startling, awful peal of thunder, the dying man on the actual page where the reference occurs. suddenly raised his head', but omits to point out Short-title references are also frequently irritating, its extraordinary significance: if the report is accur- since one sometimes has to wade through over a ate, Beethoven's very last act was to respond to hundred previous notes to find the full title; the sound, thus proving that he never became com- addition of a phrase such as 'see note 26' after each pletely deaf. Similarly, Gibbs quotes Grillparzer's short title would greatly help. Perhaps these fea- recollection that he heard the news of Beethoven's tures could be improved for the next composer death while writing his funeral oration and was so 'and his World'. overwhelmed that he 'could not complete the BARRY COOPER oration as weightily as I had begun it'. Gibbs does not, however, proceed to examine the oration Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ml/article/82/3/463/1053376 by guest on 24 September 2021 itself to suggest what point Grillparzer might have The Life of Schubert. By Christopher Gibbs. pp. xiv. reached at the crucial moment. This point can, I 'Musical Lives'. (Cambridge University Press, believe, be tentatively identified. After the phrase 2000, £30/£10.95. ISBN 0-521-59426-X/- 'thus will he live for all time', the earliest version, 59412-6.) transmitted by Gerhard von Breuning, seems dis- tinctly weak, and this final section concludes with The centenary of Schubert's death in 1928 the words: 'Recall the memory of today, the marked a watershed in his reception history. memory of him who achieved such great things Willi Kahl recorded an increase of nearly 1,200 and was beyond reproach.' When the oration was publications in that year alone, increasing the total printed in the newspapers this section was revised count since the composer's death by more than 50 and appears much stronger (it was revised still per cent (Verzeichnis des Schrifttums Uber Franz further for the Collected Works). Here it concludes: Schubert 1828-1928, Regensburg, 1938). The 'Remember this hour and think: we were there bicentenary of Schubert's birth in 1997 was no when they buried him, and when he died, we less important, and marked a substantial reassess- wept.' (All three versions of the passage are given ment and consolidation even more significant than in my edition of Johann Aloys Schlosser's biog- the impressive statistical explosion of analytical raphy, recently published in English as Beethoven: and biographical studies issued throughout the the First Biography [1827], trans. Reinhard G. intervening years. ( and Werner Bod- Pauly, Portland, 1996, pp. 117-18, 180-81). Thus endorff have offered the most recent attempt to Grillparzer's recollection seems to be confirmed by update Kahl's bibliography: 'Bausteine zu einer internal evidence. Gibbs also mentions the many neuen Schubert-Bibliographie vornehmlich der inconsistencies in the various reports of the funeral, Schriften von 1929 bis 2000', in Schubert durch die but might have spent more time accounting for the Brille, xxv (June 2000), 95-302.) discrepancies and deducing what probably hap- Christopher Gibbs's Life of Schubert offers the pened in reality. Nevertheless, the material pre- best available biography of Schubert for the gen- sented here provides much scope for further eral reader. For more than a century, the popular investigation. perception of Schubert's life and music has been In the remaining six essays, Reinhold Brink- obscured by myth and fantasy, but Gibbs here mann attempts to relate passages in the 'Eroica' penetrates generations of misrepresentation, bring- Symphony to contemporaneous perceptions of the ing a thoughtful scholarly rigour to the relatively nature of time; Lewis Lockwood addresses once slender biographical evidence that has survived. more the question of heroism in Beethoven's His extensive research into the composer's music music; Glenn Stanley offers some thoughts on and his experience as co-ordinator of The Schuber- analysing the first movement of the Piano Sonata tiade at the T in New York combine in a well- Op. 109; Alessandra Comini adapts some material informed commentary whose style and eloquence about visual images of Beethoven from her book will appeal to a wide readership. The Changing Image of Beethoven (New York, 1987); The first chapter provides a useful 'location Sanna Pederson examines notions of masculinity shot', using three visual representations of the that have been perceived in Beethoven's music; composer to establish the foundation for the sub- and Leon Botstein discusses Beethoven's sub- sequent discussion. Ferdinand Georg Wald- sequent popularity in the light of debates about muller's 1827 portrait of Schubert with friends the meaning of his instrumental music. fixes the intimate nature of the composer's musical The layout of the notes is inconvenient, since persona, while Schwind's famous sepia drawing of they are placed at the end of each essay, rather 1865 of a in 's than together at the end of the book or, better still, drawing-room identifies the composition of

463 Schubert's circle of friends. Julius Schmidt's oil This volume is of particular value in dispelling painting of a fictional Schubertiade (produced for the myths that have spoilt countless similar Schu- the 1897 Schubert centenary) reflects the deeply bert biographies. For instance, while many com- ingrained kitsch image Schubert had acquired mentaries see Schubert's operatic efforts in terms since his death. The refinement of the artistic of failure, Gibbs understands such enterprises as medium between these three images—from marking his debut as a public composer. Else- sketch to drawing (a version of this picture in oils where, he explains that while Schubert did experi- remains unfinished) and ultimately to oil paint- ence mixed fortunes with music publishers, he also ing—is emblematic of the firmly distorted public saw a good deal of his music into print. Indeed, his perception that has coloured Schubert's reputa- popularity was apparent from, among other things, tion. Diabelli's numerous arrangements of his songs. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ml/article/82/3/463/1053376 by guest on 24 September 2021 Gibbs's discussion of Schubert's early life is Gibbs's discussion is richly nourished through- likewise tempered with refreshing coolness, offer- out by his neat incorporation of the latest research ing a balanced account of the early signs of the by (on Schubert's alleged composer's genius and the influences and domes- homosexuality), (on the Unsinns- tic music-making that shaped his musical back- gesellschaft) and Elizabeth Norman McKay (on ground. At the same time, Gibbs introduces Schubert's cyclothymia). After acknowledging various issues such as Schubert's relationships McKay's theories concerning the medical basis with women and the intensity and nature of his for Schubert's violent mood swings, Gibbs offers compositional output. Schubert's love for Therese persuasive conjecture on the patterns of the Grob has long been seen as a source of disappoint- composer's output. Of the unfinished composi- ment, his hopes of marriage frustrated by his tions conceived during the so-called years of crisis inability to satisfy the requirements of the marriage (1818-23) he writes: 'Remarkably . . . many of consent law on the grounds of insufficient financial Schubert's torsos from these years are among his resources. But, as Gibbs points out, Therese her- masterpieces; they often point to the future, not self never mentioned a romance with Schubert, only of his own compositional path, but of Roman- although she 'cherished the songs [the composer] tic music more generally' (p. 86). Due emphasis is gave her for the rest of her life' (p. 39). Moreover, also given to the persistence of the binary opposi- 'none of Schubert's brothers or friends married so tions in Schubert's life and in his music, exacer- early in life (Schubert had just turned nineteen and bated by the onset of his illness in 1823. By Therese was seventeen); in fact late marriages were positioning issues such as the composer's heavy far more common' (p. 51). drinking and melancholia in the context of his Schubert's image as Liederfiirst ('Prince of Song') musical output, Gibbs illuminates the volcanic lies in his success as a song composer, which eruptions that disturb the lyrical flow in many of brought him early and lasting fame, but it also the instrumental and chamber works from 1824 obscured his efforts in larger forms. The turning- onwards. point came in the 1820s as his music found its way He accurately identifies the letter Schubert into print, invigorated—as Gibbs is quick to point wrote to Kupelwieser on 31 March 1824 as the out—by his changed circumstances, living away most telling of the composer's verbal documents, from home with no employment besides that of a and his penetrating analysis of its text in Chapter 6 professional composer. In the author's words: reveals vital clues about the final phase of 'recognizing this direction and determination has Schubert's life. Young as Schubert was, this letter's been obscured not only by the patronizing image importance as a declaration of his new creative of a natural composer, but also by the fact that so path points to the emergence of a 'late style', much of Schubert's music is grouped together notably through the cluster of self-quotations in without regard to the circumstances of its genesis the string quartets in A minor and D minor and or the degree of his compositional maturity at the the Octet. time of its creation. We fail to make important The author provides a vivid account of the distinctions' (p. 64). Along with altered circum- significance of Schubert's close professional associ- stances came a frequently changing circle of ation with Schuppanzigh and his relationship with friends. Besides his serious-minded Linz friends, Beethoven, defining the composer's preoccupation Schubert was for a time a member of the Unsinns- in the last two years of his life. The concealed gesellschaft ('Nonsense Society') in . Mean- homage to Beethoven that Gibbs uncovers in the E while, Schubert's time in Zseliz occupied as music flat Piano Trio's allusions to the 'Eroica' show teacher to the two daughters of Count Johann Karl Schubert's mature determination to 'stand beside Esterhazy contrasted with his freer life in Vienna. Beethoven'. This adds to the evidence of

464 Schubert's predilection for coded musical refer- many people who don't care about such things, ences. Besides Rufus Hallmark's location of among them (generally) the city fathers who might 'Eroica' material in 'Auf dem Strom' (cited on be expected to take more pride in their past. It is p. 158), evidence of motivic encryption in the F notoriously difficult to get plaques affixed to build- minor Fantasy for piano duet strengths the case of ings even in cities where every street reeks of Schubert's idealized love for his pupil Countess literary, political and artistic history. Caroline Esterhazy. (See Nicholas Rast, Although it hardly needs to be said that Paris 'Schubert's f minor Fantasy and the Countess has a prodigious musical history, Nigel Simeone Caroline Esterhazy—a Coded Declaration of has done a great service in pointing out to the Love?', in Leading Notes, vii/2 (1998) and Cahiers mayor of Paris just how dense the lyrical archae-

Franz Schubert, xiii (1988), 5-16.) ology of his city is. Walk down any street in the Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ml/article/82/3/463/1053376 by guest on 24 September 2021 Elsewhere, the clarity with which Gibbs centre of Paris and Simeene's engaging guide will describes the vigour of Schubert's last creative tell you which composers and pianists and organ- efforts resolves the controversy over Grillparzer's ists lived there. If there are guides that do the same epitaph—'The art of Music here entombed a rich for painters, writers and politicians, the culture possession, but even far fairer hopes'. Where vulture will need a very long visit indeed to comb Kreissle (Schubert's first biographer) found the any single arrondissement, if he sets his mind to the poet's intimations of Schubert's unfulfilled promise task. Staying last year at the Hotel Mercure strange, Gibbs portrays a composer poised to fill Ronceray on the Boulevard Montmartre, it was the gaping void created by Beethoven's death. The pleasing to look up from one's breakfast and learn outpouring of newly discovered pieces in the dec- from a plaque on the wall that in that very dining ades immediately following Schubert's death cre- room Rossini composed Guillaume Tell. Simeone, ated an impression of immortality that only alas, informs us that the building was demolished reinforced the myths and kitsch fantasizing that in 1836. Ah well, it was close. have bedevilled the composer's reception history. With four 'musical walks' set at the start of the Gibbs's solution is a characteristically practical gazetteer, the tourist is invited to pick a zone of exhortation to concentrate on the music: 'While Paris and be led past famous musicians' domiciles, we may . . . regret that we know so little and can churches where famous organists played and therefore need to make up so much, we might where famous organs are installed, halls which rather celebrate the range and emotional depth once echoed to famous premieres, and cemeteries that Schubert's art encompasses, music that evokes where famous bones now lie. Alternatively the such a breadth of responses and interpretations devotee of Adam or Alkan or Boieldieu or Varese and that gives such diverse feelings of pain and can retrace that musician's steps from apartment to pleasure' (p. 189). apartment and often to the grave. Or less focused Finally, just one factual error needs to be travellers will step out from their hotels and see corrected. The assertion that the E flat Piano Trio what historic sites are to be found within a few was Schubert's 'first work published outside blocks in any direction. Vienna' (p. 147) is incorrect. This honour belongs The publisher's blurb aims the book at this to the song 'Widerschein' (D639), which appeared readership, soft-pedalling its unrivalled value as a as a supplement to W. G. Becker's Taschenbuch zum musicological sourcebook, which will surely be geselligen Vergniigen, printed at Leipzig in Septem-closer to the hearts and minds of readers of Music ber 1820. & Letters. It is sometimes hard enough being sure NICHOLAS RAST where musicians were living at any given date, much harder to disentangle the flighty relationship between buildings and institutions that bedevils Paris: a Musical Gazetteer. By Nigel Simeone. pp. ix operatic history in Paris. When 'Favart' can mean + 299. (Yale University Press, New Haven & a person, a building, a style or a company, some London, 2000, £12.50. ISBN 0-300-08054-9.) clarification is badly needed. 'Opera-Comique' is similarly confusing. With Simeone in hand, we can It is hard for the musician to walk round Leipzig quickly determine to which building the name or London or Rome or Vienna without an acute 'Italiens' referred at any given date, and which sense of where all that composing and singing and halls had which proprietor, which location and playing actually went on. The geography of music which occupant (surprisingly, Nicole Wild's Dic- is surely as important as any other of its physical tionnaire des theatres parisiens au XIXe siecle (Paris, attributes in conveying a sense of its original 1989), which answers those questions, is missing purpose and surroundings. I suppose there are from the bibliography). There would be a case,

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