Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site gargoyle.UUCP Path: utzoo!decvax!tektronix!uw-beaver!cornell!vax135!houxm!mhuxt!mhuxr!mhuxn!ihnp4!gargoyle!carnes From: carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes) Newsgroups: net.music.classical Subject: Re: Suitable subject matter (musical biographies) Message-ID: <165@gargoyle.UUCP> Date: Fri, 23-Aug-85 15:49:04 EDT Article-I.D.: gargoyle.165 Posted: Fri Aug 23 15:49:04 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 25-Aug-85 03:48:40 EDT References: <1173@teddy.UUCP> Reply-To: carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes) Distribution: na Organization: U. of Chicago, Computer Science Dept. Lines: 87 Xref: tektronix net.music.classical:01291 Prefatory note: I don't understand what is wrong with discussing biographical information about famous musicians in this newsgroup, as long as the subject of discussion is the musicians themselves. Is there a net.biography for such topics? Should discussion of e.g. Mozart's journeys be moved to net.travel? In the light of frequent complaints of lack of activity in this newsgroup, it seems silly to complain when a discussion is started that concerns music and that a number of people apparently find interesting. There are some of us out here with a scholarly interest in musical biography. OK? In recent years several biographies of composers have appeared that attempt to apply concepts from psychoanalysis and psychiatry, as well as the methods of historical research, to understand a composer's personality and even his music. I would like to mention several that I have come across: ---Wolfgang Hildesheimer, *Mozart*. This is a fascinating biography that goes far beyond previous ones in its attempt to give a realistic portrayal of this mysterious man. (No, Mozart wasn't gay.) Recommended as a corrective for those whose impressions of Mozart have been shaped by the film *Amadeus*. Here is an excerpt: This, precisely, is the sorry nature of trite biographies: they find easy explanations for everything, within a range of probability we can comprehend. The primary source and the motivation are the same: wishful thinking. Given their inequality of powers, the writer's identification with the hero, his fixation on him, makes his effort at representation profoundly untruthful.... To posterity, all past conflicts seem resolved into harmony, illuminating the age itself with melancholy but soothing beauty. Thus, for example, Bernhard Paumgartner characterizes Mozart's stay in Vienna after the break with the Archbishop in 1781: "The city on the Danube embraced the storm-tossed artist with maternal arms, becoming the homeland of his maturity." This sentence is a classic example of extreme repression.... That other body of work which endeavors to stick honorably "to the facts" is usually built on conclusions that not only hide their foundations but also assume that contemporary sources, particularly autobiographical evidence, are reliable and objective. We know that autobiographical statements are not necessarily objective, and Mozart's are anything but.... ---Maynard Solomon, *Beethoven*, a remarkable psychobiography of the composer. Solomon reveals Beethoven's extraordinary delusion (Solomon's term) about his origins: that he was born in 1772 rather than 1770 (in spite of his baptismal certificate) and that he may have been the illegitimate son of a king! Beethoven only renounced this fantasy on his deathbed. Solomon suggests that its source was Beethoven's childhood experience of feeling unloved and unwanted. Solomon also discusses the composer's music in relation to his psychic life. Although L.v.B. spends a good many hours on Dr. Solomon's couch, the book contains no mention of any homosexual attachments, and indeed, it seems extremely unlikely that he ever had any. It is known, however, that Beethoven had a few brief liaisons with women and that he visited prostitutes with some frequency. He was apparently psychologically incapable of forming a stable and close relationship with a woman. ---Peter Ostwald, *Schumann*. Schumann, who died (apparently of self-starvation) in an insane asylum, has always been a fertile subject for psychological speculation. Ostwald, a psychiatrist, has written a biography which gives especial attention to Schumann's tortured psyche and discusses the problem of diagnosing his various ills, on the basis of up-to-date scholarship. It appears that Schumann *may* have had one or two brief homosexual attachments, but he was primarily heterosexual, if it is in fact meaningful to apply such labels to a man whose emotional life was so chaotic. ---Frank Walker, *The Man Verdi*. This isn't really a psychobiography, but all Verdiphiles will want to read this. Noted Verdi scholar Philip Gossett calls it a classic. ---Robert Gutman, *Richard Wagner*. I have only glanced at this, but it appears to be a biographical study which explores the seamier side of Wagner's life. I would be interested in reading in this newsgroup about biographies that others have enjoyed, as well as works of musicology and criticism (let's hear it for GBS). Richard Carnes, ihnp4!gargoyle!carnes