeking out, stretching; then on the glistening tip
she slowly positions the snowy tit

of meringue. Hell, he'll be hung
for a pound of flesh as well as for a morsel.

----- ----- ----- -----

-- He frightens me. I've never heard music
like this man's, this sobbing
in the midst of triumphal chords . . .

----- ----- ----- -----

-- So he was a fiddler, something of a stunner in his day.
"Day's gone, gone the sun"--
ain't that a German song? Heard it
somewhere. Kinda mournful.

Wonder could he play that.

----- ----- ----- -----

-- . . . ach, who cares
where I've been, where I came from,
where I went? All that matters in life
is joy--and joy (like me) is a traveling man.

----- ----- ----- -----

There is also here a parallel story, in poems, of what happened to Haydn's head. A more sorrowful journey than what happened to Chopin's heart. But maybe a happy ending.

[robin friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Story Of An Early Black Violinist

This long narrative poem by the former United States Poet Laureate Rita Dove tells the story of the brief relationship between George Bridgetower a virtuoso violinist and Ludwig van Beethoven. Bridgetower (1780 -- 1860) was the son of an African/Carribean father known as the "African Prince" and a German/Polish mother. Bridgetower thus was a mulatto. He was a child prodigy on the violin and gave his first concert in Paris, just before the French Revolution, at the age of nine.

In 1803 while in Vienna, Bridgetower was introduced to Beethoven (1770- 1827) who at the age of 33 was ten years Bridgetower's senior and already possessed of a large reputation as a composer. Beethoven was taken with the young man's virtuosity and passion on the violin. He briefly interrupted work on his monumental third symphony to compose a sonata for violin and piano in which Bridgetower would play the violin and Beethoven the piano. The sonata in A major, opus. 47 Beethoven's ninth for violin and piano, was performed to great acclaim on May 24, 1803. Beethoven intended to dedicate the sonata to Bridgetower, for whom he had written the work. But the two men had a falling-out over a woman, the precise details of which remain obscure. In a fit of anger, Beethoven withdrew the dedication to Bridgetower and dedicated his sonata instead to Rudolphe Kreutzer. Kreutzer was probably the most famous violinist of his day, and Beethoven knew him slightly. Kreutzer disliked the sonata Beethoven dedicated to him and never played it. But the work is one of Beethoven's grandest, and the dedication made Kreutzer's name immortal. George Bridgetower, although he would live a long life, became relegated to obscurity, known only passingly to those who study Beethoven and his music, when Beethoven withdrew his dedication.

Dove's poem tells the story of George Augustus Pegeen Bridgetower, from his flamboyant early life of promise to his obscure latter years in "Sonata Mulattica", a long narrative poem which consists of about 80 short poems in varying forms and styles. The work is divided into five sections of "movements" together with a short, climactic play called "Georgie Porgie: A Moor in Vienna" which offers a dramatized version of the rift between Bridgetower and Beethoven. The work begins with a meditative prologue of two poems and concludes with an epilogue.

Dove's poem captures the near-religious passion that music inspires in composers, performers, and those who love the art. Besides portrayals of Beethoven and Bridgetower, Dove's musical characters include Haydn, who recognized Bridgetower's prodigious talent, Ferdinand Ries, Beethoven's copyist and a composer in his own right, Johann Peter Salomon, a promoter who organized Haydn's trips to London, Franz Clement, the violinist to whom Beethoven dedicated his only violin concerto, and Black Billy Waters, a London Street musician. Dove also includes a poem in the words of Guilletta Guicciardi, one of Beethoven's many hopeless loves. Beethoven dedicated his "Moonlight" piano sonata to Guicciardi. In her poem in the book, "The Countess Shares Confidences over Karneval Chocolate" Dove captures well Beethoven's manner of playing the piano and his stormy, wild character. The Countess, now a married woman, recollects:

"He insisted on a light touch. He himself
was a wild man, ripping the music
from my stumbling fingers
and stomping about as the pages
fluttered sadly earthwards,
like the poor pheasants dropped over
the hunting fields of the Prater.
Rest assured I soon learned to play
more lightly!"

Besides focusing on music, Bridgetower and Beethoven, Dove's poem describes well life in Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, as Thomas Jefferson makes a cameo appearance at an early Bridgetower concert, and Dove devotes several poems to the young libertine Prince of Wales who becomes Bridgetower's guardian when his father wanders away. The poetic voice ranges from serious and reflective to irony and sarcasm. Some of the poems are in the form of dramatic monologues while others are narrated. Of the many different poetic styles and meters used in the work, I was most struck by "Black Billy Waters, At his Pitch" which is composed in the highly structured form of a vilanelle. The play, in which Bridgetower loses his dedication and Beethoven's friendship, is swiftly performed and features a chorus of "Bad Girls" who sing a caustic song to the tune of the much later classic, "My Boyfriend's Back".

Dove reflects on Bridgetower's loss of the dedication and its possible significance. In her opening poem, "The Bridgetower" she things on the possible consequences of a work by this name rather than Kreutzer's.

"Then this bright-skinned papa's boy
could have sailed his fifteen-minute fame
straight into the record books -- where
instead of a Regina Carter or Aaron Dworkin or Boyd Tinsley
sprinkled here and there, we would find
rafts of black kids scratching out scales
on their matchbox violins so that some day
they might play the impossible:
Beethoven's Sonata No. 9 in A major, op. 47,
also known as The Bridgetower."

And in her concluding poem, "The End with MapQuest", Dove, visiting the site of Bridgetower's death, reflects upon the violinist's life:

"Do I care enough George Augustus Bridgetower,
to miss you? I don't even know if I really like you.
I don't know if your playing was truly gorgeous
or if it was just you, the sheer miracle of all
that darkness swaying close enough to touch,
*** *** ***
Master B, little great man, tell me:
How does a shadow shine?"

Lovers of music and of the "Kreutzer" sonata and readers interested in the forgotten story of an early Black violinist will be fascinated by Dove's narrative poem: Sonata Mulattica".

Robin Friedman

[Stacia · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exquisite exploration of one of the vagaries of history.

(If you do read this, there are notes at the back which provide further context to some of the poems/work in this book; I found it helpful to read each note in tandem with its corresponding piece.)

[Pete · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book in more ways than I can say. It's poetry, beauty, history, biography, theatre, character study, art, ars poetica, philosophy, wit, charm, pageant and social study in one. It's a book-length set of poems about someone nearly lost to history, and yet every piece stands on its own even while building the story and the plot. The concept is brilliant, the delivery nearly flawless, the range of ideas, observations and illuminations breathtaking. It's that rare book, let alone that rare book of poetry, that one puts down knowing that something special has been experienced, something that leaves the mind and spirit humming long after it's over -- and looking forward to reading it again. Among the many pieces that wowed me, my favorites were "(Re)Naissance,"The Lesson: Adagio," "Pulling the Organ Stops," "The Dressing," "Tafelmusik (1)," "Floating Requiem," "The Performer," and "Half-Life."

[Marjorie Hakala · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is quite good--thought-provoking and lovely and ever so musical. Criticisms: The central incident is a *little* lightweight to support the book, and for some reason it's portrayed in this kind of Viennese-farce-drama which I didn't really understand. And I do wish I had known ahead of time that there were explanatory notes and a chronology in the back of the book, because some of the poems were quite opaque without them. Perhaps I should have read the table of contents--but who does that? Still and all, these poems are exquisitely crafted; the portrayal of Beethoven is exactly how I want to imagine him; and the explorations of race in a time before it was quite set down what race relations in Europe would be like are very interesting. I'm glad I started reading more poetry in 2009.

[Will White · Rating 5 out of 5]

From my perspective, this is book is an unmitigated masterpiece. But before I go further, you should understand my perspective.

I'm a full-time professional classical musician, specifically a composer-conductor. I'm also a part-time music historian and writer. I'm a reader of poetry and a lover of language and languages (particularly French and German.)

OK, given that, this volume hit every possible interest of mine. It is a biographical sketch in the form of a book of poems, but beyond that, it's also a sociological sketch of the world of princely music and musicians in the early 19th century. It basically follows the life of George Bridgetower, the biracial violinists and composer who premiered Beethoven's 9th violin sonata. But there are also poems told from the perspective of Beethoven, Haydn, an English lady-in-waiting, and from various narratorial voices that discuss the Regency court, life at Esterhaza, and the world of anonymous music-makers in those institutions.

This is all "where I live" in terms of music-making and scholarship, so I was able to follow the logic as Dove darted between cities, languages and voices. She provides a couple of appendices at the end which give historical context to the poems themselves; I too found these useful and enjoyable (and in fact, I wished I had known about them while I was reading!)

Dove is truly a virtuosa of the English language (which she sprinkles with bits of French, German, and Italian.) She is a polystylistic writer, always full of surprises, and roots her poems in a lexicography that I've rarely found in others.

I have trouble thinking that this isn't a totally niche book (aimed at the very niche were I reside) so I don't know that I could recommend it to everybody. But if you're interested in classical music history, specifically the classical period, and you have an interest in exploring the life of this exceptional musician, this is a transcendent way of doing so.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book of poetry that attempts to tell a story but not in ballad or epic form can be challenging at best and impossible to comprehend at worst. To her credit, Rita Dove has done an exceptional job of describing an incident in the life of one George Augustus Polgreen Bridgewater whose fifteen minutes of fame came in the early nineteenth century when, as a child prodigy violinist, he played and improvised with Beethoven himself on piano, what became the Sonata No. 9 for Violin and Piano, known today as the Kreuzer. Using a variety of poetic forms, Dove paints a brief telling of the life of Mr. Bridgewater and the aftermath of his encounter with Beethoven. She carefully provides historical notes as well as a chronology of relevant historical events to assist the reader in following the poetic narrative. Dove writes rhythmically and there are instances where the word to paper is much like the bow to string. While Dove's story telling idea is not original, the portrayal of a story in a series of standalone poems of short duration may well be. On the negative side, to gain a deep appreciation of this work, one should be knowledgeable of the history of the period and also be conversant with musical terminology well beyond the notions of melody and harmony. The four star rating is in acknowledgement of and appreciation for dove's effort. From an enjoyment scale, maybe three stars rings truer - but then I'm fussy and picky when it comes to poetry. Ms. Dove's poetry is accessible but the true poet likely is the most profound of writers for she can say so much in so few words that I fear I have only skimmed the surface of what she had to say.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

This excellent and unusual novel tells the story of 19th century Black violinist George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower in the form of poems and one brief play. It's an inventive format that proves extremely effective. Dove renders the story of one of music history's more marginalized figures with depth and sensitivity. Mixed into the narrative are episodes covering Haydn and the posthumous fate of his skull, Beethoven and his moody, volatile personality, and the ups and downs of the life of a prodigy turned working musician in London, Germany, and Austria. The poetry is beautiful and the little play has a lot of sly humor. Dove explores issues of identity versus perception and how lives are shaped by the disconnect between them. It's a deeply beautiful book.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of poems about George Bridgetower, Beethoven’s one-time protégé and a biracial man living in Europe (over a century before the term ‘biracial’ was even coined), are a mixed bag. They’re more good than not – and the poems have a lyricism that does justice to the importance of music in Mr. Bridgetower’s story – but I do feel like they miss some of the tension and conflict in the relationship between the two men. All the same, a lovely collection about a fascinating bit of history. Recommended.

[Dara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite a novel in verse, not quite a poetry collection, Sonata Mullatica is historical fictionesque, with a surprise one act play in the middle. The history itself is fascinating, and the way Dove bends image and language around it is fascinating again, pulling us back and forth and in and out of time. At turns traditional and experimental, this book was a journey, and as someone constantly surrounded by violinists I appreciated Dove’s poetic treatment of the music.

[sofia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars i guess??

rtc- a rating can't sum up my thoughts on this one adequately

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This a 3.5 star read. A difficult book to rate. The subject and content were very interesting. I am not a lover of poetry but I enjoyed it.

[Grady Ormsby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sonata Mulattica: A Life in Five Movements and a Short Play (2009) by former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove has a rather unusual format. Fundamentally it is a collection of poems, but at the same time it is a sort of biographic novel. The poems are a lyric narrative of the life of George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower (1778 –1860). Bridgetower was a biracial (Afro-Caribbean, Polish, German) virtuoso violinist. There is not an abundance of information available about Bridgetower so the events are largely a product of Dove’s imagination. We do know that he was born in Biała in Galicia, Poland. His father was a servant of the Hungarian Prince Esterházy who was Joseph Haydn's patron. Haydn for a time was Bridgetower’s teacher. At the age of twenty-five he performed with and was befriended by Beethoven who dedicated his Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major (Op.47) to him. Bridgetower spent most of his life in England where British Prince Regent (later George IV) took an interest in him, and oversaw his musical education. He was elected to the Royal Society of Musicians in 1807 and attended Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he earned the degree of Bachelor of Music in 1811. Like a symphony the book consists of five "Movements", each a group of poems about a particular theme. There are Prologues and Epilogues. There is a sort of interlude between Movements III and IV, a rather absurdist and somewhat bawdy play featuring, among others, Bridgetower, Beethoven and a Chorus of Bad Girls, The poems themselves cover a wide range of poetic styles, types and forms as well as a variety of meters, rhyme schemes and tropes. The central conflict of the narrative is George’s search for identity. Juxtaposed against George is the peg-legged Billy Waters, dubbed "King of the Beggars" in the parish of St Giles. Waters was a black man who busked in London by singing, playing the violin and entertaining theatre goers with his "peculiar antics." Being black and playing the violin were certainly all these two had in common. Dove’s concept is unusual, the story is fascinating and the poetry is well-done with a musicality that fits the subject matter.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I am no poetry buff but I loved this lyrical narrative. First it was about one of my favorite periods in history and it was broken up into short poems so if I didn't understand something it did not have a domino effect on my understanding of the overall piece. Rita Dove's writing is so clever. She uses all different kinds of different poetic styles to communicate the story. I found the variety refreshing. I wish I had discovered the notes and chronology at the beginning so if you do decide to read know that those two references are at the back and are very helpful. The book left me longing to know more about Beethoven's personal life. I sometimes forget that a famous person from yester year is also human in their emotions, etc. This book definitely humanized Beethoven.

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. I really loved it. I found reading this, probably due to the structure, to feel like an event, almost like a game. I got caught up in the nonlinear formatting and the description. The tone and humor also made this one of my favorite books I’ve read this year.
A particular highlight to me was the vocabulary and language chosen. So fun!
My personal favorite sections were Eroica, an interlude with Beethoven enjoying nature, and the below passage describing an organ:

“Understand, all music is physical
Bassoons rattle bones; a violin tweedles
And like a tooth biting down on a sweet pierces the brain. But the organ climbs into your chest, squeezing as it shudders-a great lung hauling it’s grief through the void until we can hear how profound the world has failed us.”

[Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having become familiar with Rita Dove via HBO's Def Poetry series, I did not know what to expect from this book from the multifaceted former poet laureate- These poems are a series of beautiful dreams, starting with a message in bottle and ending with a solitary mapquest driven drive through european rain.

Dove bites William Carlos Williams' so sweet and so cold, but times it so neatly (if indiscreetly) that it is a plummy pleasure to find. lush, lovely images tie and tell the story of George Bridgewater and the Kreutzer sonata. This poetical history floats, sings, sighs, and soars onto my ever-lengthening list of much adored epic poems.

[Jsun · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Beethoven time, apparently there was a virtuous pianist whom Beethoven mentored. He was of African descent and a prince. I am glad I have learned that there may have been some one who was just as brilliant as Beethoven. Rita Dove poetry in this collection ranges in styles from narrative to lyrical to satire...I find it to be not here most rigorous work such the the sonnets of Mother Love. Yet to be able to tell a story through all those characters during that time and so elegantly is impressive. She is one of my favorite poet and cannot wait to see what will come next.

[Bethany · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite books of poetry in a long, long while. I can't even imagine the amount of work and research it must have taken to complete it, and the poetry itself was absolutely beautiful. Because of the great variety, there were definitely poems I loved more than others, but the book never dragged. It was fantastic.

The only negative thing I have to say about it is that, because it was written via poetry, Bridgetower's life didn't exactly get explained all that well. But that honestly just doesn't matter, because this is a wonderful book.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of short poems written from multiple points of view, recounting the true story of a black prodigy violinist who vastly impressed Beethoven, with whom he premiered what was later titled the Kreuzer Sonata. The book is a truly impressive feat of imagination and execution. My only complaint is that occasionally I was unable to figure out from context exactly who was supposed to have authored a given poem. Even so, the period, the characters, and the music were vividly evoked.

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting and distinctly different approach to story-telling. I don't think I've ever read a book quite like this one. Fairly slim in size, but this takes time to read, as I re-read many sections to both savor the language and to figure out what was happening. Although there are some beautiful images and lovely turns of phrase, the poetry itself didn't really bowl me over most of the time. Ambitious, but not always effective, for me.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd heard the author on the Diane Rehm show and was excited to get this book. It was better than I expected. I had not read poetry since my college days and was a bit intimidated to pick up something entitled "poems" but I dove in. These poems are wonderful. A great story. Beautiful imagery, even tantalizing in places. Funny too. I highly recommend this.

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

George Bridgetower was an interesting footnote when I read The Hemingses of Monticello earlier this year. So when I happened to come across this book in the library, I was compelled enough to pick it up. I don't normally read poetry, I like to listen to it and I prefer small doses to full books, but there are some very beautiful pieces here, as Dove reimagines a somewhat lost piece of history.

[Michael Robertson]

I'm looking forward to this poem sequence about a violon virtuoso who was the original dedicatee of Beethoven's "Kreutzer Sonata." The New Yorker calls it "accessible" and compares it to a historical novel.

[JMRL]

Find it at JMRL: http://bit.ly/1J8a42g

Dove was the Poet Laureate of VA from 2004-2006, and is now the chair of Commonwealth Professor of English at UVA in Charlottesville, where she lives with her husband, writer Fred Viebahn. http://people.virginia.edu/~rfd4b/

[Rasheed Newson · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Sonata Mulattica" is mesmerizing. The story, told in poem after poem, unfolds beautifully. I found reading this book a pleasure, decoding this portrait of talent, ego, love and heartbreak. Rita Dove is astounding.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

beautiful, fragmented. Sometimes knotty. Definitely the polished product of a finely tuned imagination.

[Megan Geissler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a delight. Interesting approach.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, intriguing. Makes me want to learn more about her subjects, their time, and then listen to the music myself - and then read this again.

[Meredith Hicks · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most beautiful books I’ve read. Rita Dove’s range astounds me as well as the way she is able to tell a story through so many different ways of writing.